self before the people. It is also recorded that Marcus
Horatius Barbatus entered the lists with no less boldness, calling
them "ten Tarquins," and reminding them that under the leadership of
the Valerii and Horatii the kings had been expelled. Nor was it the
mere name that men were then disgusted with, as being that by which it
was proper that Jupiter should be styled, as also Romulus, the founder
of the city, and the succeeding kings, and a name too which had been
retained also for the ceremonies of religion,[48] as a solemn one;
that it was the tyranny and arrogance of a king they then detested:
and if these were not to be tolerated in that same king or the son of
a king, who would tolerate it in so many private citizens? Let them
beware lest, by preventing persons from expressing their sentiments
freely in the senate, they obliged them to raise their voice outside
the senate-house. Nor could he see how it was less allowable for him,
a private citizen, to summon the people to an assembly, than for them
to convene the senate. They might try, whenever they pleased, how much
more determined a sense of wrong would be found to be, when it was a
question of vindicating one's own liberty, than ambition, when the
object was to preserve an unjust dominion. That they proposed the
question concerning the war with the Sabines, as if the Roman people
had any more important war on hand than that against those who, having
been elected for the purpose of framing laws, had left no law in the
state; who had abolished elections, annual magistrates, the regular
change of rulers, which was the only means of equalizing liberty;
who, though private citizens, still possessed the fasces and regal
dominion. That after the expulsion of the kings, patrician magistrates
had been appointed, and subsequently, after the secession of the
people, plebeian magistrates. What party was it, he asked, to which
they belonged? To the popular party? What had they ever done with the
concurrence of the people? To the party of the nobles? Who for now
nearly an entire year had not held a meeting of the senate, and then
held one in such a manner that they prevented the expression of
sentiments regarding the commonwealth? Let them not place too much
hope in the fears of others; the grievances which they were now
suffering appeared to men more oppressive than any they might
apprehend.

While Horatius was exclaiming thus and the decemvirs could not
discover the pro