ple with the hope that the government would be
abolished through the senate. The senate was of opinion that the
commons should not be stirred up, and that much more effectual
measures should be taken lest the arrival of Verginius should cause
any commotion in the army.

Accordingly, some of the junior patricians, being sent to the camp
which was at that time on Mount Vecilius, announced to the decemvirs
that they should do their utmost to keep the soldiers from mutinying.
There Verginius occasioned greater commotion than he had left behind
him in the city. For besides that he was seen coming with a body
of nearly four hundred men, who, enraged in consequence of the
disgraceful nature of the occurrence, had accompanied him from the
city, the unsheathed knife, and his being himself besmeared with
blood, attracted to him the attention of the entire camp; and the
gowns,[56] seen in many parts of the camp had caused the number of
people from the city to appear much greater than it really was. When
they asked him what was the matter, in consequence of his weeping, for
a long time he did not utter a word. At length, as soon as the crowd
of those running together became quiet after the disturbance, and
silence ensued, he related everything in order as it had occurred.

Then extending his hands toward heaven, addressing his
fellow-soldiers, he begged of them, not to impute to him that which
was the crime of Appius Claudius, nor to abhor him as the murderer of
his child. To him the life of his daughter was dearer than his own, if
she had been allowed to live in freedom and chastity. When he beheld
her dragged to prostitution as if she were a slave, thinking it better
that his child should be lost by death rather than by dishonour,
through compassion for her he had apparently fallen into cruelty. Nor
would he have survived his daughter had he not entertained the hope of
avenging her death by the aid of his fellow-soldiers. For they too had
daughters, sisters, and wives; nor was the lust of Appius Claudius
extinguished with his daughter; but in proportion as it escaped with
greater impunity, so much the more unbridled would it be. That by the
calamity of another a warning was given to them to guard against a
similar injury. As far as he was concerned, his wife had been taken
from him by destiny; his daughter, because she could no longer have
lived as a chaste woman, had met with an unfortunate but honourable
death; that there was