Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 3
Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.

56. Then, when the tribunician power and the liberty of the plebs were firmly established, the tribunes, believing that it was now safe to proceed against individuals and that the time was ripe for doing so, selected Verginius to bring the first accusation and Appius to be defendant. [2] When Verginius had cited Appius to appear, and the latter, attended by a crowd of young patricians, had come down into the Forum, there was instantly revived in the minds of all the recollection of that most wicked power, as soon as they caught sight of the man himself and his satellites. [3] Then Verginius said, “Oratory was invented for doubtful matters; and so I shall neither waste time in arraigning before you the man from whose cruelty you freed yourselves with arms, nor shall I suffer him to add to his other crimes the impudence of defending himself.¹ [4] I therefore pardon you, Appius Claudius, all the impious and wicked deeds which you dared, during two years, to heap one upon another; on one charge only, unless you shall name a referee to establish your innocence of having illegally assigned custody of a free person to him who claimed her as his slave, I shall order you to be taken to prison.” [5] Neither in the protection of the tribunes nor in the decision of the people had Appius anything to hope; yet he called upon the tribunes, and when none of them would stay proceedings, and he had been arrested by an officer, he cried, “I appeal.” [6] The sound of this word, the one safeguard of liberty, coming from that mouth by which, shortly before, a free person had been given into the [p. 189]custody of one who claimed her as a slave,² produced a hush. [7] And while the people muttered, each man to himself, that there were gods after all, who did not neglect the affairs of men; and that pride and cruelty were receiving their punishment, which though late was nevertheless not light —that [8] he was appealing who had nullified appeal; that he was imploring the protection of the people who had trodden all the rights of the people under foot; that he was being carried off to prison, deprived of his right to liberty, who had condemned the person of a free citizen to slavery —the voice of Appius himself was heard amidst the murmurs of the assembly, beseeching the Roman People to protect him. [9] He reminded them of the services his forefathers had rendered the state in peace and in war; of his own unfortunate affection for the Roman plebs, in consequence of which he had given up his consulship —in order to make the laws equal for all —with great offence to the patricians; —of the laws he had himself drawn up,³ which were still standing while their author was being dragged off to prison. [10] For the rest, when he should be given an opportunity to plead his cause, he would try what would come of his own peculiar services and shortcomings; at present he asked that, in accordance with the common right of citizenship, he be permitted, being a Roman citizen and under accusation, to speak, and to be judged by the Roman People. [11] He did not so fear men's malice as to have no hope in the justice and pity of his fellow citizens. But if he was to be imprisoned, his cause unheard, he appealed once more to the tribunes of the plebs, and warned them not to [p. 191]imitate those whom they hated. [12] And if the tribunes⁴ should confess that they were bound by the same agreement which they charged the decemvirs with having entered into, not to hear an appeal, he still appealed to the people, and invoked the laws, both consular and tribunician, which had been enacted concerning appeals that very year. [13] For who, he asked, should make an appeal, if a man who had not been condemned, whose cause had not been heard, might not do so? What humble plebeian would find protection in the laws, if they afforded none to Appius Claudius? His own case would show whether the new statutes had established tyranny or freedom, and whether the appeal to the tribunes and that to the people against the injustice of magistrates had been merely a parade of meaningless forms, or had been really granted.