conquer when they had victory in their hands. A little later they went
one step further, and attempted to stop entirely the raising of an
army. One of the patrician family just mentioned, Marcus Fabius, proved
too noble willingly to permit such strife between the classes to
interfere with the progress of the state, and determined to conciliate
the commons. He succeeded, and led them to battle, and, though his army
won victory, was himself killed in the combat (B.C. 481). The other
members of the family took up the cause, cared kindly for the wounded,
and thus still further ingratiated themselves with the army. The next
year (B.C. 480) another Fabian was consul, and he too determined to
stand up for the laws of Spurius Cassius. He was treated with scorn by
his fellow patricians, and finding that he could not carry out his
principles and live at peace in Rome, determined to exile himself.
Going out with his followers, he established a camp on the side of the
river Cremera, a few miles above Rome, and alone carried on a war
against the fortified city of Veii. The unequal strife was continued
for two years; but then the brave family was completely cut off. There
was not a member left, excepting one who seems to have refused to
renounce the former opinions of the family, and had remained at Rome
[Footnote: The Fabii were cut off on the Cremera on the 16th of July, a
day afterwards marked by a terrible battle on the Allia, in which the
Gauls defeated the Romans.] (B.C. 477). He became the ancestor of the
Fabii of after-history.

The support thus received from the aristocratic Fabii encouraged the
commons, and the sacrifice of the family exasperated them. They felt
anew that it was possible for them to exert some power in the state,
and they promptly accused one of the consuls, Titus Menenius, of
treason, because he had allowed his army to lie inactive near Cremera
while the Fabii were cut off before him. Menenius was found guilty, and