VII.  When he left the Forum all men were silent for a long while, shuddering at what had been done.  The Aquillii took heart at the mildness of Collatinus, and asked for time to prepare their defence.  They also begged that Vindicius might be given up to them, because he was their servant, and ought not to be on the side of their accusers.  Collatinus was willing to allow this, but Valerius said that he was not able to give the man up, because he was surrounded by so large a crowd, and called upon the people not to disperse without punishing the traitors.  At last he laid his hands upon the two corpses, called for Brutus, and reproached Collatinus for making his colleague act against nature by condemning his own sons to death, and then thinking to please the wives of these traitors and public enemies by saving their lives.  The consul, vexed at this, ordered the lictors to seize Vindicius.  They forced their way through the crowd, tried to lay hold of him, and struck those who defended him, but the friends of Valerius stood in front of him and beat them off, and the people raised a shout for Brutus.  He returned, and when silence was restored said that he had, as a father, full power to condemn his sons to death, but that as for the other culprits, their fate should be decided by the free vote of the citizens, and that any one might come forward and address the people.  The people, however, would listen to no speeches, but voted unanimously for their death, and they were all beheaded.

Collatinus, it seems, had been viewed with suspicion before because of his connection with the royal family, and his second name, Tarquinius, was odious to the people.  After these events, having utterly failed as consul, he voluntarily laid down that office, and left the city.  So now there was another election, and Valerius received the due reward of his patriotism and was gloriously made consul.  Thinking that Vindicius ought to receive something for his services, he made him a freedman, the first ever made in Rome, and allowed him to vote in whatever tribe he chose to be enrolled.  The other freedmen were not allowed the suffrage till, long after, it was given them by Appius to obtain popularity among them.  The whole ceremony is up to the present day called vindicta, after Vindicius, we are told.

VIII.  After this they allowed the king’s property to be plundered, and destroyed the palace.  Tarquinius had obtained the pleasantest part of the Field of Mars, and had consecrated it to that god.  This field had just been cut, and the corn lay on the ground, for the people thought that they must not thresh it or make any use of it, because of the ground being consecrated, so they took the sheaves and threw them into the river.  In the same way they cut down the trees and threw them in, leaving the whole place for the god, but uncultivated and unfruitful.  As there were many things of different sorts all floating together in the river, the current did not carry them