Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4)

by Plutarch

While he was thus employed, the Aquillii returned in haste, and assembling a force at the door endeavoured to take away the letter from him. His own party came to his assistance, and with their gowns twisted round their necks with much buffeting made their way to the Forum. The same thing happened at the king's quarters, where Marcus laid hold of another letter which was being taken thither concealed among some baggage, and brought as many of the king's party as he could into the Forum.

VI. When the consuls had put a stop to the confusion, Vindicius, at Valerius's command, was brought out of his prison, and a court was held. The letters were recognised, and the culprits had nothing to say for themselves. All were silent and downcast, and a few, thinking to please Brutus, hinted at banishment as the penalty of their crime. Collatinus by his tears, and Valerius by his silence gave them hopes of mercy. But Brutus, addressing each of his sons by name, said, "Come, Titus, come Tiberius, why do you make no answer to the charges against you?" As, after being asked thrice, they made no answer, he, turning his face to the lictors, said, "I have done my work, do yours." They immediately seized upon the young men, tore off their clothes, tied their hands behind their backs, and scourged them. Although the people had not the heart to look at so dreadful a sight, yet it is said that Brutus never turned away his head, and showed no pity on his stern countenance, but sat savagely looking on at the execution of his sons until at last they were laid on the ground and their heads severed with an axe. Then he handed over the rest of the culprits to be dealt with by his colleague, rose, and left the Forum. His conduct cannot be praised, and yet it is above censure. Either virtue in his mind overpowered every other feeling, or his sorrow was so great as to produce insensibility. In neither case was there anything unworthy, or even human in his conduct, but it was either that of a god or a brute beast. It is better, however, that we should speak in praise of so great a man rather than allow our weakness to distrust his virtue. Indeed the Romans think that even the foundation of the city by Romulus was not so great an event as the confirmation of its constitution by Brutus.

VII. When he left the Forum all men were silent for a long while, shuddering at what had been done. The Aquillii took heart at the mildness of Collatinus, and asked for time to prepare their defence. They also begged that Vindicius might be given up to them, because he was their servant, and ought not to be on the side of their accusers. Collatinus was willing to allow this, but Valerius said that he was not able to give the man up, because he was surrounded by so large a crowd, and called upon the people not to disperse without punishing the traitors. At last he laid his hands upon the two corpses, called for Brutus, and reproached Collatinus for making his colleague act against nature by condemning his own sons to death, and then thinking to please the wives of these traitors and public enemies by saving their lives. The consul, vexed at this, ordered the lictors to seize Vindicius. They forced their way through the crowd, tried to lay hold of him, and struck those who defended him, but the friends of Valerius stood in front of him and beat them off, and the people raised a shout for Brutus. He returned, and when silence was restored said that he had, as a father, full power to condemn his sons to death, but that as for the other culprits, their fate should be decided by the free vote of the citizens, and that any one might come forward and address the people. The people, however, would listen to no speeches, but voted unanimously for their death, and they were all beheaded.

Collatinus, it seems, had been viewed with suspicion before because of his connection with the royal family, and his second name, Tarquinius, was odious to the people. After these events, having utterly failed as consul, he voluntarily laid down that office, and left the city. So now there was another election, and Valerius received the due reward of his patriotism and was gloriously made consul. Thinking that Vindicius ought to receive something for his services, he made him a freedman, the first ever made in Rome, and allowed him to vote in whatever tribe he chose to be enrolled. The other freedmen were not allowed the suffrage till, long after, it was given them by Appius to obtain popularity among them. The whole ceremony is up to the present day called vindicta, after Vindicius, we are told.

VIII. After this they allowed the king's property to be plundered, and destroyed the palace. Tarquinius had obtained the pleasantest part of the Field of Mars, and had consecrated it to that god. This field had just been cut, and the corn lay on the ground, for the people thought that they must not thresh it or make any use of it, because of the ground being consecrated, so they took the sheaves and threw them into the river. In the same way they cut down the trees and threw them in, leaving the whole place for the god, but uncultivated and unfruitful. As there were many things of different sorts all floating together in the river, the current did not carry them far, but when the first masses settled on a shallow place, the rest which were carried down upon them could not get past, but became heaped up there, and the stream compacted them securely by the mud which it deposited upon them, not only increasing the size of the whole mass, but firmly cementing it together. The waves did not shake it, but gently beat it into a solid consistency. Now, from its size, it began to receive additions, as most of what the river brought down settled upon it. It is now a sacred island close by the city, with temples and walks, and in the Latin tongue it has a name which means "between two bridges." Some state that this did not happen when Tarquinia's field was consecrated, but in later times when Tarquinia gave up another field next to that one, for the public use. This Tarquinia was a priestess, one of the Vestal virgins, and she was greatly honoured for having done so, and was allowed to appear as a witness in court, which no other woman could do; she also was permitted to marry, by a decree of the senate, but did not avail herself of it. These are the legends which they tell about this island.

IX. Tarquin now gave up all hopes of recovering his throne by intrigue, and appealed to the Etruscans, who willingly espoused his cause and endeavoured to restore him with a great army. The consuls led out the Romans to fight against them, posting them in holy places one of which is called the Arsian grove, and another the Aesuvian meadow. When they were about to join battle, Aruns, the son of Tarquin, and Brutus, the Roman consul, attacked one another, not by chance, but with fell hatred and rage, the one urging his horse against the tyrant and enemy of his country, the other against the man who drove him into exile. Falling upon one another with more fury than judgment, they made no attempt to defend themselves, but only to strike, and both perished. The struggle, so terribly begun, was continued with equal ferocity on both sides, until the armies, after great losses, were separated by a tempest. Valerius was in great straits, not knowing how the battle had gone, and observing that his soldiers were despondent when they looked at the corpses of their comrades, and elated when they saw those of the enemy, so equal and undecided had been the slaughter. Yet each side, when it viewed its own dead close by, was more inclined to own itself defeated, than to claim the victory because of the supposed losses of the enemy. Night came on, and it was spent as may be imagined by men who had fought so hard. When all was quiet in both camps, we are told that the grove was shaken, and that from it proceeded a loud voice which declared that the Etruscans had lost one man more than the Romans. Apparently it was the voice of a god; for immediately the Romans raised a bold and joyous shout, and the Etruscans, panic-stricken, ran out of their camp and dispersed. The Romans attacked the camp, took prisoners all that were left in it, something less than five thousand, and plundered it. The dead, when counted, proved to be eleven thousand three hundred of the enemy, and of the Romans the same number save one. This battle is said to have been fought on the Calends of March. Valerius triumphed after it in a four-horse chariot, being the first consul that ever did so. And it was a magnificent sight, and did not, as some say, offend the spectators; for, if so, the habit of doing it would not have been so carefully kept up for so many years. The people were also pleased with the honours which Valerius paid to his colleague in arranging a splendid funeral for him; he also pronounced a funeral oration over him, which was so much approved of by the Romans that from that day forth it became the custom for all good and great men at their deaths to have an oration made over them by the leading men of the time. This is said to have been older even than the Greek funeral orations, unless, as Anaximenes tells us, Solon introduced this custom.

X. But the people were vexed and angry, because though Brutus, whom they thought the author of their liberty, would not be consul alone, but had one colleague after another, yet "Valerius," they said, "has got all power into his own hands, and is not so much the heir of the consulship of Brutus as of the tyranny of Tarquin. And what use is it for him to praise Brutus while he imitates Tarquin in his deeds, swaggering down into the Forum with all the rods and axes before him, from a house larger than the king's palace used to be." Indeed, Valerius lived in rather too splendid a house on the Velian Hill, looking down into the Forum, and difficult to climb up to, so that when he walked down from it he did indeed look like a tragedy king leaving his palace. But now he proved how valuable a thing it is for a statesman engaged in important matters to keep his ears open to the truth, and shut against flattery. Hearing from his friends what the people thought of him, he did not argue or grieve at it, but suddenly assembled a number of workmen and during the night destroyed his entire house down to the very foundations, so that on the next day the Romans collected in crowds to see it, admiring the magnanimity of the man, but sorrowing at the destruction of so great and noble a house, which, like many a man, had been put to death undeservedly, and expressing their concern for their consul, who had no house to live in. Valerius, indeed, had to be entertained by his friends, until the people gave him a site and built him a house upon it, of more moderate proportions than the other, in the place where at the present day stands the temple of Vica Pota. Wishing to make not only himself but his office cease to be an object of terror to his countrymen, he removed the axes from the bundles of rods carried by the lictors, and when he entered the assembly of the people he ordered his fasces to be bowed and lowered before them, to show respect to the majesty of the people. This custom the consuls observe to this day. By these acts he did not really humble himself as he appeared to the Romans to be doing, but he so completely destroyed any illwill which had been felt against him that by giving up the semblance of power he really gained the reality, as the people were eager to serve him and obey him. For this reason they surnamed him Poplicola, which means "lover of the people," and this name so took the place of his former one that we shall use it during the remainder of this account of his life.

XI. He permitted any one to become a candidate for the consulship; and while he was sole consul he used his power to effect the greatest of his reforms, because he did not know who his new colleague might be, and whether he would not thwart him through ignorance or illwill. First of all he brought up the senate to its proper number, for many senators had perished, some at Tarquin's hands in former years, and some in the late battle. It is said that he elected no less than a hundred and sixty-four new senators. After this, he enacted laws which greatly added to the power of the people, the first one of which gave accused persons a power of appeal from the decision of the consuls to the people. The second appointed the penalty of death to those who entered upon any public office without the consent of the people. The third was to assist the poor, as it relieved them from taxes and enabled them all to apply themselves with greater assiduity to trade. The law, too, which he enacted about disobedience to the consuls is no less popular in its spirit, and favours the people more than the great nobles. He assessed the fine for disobedience at the price of five oxen and two sheep. Now the value of a sheep was ten obols, and that of an ox a hundred, for at this period the Romans did not make much use of coined money, but possessed abundance of cattle. For this reason at this day they call property peculia, from pecus, a sheep, and on their oldest coins they marked the figure of an ox, a sheep, or a pig. Their children, too, were distinguished by the names of Suillii, Bubulci, Caprarii and Porcii, for capra means a goat, and porcus a pig.

XII. Though Poplicola favoured the people so much in these laws, and showed such great moderation, yet in one instance he appointed a terrible penalty. One of his laws enacted that any citizen was at liberty to put to death anyone who tried to make himself king, without any form of trial. No penalty was to be enforced, if the man could bring forward proofs of the other's intention. His reason for this was that it was impossible for any one to attempt to make himself king, unperceived by some of his countrymen, but quite possible for him, although detected, to become too powerful to be brought to trial. So, before he made his attempt on the crown, any one was at liberty to exact from him that penalty, which he would be unable to do after his success.

His law about the treasury was also much approved. It being necessary that the citizens should contribute taxes to carry on the war, as he did not wish to touch the revenue himself or to allow his friends to do so, and was even unwilling that the public money should be brought into a private man's house, he appointed the Temple of Saturn to be used as a treasury, which it is to this day, and he appointed also two of the younger citizens as quaestors, to manage the accounts. The first quaestors were Publius Venturius and Marcus Minucius, and a large sum of money was collected, for a hundred and thirty thousand persons were taxed, although orphans and widows were exempted.