his office, Larcius held the census, negotiated with the various Latin towns in hopes of retaining some old allies and gaining new ones, and presided over the consular elections for the following year. He then laid down his office before the expiration of his term, setting a precedent for future dictators. Larcius held the consulship a second time in 498 BC, with Quintus Cloelius Siculus. During this year, the long anticipated war with the Latins began. The dictator Aulus Postumius Albus led the Roman forces to victory at the Battle of Lake Regillus, while the consul Larcius captured the town of Fidenae. After leaving his magistracy, Larcius is said by Dionysius to have dedicated the temple of Saturn at the foot of the Capitoline Hill. As praefectus urbi in 494, Larcius unsuccessfully advocated measures to relieve the plebs from the burdens of debt; and when the plebeians seceded from the city and encamped on Mons Sacer, Larcius was one of the envoys sent by the senate to treat with them. The embassy was successful, and resulted in the institution of the tribunes of the people. Also in 493, Larcius served as legate to the consul Cominius, his colleague in 501, at the siege of Corioli, where Gaius Marcius Coriolanus gained fame through his valour. Historical uncertainty An alternative tradition states that the first dictator was Manius Valerius, the son of Marcus Valerius Volusus, consul in 505 BC. However, the historian Livy believed it unlikely that a man who had not yet been consul would be appointed the first dictator, or that Manius Valerius would have been nominated in place of his father. Another tradition places the institution of the dictatorship three years later, in 498 BC, during Larcius' second consulship. In that year, Livy states that Aulus Postumius Albus was appointed dictator, and led the Roman army to victory over the Latins at the Battle of Lake Regillus. However, this battle is also placed by some authorities in 496, when Postumius was consul. In literature Larcius appears as a Roman general in William Shakespeare's play, Coriolanus, based largely on the account of Coriolanus' life given in Plutarch, although Shakespeare may also have read Livy, and perhaps Dionysius. References Bibliography Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Romaike Archaiologia (Roman Antiquities). Titus Livius (Livy), History of Rome. Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Plutarch), Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and