Plutarch: Publicola, Lesson 1

Publicola by Plutarch
(as read from Anne White's text and study guide)

Lesson 1:
Publicola's full name was _______ Valerius Publicola, and he was first known by the name Valerius, having been named after an ancestor who helped deliver the Romans from tyranny. Publicola lived in the time of King Tarquin (the last of the kings of Rome before the Republic was instituted). King Tarquin came to power by greedy and evil means and treated one of the people, Lucretia, with disrespect and disregard (perhaps as told in Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucretia?). When this same woman killed herself because of her mistreatment, the people were in an uproar, demanding that King Tarquin be removed as king. Publicola found himself, as a generous and influential man of wealth as well as a powerful orator, as one of the two prominent leaders of the rebellion against King Tarquin. The other was Brutus (_______  ________  Brutus), an ancestor of the more famous later Brutus who lived in the time of Julius Caesar. Publicola assumed that Brutus would be the new ruler, as he was the better qualified of the two. However, when the people decided on having two rulers rather than one king, Publicola began to hope that he would be chosen as the second honored one. Instead, the people chose Brutus and the husband of Lucretia as their new leaders, with the reasoning that Lucretia's husband, having a personal hatred for the king, would be least likely to let the king back into control. Publicola felt slighted by this decision, as though his loyalty towards the Republic was in question. He removed himself from public affairs. The people and the two elected consuls were concerned that Publicola might decide to support the kings in the end. However, when Brutus challenged the people to swear an oath of fidelity to the Republic at the marketplace during the time of the sacrifices, Publicola was the first to wholeheartedly do so, putting the fears of the people to rest. And so, Rome changed from an empire to a republic in the year 590 BC.