Ye ordered no citizen to engage on your behalf.

Ye are therefore no way concerned either with us, to whom ye gave no commission; nor with the Samnites, with whom ye transacted no business.

We are sureties to the Samnites; debtors, sufficiently wealthy in that which is our own, in that which we can offer--our bodies and our minds.

On these, let them exercise their cruelty; against these, let them whet their resentment and their swords.

As to what relates to the tribunes, consider whether the delivering them up can be effected at the present time, or if it must be deferred to another day.