[5,12] Ταῦτα τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀμφοτέροις παραινοῦντος καὶ τῶν πολιτῶν ἐπαινεσάντων τὸν λόγον, ὁ μὲν Κολλατῖνος πολλὰ κατολοφυρόμενος ἑαυτόν, εἰ διὰ συγγενῶν ἔλεον ἐκλιπεῖν ἀναγκασθήσεται τὴν πατρίδα μηδὲν ἀδικῶν, ἀποτίθεται τὴν ἀρχήν. ὁ δὲ Βροῦτος ἐπαινέσας αὐτὸν ὡς τὰ κράτιστα καὶ συμφορώτατα ἑαυτῷ τε καὶ τῇ πόλει βεβουλευμένον παρεκάλει μήτ´ αὐτῷ μήτε τῇ πατρίδι μνησικακεῖν· ἑτέραν δὲ μεταλαβόντα οἴκησιν τὴν καταλειπομένην πατρίδα ἡγεῖσθαι, μηδενὸς μήτ´ ἔργου μήτε λόγου κοινωνοῦντα τοῖς ἐχθροῖς κατ´ αὐτῆς· τὸ δ´ ὅλον ἀποδημίαν ὑπολαβόντα τὴν μετανάστασιν, οὐκ ἐξορισμὸν οὐδὲ φυγήν, τὸ μὲν σῶμα παρὰ τοῖς ὑποδεξαμένοις ἔχειν, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν παρὰ τοῖς προπέμπουσι. ταῦτα δ´ ὑποθέμενος τῷ ἀνδρὶ πείθει τὸν δῆμον εἴκοσι ταλάντων δοῦναι αὐτῷ δωρεὰν καὶ αὐτὸς πέντε τάλαντα προστίθησιν ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων. Ταρκύνιος μὲν δὴ Κολλατῖνος τοιαύτῃ τύχῃ περιπεσὼν εἰς Λαουίνιον ᾤχετο τὴν μητρόπολιν τοῦ Λατίνων γένους, ἐν ᾗ γηραιὸς ἐτελεύτα· ὁ δὲ Βροῦτος οὐκ ἀξιῶν μόνος ἄρχειν οὐδ´ εἰς ὑπόνοιαν ἐλθεῖν τοῖς πολίταις, ὅτι μοναρχίας ὑπαχθεὶς πόθῳ τὸν συνύπατον ἐξήλασεν ἐκ τῆς πατρίδος, καλέσας τὸν δῆμον εἰς τὸ πεδίον, ἔνθα σύνηθες αὐτοῖς ἦν τούς τε βασιλεῖς καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ἀρχὰς καθιστάναι, συνάρχοντα αἱρεῖται Πόπλιον Οὐαλέριον, ἀπόγονον, ὡς καὶ πρότερον εἶπον, τοῦ Σαβίνου Οὐαλερίου, ἄνδρα πολλῶν μὲν καὶ ἄλλων ἐπιτηδευμάτων χάριν ἐπαινεῖσθαί τε καὶ θαυμάζεσθαι ἄξιον, μάλιστα δὲ τῆς αὐταρκείας τοῦ βίου. φιλοσοφία γάρ τις αὐτοδίδακτος ἐγένετο περὶ αὐτόν, ἣν ἐν πολλοῖς ἀπεδείξατο πράγμασιν, ὑπὲρ ὧν ὀλίγον ὕστερον ἐρῶ.

[5,12] When Lucretius thus advised both consuls and the citizens had voiced their approval, Collatinus, uttering many lamentations over his misfortune in being obliged, because of the compassion he had shown to his kinsmen, to leave his country, though he was guilty of no crime, resigned his magistracy. Brutus, praising him for having taken the best and the most advantageous resolution for both himself and the commonwealth, exhorted him not to entertain any resentment either against him or against his country, but after he had taken up his residence elsewhere, to regard as his country the home he was now leaving, and never to join with her enemies in any action or speech directed against her; in fine, to consider his change of residence as a sojourn abroad, not as an expulsion or a banishment, and while living in body with those who had received him, to dwell in spirit with those who now sent him on his way. After this exhortation to Collatinus he prevailed upon the people to make him a present of twenty talents, and he himself added five more from his own means. So Tarquinius Collatinus, having met with this fate, retired to Lavinium, the mother-city of the Latin nation, where he died at an advanced age. And Brutus, thinking that he ought not to continue alone in the magistracy or to give occasion to the citizens to suspect that it was because of a desire to rule alone that he had banished his colleague from the country, summoned the people to the field where it was their custom to elect their (p41) kings and other magistrates, and chose for his colleague Publius Valerius, a descendant, as I have stated earlier, of the Sabine Valerius, a man worthy of both praise and admiration for many other qualities, but particularly for his frugal manner of life. For there was a kind of self-taught philosophy about him, which he displayed upon many occasions, of which I shall speak a little later.