1When the envoys had been dismissed, Verginius reminds the soldiers that a little earlier they had been thrown into confusion over no very great matter, because the multitude had been without a head, and that their answer, though not unhelpful, had come from chance agreement rather than common counsel. 2He proposed that ten men be elected to take charge of affairs, and be called military tribunes, as a title of military honour. 3When that honour was offered first to him himself, he said, 'Reserve those judgements of yours about me for better times, mine and yours; 4my daughter, unavenged, does not allow any honour to be pleasant to me, nor, when the state is in turmoil, is it useful for men to be in charge of you who are the most exposed to resentment.
5If I am of any use, that use will be had no less from me as a private citizen.' 6So they elect military tribunes, ten in number. 6Nor did the army among the Sabines stay quiet. 7There too, on the initiative of Icilius and Numitorius, a secession from the decemvirs took place, with feelings stirred no less by the revived memory of the murder of Siccius than they had been inflamed by the fresh report of the maiden so foully sought for lust. 8Icilius, when he heard that military tribunes had been elected on the Aventine, so that the city assembly, in electing tribunes of the plebs, should not follow the lead of the military assembly by choosing the same men, being experienced in popular politics and himself aspiring to that office, sees to it, before they went to the city, that the same number with equal power should be elected by his own men.
10They entered the city by the Colline Gate under their standards and march in column through the middle of the city to the Aventine. 10There, joining the other army, they charged the twenty military tribunes with electing two from their own number to take charge of affairs. 10They elect Marcus Oppius and Sextus Manilius. 11The fathers, anxious for the state as a whole, though the senate met daily, spent their time more often in quarrels than in deliberation. 11The murder of Siccius, Appius' lust and the disgraces of the campaign were thrown in the decemvirs' faces. 12It was resolved that Valerius and Horatius should go to the Aventine. 12They refused to go unless the decemvirs laid down the insignia of that office which they had already left behind the year before.
13The decemvirs, complaining that they were being reduced to the ranks, said they would not lay down their authority before the laws for whose sake they had been appointed had been passed.