Publius Valerius Publicola : ? , died in 503 BC

Mucius Scaevola in front of Porsenna
Charles Le Brun, Musée des Ursulines
Mâcon

An eminent Roman statesman and commander; one of the founders of the Republic. He died about the year 250 of the city, and 503 years before the time of Jesus Christ.

Publius Valerius, who was descended from an ancient and honourable family in Rome, was distinguished for his eloquence and wealth. The former he is said to have employed in defence of the oppressed, and the latter in relief of those who were in need.

The earliest circumstance that is recorded of him, is his having been requested, after the expulsion of Tarquin, to assume the temporary government of Rome, for the purpose of arranging the establishment of a republic. Plutarch says that he was invited to accept the government, but that he yielded it in favour of his friend, Lucius Junius Brutus. He expected to have been chosen one of the first consuls, but was disappointed. He, however, continued firm in the cause of the republic, was active in suppressing all conspiracies against it, and in frustrating all attempts for the restoration of the tyrant. Notwithstanding this, the people imagined that, because he had not experienced any personal injury from Tarquin, he might, possibly, be induced to retrace his steps, and to part take with the man in whose dethronement he had been one of the most active agents. He considered himself insulted by their suspicions, withdrew from the senate, forbore to attend the meetings at the forum, and, for a while, refused all concern in the public affairs.

Brutus, however, though he was not without suspicion of some other persons, had full confidence in Valerius; and he resolved to try the fidelity of the senators by the test of an oath, which be proposed they should take, on a particular day of solemn sacrifice. At the time appointed; Valerius was the first to enter the forum, and to make oath, that he never would assent to any terms of agreement with Tarquim; but that, with his sword, he would maintain the Roman liberty to the utmost of his power.

In the memoir of Brutus it has been stated that ambassadors from Tarquin endeavoured to effect a counter-revolution in favour of their master, by corrupting some of the Roman youth; particularly two sons of Brutus, two young men of the family of Vitelii, and two of the Aquilii.

These met, by appointment, in a dark and retired apartment, for the purpose of consulting respecting the manner in which the restoration of Tarquin might be effected. But a slave, named Vindicius, happening to be in the apartment, when they entered, was alarmed at the caution which he saw adopted; and, fearful respecting his own safety, concealed himself behind a chest. Here he heard the conspirators declare an intention to attempt the assassination of the consuls, and saw them write letters on the subject. These, as he understood, were to be sent to Tarquin by the ambassadors. As soon as the business was concluded, they withdrew, and Vindicius, after some time deliberating in what manner to act, hastened to Valerius, and related to him the occurrence. Overwhelmed with astonishment, Valerius shut the man up in a room, and left his wife to guard the door. He then ordered his brother to surround the late king's palace with troops, to seize his papers, and secure his servants; whilst, with another body of troops, he proceeded to the house of the Aquilii. Here he obtained possession of the very letters which the slave had mentioned. The Aquilii endeavoured to escape; but, after much struggling, Valerius secured them by twisting their gowns around their necks, and thus dragging them through the streets, to the forum. The brother of Valerius was also successful at the palace; for there, many other letters were found, and several of the royal servants were secured.

The particulars of the trial and condemnation of the oonspirators have already been related, together with the circumstances which induced Collatinus to abdicate the consulship.

After the resignation of Collatinus, a new election took place, and Valerius was declared consul.

This was considered as only a proper return of gratitude for his late zeal and his important services in favour of the republic.

Whilst these proceedings were taking place in Rome, Tarquin, having no alternative left but that of open war, induced the inhabitants of some neighbouring cities to join him, in endeavouring to recover his former rights. At the head of a powerful force, he marched towards his late capital. The consuls, Brutus and Valerius, led out the Roman troops to oppose him; and, after a dreadful conflict, in which Brutus, and about eleven thousand troops were slain, the Romans proved victorious, and Tarquin and his allies were totally routed.

Valerius collected the spoils, and returned with them in triumph to Rome. After this success, the population began to imagine that he might possibly apply his influence over the army in endeavouring to make himself a king. They pretended to ground their opinion on the facts, that, in the place of Brutus, he had not hitherto demanded the election of a consul; and that he had built a house too superb for a citizen; and in a situation, on the summit of Mount Velia, so lofty that it overlooked and commanded the forum.

In this instance Valerius considered it better to submit to the will of the people than to resist. He immediately fixed a day for the election of a consul; and having caused the people to be assembled, he thus addressed them: "Fellow citizens, the house of Publius Valerius shall no longer be an obstruction to your freedom. The Velian Mount shall be secure to you. I will not only bring my house to the plain, but I will fix it beneath the hill, that your dwelling may overlook that of our suspected countrymam" or, says Dionysius of Halicarnassus, "that you may stone me from the hill, if you find me guilty of any crime."

He collected an immense number of workmen, and, in one night, demolished his house. When in the morning, the Romans beheld the havoc that had been made, they unanimously extolled the magnanimity of Valerius; but all sensible men were grieved to see so magnificent an edifice ruined by the envy of the citizens; and to behold their consul compelled, by an absurd caprice, to seek for shelter in the dwelling of another man.

Valerius, however, appears to have been a deep and skilful politician. His experience had fully instructed him what kind of a people he had to manage; and, by this and other concessions, such as ordering the axes to be taken out of the fasces, that they might not, as before, terrify the beholders; and commanding the lictors to lower them in the assemblies of the people, by way of homage to their power, he obtained so great an influence over them, that they seem, afterwards, to have submitted implicitly to his will, on almost all occasions. As a recompence for his obedience to their wishes, they honoured him with the surname of Publicola, signifying "a man esteemed by the people;" and by this name he was ever afterwards distinguished.

He occasioned some beneficial laws to be enacted, and some which were excessively severe. Among the latter was one which was liable to great abuse : it authorized the killing of any man who should attempt to assume the regal office. The person who committed the act, was to be exempt from punishment, it he could bring proof of such intention in the man whom he slew.

Tarquin, after his defeat, fled for protection to Lars Porsenna, king of Clusium, at that time the most powerful prince in Italy, and a man eminent both for valour and integrity. Commiserating the situation of a monarch excluded from his throne, Porsenna not only promised him assistance, but intimated to the Romans, that, if they did not restore to him his rights and dignity, he would march an army immediately to Rome. Publicola was, at this time, absent from the city; and the senate and the people were all excessively terrified. Fearing lest the population, in their terror, might once more submit to a regal government, the senate again elected Publicola to the office of consul, and adopted the most conciliatory measures towards the people, to preserve unanimity in the state.

The proposition made by Porsenna being rejected, that prince assembled his troops, and marched towards the city. The Roman forces, headed by the two consuls, were drawn up near the bank of the Tiber, at a little distance from the city gates. Here they were attacked by the enemy. In the encounter, Publicola and his colleague were both severely wounded; and it was only by an astonishing effort of personal bravery that the city was preserved. The courage of the Romans wholly forsook them, and they retreated within their walls for security. The enemy pursued them to their entrenchrnents, and would have entered the city, had they not, at a wooden bridge over the river Tiber, been stopped by only three persons, Horatius Cocles, and two other men of rank. Cocles was on guard at the bridge. All the Romans, except two, were so cowardly as to pass him. As soon as they had passed, Cocles advanced to the entrance, and called aloud to those in the rear, to break down the bridge. He was posted in a situation so advantageous, that, although the javelins of the enemy were poured thick upon him, he was enabled to guard himself with his shield, and he undauntedly kept his post. The enemy, by a sudden and furious onset, were about to push him, from his station, into the river, when the sudden crash of the falling bridge, and, at the same instant, a tremendous shout raised by the Roman soldiers, on accomplishing their object, filled his opponents with dismay, and deterred them from their purpose. Cocles then, though clad in armour, plunged into the Tiber, and swam to the city. Grateful for this unexpected rescue, the Romans passed a decree that every citizen should give to him one day's provision: that he should be rewarded with as much land as he could plough round in a day; and that a brazen statue should be erected of him, in the temple of Vulcan.

Porsenna, unable to take the city by force, drew his army around it in the hope of being able to reduce it by famine. But, afterwards, becoming disgusted with the conduct of Tarquin, a reconciliation was effected betwixt him and the Romans, and a treaty of peace was agreed upon. As a security for fulfilling the conditions of the peace, ten young men and as many girls, of the highest families in Rome, were given by the Romans as hostages. Among the latter was Valeria, the daughter of Publicola. On the faith of the treaty that had been made, Porsenna ceased from all acts of hostility; and the Roman virgins were so far permitted to have their liberty, that they could bathe unmolested in the Tiber. One day they swam over the river, encouraged by a virgin named Cloelia, who passed over, on horseback, before the rest. When they had reached the opposite shore, they hastened to the house of Publicola. He, however, extremely disapproved of their daring enterprise; and, lest their escape should cause the Romans to be suspected of dishonourable conduct, he immediately sent them all back. Tarquin endeavoured, but in vain, to intercept their return; and, on their arriving in the presence of Porsenna, the latter commanded one of his own horses, furnished with elegant trappings, to be brought out and presented to Cloelia, as a recompence for her valour. The Romans rewarded so extraordinary an instance of female heroism with the honour of an equestrian statue.

After this event Porsenna restored all the hostages, and told Publicola that he considered the Roman probity as the best guarantee of the treaty: and he signalized his departure from the vicinity of Rome, by an act of peculiar liberality. He ordered his soldiers to leave their tents, their provisions and valuable effects, and to carry away with them nothing but their weapons. By this procedure Rome was much relieved in her wants; and the Romans, from this period, whenever any effects, belonging to the public, were sold, adopted a practice of proclaiming them by a herald, as "Porsenna's goods."

In the ensuing year, they became involved in a war will the Sabines; and Marcus Valerius, acting under the advice and with the assistance of his brother Publicola, gained two important victories over them. For these he was rewarded with a triumph, and had a house built for him at the public expence, which, in one particular, was of unusual construction. The doors of all other houses opened inward; but the street-door of this house was made to open outward, as an indication that he was always ready to receive proposals for the public service.

The defeat of the Sabines by Marcus Valerius did not, however, reduce that people to submission. They subsequently entered into a confederacy with the Latins, for the purpose of attacking the Romans with their united forces. Appius Claudius, an opulent Sabine chief, of great personal valour, and famed for his virtues and for the force of his eloquence, but of harsh and violent disposition, opposed the war. His opponents asserted that he wished to strengthen the Roman power, for the purpose of enslaving his own country, and threatened him with impeachment. Publicola, who was now consul for the fourth time, having obtained intelligence of the proceedings that were about to be instituted, communicated the information to Appius Claudius, and invited him to Rome, under an engagement that he should there be received and treated in a manner suited to his rank and character. Appius accepted the invitation, and brought with him five thousand of the Sabines and their families. He was afterwards admitted to a seat in the senate, and rose to the highest rank in the republic.

Notwithstanding this defection, the Sabines advanced, with a powerful army. They ordered two thousand men to be placed in ambush, in shrubby and hollow places, near Rome, and directed a small party of horse-soldiers to ravage the suburbs, and then to retreat till they drew the Romans into the ambuscade. Publicola was not, however, thus to be ensnared. He arranged his forces in such manner as to surround these men; whilst, at the head of another part of the Roman army, he personally attacked the Sabine camp, and obtained a decisive victory. The town of Fidenae only remained to be subdued. Publicola scaled the walls of it in person; and, on that side which was considered most impregnable; and thus obtained possession of it, almost without loss. Elated with these unexpected successes, and enriched with the plunder, and by the sale of the prisoners, (for it was the cruel practice of this period to sell the prisoners, for slaves,) the Romans honoured Publicola with a splendid triumph.

Having now attained the summit of his glory; having seen his country flourish, through the excellence of his legislation, and victorious through his courage and conduct; and, having himself been honoured with four consulships and two triumphs, this eminent Roman surrendered the administration to other hands, and died rich in reputation and honour. His death took place about two hundred and fifty years after the foundation of Rome, and five hundred and three years before the Christian era.

Publicola had had many opportunities of honourably amassing wealth, but his mind was superior to all the excitemems of avarice. Contented with the small estate which he had inherited from his ancestors, and leading a life of temperance and moderation, he was enabled, by means of this, to educate his children in a manner worthy of their birth; and to prove to the world, that he considered himself rich by wanting few things, and not by possessing many.

The expences of his funeral were defrayed by the public. His body was burnt, and the ashes were buried in a place, appointed for the purpose, near the foot of the Velian hill. Thousands of the people attended the ceremony; and the Roman matrons paid the same tribute of respect to his memory, which they had done to that of Lucius Junius Brutus, his colleague in the consulship.

Authorities-Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Livy, and Plutarch.