In the wake of the Volscian wars, even Menenius, who took care to cloak his right-hand-file views with a genial air of populism, has adopted a harder edge. There is no longer any reason to compromise with or appease the lower classes. “You wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a faucet-seller,” he says, mocking the tribunes.
