] The first to hold the highest office were Lucius
Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, husband of Lucretia.
Some time after Tarquin had fled to C?re, he found an asylum at
Tarquinii, and from that city made an effort to stir up a conspiracy in
his favor at Rome. He sent messengers ostensibly to plead for the
restoration of his property, but really for the purpose of exciting
treason. There were at Rome vicious persons who regretted that they
were obliged to return to regular ways, and there were patricians who
disliked to see the plebeians again enjoying their rights. Some of
these were ready to take up the cause of the deposed tyrant. The
conspirators met for consultation in one of the dark chambers of a
Roman house, and their conference was overheard. They were brought
before the consuls in the Comitium, and, to the dismay of Brutus, two
of his own sons were found among the number. With the unswerving virtue
of a Roman or a Spartan, he condemned them to death, and they were
executed before his eyes. The discovery of the plot of Tarquin put an
end to his efforts to regain any foothold at Rome by peaceable methods,
and he made the appeal to arms. These plots led to the banishment of
the whole Tarquinian house, even the consul whose troubles had brought
the result about being obliged to lay down his office and leave the
city.
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