the consul, apprehensive that hereafter the same lot might
befall him, when his term of office had expired, as well as loss of
property and other additional disgrace, resigned his consulship, and
removing all his effects to Lavinium, withdrew from the city. Brutus,
according to a decree of the senate, proposed to the people, that all
who belonged to the family of the Tarquins should be banished from
Rome: in the assembly of centuries he elected Publius Valerius, with
whose assistance he had expelled the kings, as his colleague.

Though nobody doubted that a war was impending from the Tarquins, yet
it broke out later than was generally expected; however, liberty was
well-nigh lost by fraud and treachery, a thing they never apprehended.
There were among the Roman youth several young men--and these of no
no rank--who, while the regal government lasted, had enjoyed greater
license in their pleasures, being the equals in age, boon companions
of the young Tarquins, and accustomed to live after the fashion of
princes. Missing that freedom, now that the privileges of all were
equalized,[2] they complained among themselves that the liberty of
others had turned out slavery for them: that a king was a human being,
from whom one could obtain what one wanted, whether the deed might be
an act of justice or of wrong; that there was room for favour and
good offices; that he could be angry, and forgive; that he knew the
difference between a friend and an enemy; that the laws were a deaf,
inexorable thing, more beneficial and advantageous for the poor than
for the rich; that they allowed no relaxation or indulgence, if one
transgressed due bounds; that it was perilous, amid so many human
errors, to have no security for life but innocence. While their minds
were already of their own accord thus discontented, ambassadors from
the royal family arrived unexpectedly, merely demanding restitution of
their personal property, without any mention of their return. After
their application had been heard in the senate, the deliberation about
it lasted for several days, as they feared that the non-restitution of
the property might be made a pretext for war, its restitution a fund
and assistance for the same. In the meantime the ambassadors were
planning a different scheme: while openly demanding the restoration of
property, they secretly concerted measures for recovering the throne,
and soliciting them, as if to promote that which appeared to be the