l disgrace, he resigned his consulship; and removing all his
effects to Lavinium, he withdrew from the state.[66] Brutus, according
to a decree of the senate, proposed to the people, that all the family
of the Tarquins should be banished from Rome; and in an assembly by
centuries he elected P. Valerius, with whose assistance he had expelled
the kings for his colleague.

[Footnote 66: Collatinus is supposed to have earned the odium of the
people, and his consequent expulsion from Rome, by his endeavours to
save his nephews, the Aquillii, from punishment.]

3. Though nobody doubted that a war was impending from the Tarquins, yet
it broke out later than was universally expected; but liberty was well
nigh lost by treachery and fraud, a thing they had never apprehended.
There were, among the Roman youth, several young men of no mean
families, who, during the regal government, had pursued their pleasures
without any restraint; being of the same age with, and companions of,
the young Tarquins, and accustomed to live in princely style. Longing
for that licentiousness, now that the privileges of all were equalized,
they complained that the liberty of others has been converted to their
slavery: "that a king was a human being, from whom you can obtain, where
right, or where wrong may be necessary; that there was room for favour
and for kindness; that he could be angry, and could forgive; that he
knew the difference between a friend and an enemy; that laws were a
deaf, inexorable thing, more beneficial and advantageous for the poor
than the rich; that they allowed of no relaxation or indulgence, if you
transgress bounds; that it was a perilous state, amid so so many human
errors, to live solely by one's integrity." Whilst their minds were
already thus discontented of their own accord, ambassadors from the
royal family come unexpectedly, demanding restitution of their effects
merely, without any mention of return. After their application was heard
in the senate, the deliberation on it lasted for several days, (fearing)
lest the non-restitution might be a pretext for war, and the restitution
a fund and assistance for war. In the mean time the ambassadors were
planning different schemes; openly demanding the property, they secretly
concerted measures for recovering the throne, and soliciting them as if
for the object which appeared to be under consideration, they sound
their feelings; to those by whom their proposals were favourably