Brutus suspected some
others besides him, and proposed on a certain day to hold a solemn
sacrifice and bind the senate by an oath. Valerius, however, came
cheerfully into the Forum, and was the first to swear that he would
never yield anything to the Tarquins, but would fight for liberty to the
death, by which he greatly delighted the senate and encouraged the
leading men of the state. His acts too, immediately confirmed his words,
for ambassadors came from Tarquin with specious and seductive proposals,
such as he thought would win over the people, coming from a king who
seemed to have laid aside his insolence and only to wish for his just
rights. The consuls thought it right that these proposals should be laid
before the people, but Valerius would not permit it, not wishing that
the poorer citizens, to whom the war was a greater burden than the
monarchy had been, should have any excuse for revolt.

III. After this came other ambassadors, announcing that Tarquin would
give up his throne, put an end to the war, and only ask for his own
property and that of his relatives and friends, upon which to live in
exile. Many were inclined to agree to this, and amongst them Collatinus,
when Brutus, an inflexible and harsh-tempered man, rushed into the
Forum, calling out that his colleague was a traitor, who wished to
furnish the tyrant with the means of continuing the war and recovering
his throne, when he ought rather to grudge him food to keep him from
starving. The citizens assembled, and Caius Minucius, a private citizen,
was the first man who addressed them, encouraging Brutus, and pointing
out to the Romans how much better it was that the money should be used
to help them than to help their enemies. In spite of this, however, the
Romans decided that, as they now possessed the liberty for which they
had fought, they would not lose the additional blessing of peace for the
sake of this property, but would cast it from them after the tyrant to
which it belonged.

Tarquin really cared little for the property, and the demand was merely
made in order to sound the people and arrange a plot for the betrayal of
the state, which was managed by the ambassadors whom he had nominally
sent to look after his property. These men were selling some part of it,
keeping some safe, and sending some of it away, and meanwhile intrigued
so successfully that they won over two of the best families in Rome,
that of the Aquillii, in which were three s