The ambassadors being dismissed, Verginius reminded the soldiers that a little while before they had been embarrassed in a matter of no very great difficulty, because the multitude was without a head; and that the answer given, though not inexpedient, was the result rather of an accidental agreement than of a concerted plan.  His opinion was, that ten persons should be elected to preside over the management of state affairs, and that they should be called tribunes of the soldiers, a title suited to their military dignity.  When that honour was offered to himself in the first instance, he replied, “Reserve for an occasion more favourable to both of us your kind recognition of me.  The fact of my daughter being unavenged, does not allow any office to be agreeable to me, nor, in the present disturbed condition of the state, is it advantageous that those should be at your head who are most exposed to party animosity.  If I am of any use, the benefit to be gained from my services will be just as great while I am a private individual.”  They accordingly elected military tribunes ten in number.

Meanwhile the army among the Sabines was not inactive.  There also, at the instance of Icilius and Numitorius, a secession from the decemvirs took place, men’s minds being no less moved when they recalled to mind the murder of Siccius, than when they were fired with rage at the recent account of the disgraceful attempt made on the maiden to gratify lust.  When Icilius heard that tribunes of the soldiers had been elected on the Aventine, lest the election assembly in the city should follow the precedent of the military assembly, by electing the same persons tribunes of the commons, being well versed in popular intrigues and having an eye to that office himself, he also took care, before they proceeded to the city, that the same number should be elected by his own party with equal power.  They entered the city by the Colline gate under their standards, and proceeded in a body to the Aventine through the midst of the city.  There, joining the other army, they commissioned the twenty tribunes of the soldiers to select two out of their number to preside over state affairs.  They elected Marcus Oppius and Sextus Manilius.  The patricians, alarmed for the general safety, though there was a meeting of the senate every day, wasted the time in wrangling more frequently than in deliberation.  The murder of Siccius, the lust of Appius, and the disgraces incurred in war were urged as charges against the decemvirs.  It was resolved that Valerius and Horatius should proceed to the Aventine.  They refused to go on any other condition than that the decemvirs should lay down the badges of that office, which they had resigned at the end of the previous year.  The decemvirs, complaining that they were now being degraded, declared that they would not resign their office until those laws, for the sake of which they had been appointed, were passed.