Before their trial, Manlius and Furius appeared in public in mourning dress, bewailing their fates, which they claimed had already been ordained by the tyranny of the plebeian tribunes, which rendered anyone elected to high office little more than sacrificial animals.
[i] The new consuls, Lucius Aemilius Mamercus and Vopiscus Julius Iulus,[ii] were ordered to levy troops as a distraction from the murder, and the other tribunes were too fearful to intervene.
Breaking free, Publilius appealed to the crowd for protection, and suddenly the tables were turned against the consuls, who fled for their lives and took refuge in the Curia Hostilia.
Bloodshed was averted when the other consul, Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus, convinced a group of senators to hurry Claudius from the Forum, while he himself calmed the crowd.
[1] Some scholars doubt that the patricians would have permitted the election of the plebeian tribunes to pass into the hands of the comitia tributa as early as traditionally reported.