y on him."
Oppius was also thrown into prison, where he put a period to his life
before the day of trial. The tribunes confiscated the property of Appius
and Oppius. Their colleagues left their homes to go into exile; their
property was confiscated. Marcus Claudius, the claimant of Virginia,
being condemned on the day of his trial, was discharged and went away
into exile to Tibur, Virginius himself remitting the penalty as far as
it affected his life; and the shade of Virginia, more fortunate after
death than when living, after having roamed through so many families in
quest of vengeance, at length rested in peace, no guilty person being
left unpunished.

59. Great alarm seized the patricians, and the countenances of the
tribunes were now the same as those of the decemvirs had been, when
Marcus Duilius, tribune of the people, having put a salutary check to
their immoderate power, says, "There has been both enough of liberty on
our own part, and of vengeance on our enemies; wherefore for this year I
will neither suffer a day of trial to be appointed for any one, nor any
person to be thrown into prison. For it is neither pleasing to me that
old crimes now forgotten should be again brought forward, seeing that
the recent ones have been atoned for by the punishment of the decemvirs;
and the unremitting care of both the consuls in defending your
liberties, is ample security that nothing will be committed which will
call for tribunitian interference." This moderation of the tribune first
relieved the patricians from their fears, and at the same time increased
their ill-will towards the consuls; for they had been so devoted to the
commons, that even a plebeian magistrate took an earlier interest in
the safety and liberty of the patricians, than one of patrician rank;
and their enemies would have been surfeited with inflicting punishments
on them, before the consuls, to all appearance, would have resisted
their licentious career. And there were many who said that a want of
firmness was shown, inasmuch as the fathers had given their approbation
to the laws proposed; nor was there a doubt, but that in this troubled
state of public affairs they had yielded to the times.

60. The business in the city being settled, and the rights of the
commons being firmly established, the consuls departed to their
respective provinces. Valerius prudently deferred all warlike operations
against the armies of the AEquans and the Volscians, which h