History of Rome

​Thence he began to be admitted to the public councils. There, while he said that on other matters he agreed with the elder Gabini, to whom those things were better known, he himself repeatedly became the advocate of war, and assumed to himself special wisdom in that matter, because he knew the strength of both peoples, and knew that the king’s pride was indeed hated by the citizens, which not even his children had been able to endure.

​Thus, while he gradually incited the chief men of the Gabini to rebellion, and himself went with the most active of the young men to plunder and on expeditions, and because all his words and deeds were prepared for deception, a groundless trust increased, he was at last chosen leader of the war.

​There, while small battles were fought between Rome and Gabii, with the multitude ignorant of what was being done, in which for the most part the Gabini were superior, then emulously the highest and lowest of the Gabini believed that Sextus Tarquin had been sent to them by the gift of the gods as a leader.

​Indeed, among the soldiers, by undergoing dangers and labors equally, and by generously distributing the booty, he was held in such great affection that the father Tarquin was not more powerful in Rome than the son in Gabii.

​Therefore, after he saw that enough strength had been collected for all attempts, he then sent one of his own men to Rome to his father to inquire what indeed he wished him to do, since the gods had granted him that he alone should have all power in public affairs at Gabii.

​To this messenger, because, I believe, he seemed of doubtful fidelity, no answer was given by voice; the king, as if deliberating, went over into the garden of the house, with the messenger of his son following him; there, walking about in silence, he is said to have struck off the highest heads of the poppies with a staff.

​The messenger, weary with asking and waiting for an answer, returned to Gabii as if the business were unfinished; he reported what he himself had said and what he had seen: that whether from anger or hatred or innate pride of character, the king had uttered no word.

​When it became clear to Sextus what his parent wished and what he was commanding by his silent riddles, he put to death the chief men of the city, some by accusing them before the people, others because they were vulnerable to their own unpopularity.

​Many were killed openly, some, against whom an accusation was going to be less plausible, secretly. Flight was open to some who wished it, others were driven into exile, and the property of the absent as well as of those who had been put to death was divided.

​Thence came largesses and spoils; and by the sweetness of private gain, the sense of public evils was taken away, until the state of Gabii, bereft of counsel and help, was delivered into the hands of the Roman king without any struggle.