The senate required the consul Gaius Marius to interfere, and the latter in reality professed his readiness now to draw for the conservative party the sword, which he had obtained from the democracy and had promised to wield on its behalf.

The young men were hastily called out, equipped with arms from the public buildings, and drawn up in military array; the senate itself appeared under arms in the Forum, with its venerable chief Marcus Scaurus at its head.

The opposite party were doubtless superior in a street-riot, but were not prepared for such an attack; they had now to defend themselves as they could.

They broke open the doors of the prisons, and called the slaves to liberty and to arms; they proclaimed-- so it was said at any rate--Saturninus as king or general; on the day when the new tribunes of the people had to enter on their office, the 10th of December 654, a battle occurred in the great market-place--the first which, since Rome existed, had ever been fought within the walls of the capital.

The issue was not for a moment doubtful.