[10] Having said this and stationed a guard over the lads, he called an assembly of the people, and when the Forum was filled with a crowd (for the fate of his sons had been noised abroad through the whole city), he came forward and placing the most distinguished members of the senate near him, spoke as follows: [2] “I could wish, citizens, that Collatinus, my colleague here, held the same sentiments as I do in everything and that he showed his hatred and enmity towards the tyrants, not by his words only, but by his actions as well. But since it had become clear to me that his sentiments are the opposite of my own and since he is related to the Tarquinii, not alone by blood, but also by inclination, both working for a reconciliation with them and considering his private advantage instead of the public good, I have not only made my own preparations to prevent him from carrying out the mischievous designs he has in mind, but I have also summoned you for this same purpose. I shall inform you, first, of the dangers to which the commonwealth has been exposed and then in what manner each of us has dealt with those dangers. [3] Some of the citizens, assembling at the house of the Aquilii, who are sons of the sister of Collatinus, among them my two sons and the brothers of my wife, and some others with them, no obscure men, entered into an agreement and conspiracy to kill me and restore Tarquinius to the sovereignty. And having written letters concerning these matters in their own handwriting and sealed them with their own seals, they were intending to send them to the exiles. [4] These things, by the favour of some god, have become known to us through information given by this man — he is a slave belonging to the Aquilii, at whose house they held a session last night and wrote the letters — and the letters themselves have come into our possession. As for Titus and Tiberius, my own sons, I have punished them, and neither the law nor our oath has in any degree been violated through clemency on my part. But Collatinus is trying to take the Aquilii out of my hands and declares that, even though they have taken part in the same counsels as my sons, he will not allow them to meet with the same punishment. [5] But if these are not to suffer any penalty, then it will be impossible for me to punish either the brothers of my wife or the other traitors to their country. For what just charge shall I be able to bring against them if I let these off? Of what, then, do you think these actions of his are indications? Of loyalty to the commonwealth, or of a reconciliation with the tyrants? Of a confirmation of the oaths which you, following us, all took, or of a violation of those oaths, yes, of perjury? [6] And if he had escaped discovery by us, he would have been subject to the curses we then invoked and he would have paid the penalty to the gods by whom he had sworn falsely; but since he has been found out, it is fitting that he should be punished by us — this man who but a few days ago persuaded you to restore their possessions to the tyrants, to the end that the commonwealth might not make use of them in the war against our enemies, but that our enemies might use them against the commonwealth. And now he thinks that those who have conspired to restore the tyrants ought to be let off from punishment, with a view no doubt of sparing their lives as a favour to the tyrants, so that, if these should after all return as the result of either treachery or war, he may, by reminding them of these favours, obtain from them, as being a friend, everything that he chooses. [7] After this, shall I, who have not spared my own sons, spare you, Collatinus, who are with us indeed in person, but with our enemies in spirit, and are trying to save those who have betrayed their country and to kill me who am fighting in its defence? Far from it! On the contrary, to prevent you from doing anything of the kind in future, I now deprive you of your magistracy and command you to retire to some other city. And as for you, citizens, I shall assemble you at once by your centuries and take your votes, in order that you may decide whether this action of mine should be ratified. Be assured, however, that you will have only one of us two for your consul, either Collatinus or Brutus.”
[11] While Brutus was thus speaking, Collatinus kept crying out and loudly protesting and at every word calling him a plotter and a betrayer of his friends, and now by endeavouring to clear himself of the accusations against him, and now by pleading for his nephews, and by refusing to allow the matter to be put to the vote of the citizens, he made the people still angrier and caused a terrible uproar at everything he said. [2] The citizens being now exasperated against him and refusing either to hear his defence or to listen to his entreaties, but calling for their votes to be taken, Spurius Lucretius, his father-in-law, a man esteemed by the people, feeling concern about the situation, lest Collatinus should be ignominiously driven from office and from his country, asked and obtained from both consuls leave to speak. He was the first person who ever obtained this privilege, as the Roman historians relate, since it was not yet customary at that time for a private citizen to speak in an assembly of the people. And addressing his entreaties to both consuls jointly, he advised Collatinus not to persist so obstinately in his opposition nor to retain against the will of the citizens the magistracy which he had received by their consent, but if those who had given it thought fit to take back the magistracy, to lay it down voluntarily, and to attempt to clear himself of the accusations against him, not by his words, but by his actions, and to remove with all his goods to some other region till the commonwealth should be in a state of security, since the good of the people seemed to require this. For he should bear in mind that, whereas in the case of other crimes all men are wont to show their resentment after the deed has been committed, in the case of treason they do so even when it is only suspected, regarding it as more prudent, though their fears may be vain, to guard against the treason than, by giving way to contempt, to be undone. [3] As for Brutus, he endeavoured to persuade him not to expel from his country with shame and vituperation his colleague with whom he had concerted the best measures for the commonwealth, but if Collatinus himself was willing to resign the magistracy and leave the country voluntarily, not only to give him leave to get together all his substance at his leisure, but also to add some gift from the public treasury, to the end that this favour conferred upon him by the people might be a comfort to him in his affliction.
[12.1] When Lucretius thus advised both consuls and the citizens had voiced their approval, Collatinus, uttering many lamentations over his misfortune in being obliged, because of the compassion he had shown to his kinsmen, to leave his country, though he was guilty of no crime, resigned his magistracy. [2] Brutus, praising him for having taken the best and the most advantageous resolution for both himself and the commonwealth, exhorted him not to entertain any resentment either against him or against his country, but after he had taken up his residence elsewhere, to regard as his country the home he was now leaving, and never to join with her enemies in any action or speech directed against her; in fine, to consider his change of residence as a sojourn abroad, not as an expulsion or a banishment, and while living in body with those who had received him, to dwell in spirit with those who now sent him on his way. After this exhortation to Collatinus he prevailed upon the people to make him a present of twenty talents, and he himself added five more from his own means. [3] So Tarquinius Collatinus, having met with this fate, retired to Lavinium, the mother-city of the Latin nation, where he died at an advanced age. And Brutus, thinking that he ought not to continue alone in the magistracy or to give occasion to the citizens to suspect that it was because of a desire to rule alone that he had banished his colleague from the country, summoned the people to the field where it was their custom to elect their kings and other magistrates, and chose for his colleague Publius Valerius, a descendant, as I have stated earlier, of the Sabine Valerius, a man worthy of both praise and admiration for many other qualities, but particularly for his frugal manner of life. For there was a kind of self-taught philosophy about him, which he displayed upon many occasions, of which I shall speak a little later.
[13.1] After this Brutus and his colleague, acting in everything with a single mind, immediately put to death all who had conspired to restore the exiles, and also honoured the slave who had giv
en information of the conspiracy, not only with his freedom, but also by the bestowal of citizenship and a large sum of money. Then they introduced three measures, all most excellent and advantageous to the state, by which they brought about harmony among all the citizens and weakened the factions of their enemies. [2] Their measures were as follows: In the first place, choosing the best men from among the plebeians, they made them patricians, and thus rounded out the membership of the senate to three hundred. Next, they brought out and exposed in public the goods of the tyrants for the benefit of all the citizens, permitting everyone to have as large a portion of them as he could seize; and the lands the tyrants had possessed they divided among those who had no allotments, reserving only one field, which lies between the city and the river. This field their ancestors had by a public decree consecrated to Mars as a meadow for horses and the most suitable drill-field for the youth to perform their exercises in arms. The strongest proof, I think, that even before this the field had been consecrated to this god, but that Tarquinius had appropriated it to his own use and sown it, was the action then taken by the consuls in regard to the corn there. [3] For though they had given leave to the people to drive and carry away everything that belonged to the tyrants, they would not permit anyone to carry away the grain which had grown in this field and was still lying upon the threshing-floors whether in the straw or threshed, but looking upon it as accursed and quite unfit to be carried into their houses, they caused a vote to be passed that it should be thrown into the river. [4] And there is even now a conspicuous monument of what happened on that occasion, in the form of an island of goodly size consecrated to Aesculapius and washed on all sides by the river, an island which was formed, they say, out of the heap of rotten straw and was further enlarged by the silt which the river kept adding. The consuls also granted to all the Romans who had fled with the tyrant leave to return to the city with impunity and under a general amnesty, setting a time-limit of twenty days; and if they did not return within this fixed time, the penalties set in their case were perpetual banishment and the confiscation of their estates. [5] These measures of the consuls caused those who had enjoyed any part whatever of the possessions belonging to the tyrants to submit to any danger rather than be deprived again of the advantages they had obtained; and, on the other hand, by freeing from their fear those who, through dread of having to stand trial for the crimes they had committed under the tyranny, had condemned themselves to banishment, they caused them to favour the side of the commonwealth rather than that of the tyrants.
[14.1] After they had instituted these measures and made the necessary preparations for the war, they for some time kept their forces assembled in the plains under the walls of the city, disposed under their various standards and leaders and performing their warlike exercises. For they had learned that the exiles were raising an army against them in all the cities of Tyrrhenia and that two of these cities, Tarquinii and Veii, were openly assisting them toward their restoration, both of them with considerable armies, and that from the other cities volunteers were coming to their aid, some of them being sent by their friends and some being mercenaries. When the Romans heard that their enemies had already taken the field, they resolved to go out and meet them, and before the others could cross the river they led their own forces across, and marching forward, encamped near the Tyrrhenians in the Naevian Meadow, as it was called, near a grove consecrated to the hero Horatius. [2] Both armies, as it chanced, were nearly equal in numbers and advanced to the conflict with the same eagerness. The first engagement was a brief cavalry skirmish, as soon as they came in sight of one another, before the foot were encamped, in which they tested each other’s strength and then, without either winning or losing, retired to their respective camps. Afterwards the heavy-armed troops and the horse of both armies engaged, both sides having drawn up their lines in the same manner, placing the solid ranks of foot in the centre and stationing the horse on both wings. [3] The right wing of the Romans was commanded by Valerius, the newly-elected consul, who stood opposite to the Veientes, and the left by Brutus, in the sector where the forces of the Tarquinienses were, under the command of the sons of King Tarquinius.
[15.1] When the armies were ready to engage, one of the sons of Tarquinius, named Arruns, the most remarkable of the brothers both for the strength of his body and the brilliance of his mind, advanced before the ranks of the Tyrrhenians, and riding up so close to the Romans that all of them would recognize both his person and his voice, hurled abusive taunts at Brutus, their commander, calling him a wild beast, one stained with the blood of his sons, and reproaching him with cowardice and cravenness, and finally challenged him to decide the general quarrel by fighting with him in single combat. [2] Then Brutus, unable to bear these reproaches and deaf also to the remonstrances of his friends, spurred forward from the ranks, rushing upon the death that was decreed for him by fate. For both men, urged on by a like fury and taking thought, not of what they might suffer, but only of what they desired to do, rode full tilt at each other, and clashing, delivered unerring blows against each other with their pikes, piercing through shield and corslet, so that the point was buried in the flank of one and in the loins of the other; and their horses, crashing together breast to breast, rose upon their hind legs through the violence of the charge, and throwing back their heads, shook off their riders. [3] These champions, accordingly, having fallen, lay there in their death agony, while streams of blood gushed from their wounds. But the two armies, when they saw that their leaders had fallen, pressed forward with shouts and the clash of arms, and the most violent of all battles ensued on the part of both foot and horse, the fortune of which was alike to both sides. [4] For those of the Romans who were on the right wing, which was commanded by Valerius, the other consul, were victorious over the Veientes, and pursuing them to their camp, covered the plain with dead bodies; while those of the Tyrrhenians who were posted on the enemy’s right wing and commanded by Titus and Sextus, the sons of King Tarquinius, put the left wing of the Romans the son of flight, and advancing close to their camp, did not fail to attempt to take it by storm; but after receiving many wounds, since those inside stood their ground, they desisted. These guards were the triarii, as they are called; they are veteran troops, experienced in many wars, and are always the last employed in the most critical fighting, when every other hope is lost.
[16.1] The sun being now near setting, both armies retired to their camps, not so much elated by their victory as grieved at the numbers they had lost, and believing that, if it should be necessary for them to have another battle, those of them now left would be insufficient to carry on the struggle, the major part of them being wounded. [2] But there was greater dejection and despair of their cause on the side of the Romans because of the death of their leader; and the thought occurred to many of them that it would be better for them to quit their camp before break of day. While they were considering these things and discussing them among themselves, about the time of the first watch a voice was heard from the grove near which they were encamped, calling aloud to both armies in such a manner as to be heard by all of them; it may have been the voice of the hero to whom the precinct was consecrated, or it may have been that of Faunus, as he is called. [3] For the Romans attribute panics to this divinity; and whatever apparitions come to men’s sight, now in one shape and now in another, inspiring terror, or whatever supernatural voices come to their ears to disturb them are the work, they say, of this god. The voice of the divinity exhorted the Romans to be of good courage, as having gained the victory, and declared that the enemy’s dead exceeded theirs by one man. They say that Valerius, encouraged by this voice, pushed on to the Tyrrhenians’ entrenchments while it was still the dead of night, and having slain many of them and driven the rest out of the camp, made himself master of it.
[17.1] Such was the outcome of the battle. The next day the Romans, having stripped the enemy’s dead and buried their own, returned home. The bravest of the knight took up the body of
Brutus and with many praises and tears bore it back to Rome, adorned with crowns in token of his superior valour. [2] They were met by the senate, which had decreed a triumph in honour of their leader, and also by all the people, who received the army with bowls of wine and tables spread with viands. When they came into the city, the consul triumphed according to the custom followed by the kings when they conducted the trophy-bearing processions and the sacrifices, and having consecrated the spoils to the gods, he observed that day as sacred and gave a banquet to the most distinguished of the citizens. But on the next day he arrayed himself in dark clothing, and placing the body of Brutus, suitably adorned, upon a magnificent bier in the Forum, he called the people together in assembly, and advancing to the tribunal, delivered the funeral oration in his honour. [3] Whether Valerius was the first who introduced this custom among the Romans or whether he found it already established by the kings and adopted it, I cannot say for certain; but I do know from my acquaintance with universal history, as handed down by the most ancient poets and the most celebrated historians, that it was an ancient custom instituted by the Romans to celebrate the virtues of illustrious men at their funerals and that the Greeks were not the authors of it. [4] For although these writers have given accounts of funeral games, both gymnastic and equestrian, held in honour of famous men by their friends, as by Achilles for Patroclus and, before that, by Heracles for Pelops, yet none of them makes any mention of eulogies spoken over the deceased except the tragic poets at Athens, who, out of flattery to their city, invented this legend also in the case of those who were buried by Theseus. For it was only at some late period that the Athenians added to their custom the funeral oration, having instituted it either in honour of those who died in defence of their country at Artemisium, Salamis and Plataea, or on account of the deeds performed at Marathon. But even the affair at Marathon — if, indeed, the eulogies delivered in honour of the deceased really began with that occasion — was later than the funeral of Brutus by sixteen years. [5] However, if anyone, without stopping to investigate who were the first to introduce these funeral orations, desires to consider the custom in itself and to learn in which of the two nations it is seen at its best, he will find that it is observed more wisely among the Romans than among the Athenians. For, whereas the Athenians seem to have ordained that these orations should be pronounced at the funerals of those only who have died in war, believing that one should determine who are good men solely on the basis of the valour they show at their death, even though in other respects they are without merit, [6] the Romans, on the other hand, appointed this honour to be paid to all their illustrious men, whether as commanders in war or as leaders in the civil administration they have given wise counsels and performed noble deeds, and this not alone to those who have died in war, but also to those who have met their end in any manner whatsoever, believing that good men deserve praise for every virtue they have shown during their lives and not solely for the single glory of their death.
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 42
