rrounded. The rest brought news into
the camp that Siccius, while fighting bravely, had fallen into an
ambush, and that some soldiers had been lost with him. At first the
account was believed; afterward a party of men, who went by permission
of the decemvirs to bury those who had fallen, when they observed that
none of the bodies there were stripped, and that Siccius lay in the
midst fully armed, and that all the bodies were turned toward him,
while there was neither the body of any of the enemy, nor any traces
of their departure, brought back his body, saying that he had
assuredly been slain by his own men. The camp was now filled with
indignation, and it was resolved that Siccius should be forthwith
brought to Rome, had not the decemvirs hastened to bury him with
military honours at the public expense. He was buried amid the great
grief of the soldiery, and with the worst possible infamy of the
decemvirs among the common people.

Another monstrous deed followed in the city, originating in lust, and
attended by results not less tragical than that deed which had brought
about the expulsion of the Tarquins from the city and the throne
through the violation and death of Lucretia: so that the decemvirs not
only came to the same end as the kings, but the reason also of their
losing their power was the same. Appius Claudius was seized with a
criminal passion for violating the person of a young woman of plebeian
rank. Lucius Verginius, the girl's father, held an honourable
rank among the centurions at Algidum, a man who was a pattern of
uprightness both at home and in the service. His wife and children
were brought up in the same manner. He had betrothed his daughter to
Lucius Icilius, who had been tribune, a man of spirit and of approved
zeal in the interest of the people. Appius, burning with desire,
attempted to seduce by bribes and promises this young woman, now grown
up, and of distinguished beauty; and when he perceived that all the
avenues of his lust were barred by modesty, he turned his thoughts to
cruel and tyrannical violence. Considering that, as the girl's father
was absent, there was an opportunity for committing the wrong; he
instructed a dependent of his, Marcus Claudius, to claim the girl as
his slave, and not to yield to those who demanded her enjoyment of
liberty pending judgment. The tool of the decemvir's lust laid hands
on the girl as she was coming into the forum--for there the elementary
schools were