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and, therefore, carrying them to the river-side, and trees withal
that were cut down, they cast all into the water, dedicating the soil,
free from all occupation, to the deity. Now, these thrown in, one
upon another, and closing together, the stream did not bear them far,
but where the first were carried down and came to a bottom, the remainder,
finding no farther conveyance, were stopped and interwoven one with
another; the stream working the mass into a firmness, and washing
down fresh mud. This, settling there, became an accession of matter,
as well as cement, to the rubbish, insomuch that the violence of the
waters could not remove it, but forced and compressed it all together.
Thus its bulk and solidity gained it new subsidies, which gave it
extension enough to stop on its way most of what the stream brought
down. This is now a sacred island, lying by the city, adorned with
the temples of the gods, and walks, and is called in the Latin tongue
inter duos pontes. Though some say this did not happen at the dedication
of Tarquin's field, but in aftertimes, when Tarquinia, a vestal priestess,
gave an adjacent field to the public, and obtained great honours in
consequence, as, amongst the rest, that of all women her testimony
alone should be received; she had also the liberty to marry, but refused
it; thus some tell the story.
Tarquin, despairing of a return to his kingdom by the conspiracy,
found a kind reception amongst the Tuscans, who, with a great army,
proceeded to restore him. The consuls headed the Romans against them,
and made their rendezvous in certain holy places, the one called the
Arsian grove, the other the Aesuvian meadow. When they came into action,
Aruns, the son of Tarquin, and Brutus, the Roman consul, not accidentally
encountering each other, but out of hatred and rage, the one to avenge
tyranny and enmity to his country, the other his banishment, set spurs
to their horses, and, engaging with more fury than forethought, disregarding
their own security, fell together in the combat. This dreadful onset
hardly was followed by a more favourable end; both armies, doing and
receiving equal damage, were separated by a storm. Valerius was much
concerned, not knowing what the result of the day was, and seeing
his men as well dismayed at the sight of their own dead, as rejoiced
at the loss of the enemy; so apparently equal in the number was the
slaughter on either side. Each party, however, felt surer of defeat
from the actual sight of their own dead, than they could feel of victory
from conjecture about those of their adversaries. The night being
come (and such as one may presume must follow such a battle), and
the armies laid to rest, they say that the grove shook, and uttered
a voice, saying that the Tuscans had lost one man more than the Romans;
clearly a divine announcement; and the Romans at once received it
with shouts and expressions of joy; whilst the Tuscans, through fear
and amazement, deserted their tents, and were for the most part dispersed.
The Romans, falling upon the remainder, amounting to nearly five thousand,
took them prisoners, and plundered the camp; when they numbered the
dead, they found on the Tuscans' side eleven thousand and three hundred,
exceeding their own loss but by one man. This fight happened upon
the last of February, and Valerius triumphed in honour of it, being
the first consul that drove in with a four-horse chariot; which sight
both appeared magnificent, and was received with an admiration free
from envy or offence (as some suggest) on the part of the spectators;
it would not otherwise have been continued with so much eagerness
and emulation through all the after ages. The people applauded likewise
the honours he did to his colleague, in adding to his obsequies a
funeral oration: which was so much liked by the Romans, and found
so good a reception, that it became customary for the best men to
celebrate the funerals of great citizens with speeches in their commendation;
and their antiquity in Rome is affirmed to be greater than in Greece,
unless, with the orator Anaximenes, we make Solon the first author.
Yet some part of Valerius's behaviour did give offence and disgust
to the people, because Brutus, whom they esteemed the father of their
liberty, had not presumed to rule without a colleague, but united
one and then another to him in his commission; while Valerius, they