[5,13] Μετὰ τοῦτ´ ἤδη μιᾷ γνώμῃ περὶ πάντων χρώμενοι τοὺς μὲν ἐπὶ τῇ καθόδῳ τῶν φυγάδων συνομοσαμένους ἅπαντας ἀπέκτειναν παραχρῆμα, καὶ τὸν μηνύσαντα τὴν συνωμοσίαν δοῦλον ἐλευθερίᾳ τε καὶ πολιτείας μεταδόσει καὶ χρήμασι πολλοῖς ἐτίμησαν. ἔπειτα τρία πολιτεύματα κάλλιστα καὶ συμφορώτατα τῷ κοινῷ καταστησάμενοι τούς τ´ ἐν τῇ πόλει πάντας ὁμονοεῖν παρεσκεύασαν καὶ τὰς τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἑταιρίας ἐμείωσαν. ἦν δὲ τὰ πολιτεύματα τῶν ἀνδρῶν τοιάδε· πρῶτον μὲν ἐκ τῶν δημοτικῶν τοὺς κρατίστους ἐπιλέξαντες πατρικίους ἐποίησαν καὶ συνεπλήρωσαν ἐξ αὐτῶν τὴν βουλὴν τοὺς τριακοσίους· ἔπειτα τὰς οὐσίας τῶν τυράννων εἰς τὸ κοινὸν ἅπασι τοῖς πολίταις φέροντες ἔθεσαν, συγχωρήσαντες ὅσον λάβοι τις ἐξ αὐτῶν ἔχειν· καὶ τὴν αὐτῶν γῆν ὅσην ἐκέκτηντο τοῖς μηδένα κλῆρον ἔχουσι διένειμαν, ἓν μόνον ἐξελόμενοι πεδίον, ὃ κεῖται μεταξὺ τῆς τε πόλεως καὶ τοῦ ποταμοῦ. τοῦτο δ´ Ἄρεος ὑπάρχειν ἱερὸν οἱ πρότερον ἐψηφίσαντο ἵπποις τε λειμῶνα καὶ νέοις ἀσκοῦσι τὰς ἐνοπλίους μελέτας γυμνάσιον ἐπιτηδειότατον· ὅτι δὲ καὶ πρότερον ἱερὸν ἦν τοῦδε τοῦ θεοῦ, Ταρκύνιος δὲ σφετερισάμενος ἔσπειρεν αὐτὸ μέγιστον ἡγοῦμαι τεκμήριον εἶναι τὸ πραχθὲν ὑπὸ τῶν ὑπάτων τότε περὶ τοὺς ἐν αὐτῷ καρπούς. ἅπαντα γὰρ ἐπιτρέψαντες τῷ δήμῳ τὰ τῶν τυράννων ἄγειν τε καὶ φέρειν, τὸν ἐν τούτῳ γενόμενον τῷ πεδίῳ σῖτον τὸν μὲν ἐπὶ ταῖς καλάμαις, τὸν δ´ ἐπὶ ταῖς ἔτι ἅλωσιν κείμενον καὶ τὸν ἤδη κατειργασμένον οὐκ ἐπέτρεψαν οὐδενὶ φέρειν, ἀλλ´ ὡς ἐξάγιστόν τε καὶ οὐχ ὡς ἐπιτήδειον εἰς οἰκίας εἰσενεχθῆναι, εἰς τὸν ποταμὸν καταβαλεῖν ἐψηφίσαντο. καὶ ἔστι νῦν μνημεῖον ἐμφανὲς τοῦ ποτε ἔργου νῆσος εὐμεγέθης Ἀσκληπιοῦ ἱερά, περίκλυστος ἐκ τοῦ ποταμοῦ, ἥν φασιν ἐκ τοῦ σωροῦ τῆς καλάμης σαπείσης καὶ ἔτι καὶ τοῦ ποταμοῦ προσλιπαίνοντος αὐτῇ ἰλὺν γενέσθαι. καὶ τοῖς μετὰ τοῦ τυράννου πεφευγόσι Ῥωμαίων κάθοδον εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἐπ´ ἀδείᾳ τε καὶ ἀμνηστίᾳ παντὸς ἁμαρτήματος ἔδωκαν χρόνον ὁρίσαντες ἡμερῶν εἴκοσιν· εἰ δὲ μὴ κατέλθοιεν ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ προθεσμίᾳ, τιμωρίας αὐτοῖς ὥρισαν ἀιδίους φυγὰς καὶ κτημάτων ὧν ἐκέκτηντο δημεύσεις. ταῦτα τῶν ἀνδρῶν τὰ πολιτεύματα τοὺς μὲν ἀπολαύσαντας ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τῶν τυράννων ὅτου δή τινος ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ ἀφαιρεθῆναι πάλιν ἃς ἔσχον ὠφελείας ἅπαντα κίνδυνον ἐποίησεν ὑπομένειν· τοὺς δὲ κατὰ δέος ὧν παρηνόμησαν ἐπὶ τῆς τυραννίδος μὴ δίκην ἀναγκασθεῖεν ὑπέχειν φυγῆς ἑαυτοῖς τιμησαμένους, ἀπαλλαγέντας τοῦ φόβου μηκέτι τὰ τῶν τυράννων, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῆς πόλεως φρονεῖν.

[5,13] After this Brutus and his colleague, acting in everything with a single mind, immediately put to death all who had conspired to restore the exiles, and also honoured the slave who had given information of the conspiracy, not only with his freedom, but also by the bestowal of citizenship and a large sum of money. Then they introduced three measures, all most excellent and advantageous to the state, by which they brought about harmony among all the citizens and weakened the factions of their enemies. Their measures were as follows: In the first place, choosing the best men from among the plebeians, they made them patricians, and thus rounded out the membership of the senate to three hundred. Next, they brought out and exposed in public the goods of the tyrants for the benefit of all the citizens, permitting everyone to have as large a portion of them as he could seize; and the lands the tyrants had possessed they divided among those who had no allotments, reserving only one field, which lies between the city and the river. This field their ancestors had by a public decree consecrated to Mars as a meadow for (p43) horses and the most suitable drill-field for the youth to perform their exercises in arms. The strongest proof, I think, that even before this the field had been consecrated to this god, but that Tarquinius had appropriated it to his own use and sown it, was the action then taken by the consuls in regard to the corn there. For though they had given leave to the people to drive and carry away everything that belonged to the tyrants, they would not permit anyone to carry away the grain which had grown in this field and was still lying upon the threshing-floors whether in the straw or threshed, but looking upon it as accursed and quite unfit to be carried into their houses, they caused a vote to be passed that it should be thrown into the river. And there is even now a conspicuous monument of what happened on that occasion, in the form of an island of goodly size consecrated to Aesculapius and washed on all sides by the river, an island which was formed, they say, out of the heap of rotten straw and was further enlarged by the silt which the river kept adding. The consuls also granted to all the Romans who had fled with the tyrant leave to return to the city with impunity and under a general amnesty, setting a time-limit of twenty days; and if they did not return within this fixed time, the penalties set in their case were perpetual banishment and the confiscation of their estates. These measures of the consuls caused those who had (p45) enjoyed any part whatever of the possessions belonging to the tyrants to submit to any danger rather than be deprived again of the advantages they had obtained; and, on the other hand, by freeing from their fear those who, through dread of having to stand trial for the crimes they had committed under the tyranny, had condemned themselves to banishment, they caused them to favour the side of the commonwealth rather than that of the tyrants.