Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
Collatinus, displeased at this, and commanding Vindicius to be taken
away, the lictors made their way through the crowd and seized their man,
and struck all who endeavored a rescue. Valerius's friends headed the
resistance, and the people cried out for Brutus, who, returning, on
silence being made, told them he had been competent to pass sentence by
himself upon his own sons, but left the rest to the suffrages of the
free citizens: "Let every man speak that wishes, and persuade whom he
can." But there was no need of oratory, for, it being referred to the
vote, they were returned condemned by all the suffrages, and were
accordingly beheaded.
Collatinus's relationship to the kings had, indeed, already rendered him
suspicious, and his second name, too, had made him obnoxious to the
people, who were loath to hear the very sound of Tarquin; but after this
had happened, perceiving himself an offense to every one, he
relinquished his charge and departed from the city. At the new
elections in his room, Valerius obtained, with high honor, the
consulship, as a just reward of his zeal; of which he thought Vindicius
deserved a share, whom he made, first of all freedmen, a citizen of
Rome, and gave him the privilege of voting in what tribe soever he was
pleased to be enrolled; other freedmen received the right of suffrage a
long time after from Appius, who thus courted popularity; and from this
Vindicius, a perfect manumission is called to this day vindicta. This
done, the goods of the kings were exposed to plunder, and the palace to
ruin.
The pleasantest part of the field of Mars, which Tarquin had owned, was
devoted to the service of that god; it happening to be harvest season,
and the sheaves yet being on the ground, they thought it not proper to
commit them to the flail, or unsanctify them with any use; and,
therefore, carrying them to the river side, and trees withal that were
cut down, they cast all into the water, dedicating the soil, free from
all occupation, to the deity. Now, these thrown in, one upon another,
and closing together, the stream did not bear them far, but where the
first were carried down and came to a bottom, the remainder, finding no
farther conveyance, were stopped and interwoven one with another; the
stream working the mass into a firmness, and washing down fresh mud.
This, settling there, became an accession of matter, as well as cement,
to the rubbish, insomuch that the violence of the waters could not
remove it, but forced and compressed it all together. Thus its bulk and
solidity gained it new subsidies, which gave it extension enough to stop
on its way most of what the stream brought down. This is now a sacred
island, lying by the city, adorned with temples of the gods, and walks,
and is called in the Latin tongue inter duos pontes. Though some say
this did not happen at the dedication of Tarquin's field, but in after-
times, when Tarquinia, a vestal priestess, gave an adjacent field to the
public, and obtained great honors in consequence, as, amongst the rest,
that of all women her testimony alone should be received; she had also
the liberty to marry, but refused it; thus some tell the story.
Tarquin, despairing of a return to his kingdom by the conspiracy, found
a kind reception amongst the Tuscans, who, with a great army, proceeded
to restore him. The consuls headed the Romans against them, and made
their rendezvous in certain holy places, the one called the Arsian
grove, the other the Aesuvian meadow. When they came into action,
Aruns, the son of Tarquin, and Brutus, the Roman consul, not
accidentally encountering each other, but out of hatred and rage, the
one to avenge tyranny and enmity to his country, the other his
banishment, set spurs to their horses, and, engaging with more fury than
forethought, disregarding their own security, fell together in the
combat. This dreadful onset hardly was followed by a more favorable
end; both armies, doing and receiving equal damage, were separated by a
storm. Valerius was much concerned, not knowing what the result of the
day was, and seeing his men as well dismayed at the sight of their own
dead, as rejoiced at the loss of the enemy; so apparently equal in the
number was the slaughter on either side. Each party, however, felt
surer of defeat from the actual sight of their own dead, than they could
feel of victory from conjecture about those of their adversaries. The
night being come (and such as one may presume must follow such a
battle), and the armies laid to rest, they say that the grove shook, and
uttered a voice, saying that the Tuscans had lost one man more than the
Romans; clearly a divine announcement; and the Romans at once received
it with shouts and expressions of joy; whilst the Tuscans, through fear
and amazement, deserted their tents, and were for the most part
dispersed. The Romans, falling upon the remainder, amounting to nearly
five thousand, took them prisoners, and plundered the camp; when they
numbered the dead, they found on the Tuscans' side eleven thousand and
three hundred, exceeding their own loss but by one man. This fight
happened upon the last day of February, and Valerius triumphed in honor
of it, being the first consul that drove in with a four-horse chariot;
which sight both appeared magnificent, and was received with an
admiration free from envy or offense (as some suggest) on the part of
the spectators; it would not otherwise have been continued with so much
eagerness and emulation through all the after ages. The people
applauded likewise the honors he did to his colleague, in adding to his
obsequies a funeral oration; which was so much liked by the Romans, and
found so good a reception, that it became customary for the best men to
celebrate the funerals of great citizens with speeches in their
commendation; and their antiquity in Rome is affirmed to be greater than
in Greece, unless, with the orator Anaximenes, we make Solon the first
author.
Yet some part of Valerius's behavior did give offense and disgust to the
people, because Brutus, whom they esteemed the father of their liberty,
had not presumed to rule without a colleague, but united one and then
another to him in his commission; while Valerius, they said, centering
all authority in himself, seemed not in any sense a successor to Brutus
in the consulship, but to Tarquin in the tyranny; he might make verbal
harangues to Brutus's memory, yet, when he was attended with all the
rods and axes, proceeding down from a house than which the king's house
that he had demolished had not been statelier, those actions showed him
an imitator of Tarquin. For, indeed, his dwelling house on the Velia
was somewhat imposing in appearance, hanging over the forum, and
overlooking all transactions there; the access to it was hard, and to
see him far of coming down, a stately and royal spectacle. But Valerius
showed how well it were for men in power and great offices to have ears
that give admittance to truth before flattery; for upon his friends
telling him that he displeased the people, he contended not, neither
resented it, but while it was still night, sending for a number of
workpeople, pulled down his house and leveled it with the ground; so
that in the morning the people, seeing and flocking together, expressed
their wonder and their respect for his magnanimity, and their sorrow, as
though it had been a human being, for the large and beautiful house
which was thus lost to them by an unfounded jealousy, while its owner,
their consul, without a roof of his own, had to beg a lodging with his
friends. For his friends received him, till a place the people gave him
was furnished with a house, though less stately than his own, where now
stands the temple, as it is called, of Vica Pota.
He resolved to render the government, as well as himself, instead of
terrible, familiar and pleasant to the people, and parted the axes from
the rods, and always, upon his entrance into the assembly, lowered these
also to the people, to show, in the strongest way, the republican
foundation of the government; and this the consuls observe to this day.
But the humility of the man was but a means, not, as they thought, of
lessening himself, but merely to abate their envy by this moderation;
for whatever he detracted from his authority he added to his real
power, the people still submitting with satisfaction, which they
expressed by calling him Poplicola, or people-lover, which name had the
preeminence of the rest, and, therefore, in the sequel of this narrative
we shall use no other.
He gave free leave to any to sue for the consulship; but before the
admittance of a colleague, mistrusting the chances, lest emulation or
ignorance should cross his designs, by his sole authority enacted his
best and most important measures. First, he supplied the vacancies of
the senators, whom either Tarquin long before had put to death, or the
war lately cut off; those that he enrolled, they write, amounted to a
hundred and sixty-four; afterwards he made several laws which added much
to the people's liberty, in particular one granting offenders the
liberty of appealing to the people from the judgment of the consuls; a
second, that made it death to usurp any magistracy without the people's
consent; a third, for the relief of poor citizens, which, taking off
their taxes, encouraged their labors; another, against disobedience to
the consuls, which was no less popular than the rest, and rather to the
benefit of the commonalty than to the advantage of the nobles, for it
imposed upon disobedience the penalty of ten oxen and two sheep; the
price of a sheep being ten obols, of an ox, a hundred. For the use of
money was then infrequent amongst the Romans, but their wealth in cattle
great; even now pieces of property are called peculia, from pecus,
cattle; and they had stamped upon their most ancient money an ox, a
sheep, or a hog; and surnamed their sons Suillii, Bubulci, Caprarii,
and Porcii, from caprae, goats, and porci, hogs.
Amidst this mildness and moderation, for one excessive fault he
instituted one excessive punishment; for he made it lawful without trial
to take away any man's life that aspired to a tyranny, and acquitted the
slayer, if he produced evidence of the crime; for though it was not
probable for a man, whose designs were so great, to escape all notice;
yet because it was possible he might, although observed, by force
anticipate judgment, which the usurpation itself would then preclude, he
gave a license to any to anticipate the usurper. He was honored
likewise for the law touching the treasury; for because it was necessary
for the citizens to contribute out of their estates to the maintenance
of wars, and he was unwilling himself to be concerned in the care of it,
or to permit his friends, or indeed to let the public money pass into
any private house, he allotted the temple of Saturn for the treasury, in
which to this day they deposit the tribute-money, and granted the people
the liberty of choosing two young men as quaestors, or treasurers. The
first were Publius Veturius and Marcus Minucius; and a large sum was
collected, for they assessed one hundred and thirty thousand, excusing
orphans and widows from the payment. After these dispositions, he
admitted Lucretius, the father of Lucretia, as his colleague, and gave
him the precedence in the government, by resigning the fasces to him,
as due to his years, which privilege of seniority continued to our time.
But within a few days Lucretius died, and in a new election Marcus
Horatius succeeded in that honor, and continued consul for the remainder
of the year.
Now, whilst Tarquin was making preparations in Tuscany for a second war
against the Romans, it is said a great portent occurred. When Tarquin