3.51
After the envoys were
dismissed, Verginius pointed out to the soldiers
that they had a few moments ago felt themselves
embarrassed in a matter of no great importance,
because they were a multitude without a head, and
the answer they had given, though it served their
turn, was the outcome rather of the general feeling
at the time than of any settled purpose. He was of
opinion that ten men should be chosen to hold
supreme command, and by virtue of their military
rank should be called tribunes of the soldiers. He
himself was the first to whom this distinction was
offered, but he replied, "Reserve the opinion you
have formed of me till both you and I are in more
favourable circumstances; so long as my daughter is
unavenged no honour can give me pleasure, nor in the
present disturbed state of the commonwealth is it
any advantage for those men to be at your head who
are most obnoxious to party malice. If I am to be of
any use, I shall be none the less so in a private
capacity." Ten military tribunes, accordingly, were
appointed. The army acting against the Sabines did
not remain passive. There, too, at the instigation
of Icilius and Numitorius, a revolt against the
decemvirs took place. The feelings of the soldiery
were roused by the recollection of the murdered
Siccius no less than by the fresh story of the
maiden whom it had been sought to make a victim of
foul lust. When Icilius heard that tribunes of the
soldiers had been elected on the Aventine, he
anticipated from what he knew of the plebs that when
they came. to elect their tribunes they would follow
the lead of the army and choose those who were
already elected as military tribunes. As he was
looking to a tribuneship himself, he took care to
get the same number appointed and invested with
similar powers by his own men, before they entered
the City. They made their entry through the Colline
gate in military order, with standards displayed,
and proceeded through the heart of the City to the
Aventine. There the two armies united, and the
twenty military tribunes were requested to appoint
two of their number to take the supreme direction of
affairs. They appointed M. Oppius and Sex. Manlius.
Alarmed at the direction affairs were talking, the
senate held daily meetings, but the time was spent
in mutual reproaches rather than in deliberation.
The decemvirs were openly charged with the murder of
Siccius, the profligacy of Appius, and the disgrace
incurred in the field. It was proposed that Valerius
and Horatius should go to the Aventine, but they
refused to go unless the decemvirs gave up the
insignia of an office which had expired the previous
year. The decemvirs protested against this attempt
to coerce them, and said that they would not lay
down their authority until the laws which they were
appointed to draw up were duly enacted.