1There follows another atrocity in the city, arising from lust, with an outcome no less foul than that which, through the rape and death of Lucretia, had driven the Tarquins from the city and the throne, so that not only was the end of the decemvirs the same as that of the kings, but the cause of their losing power was the same as well. 1Appius Claudius was seized with lust to violate a plebeian maiden. 2The maiden's father, Lucius Verginius, held the honourable rank of centurion on Algidus, a man of upright example at home and in the field. 2His wife had been brought up in the same way, and his children were being brought up so.
2He had betrothed his daughter to Lucius Icilius, a former tribune, a spirited man of proven courage in the cause of the plebs. 4This maiden, grown to womanhood and of outstanding beauty, Appius, mad with love, tried to entice with bribes and promises; but when he perceived that everything was fenced about by modesty, he turned his mind to cruel and arrogant violence. 5He gave his client Marcus Claudius the task of claiming the maiden as his slave and of not yielding to those who demanded interim custody in favour of her freedom, thinking that, since the girl's father was away, there was room for the wrong. 6As the maiden was coming into the forum — for there, in booths, were the schools for letters — the agent of the decemvir's lust laid his hand on her, calling her the daughter of his slave woman and a slave herself, and ordered her to follow him: if she hesitated, he would drag her off by force.
7While the terrified girl stood stunned, a crowd gathers at the cries of her nurse, who was imploring the good faith of the Quirites. 7The popular names of her father Verginius and her betrothed Icilius are on everyone's lips. 7Their influence wins those who knew them to the maiden's side, and the outrageousness of the deed wins the crowd. 8She was already safe from violence when the claimant says that there is no need to rouse a mob; 8he was proceeding by law, not by force. 8He summons the girl to court. 9On the advice of those present that she should follow, they came to Appius' tribunal. 9The claimant plays out a story well known to the judge, since he was before the very author of the plot; 9the girl, he said, had been born in his house and had been stolen from there and taken to Verginius' house and passed off as his child; 10he had learned this on information received and was bringing it forward, and would prove it even with Verginius himself as judge, whom the greater part of the wrong concerned; 10meanwhile it was right that the slave girl should follow her master.
11The girl's advocates, after saying that Verginius was absent on the state's business and would be present within two days if word were sent to him, and that it was unjust for an absent man to be put in jeopardy over his children, demand that Appius postpone the case undecided until the father's arrival, that by the law he himself had carried he grant interim custody in favour of freedom, and that he not allow a grown maiden to risk her reputation before her freedom.