failed, he prevailed on the
people of Tarquinii and Veii to make war with him against the Romans.
But the consuls came out against them; Valerius commanding the main
army, and Brutus the cavalry. And it chanced that Aruns, the king's son,
led the cavalry of the enemy. When he saw Brutus he spurred his horse
against him, and Brutus declined not the combat. So they rode straight
at each other with levelled spears; and so fierce was the shock, that
they pierced each other through from breast to back, and both fell dead.

Then, also, the armies fought, but the battle was neither won nor lost.
But in the night a voice was heard by the Etruscans, saying that the
Romans were the conquerors. So the enemy fled by night; and when the
Romans arose in the morning, there was no man to oppose them. Then they
took up the body of Brutus, and departed home, and buried him in public
with great pomp, and the matrons of Rome mourned him for a whole year,
because he had avenged the injury of Lucretia.

And thus the second attempt to restore King Tarquin was frustrated.

After the death of Brutus, Publius Valerius ruled the people for a while
by himself, and he began to build himself a house upon the ridge called
Velia, which looks down upon the Forum. So the people thought that he
was going to make himself king; but when he heard this, he called an
assembly of the people, and appeared before them with his fasces
lowered, and with no axes in them, whence the custom remained ever
after, that no consular lictors wore axes within the city, and no consul
had power of life and death except when he was in command of his legions
abroad. And he pulled down the beginning of his house upon the Velia,
and built it below that hill. Also he passed laws that every Roman
citizen might appeal to the people against the judgment of the chief
magistrates. Wherefore he was greatly honored among the people, and was
called "Poplicola," or "Friend of the People."

After this Valerius called together the great Assembly of the Centuries,
and they chose Sp. Lucretius, father of Lucretius, to succeed Brutus.
But he was an old man, and in not many days he died. So M. Horatius was
chosen in his stead.

The temple on the Capitol which King Tarquin began had never yet been
consecrated. Then Valerius and Horatius drew lots which should be the
consecrator, and the lot fell on Horatius. But the friends of Valerius
murmured, and they wished to prevent Horatius from having