One detail only is wanted to complete the picture of a potential tyrant of the early Greek type, such as has been depicted in every section of this volume, and that feature appears in Valerius Maximus. According to that writer[1205], who flourished early in the first century A.D., Appius possessed “plurimas clientelas.” [Sidenote: and Mommsen’s conjecture that he aimed at a tyranny.] All this gives added significance, in the light of our enquiries, to a brilliant conjecture of Mommsen[1206] that Appius actually attempted to make himself tyrant. Mommsen relies mainly on a sentence in Suetonius[1207] which runs: “Claudius Drusus, after a crowned statue had been set up to him at Appi Forum, endeavoured by means of his clients (clientelas) to seize Italy.” The context dates the event between the decemvirate and the first Punic War. The possible period is further limited by the fact that Appi Forum was only founded by Appius Claudius Caecus. The name of the would-be tyrant as given by Suetonius is Claudius Drusus, but this, Mommsen shows, must be corrupt. The mention of Appi Forum points definitely to Appius Claudius Caecus, the only person whose name is associated with the place. In another passage of his history[1208], Mommsen himself observes how Appius shows the spirit of the Tarquins. [Sidenote: “Secessions.”] If we look at the history of the early republic from the plebeian point of view, there is at least one important feature in the extant narratives that supports our main conclusions. The most notable weapon that the fifth century plebeians are represented as employing against the nobles is the “secession.” The first is recorded under the year of Spurius Cassius’ consulship, when the men whom Tarquin is accused of having made into “artizans and quarrymen” proceeded in a body to the “mons sacer” outside the city, and refused to come back and resume work until their grievances had been dealt with. The resemblance of the secession to the modern strike has already been recognized[1209]. It may be an accident, but if so it is a remarkable one, that the chief weapon of the class on which Tarquin’s power appears to have rested should have been one that reappears in history with the organization of the industrial classes in modern times. Before we proceed to discuss the value of the narratives that we have been quoting, there are a few further notices in them that have a place in this discussion, though they deal not with Rome but with other cities of Central Italy. [Sidenote: The part played at Ardea in 440 B.C. by the working-classes.]