Then after he had recounted his exploits in war, in pompous language suitable to the dignity of the subject, equalling his actions by his eloquence, he bared his breast marked with scars received in battle: and now and then, directing his eyes to the Capitol, he called down Jupiter and the other gods to aid him in his present lot; and he prayed, that the same sentiments with which they had inspired him when protecting the fortress of the Capitol, for the preservation of the Roman people, they would now inspire the Roman people with in his critical situation: and he entreated them singly and collectively, that they would form their judgment of him with their eyes fixed on the Capitol and citadel and their faces turned to the immortal gods.

As the people were summoned by centuries in the field of Mars, and as the accused, extending his hands towards the Capitol, directed his prayers from men to the gods; it became evident to the tribunes, that unless they removed the eyes of men also from the memory of so great an exploit, the best founded charge would find no place in minds prejudiced by services.

Thus the day of trial being adjourned, a meeting of the people was summoned in the Poeteline grove outside the Nomentan gate, from whence there was no view of the Capitol; there the charge was made good, and their minds being now unmoved [by adventitious circumstances], a fatal sentence, and one which excited horror even in his judges, was passed on him.

There are some who state that he was condemned by duumvirs appointed to inquire concerning cases of treason.
The tribunes cast him down from the Tarpeian rock: and the same place in the case of one man became a monument of distinguished glory and of extreme punishment.

Marks of infamy were offered to him when dead: one, a public one; that, when his house had been that where the temple of Moneta and the mint-office now stand, it was proposed to the people, that no patrician should dwell in the citadel and Capitol: the other appertaining to his family; it being commanded by a decree that no one of the Manlian family should ever after bear the name of Marcus Manlius.
Such was the fate of a man, who, had he not been born in a free state, would have been celebrated with posterity.