ABSTRACT
During the period of aristocratic government at Rome under the decemvirate or Board of Ten (451-450 BC), it was traditionally held, in circles hostile to the Claudian family, that the decemvir Appius Claudius conceived the desire to debauch Verginia, the beautiful daughter of a centurion, Verginius, who was away with the army at Mount Algidus. In order to get her into his own hands Appius instructed one of his dependents, Marcus Claudius by name, to assert that Verginia was in reality his own slave, the daughter of a woman who had previously belonged to his household. Then Appius, in the absence of Verginia’s father, immediately handed her over into Marcus Claudius’ custody. But Icilius, to whom she had been promised in marriage, and her uncle Numitorius appeared, and she was placed in their control pending the arrival of her father. Though Appius sent messages to the army commanders to detain Verginius, he came with all speed to the hearing of the case. He led his daughter into the Forum, dressed in mourning. Appius then gave judgment-that Verginia was a slave and must be surrendered to her owner. When Marcus Claudius tried to take her, Verginius resisted, but a force of armed men appeared. With a show of subjection, Verginius obtained a few minutes’ respite, in which he took his daughter to a butcher’s shop nearby and stabbed her in the heart, cursing Appius and declaring that her death was better than her dishonour. Verginius got away from Rome to the army, which he roused with the tale of Appius’ outrageous conduct. The common people and the ordinary soldiers then seized the Aventine Hill, and later seceded to the Sacred Mount, as they were also said to have done fifty years previously (though the historicity of both events is dubious). These events, it was believed, led to the suppression of the decemvirate and the restoration of the tribunes, the traditional protectors of the common people against aristocratic oppression.
