1That same night messengers come to Tusculum too with news that the citadel had been taken, the Capitol occupied, and the city in other respects thrown into disorder. 2Lucius Mamilius was dictator at Tusculum at that time. 2He at once called the senate together, brought in the messengers, and urged strongly that they should not wait until envoys came from Rome seeking help; 3the danger itself and the crisis, the gods of the alliance and the good faith of treaties demanded it. 3Never would the gods give them an equal opportunity of earning the gratitude of so powerful and so near a state by a service. 3It is decided to send help; 4the young men are enrolled, arms are given out.
4Approaching Rome at first light, from a distance they gave the appearance of enemies; 4they seemed to be Aequi or Volsci coming; 4then, when the groundless alarm had passed, they were received into the city and march down in column into the Forum. 5There Publius Valerius, having left his colleague in charge of the guards at the gates, was already drawing up his line of battle. 6The authority of the man had prevailed, as he declared that, once the Capitol was recovered and the city pacified, if they allowed themselves to be shown what trickery the tribunes were concealing in the law, he, mindful of his ancestors, mindful of his surname, by which care for the people had been handed down to him by his ancestors as a kind of inheritance, would not obstruct the assembly of the plebs.
7Following him as their leader, while the tribunes protested in vain, they lead their line up the Capitoline slope. 7The Tusculan legion joins them too. 7Allies and citizens vied as to which of them should win for themselves the honour of recovering the citadel; 7each leader encourages his own men. 8Then the enemy were alarmed, and trusted nothing enough except their position; 8as they wavered, the Romans and allies advance their standards; they had already burst into the forecourt of the temple when Publius Valerius, rousing the fight among the foremost, is killed. 8Publius Volumnius, an ex-consul, saw him fall. 9He, after charging his men to cover the body, himself rushes forward into the consul's place and role.
9Such was the ardour and impetus of so great an enterprise that the soldiers did not become aware of it; 9they won before they realised that they were fighting without a leader. 10Many of the exiles defiled the temple with their blood, many were taken alive, Herdonius was killed. 10Thus the Capitol was recovered. 10On the prisoners punishment was inflicted according to whether each was free or slave, suited to his condition; 10thanks were given to the Tusculans; 10the Capitol was cleansed and purified. 10The plebs is said to have thrown quarter-asses into the consul's house, so that he might be carried out with a more splendid funeral.