The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
than the rich; that they allowed of no relaxation or indulgence, if you
transgress bounds; that it was a perilous state, amid so many human
errors, to live solely by one's integrity." Whilst their minds were
already thus discontented of their own accord, ambassadors from the
royal family come unexpectedly, demanding restitution of their effects
merely, without any mention of return. After their application was heard
in the senate, the deliberation on it lasted for several days, (fearing)
lest the non-restitution might be a pretext for war, and the restitution
a fund and assistance for war. In the mean time the ambassadors were
planning different schemes; openly demanding the property, they secretly
concerted measures for recovering the throne, and soliciting them as if
for the object which appeared to be under consideration, they sound
their feelings; to those by whom their proposals were favourably
received they give letters from the Tarquins, and confer with them about
admitting the royal family into the city secretly by night.
4. The matter was first intrusted to brothers of the name of Vitellii
and those of the name of Aquilii. A sister of the Vitellii had been
married to Brutus the consul, and the issue of that marriage were young
men, Titus and Tiberius; these also their uncles admit into a
participation of the plot: several young noblemen also were taken in as
associates, the memory of whose names has been lost from distance of
time. In the mean time, when that opinion had prevailed in the senate,
which recommended the giving back of the property, and the ambassadors
made use of this as a pretext for delay in the city, because they had
obtained from the consuls time to procure modes of conveyance, by which
they might convey away the effects of the royal family; all this time
they spend in consulting with the conspirators, and by pressing they
succeed in having letters given to them for the Tarquins. For otherwise
how were they to believe that the accounts brought by the ambassadors on
matters of such importance were not idle? The letters, given to be a
pledge of their sincerity, discovered the plot; for when, the day before
the ambassadors set out to the Tarquins, they had supped by chance at
the house of the Vitellii, and the conspirators there in private
discoursed much together concerning their new design, as is natural, one
of the slaves, who had already perceived what was going on, overheard
their conversation; but waited for the occasion when the letters should
be given to the ambassadors, the detection of which would prove the
transaction; when he perceived that they were given, he laid the whole
affair before the consuls. The consuls, having left their home to seize
the ambassadors and conspirators, crushed the whole affair without any
tumult; particular care being taken of the letters, lest they should
escape them. The traitors being immediately thrown into chains, a little
doubt was entertained respecting the ambassadors, and though they
deserved to be considered as enemies, the law of nations however
prevailed.
5. The question concerning the restitution of the tyrants' effects,
which the senate had formerly voted, came again under consideration. The
fathers, fired with indignation, expressly forbad them either to be
restored or confiscated. They were given to be rifled by the people,
that after being made participators in the royal plunder, they might
lose for ever all hopes of a reconciliation with the Tarquins. A field
belonging to them, which lay between the city and the Tiber, having been
consecrated to Mars, has been called the Campus Martius. It happened
that there was a crop of corn upon it ready to be cut down, which
produce of the field, as they thought it unlawful to use, after it was
reaped, a great number of men carried the corn and straw in baskets, and
threw them into the Tiber, which then flowed with shallow water, as is
usual in the heat of summer; that thus the heaps of corn as it stuck in
the shallows became settled when covered over with mud: by these and the
afflux of other things, which the river happened to bring thither, an
island was formed by degrees. Afterwards I believe that mounds were
added, and that aid was afforded by art, that a surface so well raised
might be firm enough for sustaining temples and porticoes. After
plundering the tyrants' effects, the traitors were condemned and capital
punishment inflicted. Their punishment was the more remarkable, because
the consulship imposed on the father the office of punishing his own
children, and him who should have been removed as a spectator, fortune
assigned as the person to exact the punishment. Young men of the highest
quality stood tied to a stake; but the consul's sons attracted the eyes
of all the spectators from the rest of the criminals, as from persons
unknown; nor did the people pity them more on account of the severity of
the punishment, than the horrid crime by which they had deserved it.
"That they, in that year particularly, should have brought themselves to
betray into the hands of Tarquin, formerly a proud tyrant, and now an
exasperated exile, their country just delivered, their father its
deliverer, the consulate which took its rise from the family of the
Junii, the fathers, the people, and whatever belonged either to the gods
or the citizens of Rome."[67] The consuls seated themselves in their
tribunal, and the lictors, being despatched to inflict punishment, strip
them naked, beat them with rods, and strike off their heads. Whilst
during all this time, the father, his looks and his countenance,
presented a touching spectacle,[68] the feelings of the father bursting
forth occasionally during the office of superintending the public
execution. Next after the punishment of the guilty, that there might be
a striking example in either way for the prevention of crime, a sum of
money was granted out of the treasury as a reward to the discoverer;
liberty also and the rights of citizenship were granted him. He is said
to have been the first person made free by the Vindicta; some think even
that the term vindicta is derived from him. After him it was observed as
a rule, that those who were set free in this manner were supposed to be
admitted to the rights of Roman citizens.[69]
[Footnote 67: Niebuhr will have it that Brutus punished his children by
his authority as a father, and that there was no appeal to the people
from the father. See Nieb. i. p. 488.]
[Footnote 68: _Animo patris_, the strength of his mind, though that of a
father, being even more conspicuous, &c. So Drakenborch understands the
passage,--this sternness of mind, he says, though he was their father,
was a more remarkable spectacle than his stern countenance. This
character of Brutus, as inferrible from the words thus interpreted,
coincides with that given of him by Dionysius and others. I prefer
understanding the passage with Crevier, scil. symptoms of paternal
affection to his children displaying themselves during the discharge of
his duty in superintending the public punishment inflicted on them.]
[Footnote 69: Previously, by the institution of Servius, only such
manumitted slaves were admitted to the rights of citizenship as were
registered by their masters in the census.]
6. On these things being announced to him, as they had occurred,
Tarquin, inflamed not only with grief for the frustration of such great
hopes, but with hatred and resentment also, when he saw that the way was
blocked up against stratagem, considering that he should have recourse
to war openly, went round as a suppliant to the cities of Etruria,
"that they should not suffer him, sprung from themselves, of the same
blood, exiled and in want, lately in possession of so great a kingdom,
to perish before their eyes, with the young men his sons. That others
had been invited to Rome from foreign lands to the throne; that he, a
king, extending the Roman empire by his arms, was driven out by those
nearest to him by a villanous conspiracy; that they had by violence
divided the parts among themselves, because no one individual among them
was deemed sufficiently deserving of the kingdom; that they had given up
his effects to the people to be pillaged by them, that no one might be
free from that guilt. That he was desirous to recover his country and
his kingdom, and to punish his ungrateful subjects. That they should
bring succour and aid him; that they might also revenge the injuries
done to them of old, their legions so often slaughtered, their land
taken from them." These arguments prevailed on the people of Veii, and
with menaces they declare that now at least, under the conduct of a
Roman general, their former disgrace should be wiped off, and what they
had lost in war should be recovered. His name and relation to them
induced the people of Tarquinii to take part with him; it seemed an
honour that their countrymen should reign at Rome. Therefore the two
armies of these two states followed Tarquin in order to recover his
kingdom, and to take vengeance upon the Romans. When they entered the
Roman territories, the consuls marched to meet them. Valerius led up the
foot in a square battalion, and Brutus marched before with his horse to
reconnoitre (the enemy). Their cavalry likewise came up first; Aruns,
Tarquin's son, commanded it; the king himself followed with the legions.
Aruns, when he knew at a distance by the lictors that it was a consul,
and on coming nigher discovered for certain that it was Brutus by his
face, all inflamed with rage, he cried out, "There is the villain who
has banished us from our native country! see how he rides in state
adorned with the ensigns of our dignity! now assist me, gods, the
avengers of kings." He put spurs to his horse and drove furiously
against the consul. Brutus perceived the attack made on him; as it was
honourable in these days for the generals to engage in combat, he
eagerly offered himself to the combat. They encountered one another with
such furious animosity, neither mindful of protecting his own person,
provided he could wound his adversary; so that both, transfixed through
the buckler by the blow from the opposite direction, fell lifeless from
their horses, entangled together by the two spears. The engagement
between the rest of the horse commenced at the same time, and soon after
the foot came up. There they fought with doubtful success, and as it
were with equal advantage, and the victory doubtful. The right wings of
both armies were victorious and the left worsted. The Veientians,
accustomed to be discomfited by the Roman soldiers, were routed and put
to flight. The Tarquinienses, who were a new enemy, not only stood their
ground, but even on their side obliged the Romans to give way.
7. After the issue of this battle, so great a terror seized Tarquin and
the Etrurians, that both the armies, the Veientian and Tarquinian,
giving up the matter as impracticable, departed to their respective
homes. They annex strange incidents to this battle,--that in the silence
of the next night a loud voice was emitted from the Arsian wood; that it
was believed to be the voice of Silvanus: these words were spoken, "that
more of the Etrurians by one[70] had fallen in the battle; that the
Roman was victorious in the war." Certainly the Romans departed thence
as victors, the Etrurians as vanquished. For as soon as it was light,
and not one of the enemy was now to be seen, P. Valerius the consul
collected the spoils, and returned thence in triumph to Rome. His
colleague's funeral he celebrated with all the magnificence then
possible. But a far greater honour to his death was the public sorrow,
singularly remarkable in this particular, that the matrons mourned him a