ds
struck off with the axe, while all the time the looks and countenance
of the father presented a touching spectacle, as his natural feelings
displayed themselves during the discharge of his duty in inflicting
public punishment. After the punishment of the guilty, that the
example might be a striking one in both aspects for the prevention of
crime, a sum of money was granted out of the treasury as a reward
to the informer: liberty also and the rights of citizenship were
conferred upon him. He is said to have been the first person made free
by the vindicta; some think that even the term vindicta is derived
from him, and that his name was Vindicius. [4] After him it was
observed as a rule, that all who were set free in this manner were
considered to be admitted to the rights of Roman citizens.

On receiving the announcement of these events as they had occurred,
Tarquin, inflamed not only with grief at the annihilation of such
great hopes, but also with hatred and resentment, when he saw that the
way was blocked against stratagem, considering that war ought to
be openly resorted to, went round as a suppliant to the cities of
Etruria, imploring above all the Veientines and Tarquinians, not to
suffer him, a man sprung from themselves, of the same stock, to perish
before their eyes, an exile and in want, together with his grown-up
sons, after they had possessed a kingdom recently so flourishing. That
others had been invited to Rome from foreign lands to succeed to the
throne; that he, a king, while engaged in extending the Roman Empire
by arms, had been driven out by his nearest relatives by a villainous
conspiracy, that they had seized and divided his kingdom in portions
among themselves, because no one individual among them was deemed
sufficiently deserving of it: and had given up his effects to the
people to pillage, that no one might be without a share in the guilt.
That he was desirous of recovering his country and his kingdom, and
punishing his ungrateful subjects. Let them bring succour and aid him;
let them also avenge the wrongs done to them of old, the frequent
slaughter of their legions, the robbery of their land. These arguments
prevailed on the people of Veii, and with menaces they loudly
declared, each in their own name, that now at least, under the conduct
of a Roman general, their former disgrace would be wiped out, and what
they had lost in war would be recovered. His name and relationship
influenced the pe