Appius Herdonius (d. 460 BC) was a

Sabine The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divide ...

who led an uprising against

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

at the head of slaves and exiles. With his troops, he managed, in 460 BC, to seize the

Capitoline Hill The Capitolium or Capitoline Hill ( ; it, Campidoglio ; la, Mons Capitolinus ), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. The hill was earlier known as ''Mons Saturnius'', dedicated to the god Saturn. Th ...

and

Arx Arx, ARX, or ArX may refer to: *ARX (Algorithmic Research Ltd.), a digital security company *ARX (gene), Aristaless related homeobox *ARX (operating system), an operating system *ArX (revision control), revision control software *Arx (Roman), a Ro ...

at night. According to

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...

, Herdonius appeared from the top of the Capitoline walls and appealed to all the slaves and uprooted of Rome. Its objective would be to "return their homeland to the exiles unjustly banished and to take away from the slaves their overwhelming yoke”. The tribunes of the plebs opposed the consuls who wanted to end the uprising and who had distributed weapons to the people. According to tribunes, the capture of the Capitol was only an invention of the patricians intended to avoid the vote of the ''Lex Terentilia'', which provided for the creation of a commission to put consular rights in writing in order to limit the arbitrariness of the power of consuls and which would ultimately lead to the Law of the

Twelve Tables The Laws of the Twelve Tables was the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. Formally promulgated in 449 BC, the Tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws.Crawford, M.H. 'Twelve Tables' in Simon Hornblowe ...

. Consul

Publius Valerius Publicola Publius Valerius Poplicola or Publicola (died 503 BC) was one of four Roman aristocrats who led the overthrow of the monarchy, and became a Roman consul, the colleague of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, traditionally considered the first year o ...

in a long speech exhorted the plebeians to help the patricians defeat Herdonius, playing to the religiosity of the Romans by stating that the temples of the gods were being held hostage by hostile marauders as well as promising to push for their desired reforms if their aid was granted. His speech appeased the plebeians and most soon vowed to combat the revolt. At the announcement of the capture of the citadel of Rome at

Tusculum Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the many great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city, yet a comfortable distance from Rome ( ...

, its dictator Lucius Mamilius, sent a detachment to support the Romans. Consul

formed an army; the other consul, Gaius Claudius Sabinus, was charged with guarding the gates of Rome. The Romans and their Tusculan allies then launched the assault and regained control of the Capitol and the citadel of the Arx. Consul Publicola and Herdonius were slain in the fighting. A good number of the insurgents were captured and executed.

Reference

Livy, ''

Ab urbe condita ''Ab urbe condita'' ( 'from the founding of the City'), or ''anno urbis conditae'' (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is an exp ...

'', book III, 15-29 {{DEFAULTSORT:Herdonius, Appius 460 BC deaths