Yet soon he thrust aside his weakness. A true Roman must love his country better even than his own children.
So when the conspirators were brought before him he did not flinch. With stern, set face he condemned Titus and Tiberius to death along with the other traitors, nor did he stoop to ask the people to show mercy to his sons.
The young men were bound to the stake before his eyes, after which the lictors beat them with rods and then cut off their heads with the axe.
So angry were the Senate and the people with Tarquin for attempting to plot against the Republic, that they now refused to send to him his possessions. And not only so, but they divided his goods among the people, while the field between the city and the Tiber which Tarquin had sown with corn was destroyed, the corn cut down and thrown into the river. The angry citizens then dedicated the field to the god Mars, and henceforth it was known as the Field of Mars.
The Senate then made a law banishing for ever from Rome all who bore the hated name of Tarquin.
So Collatinus, whose other name was Tarquinius, resigned his Consulship and left the city in obedience to the law. And this he did, although he was the friend of Brutus, and hated the exiled king.
Valerius was then chosen Consul in his stead.
Meanwhile, Tarquin was full of wrath because he had not been able to enter Rome by craft, and he went to Etruria, and persuaded the Etruscans to help him to recover his throne.
But when the Etruscans proclaimed war against Rome, Brutus gathered together an army and led it against the enemy.
Close to a wood the battle raged. Aruns, one of Tarquin’s sons, saw Brutus at the head of the Roman army, wearing the royal robes which he considered belonged to his house alone. In sudden fury he put spurs to his horse, and with his spear ready dashed toward his enemy.