1The decemvir, his mind deranged by lust, says that not only from Icilius' abuse yesterday and Verginius' violence, for which he had the Roman people as witness, but also from sure information he has learned that meetings had been held in the city all night to stir up sedition. 2Therefore, not unaware of that struggle, he had come down with armed men, not to harm anyone who was peaceful, but to restrain those disturbing the peace of the state, as befitted the majesty of his office. 3'So it will be better to keep quiet; 3go, lictor,' he says, 'move back the crowd and make way for the master to seize his slave!' 3When he had thundered this out, full of anger, the multitude of its own accord drew apart, and the girl stood abandoned, a prey to injustice.
4Then Verginius, when he saw no help anywhere, said, 'I beg you, Appius, first forgive a father's grief if I have attacked you at all too harshly; 4then allow me to question the nurse here in the maiden's presence about what this business is, so that, if I have been falsely called a father, I may leave here with a calmer mind.' 5Permission given, he leads his daughter and the nurse aside, near the shrine of Cloacina, to the shops which now bear the name 'New', and there, snatching a knife from a butcher, he says, 'In this, the only way I can, my daughter, I claim your freedom.' 5Then he pierces the girl's breast and, looking back at the tribunal, says, 'You, Appius, and your head I devote with this blood.' 6As a shout went up at so dreadful a deed, Appius, roused by it, orders Verginius to be seized.
6He made a way with the knife wherever he went, until, protected also by the multitude following him, he reached the gate. 7Icilius and Numitorius lift up the bloodless body and display it to the people; 7they lament Appius' crime, the girl's ill-starred beauty, the father's necessity. 7The matrons follow, crying out: was this the condition on which children were brought into the world, were these the rewards of chastity? — and the other laments which in such a case a woman's grief prompts, all the more pitiable to those who utter them as it is the more sorrowful in a weaker spirit. 9The talk of the men, and above all of Icilius, was wholly of the tribunes' power and the appeal to the people that had been snatched away, and of public grievances.