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Updated: May 8, 2025
As soon as Appius Claudius, the praetor, whose province Sicily was, had received information of these events, he sent ambassadors to Hieronymus; who, upon stating that the object of their mission was to renew the alliance which had subsisted between the Romans and his grandfather, were heard and dismissed in an insulting manner, Hieronymus asking them sneeringly, "how they had fared at the battle of Cannae? for that the ambassadors of Hannibal stated what could hardly be credited."
For in the course of our inquiry it will be seen that many mistakes prejudicial to freedom were made by the senate and people, and that many were likewise made by Appius, the chief decemvir, prejudicial to that tyranny which it was his aim to establish in Rome.
Appius had given the same man a military command in Salamis no doubt also at the instance of Brutus and the people of Salamis had been grievously harassed. Cicero had heard of this, and had recalled the man from Cyprus.
And when Tiberius gladly accepted, and the agreement had thus been completed, Appius, returning home, no sooner had reached his door, but he called to his wife and cried out in a loud voice, "O Antistia, I have contracted our daughter Claudia to a husband." She, being amazed, answered, "But why so suddenly, or what means this haste? Unless you have provided Tiberius Gracchus for her husband."
Appius would gladly have married her himself, but there was a patrician law against wedding plebeians, and he wickedly determined that if he could not have her for his wife he would have her for his slave.
As far as he was concerned, his wife had been taken from him by destiny; his daughter, because she could no longer have lived as a chaste woman, had met with an unfortunate but honourable death; that there was now no longer in his family an opportunity for the lust of Appius; that from any other violence of his he would defend his person with the same spirit with which he had vindicated that of his daughter: that others should take care for themselves and their children.
I spoke at length against the petty princeling, with the result that he was utterly laughed out of court. Alarmed by this exhibition, as I said, Appius is making up to me. For nothing could be easier than to explode the rest of his proposals. But I will not go so far as to trip him up, lest he appeal to the god of hospitality, and summon all his Greeks it is they who make us friends again.
A tumult instantly arose, the people rushing in such fury upon the tribunal that the lictors and armed patricians were driven back, and Appius, stricken with fear, covered his face with his robe and fled into a neighboring house. Never had Rome been so stirred to fury. The colleague of Appius rushed with his followers to the Forum, but the people were too strong for all the force he could gather.
Claudius brought his slave, who made false oath that she had sold her child to Numitoria; while, on the other hand, all the kindred of Virginius and his wife gave such proof of the contrary as any honest judge would have thought sufficient, but Appius chose to declare that the truth was with his client.
He was full of the joy and the wonder of discovery. He was like a child eager for understanding and impatient of delay. Now he thought with the pagans and now with the Jews. At his palace a letter had been waiting for the tribune. It was from his friend Appius. "My excellent and beloved Vergilius," it said, "I address you with a feeling of deep concern for your safety.
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