First Secession Events

• Appius’s actions to imprison people who helped Servilius caused civil unrest
• Group of plebians freed debtors from their chains
• Senators were attacked
• consuls unable to form army (majority of army was plebians)
• plebians meeting in private on Esquiline and Aventine Hills
• Roman enemies took advantage of the fact that they couldnt build up an army and attacked Latin allies
• Valerius became dictator and tried to help plebians but senate refused his offer to consider debt relief so he resigned
• Sicinius (soldier) told the army that they needed to strike fear into the heart of the patricians
• Sicinius suggested secession where they occupied the Sacred Mount hoping it would inspire other plebians to join
• Lots of citizens fled Rome to either join secession or flee Rome before civil war
• People on Sacred Mount raided outlying farms
• Plebians demanded that they get debt relief and refused to negotiate
• new consuls elected and one of them (Menenius) was a patrician who came from a plebian family
• His speech about the body (stomach was patricians and other organs was plebians - patricians and plebians rely on each other to survive) allowed plebians to negotiate
• solution from consuls was the creation of Tribunes