[1] The consuls were required to deal with a famine which had taken hold of Rome and they focused their efforts on obtaining grain shipments from around Italy.
The famine arose because the plebeian farmers had not sown their fields during the secession of the plebs which ended the previous year.
Envoys were sent by ship to buy grain from the coastal towns of Etruria, the Volsci and others to the south as far as Cumae.
Because many of Rome's neighbours bore the Romans animosity from past military conflicts, envoys were even sent as far as Magna Graecia (Sicily).
An even greater amount of grain was imported the following year from Sicily, and the question of how it should be distributed amongst the Roman citizens led to the exile and defection of Gaius Marcius Coriolanus.