Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 3
Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.

38. The Ides of May came. Without causing any magistrates to be elected, the decemvirs, now private citizens, appeared in public with no abatement either of the spirit with which they exercised their power or the insignia which proclaimed their office. [2] But this was unmistakable tyranny. Men mourned for liberty as for ever lost; nor did any one arise, or seem likely to do so, in its defence. And not only had the people themselves lost heart; but they had begun to be despised by the neighbouring nations, who could ill brook the existence of imperial power where there was no liberty.¹ [3] The Sabines made an incursion with a large force into Roman territory, which they [p. 125]everywhere laid waste. Having safely driven off their² booty, comprising men and beasts, they withdrew their army, which had ranged far and wide, to Eretum. There they established a camp, hoping that the want of harmony at Rome would interfere with the levying of troops. Not only the messengers who came, but the flight of the country-people, who thronged the City, inspired a feeling of dismay. [4] The decemvirs considered what they had best do; for they were left in the lurch by the hatred of the patricians on the one side and of the plebs on the other. [5] Moreover Fortune sent an additional alarm. The Aequi came from another quarter and encamped on Algidus, and from there raided the lands of Tusculum. Tusculan envoys brought tidings of these acts, and besought protection. The fright which this occasioned drove the decemvirs, now that the City was hemmed in between two simultaneous wars, to consult the senate. [6] They ordered the Fathers to be summoned to the Curia, though they were not ignorant how great a storm of unpopularity was brewing: [7] the devastation of the land and the dangers which impended would be laid by everybody at their doors; and this would lead to an attempt being made to abolish their magistracy, unless they presented a united resistance, and by sharply exercising their power upon the few really daring spirits, put a stop to the efforts of the rest. [8] When the crier's voice was heard in the Forum, calling the senators to meet the decemvirs in the Curia, it was like an innovation, so long had they disregarded the custom of consulting the senate, and it aroused the attention of the plebs, who wondered what in the world could have happened, that after so long an interval they [p. 127]should be reviving a forgotten usage; the enemy and³ the war deserved men's gratitude, if anything whatever was being done which was usual in a free state. [9] Men looked about in every corner of the Forum to discover a senator, and seldom recognized one anywhere; then their glances rested on the Curia and the decemvirs sitting there alone. [10] Meantime the decemvirs themselves explained the Fathers' failure to assemble as owing to the universal detestation of their rule; the commons as due to their having no authority, being private citizens, to convoke the senate: a beginning, it seemed, was already being made towards the recovery of freedom, if the plebs would join with the senate; and if, even as the Fathers were refusing, when summoned, to attend the session, so they, for their part, would reject the levy. Such were the murmurs of the plebs. [11] Of senators there was scarce one in the Forum, and there were but few in the City. In their resentment at the situation they had withdrawn to their farms and were absorbed in their private affairs, disregarding those of the nation; for they felt that they were secure from insult only so far as they removed themselves from contact and association with their tyrannical masters. [12] When on being cited they failed to appear, officers were sent round to their houses, for the double purpose of exacting fines and of ascertaining whether their recalcitrancy were deliberate. They reported that the senators were in the country. This was more pleasing to the decemvirs than if they had announced that the Fathers were in town and repudiated their authority. [13] They commanded them all to be summoned, and proclaimed a meeting of the senate for the following day. This session [p. 129]was somewhat better attended than they had⁴ themselves expected. Whereupon the plebs concluded that liberty had been betrayed by the senators, since those who had already gone out of office and were mere private citizens, save for the force they exercised, were obeyed by them as though they had the authority to command.