conspiracy composed of slaves and some others that had joined them,
for it was reported to the consuls by certain men privy to the plot.
They surrounded and overpowered the conspirators and cut them down. To
the informers citizenship and other rewards were given.

When a new war was stirred up on the part of the Latins against Rome,
the people, demanding that a cancellation of debts be authorized,
refused to take up arms. Therefore the nobles then for the first time
established a new office to have jurisdiction over both classes.
Dictator was the name given to the person entitled to the position,
and he possessed all powers as much as had the kings. People hated the
name of king on account of the Tarquins, but being anxious for the
benefit to be derived from sole leadership (which seemed to exert a
potent influence amid conditions of war and revolution), they chose it
under another name. Hence the dictatorship was, as has been said, so
far as its authority went, equivalent to kingship, except that the
dictator might not ride on horseback unless he were about to start on
a campaign, and was not permitted to make any expenditure from the
public funds unless the right were specially voted. He might try men
and put them to death at home and on campaigns, and not merely such as
belonged to the populace, but also members of the knights and of the
senate itself. No one had the power to make any complaint against him
nor to take any action hostile to him,--no, not even the
tribunes,--and no case could be appealed from him. The office of
dictator extended for a period of not more than six months, to the end
that no such official by spending much time in the midst of so much
power and unhampered authority should become haughty and plunge
headlong into a passion for sole leadership. This was what happened
later to Julius Cæsar, when contrary to lawful precedent he had been
approved for the dictatorship.