the years, Claudius and his descendants would continually oppose all such reforms with all the pride and arrogance that the consul had himself displayed. Later career Rome was struck by a grain shortage in the following year, and strife between the patricians and plebeians returned, as the wealthy were accused of hoarding food. Once again, Claudius urged the Senate to take a hard line against the mob and all who encouraged them. Calmer voices prevailed, and food was eventually procured from Aristodemus of Cumae (at the cost of several ships that Aristodemus retained as payment) and from Etruria. Two years later, in 491 BC, Rome was still recovering from the famine, and grain prices were still oppressively high. Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, a young senator who had won fame on the battlefield after helping to capture the city of Corioli from the Volsci, and who had since become a champion of the Roman aristocracy, praised Appius Claudius for his firm stance against the plebeians, and urged that the Senate take no action to relieve the distress of the people, unless the plebs agreed to surrender the hard-won privilege of electing their own tribunes. The cry arose that Coriolanus would have the Senate starve the people into submission, and he was only saved from a riot when the same tribunes ordered his arrest. Claudius, who had long distinguished himself as "the greatest enemy of the plebeians", rallied to Coriolanus' defense, haranguing the populace for their treachery and ingratitude, and accusing them of conspiring against the government of the Republic. Manius Valerius again spoke in opposition, urging that the people had the right to bring Coriolanus to trial, and that he might be acquitted, or treated with leniency, were the cause against him to proceed. Coriolanus submitted to trial, and was convicted of aspiring to tyranny by a vote of twelve of the twenty-one tribes; but in recognition of his former service to the state, he was only sentenced to banishment. In 486, the consul Spurius Cassius Vecellinus concluded a treaty with the Hernici, and proposed the first agrarian law, with the intention of distributing a neglected portion of public land among the plebeians and the allies. Once again, Claudius was in the forefront of the opposition in the Senate, arguing that the people were idle and would be unable to farm the land, and accusing Cassius of encouraging sedition. Cassius' plan was