1Against this Verginius said that Appius Claudius alone had no share in the laws or in the compact of citizens and of humankind. 1Let men look back at the tribunal, the stronghold of all crimes, where that perpetual decemvir, hostile to the property, backs and blood of the citizens, threatening all with rods and axes, despiser of gods and men, surrounded by executioners, not lictors, his mind now turned from plunder and murder to lust, had torn a freeborn maiden from her father's embrace before the eyes of the Roman people, as if she had been captured in war, and given her as a present to a client, the servant of his bedchamber; 4where by a cruel decree and an abominable award of custody he had armed a father's right hand against his daughter; 4where he had ordered the betrothed and the grandfather, as they lifted up the maiden's half-dead body, to be led to prison, moved more by the interruption of his lust than by her death.
4For him too the prison had been built which he used to call the home of the Roman plebs. 5Accordingly, however often he might appeal, so often would he propose a judge to him, to try whether he had not awarded custody away from liberty to slavery; 5if he would not go before a judge, he ordered him to be led to prison as one condemned. 6Though no one disapproved, it was with great stirring of feeling, since the plebs itself now thought its liberty excessive when so great a man was being punished, that he was thrown into prison. 6The tribune set a day for his trial. 6Meanwhile envoys from the Latins and Hernici came to Rome to offer congratulations on the harmony of fathers and plebs, and as a gift for it they brought to Jupiter Best and Greatest on the Capitol a golden crown of small weight, as their resources were not rich and religious rites were practised with piety rather than magnificence.
8From the same informants it was learned that the Aequi and Volsci were preparing war with all their strength. 9So the consuls were ordered to divide the commands between them. 9The Sabines fell to Horatius, the Aequi to Valerius. 9When they had proclaimed a levy for these wars, thanks to the goodwill of the plebs not only the younger men but a large number of volunteers who had completed their service presented themselves to enlist, and so the army was stronger not only in numbers but also in the quality of its soldiers, with veterans mixed in. 9Before they left the city, they had the decemviral laws, which are called the Twelve Tables, engraved on bronze and set up in public.
10Some write that the aediles performed that duty on the orders of the tribunes.