History of Rome

​Therefore, the younger senators were sent to the camp, which was then on Mount Vecilius, to announce to the decemvirs that they should keep the soldiers from sedition with all their might.

​There, Verginius excited a greater stir than he had left behind in the city.

​For besides the fact that he was seen arriving with a band of nearly four hundred men, who, inflamed by the indignity of the affair, had joined him as companions from the city, his drawn weapon and he himself, spattered with blood, turned the attention of the entire camp toward him. Moreover, the togas seen in many places within the camp had created an impression of a city crowd considerably larger than it actually was.

​To those who asked what the matter was, he wept for a long time and uttered no word; at last, when the crowd of those running together from excitement settled down and there was silence, he explained everything in order, just as it had happened.

​Then, stretching out his hands palms upward and calling them fellow soldiers, he implored them not to attribute to him what was the crime of Appius Claudius, nor to shrink from him as the murderer of his own children.

​To him, his daughter’s life had been dearer than his own, if only she had been allowed to live free and chaste; but when he saw her being dragged away like a slave for dishonour, he reckoned it better for children to be lost by death than by ignominy, and that out of pity he had fallen into the appearance of cruelty.

​And he would not have survived his daughter, if he had not held the hope of avenging her death in the help of his fellow soldiers. For they too had daughters, sisters, and wives, and the lust of Appius Claudius had not been extinguished with his daughter, but would be all the more unrestrained the more impunitive he was.

​By the calamity of another, a lesson had been given to them to beware of similar injury. As for what concerned himself, his wife had been snatched from him by fate, and his daughter, because she could no longer have lived chaste, had met a miserable but honorable death;

​there was no longer any room for Appius’s lust in his house; from his other violence, he would defend his own body with the same spirit with which he had defended his daughter’s; let the others look out for themselves and their children.

​To Verginius, vociferating these things, the multitude shouted in response that they would not fail either his grief or their own liberty. And the civilians in togas, mingled with the crowd of soldiers, by complaining of those same things and showing how much more unworthy what was seen ought to be deemed than what was heard, and at the same time announcing that the business was already virtually settled at Rome, ​and those who followed saying that Appius, having almost been killed, had gone into exile, prevailed upon them to raise the cry to arms, pluck up the standards, and march to Rome.

​The decemvirs, disturbed at once by what they saw and by what they had heard of the events at Rome, ran about to different parts of the camp to appease the movements. To those who acted gently, no answer was returned; if anyone attempted to exercise authority, the reply was made that they were men, and armed.

​They marched in column to the city and occupied the Aventine, exhorting the plebeians, as each met them, to recover their liberty and to create tribunes of the plebs. No other violent word was heard. Spurius Oppius held a meeting of the senate.

​It was resolved that nothing should be done harshly, ​for the opportunity for sedition had been given by themselves. Three consular legates, Spurius Tarpeius, Gaius Julius, and Publius Sulpicius, were sent to ask, in the words of the senate, by whose order they had deserted the camp, or what they wanted, who in arms had occupied the Aventine and, turning the war away from the enemy, had captured their own fatherland.

​There was no lack of what to answer; there was a lack of someone to give the answer, as there was as yet no certain leader and individuals did not dare enough to expose themselves to unpopularity. Only this was shouted by the multitude: that they should send Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius to them; to these they would give their answer.