Page:Dio's Roman History, tr. Cary - Volume 1.djvu/105

Rh Dio, Book II. "When, therefore, he had learned this, he came to them the following day."

or unwillingly reveal something; but leading him into a garden where there were poppies, he struck off with his staff the heads that were most conspicuous and strewed the ground with them; hereupon he dismissed the message-bearer. The latter, without comprehending the affair, repeated the king's actions to Sextus, and he understood the meaning of the suggestion. And Sextus destroyed the more prominent men of Gabii, some secretly by poison, others by the hands of certain alleged robbers, and still others he put to death after judicial trial by concocting against them false accusations of traitorous dealings with his father.

Thus did Sextus deal with the men of Gabii; he destroyed the more influential citizens and distributed their wealth among the populace. Later when some had already perished and the rest had been cozened and thoroughly believed in him, assisted by the Roman captives and the deserters whom he had gathered in large numbers for the purpose, he seized the city and handed it over to his father. The king bestowed it upon his son, and himself made war upon other nations.

11. The oracles of the Sibyl Tarquin obtained for

The Sibyl about whom Lycophron is now speaking