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VII. When he left the Forum all men were silent for a long while, shuddering at what had been done. The Aquillii took heart at the mildness of Collatinus, and asked for time to prepare their defence. They also begged that Vindicius might be given up to them, because he was their servant, and ought not to be on the side of their accusers.
Two consuls, Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, were elected by the prefect of at the comitia of centuries, according to the commentaries of Servius Tullius. The custom prevailed among Greeks and Romans of the bridegroom pretending to carry off the bride from her home by force. Such a custom still exists among the nomad tribes of Asia Minor.
As the army lay before the town of Ardea, belonging to the Rutulians, south of Rome, a dispute arose among the sons of the king and their cousin Collatinus, as to which had the most virtuous wife. There being nothing to keep them in camp, the young men arose from their cups and rode to Rome, where they found the princesses at a banquet revelling amid flowers and wine.
Brutus binds the people by oath, never to suffer any king to reign at Rome, obliges Tarquinius Collatinus, his colleague, to resign the consulship, and leave the state; beheads some young noblemen, and among the rest his own and his sister's sons, for a conspiracy to receive the kings into the city.
The King and his house being thus driven out, Brutus was made consul with one Collatinus for his colleague. First he bound the people by an oath that they would never thereafter suffer any man to be king at Rome; and afterwards, because Collatinus was of the name and lineage of Tarquin, he wrought with them that he also should be banished from the city.
Collatinus was willing to allow this, but Valerius said that he was not able to give the man up, because he was surrounded by so large a crowd, and called upon the people not to disperse without punishing the traitors.
Then he gave the knife to Collatinus, and after him to Lucretius and Valerius, who were amazed at such an extraordinary occurrence, and could not understand the newly developed character of Brutus.
And, as all the women happened to be absent from the camp, they decided straightaway that night, before they could be announced, to take horse and ride away to all of them simultaneously. This they did, and found all engaged in a carousal except Lucretia, wife of Collatinus, whom they discovered at work on wool. This fact about her becoming noised abroad led Sextus to desire to outrage her.
Lucius Brutus had gone to Collatia with his cousin, and while Collatinus and his father-in-law stood horror-struck, he called to them to revenge this crime.
At last he laid his hands upon the two corpses, called for Brutus, and reproached Collatinus for making his colleague act against nature by condemning his own sons to death, and then thinking to please the wives of these traitors and public enemies by saving their lives. The consul, vexed at this, ordered the lictors to seize Vindicius.
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