1The siege, nevertheless, went on, and with it a scarcity of grain at a very high price, and Porsenna was hoping to take the city by sitting still, when Gaius Mucius, a young noble, who thought it a disgrace that the Roman people, when it was enslaved under the kings, had not been besieged in any war or by any enemy, but that the same people, now free, should be besieged by those very Etruscans whose armies it had often routed — 3so, thinking that this disgrace must be avenged by some great and daring deed, he decided at first to make his way into the enemy's camp on his own initiative; 4then, fearing that if he went without the consuls' orders and with no one knowing, he might perhaps be caught by the Roman sentries and brought back as a deserter, since the city's plight at that time would lend weight to the charge, he goes to the senate.
5'I wish, Fathers,' he said, 'to cross the Tiber and, if I can, to enter the enemy's camp, not as a plunderer or as one avenging their raids in turn: I have a greater deed in mind, if the gods help me.' 5The senators approve. 5With a sword hidden under his clothing he sets out. 6When he arrived there, he took his stand in the thickest of the crowd near the king's tribunal. 7There, since pay was by chance being given out to the soldiers, and a secretary sitting with the king, dressed in much the same way, was very busy and the soldiers were mostly approaching him, he, afraid to ask which of the two was Porsenna in case by not knowing the king he should reveal who he was, kills the secretary in place of the king, where fortune blindly steered his deed.
8As he was making his way off from there, through the path he had cut for himself with his bloody blade through the frightened crowd, a crowd ran together at the shouting and the king's guards seized him and dragged him back; set before the king's tribunal, even then, amid such great threats of fortune, more to be feared than fearing, he said, 'I am a Roman citizen; 9they call me Gaius Mucius. 9As an enemy I wished to kill an enemy, and I have no less courage for death than I had for killing: to act and to suffer bravely is the Roman way. 10Nor am I the only one to have borne this spirit against you; 10behind me there is a long line of men seeking the same honour.
10So prepare yourself for this ordeal, if you like: to fight for your life every hour, to have a sword and an enemy at the entrance of your palace. 11This is the war that we, the youth of Rome, declare on you. 11You need fear no battle line, no battle; 11it will be a matter for you alone, against one man at a time.' 12When the king, at once enraged with anger and terrified by the danger, threateningly ordered fires to be placed round him unless he quickly revealed what plot he was hinting at so darkly with his threats, Mucius said, 'Look, so that you may see how cheap the body is to those who have great glory in view,' and he thrust his right hand into a fire that had been lit for a sacrifice.
13When he went on roasting it as though his mind had no feeling, the king, almost stunned by the marvel, leapt up from his seat, ordered the young man to be removed from the altar and said, 'Go free, you who have dared acts of hostility against yourself more than against me. 14I would bid you be honoured for your courage, if that courage stood on the side of my country; 14as it is, by the law of war I let you go from here free, untouched and unharmed.' 15Then Mucius, as if repaying the kindness, said, 'Since indeed courage is honoured by you, so that by kindness you have won from me what you could not by threats: three hundred of us, leading young men of Rome, have sworn together to attack you in this way.
16Mine was the first lot; 16the rest, according as each one's lot falls first, will each be here at his own time, until fortune has delivered you to us.'