ch. 132.13Mucius was accordingly dismissed; afterwards he
received the sobriquet of Scaevola from the loss of his right
hand. Envoys from Porsena followed him to Rome. The king's
narrow escape from the first of many attempts which was owing
solely to the mistake of his assailant, and the prospect of
having to meet as many attacks as there were conspirators, so
unnerved him that he made proposals of peace to Rome. One for
the restoration of the Tarquins was put forward, more
because he could not well refuse their request than because
he had any hope of its being granted. The demand for the
restitution of their territory to the Veientines, and that
for the surrender of hostages as a condition of the
withdrawal of the detachment from the Janiculum, were felt by
the Romans to be inevitable, and on their being accepted and
peace concluded, Porsena moved his troops from the Janiculum
and evacuated the Roman territory. As a recognition of his
courage the senate gave C. Mucius a piece of land
across the river, which was afterwards known as the Mucian
Meadows. [Note]The honour thus paid to courage
incited even women to do glorious things for the State. The
Etruscan camp was situated not far from the city, and the
maiden Cloelia, one of the hostages, escaped, unobserved,
through the guards and at the head of her sister hostages
swam across the river amidst a shower of javelins and
restored them all safe to their relatives. When the news of
this incident reached him, the king was at first exceedingly
angry and sent to demand the surrender of Cloelia; the others
he did not care about. Afterwards his feelings changed to
admiration; he said that the exploit surpassed those of Cocles
and Mucius, and announced that whilst on the one hand he
should consider the treaty broken if she were not
surrendered, he would on the other hand, if she were
surrendered, send her back to her people unhurt. Both
sides behaved honourably; the Romans surrendered her as a
pledge of loyalty to the terms of the treaty; the Etruscan
king showed that with him courage was not only safe but
honoured, and after eulogising the girl's conduct, told her
that he would make her a present of half the remaining
hostages, she was to choose whom she would. It is said that
after all had been brought before her, she chose the boys of
tender age; a choice in keeping with maidenly modesty, and
one approved by the hostages themselves, since they felt that
the age which was most liable to ill-treatment should have
the preference in being rescued from hostile hands.
After peace was thus re-established, the Romans rewarded
the unprecedented courage shown by a woman by an
unprecedented honour, namely an equestrian statue. On the
highest part of the Sacred Way a statue was erected
representing the maiden sitting on horseback.
