--_Thomson_.
1. The year following, the two consuls of the former year, Man'lius
and Fa'bius, were cited by the tribunes to appear before the people.
The Agra'rian law, which had been proposed some time before, for
equally dividing the lands of the commonwealth among the people, was
the object invariably pursued, and they were accused of having made
unjustifiable delays in putting it off.
2. The Agra'rian law was a grant the senate could not think of making
to the people. The consuls, therefore, made many delays and excuses,
till at length they were once more obliged to have recourse to a
dictator; and they fixed upon Quintus Cincinna'tus, a man who had for
some time, given up all views of ambition, and retired to his little
farm, where the deputies of the senate found him holding the plough,
and dressed in the mean attire of a labouring husbandman. 3. He
appeared but little elevated with the addresses of ceremony, and the
pompous habits they brought him; and, upon declaring to him the
senate's pleasure, he testified rather a concern that his aid should
be wanted.
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