to the Romans.  For when, as if the war had been abandoned, he pretended to be busily engaged in laying the foundations of the temple, and with other works in the city, Sextus, the youngest of his three sons, according to a preconcerted arrangement, fled to Gabii, complaining of the unbearable cruelty of his father toward himself:  that his tyranny had now shifted from others against his own family, and that he was also uneasy at the number of his own children, and intended to bring about the same desolation in his own house as he had done in the senate, in order that he might leave behind him no issue, no heir to his kingdom.  That for his own part, as he had escaped from the midst of the swords and weapons of his father, he was persuaded he could find no safety anywhere save among the enemies of Lucius Tarquinius:  for—­let them make no mistake—­the war, which it was now pretended had been abandoned, still threatened them, and he would attack them when off their guard on a favourable opportunity.  But if there were no refuge for suppliants among them, he would traverse all Latium, and would apply next to the Volscians, Aequans, and Hernicans, until he should come to people who knew how to protect children from the impious and cruel persecutions of parents.  That perhaps he would even find some eagerness to take up arms and wage war against this most tyrannical king and his equally savage subjects.  As he seemed likely to go further, enraged as he was, if they paid him no regard, he was kindly received by the Gabians.  They bade him not be surprised, if one at last behaved in the same manner toward his children as he had done toward his subjects and allies—­that he would ultimately vent his rage on himself, if other objects failed him—­that his own coming was very acceptable to them, and they believed that in a short time it would come to pass that by his aid the war would be transferred from the gates of Gabii up to the very walls of Rome.

Upon this, he was admitted into their public councils, in which, while, with regard to other matters, he declared himself willing to submit to the judgment of the elders of Gabii, who were better acquainted with them, yet he every now and again advised them to renew the war, claiming for himself superior knowledge in this, on the ground of being well acquainted with the strength of both nations, and also because he knew that the king’s pride, which even his own children had been unable to endure, had become decidedly hateful to his subjects.  As he thus by degrees stirred up the nobles of the Gabians to renew the war, and himself accompanied the most active of their youth on plundering parties and expeditions, and unreasonable credit was increasingly given to all his words and actions, framed as they were with the object of deceiving, he was at last chosen general-in-chief in the war.  In the course of this war when—­the people being still ignorant of what was going on—­trifling skirmishes with the Romans took place, in which the