Summary of book II
BRUTUS bound the people with an oath to allow no one
to reign in Rome. Tarquinius Collatinus, his colleague,
who had incurred suspicion because of his relationship to
the Tarquinii, he forced to abdicate the consulship and
withdraw from the state. He ordered the king's goods
to be plundered, and consecrated his land to Mars. It
was named the Campus Martius. Certain noble youths—among them his own sons and his brother's—he beheaded,
because they had conspired to bring back the kings. To
the slave who gave the information, a man called Vindicius, he gave his freedom; from his name came the word
vindicta. Having led an army against the princes, who
had collected forces from Veii and Tarquinii and begun a
war, he fell in the battle, together with Arruns, the son
of Superbus, and the matrons mourned for him a year.
Publius Valerius the consul proposed a law about appealing to the people. The Capitol was dedicated. Porsenna,
king of Clusium, made war in behalf of the Tarquinii and
came to Janiculum, but was prevented from crossing the
Tiber by the bravery of Horatius Cocles, who, while the
others were cutting down the Sublician Bridge, kept the
Etruscans at bay, single-handed, and when the bridge
had been destroyed, threw himself armed into the river
and swam across to his fellows. Another example of
courage was exhibited by Mucius. Having entered the
camp of the enemy with the purpose of killing Porsenna,
he slew a secretary, whom he had taken for the king.
Being arrested, he placed his hand upon the altar, where
sacrifice had been made, and suffering it to be burned off,
declared that there were three hundred others as determined as himself. Overcome with astonishment at their
daring, Porsenna proposed terms of peace and, having
[p. 437]
taken hostages, relinquished the war. One of the hostages, the maiden Cloelia, evaded the sentinels and swam
across the Tiber to her people. She was given up to
Porsenna, but was restored by him with marks of honour,
and was presented with an equestrian statue. Aulus
Postumius the dictator fought a successful battle against
Tarquinius Superbus, who was advancing with an army
of Latins. Appius Claudius came over from the Sabines
to the Romans. On this account the Claudian tribe was
added and the number of tribes was increased to twent-yone. The plebs, after seceding to the Sacred Mount because
of those who had been enslaved for debt, were induced by
the advice of Menenius Agrippa to cease from their rebellion. The same Agrippa when he died was buried,
owing to his poverty, at the state's expense. Five
plebeian tribunes were elected. The Volscian town of
Corioli was captured by the valiant efforts of Gnaeus
Marcius, who acquired from this circumstance the name
of Coriolanus. Titus Latinius, a man of the plebs, was
warned in a dream to inform the senate regarding certain
offences against religion. Having neglected to do it, he
lost a son and was paralysed in his feet. When he had
been carried to the senate in a litter and had revealed
these same matters, he recovered the use of his feet and
returned to his house. When Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, who had been driven into exile and had been made
general of the Volsci, had led a hostile army nearly to
Rome, and when the envoys who had been sent to him
at first and afterwards the priests had vainly besought
him not to make war upon his native land, his mother
Veturia and his wife Volumnia persuaded him to withdraw. For the first time a land-law was proposed.
Spurius Cassius, the ex-consul, charged with aspiring to
be king, was condemned and put to death. Opillia, a
Vestal Virgin, was buried alive for unchastity. The neighbouring Veientes being a troublesome rather than a dangerous enemy, the Fabian family asked to be allowed to
carry on that war, and dispatched thither 306 armed men,
[p. 439]
who were all but one killed by the enemy at the Cremera.
When Appius Claudius the consul had sustained a defeat
at the hands of the Volsci, owing to the contumacy of
his army, he caused every tenth soldier to be scourged
to death. It contains besides campaigns against the
Volsci, the Hernici, and the Veientes, and the quarrels
between the patricians and the plebs.
[p. 443]
