1Mucius, once released, who was afterwards given the surname Scaevola from the loss of his right hand, was followed to Rome by envoys from Porsenna; 2so much had both the chance of the first danger moved him, from which nothing had shielded him but the assassin's mistake, and the prospect of facing the struggle as many times as there were conspirators left, that he offered terms of peace to the Romans of his own accord. 3In the terms there was a proposal, made in vain, about restoring the Tarquins to the throne, more because he himself had not been able to refuse this to the Tarquins than because he did not know that the Romans would refuse it to him.
4On the restoration of their land to the Veientes he got his way, and the Romans were forced to give hostages if they wanted the garrison withdrawn from the Janiculum. 4Peace having been made on these terms, Porsenna withdrew his army from the Janiculum and left Roman territory. 5The senators gave Gaius Mucius, for his courage, a gift of land across the Tiber, which was afterwards called the Mucian Meadows. 6Courage having been honoured in this way, women too were roused to win public glory, and the maiden Cloelia, one of the hostages, since the Etruscan camp happened to be pitched not far from the bank of the Tiber, eluded the guards, led a band of girls across the Tiber amid the enemy's missiles and restored them all safe to their families at Rome.
7When this was reported to the king, at first, blazing with anger, he sent spokesmen to Rome to demand back the hostage Cloelia: the others he did not value much; 8then, his anger turning to admiration, he said that the deed surpassed those of the Cocleses and Muciuses, and declared that, just as he would regard the treaty as broken if the hostage were not surrendered, so if she were surrendered he would send her back to her people untouched and unharmed. 9Good faith was kept on both sides: the Romans returned the pledge of peace according to the treaty, and with the Etruscan king courage was not only safe but even honoured, and praising the girl he said that he gave her part of the hostages; 10she herself should choose whom she wished.
10When all had been brought out, she is said to have chosen those who were not yet grown up, which was both seemly for a maiden and approved by the agreement of the hostages themselves, that the age most exposed to injury should above all be freed from the enemy. 11When peace had been renewed, the Romans honoured this new courage in a woman with a new kind of honour, an equestrian statue: at the top of the Sacred Way was placed a statue of the maiden sitting on a horse.