When those who were uncorrupted and friends of justice heard this sentence, they held up their hands to heaven, and raised an outcry mixed with lamentation and resentment; while the flatterers of the oligarchy gave acclamations capable of inspiring the men in power with confidence. And the assembly being inflamed and full of various expressions and agitations, Appius commanded silence, and said: “Disturbers of the public tranquillity, and useless both in peace and war, if you cease not to divide the city and to oppose us in the execution of our office, necessity shall teach you to submit. Think not that these guards in the Capitol and the fortress are placed there by us only to secure the city against a foreign enemy, and that we shall suffer you to sit here and taint the administration of the government. Be more prudent for the future than you are now; depart all of you who have nothing to do here, and mind your own affairs, if you are wise. And do you, Claudius, take the girl, and lead her through the Forum without fearing anyone, for the twelve axes of Appius shall attend you.” After he had said this, the people withdrew from the Forum, sighing, beating their foreheads, and unable to refrain from tears; while Claudius was taking away the virgin, who hung round her father, kissing him, and calling upon him with the most endearing expressions. In this distress Virginius resolved upon an action, deplorable indeed, and afflicting for a father, but at the same time becoming a lover of liberty and a man of great spirit; for, having desired leave to embrace his daughter for the last time without molestation, and to say what he thought fit to her in private before she was taken from the Forum, he obtained it from the magistrate; and his enemies retiring a little, he held her in his arms, while she was fainting, sinking to the ground, and scarce able to support herself, and for some time called upon her, kissed her, and wiped off her tears that flowed without ceasing; then, drawing her on by degrees, when he came to a cook’s shop, he snatched up a knife from the table and plunged it in her breast, saying only this, “I send thee, child, to the manes of thy ancestors with liberty and innocence, for if thou hadst lived, that tyrant would not have suffered thee to enjoy either.”[27] An outcry being raised, he held the bloody knife in his hand, and, covered as he was with the blood of his daughter, he ran like a madman through the city and called the citizens to liberty. Then, forcing his way through the gates, he mounted a horse that stood ready for him, and rode to the camp accompanied by Numitorius, who had attended him from thence to the city. He was followed by about four hundred other plebeians.[e] FALL OF THE DECEMVIRATE [Sidenote: [449-445 B.C.]]