Her beauty attracted the notice of the decemvir Appius Claudius, who instructed Marcus Claudius, one of his clients, to claim her as his slave.
Virginius presented himself with his daughter before the tribunal of Appius, who, refusing to listen to any argument, declared Virginia to be a slave and the property of Marcus.
Virginius thereupon stabbed her to the heart in the presence of Appius and the people.
We have at Athens the exact parallel to the state of things when Appius Claudius shrank from the thought of the consulship of Gaius Licinius; we have no exact parallel to the state of things when Quintus Metellus shrank from the thought of the consulship of Gaius Marius.
By a reform of the censor Appius Claudius in 312 B.C. these non-assidui were admitted into the tribes, and the aerarii as such disappeared.