Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 5
Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.

20. The dictator saw that victory was at last within his grasp, and that a city of great wealth was on the point of being taken, with booty more than if all previous wars had been put together. [2] Lest, therefore, he might incur either the resentment of the soldiers, in consequence of a niggardly division of the spoils, or the ill-will of the Fathers, if he were lavish in sharing them out, he wrote to the senate, that thanks to the [3??] favour of the immortal gods, his own direction, and the patient efforts of his troops, Veii would presently be in the power of the Roman People, and asked what disposition they proposed making of the plunder. [4] The senate was divided between two opinions; the aged Publius Licinius, who was the first, they say, that his son called upon to speak,¹ advised making public proclamation that the people decreed that whoso desired a share in the spoils should proceed to the camp at Veii; [5] the other plan was that of Appius Claudius, who declared that such largess was without example,² reckless, unfair, and ill-advised; if they were [p. 71]persuaded once for all that it was wicked that money³ captured from the enemy should lie in the treasury, which had been exhausted by the wars, he urged them to pay the soldiers out of it, that [6??] the plebs might have so much the less war-tax to contribute⁴ ; this was a boon of which all families alike would feel the benefit, nor would the hands of idle city-folk, greedy of pillage, pluck away the rewards of valiant fighting men —since it commonly turned out that in proportion as a man was prone to seek a leading share of toil and danger, he was slow in plundering. [7] Licinius argued, on the other hand, that this money would breed endless suspicion and hate, and would furnish grounds for accusations before the plebs, and so for agitation and revolutionary laws; [8] it was better, therefore, to win over by this gift the sympathies of the commons, to succour them, exhausted and impoverished as they were by so' many years' taxation, and to let them enjoy the spoils and fruits of that war in which they had well-nigh grown old men; there would in every instance be more satisfaction and pleasure in what a man took with his own hand from the enemy and brought home, than if he received many times its value at the discretion of another; [9] the dictator himself would fain avoid the enmity and charges arising from this business, and therefore had handed it over to the senate; the senate, likewise, in its turn, should refer the question to the plebs, and let every man keep what the fortune of war might give him. [10] This policy seemed the safer, since it would make the senate popular. Accordingly, proclamation was made that all who liked might go to the dictator in camp, to share in the plunder of Veii.

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