Publicola

The consul was indignant at this, and ordered that Vindicius should be taken away, whereupon the lictors pushed their way through the crowd, seized the man, and beat those who tried to rescue him. Then Valerius and his friends stood forth in the man’s defence, while the people shouted for Brutus to come. He turned back, therefore, and came, and when silence had been made for him, said that for his sons, he himself sufficed as judge, but he would leave time fate of the other traitors to the votes of the citizens, who were free, and any one who wished might speak and try to persuade the people. However, by this time there was no need of oratory, but a vote was taken which unanimously condemned the men, and they were beheaded.

Collatinus, as it would seem, was already under some suspicion on account of his relationship to the royal family, and the second of his names also was hateful to time people, who loathed the sound of Tarquin. But after these recent events, he saw that he was altogether obnoxious, and therefore resigned his office and withdrew secretly from the city.[*](Cf. Livy, ii. 2, 3-10. ) A new election was consequently held, and Valerius was triumphantly declared consul, thus receiving a worthy reward for his zeal.

In this reward he thought that Vindicius ought to share, and therefore had a decree passed which made him, first of all freedmen, a citizen of Rome, and entitled him to vote with any curia in which he chose to be enrolled. Other freedmen received the right of suffrage in much later times from Appius,[*](Appius Claudius Caecus, censor in 312 B.C.) who thus courted popularity. And from this Vindicius, as they say, a perfect manumission is to this day called vindicta. [*](Cf. Livy, ii. 5,10. )

After this, the property of the royal family was given to the Romans to plunder, and their house and palace were razed to the ground. But the pleasantest part of the field of Mars, which had belonged to Tarquin, was dedicated to that god. Now it chanced that it had just been reaped, and the grain still lay upon the ground; but since the field had been consecrated, they thought it not right to thresh it or use it in any way. They therefore with one accord carried the sheaves to the river and cast them in.