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

15. The state was less distracted when the¹ consuls Gaius Claudius, the son of Appius, and Publius Valerius Publicola assumed control. No new difficulty had come in with the new year; [2] anxiety to pass the law on the one side, and on the other the dread of having to accept it, occupied the thoughts of the citizens. [3] The more the younger patricians tried to ingratiate themselves with the plebs, the more sharply were they opposed by the tribunes, who endeavoured by bringing charges against their adversaries to make the plebeians suspect them: A conspiracy had been formed; Caeso was in Rome; plans had been laid to kill the [p. 53]tribunes and massacre the plebs; the elder patricians² had intrusted the younger men with the task of abolishing the tribunician power from the commonwealth, that the state might have the same aspect it had worn before the occupation of the Sacred Mount. [4] Also men feared the Volsci and Aequi, whose attack was by this time almost a regular and stated custom of annual recurrence; and a new and unexpected danger sprang up nearer home. [5] Exiles³ and slaves to the number of twenty-five hundred, led by Appius Herdonius, the Sabine, came by night and seized the Capitol and the Citadel. [6] They at once put to the sword those in the Citadel who refused to conspire and take up arms with them. Some escaped in the confusion and ran down terror-stricken into the Forum. Alternating cries were heard, “To arms!”and “The enemy is in the City!” [7] The consuls were afraid either to arm the plebs or to leave them unarmed, not knowing whence this sudden attack upon the City had come, whether from without or from within, from the hatred of the plebs or the treachery of slaves. They tried to still the uproar, and sometimes by their efforts made it the greater; for the trembling, panic-stricken multitude could not be controlled by authority. [8] Nevertheless they gave out arms, not to everybody, but only so far as to insure, in the uncertainty regarding their foe, that there should be a fairly dependable defence for any emergency. Filled with concern, and wondering who their enemy was and what his numbers, they employed the rest of the night in disposing pickets at suitable points throughout the City. [9] Then came daylight and disclosed the nature of the war and its [p. 55]leader. From the Capitol Herdonius was calling the⁴ slaves to freedom; he had undertaken, he said, the cause of all the wretched, that he might bring back to their native land the exiles who had been wrongfully expelled, and release the slaves from their heavy yoke; he had rather this were done with the approval of the Roman people: if there were no hope in that quarter, he would call in the Volsci and the Aequi and leave no desperate measure unattempted.