1The matter was first entrusted to the Vitellii and the Aquilii, two pairs of brothers. 1A sister of the Vitellii was married to the consul Brutus, and there were already grown-up children of that marriage, Titus and Tiberius; 1their uncles take these too into partnership in the plot. 2Several young nobles were also taken in as accomplices, whose memory has faded through the passage of time. 2Meanwhile, since in the senate the view had prevailed that the property should be returned, and the envoys had this very reason for delay in the city, that they had obtained time from the consuls to procure vehicles in which to carry off the royal family's goods, they spend all that time in consultation with the conspirators and by pressing them they succeed in having letters given to them for the Tarquins: for how else would the Tarquins believe that the reports brought by the envoys on matters so important were not empty?
4The letters, given to be a pledge of good faith, made the crime manifest. 5For on the day before the envoys were to set out for the Tarquins, they had happened to dine at the house of the Vitellii, and the conspirators there, with witnesses sent away, had talked over much about their new plan, as tends to happen; their talk was overheard by one of the slaves, who had already sensed that this was going on but was waiting for the moment when the letters would be given to the envoys, since if seized they could prove the matter. 6When he perceived that they had been given, he reported the matter to the consuls.
7The consuls, setting out from home to seize the envoys and the conspirators, crushed the whole affair without any disturbance; 7care was taken above all over the letters, that they should not be lost. 7The traitors were at once thrown into chains; about the envoys there was some brief hesitation, and although they seemed to have behaved so as to be counted as enemies, the law of nations nevertheless prevailed.