This is said to have been
older even than the Greek funeral orations, unless, as Anaximenes tells
us, Solon introduced this custom.
X. But the people were vexed and angry, because though Brutus, whom they
thought the author of their liberty, would not be consul alone, but had
one colleague after another, yet "Valerius," they said, "has got all
power into his own hands, and is not so much the heir of the consulship
of Brutus as of the tyranny of Tarquin. And what use is it for him to
praise Brutus while he imitates Tarquin in his deeds, swaggering down
into the Forum with all the rods and axes before him, from a house
larger than the king's palace used to be." Indeed, Valerius lived in
rather too splendid a house on the Velian Hill, looking down into the
Forum, and difficult to climb up to, so that when he walked down from it
he did indeed look like a tragedy king leaving his palace. But now he
proved how valuable a thing it is for a statesman engaged in important
matters to keep his ears open to the truth, and shut against flattery.
Hearing from his friends what the people thought of him, he did not
argue or grieve at it, but suddenly assembled a number of workmen and
during the night destroyed his entire house down to the very
foundations, so that on the next day the Romans collected in crowds to
see it, admiring the magnanimity of the man, but sorrowing at the
destruction of so great and noble a house, which, like many a man, had
been put to death undeservedly, and expressing their concern for their
consul, who had no house to live in.
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