1Then, with both the tribunes' power and the plebs' liberty firmly established, the tribunes, thinking it now safe and timely to attack individuals, choose Verginius as the first accuser and Appius as defendant. 2When Verginius had named a day for Appius' trial and Appius had come down into the Forum surrounded by young patricians, the memory of that most foul power was at once renewed for everyone, as they saw the man himself and his henchmen. 3Then Verginius said, 'Oratory was invented for doubtful cases; 3and so I shall neither waste time accusing before you a man from whose cruelty you have freed yourselves by arms, nor shall I let him add to his other crimes impudence in defending himself.
4So for all the impious and wicked deeds, Appius Claudius, that you have dared one after another over two years, I grant you pardon; 4on one charge only, unless you name a judge to try whether you did not, against the laws, award custody away from liberty to slavery, I shall order you to be led to prison.' 4Appius had no hope either in the help of the tribunes or in the judgement of the people; 6yet he both appealed to the tribunes and, when no one intervened and he was seized by the officer, he said, 'I appeal.' 6The hearing of that one word, the guardian of liberty, uttered from the very mouth by which custody had lately been awarded away from liberty, brought silence.
7And while each man muttered for himself that there were gods after all and they did not neglect human affairs, and that punishments for arrogance and cruelty, though late, were coming and were not light — that he was appealing who had abolished appeal, and imploring the protection of the people who had trampled on all the people's rights, and was being dragged to prison, deprived of the right of liberty, who had consigned a free person to slavery — the voice of Appius himself was heard amid the murmur of the assembly, imploring the good faith of the Roman people. 9He recalled his ancestors' services to the state at home and in war, his own ill-starred devotion to the Roman plebs, for which, to equalise the laws, he had left the consulship, to the great offence of the fathers, and his laws, which still stood while their author was being led to prison.
10But his own good and bad deeds he would put to the test when he was given the opportunity to plead his case; 10for the present, as a Roman citizen with a day named for his trial, he asked by the common law of the state to be allowed to speak and to undergo the judgement of the Roman people. 11He had not so dreaded hatred as to have no hope in the fairness and compassion of his fellow citizens. 11But if he was to be led to prison without his case being heard, he was appealing again to the tribunes of the plebs and warning them not to imitate those whom they hated.
12But if the tribunes confessed that they were bound by the same compact to abolish appeal to them, the very conspiracy with which they had charged the decemvirs, then he appealed to the people; 12he invoked the laws on appeal, both consular and tribunician, passed that very year. 13For who would appeal, if this was not allowed to an uncondemned man whose case had not been heard? 13What plebeian and humble man would find protection in the laws, if Appius Claudius did not? 13He would serve as proof whether tyranny or liberty had been established by the new laws, and whether appeal to the tribunes and appeal to the people against the injustice of magistrates had only been displayed in empty letters or had truly been granted.