The sons
decided to allow their remaining brother Sextus to know the answer, and
to determine by lot which of them should rule; but Brutus kept his own
counsel, and on reaching home, fell upon mother earth, as by accident,
and kissed the ground, thus observing the terms of the oracle.
The prophecy now hastened to its fulfilment. As the army lay before the
town of Ardea, belonging to the Rutulians, south of Rome, a dispute
arose among the sons of the king and their cousin Collatinus, as to
which had the most virtuous wife. There being nothing to keep them in
camp, the young men arose from their cups and rode to Rome, where they
found the princesses at a banquet revelling amid flowers and wine.
Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, was found at Collatia among her
maidens spinning, like the industrious wife described in the Proverbs.
The evil passions of Sextus were aroused by the beauty of his cousin's
wife, and he soon found an excuse to return to the home of Collatinus.
He was hospitably entertained by Lucretia, who did not suspect the
demon that he was, and one night he entered her apartment and with vile
threats overcame her. In her terrible distress, Lucretia sent
immediately for her father, Lucretius, and her husband, Collatinus.
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