It was a time of panic and suspense. After consultation, good
counsels prevailed in the senate, and it was resolved to send an
embassy to the despised and down-trodden plebeians, who now seemed,
however, to hold the balance of power, and to treat for peace, for
there could be no security until the secessionists had returned to
their homes.
The spokesman on the occasion was Menenius Agrippa Lanatus, who was
popular with the people and had a reputation for eloquence. In the
course of his argument he related the famous apologue which Shakespeare
has so admirably used in his first Roman play. He said:
"At a time when all the parts of the body did not, as now, agree
together, but the several members had each its own scheme, its own
language, the other parts, indignant that every thing was procured for
the belly by their care, labor, and service, and that it, remaining
quiet in the centre, did nothing but enjoy the pleasures afforded it,
conspired that the hands should not convey food to the mouth, nor the
mouth receive it when presented, nor the teeth chew it. They wished by
these measures to subdue the belly by famine, but, to their dismay,
they found that they themselves and the entire body were reduced to the
last degree of emaciation.
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