Livy -- History of Rome

(This covers the end of the Roman Monarchy: from the coming of Lucumo Tarquin, through the banishment of Tarquin Superbus, up to the defeat of the Tarquin family and their allies.)

Book 1:34 - Book 2:15

translated by D. Spillan

"I would have every man apply his mind seriously to consider these points, viz. what their life and what their manners were; through what men and by what measures, both in peace and in war, their empire was acquired and extended; then, as discipline gradually declined, let him follow in his thoughts their morals, at first as slightly giving way, anon how they sunk more and more, then began to fall headlong, until he reaches the present times, when we can neither endure our vices, nor their remedies."

Book 1

34 (Lucumo Tarquin comes to Rome)

In the reign of Ancus, Lucumo, a rich and enterprising man, came to settle at Rome, prompted chiefly by the desire and hope of obtaining great preferment there, which he had no means of attaining at Tarquinii (for there also he was descended from an alien stock). He was the son of Demaratus, a Corinthian, who, flying his country for sedition, had happened to settle at Tarquinii, and having married a wife there, had two sons by her. Their names were Lucumo and Aruns. Lucumo survived his father, and became heir to all his property. Aruns died before his father, leaving a wife pregnant. The father did not long survive the son, and as he, not knowing that his daughter-in-law was pregnant, died without taking any notice of his grandchild in his will, to the boy that was born after the death of his grandfather, without having any share in his fortune, the name of Egerius was given on account of his poverty. And when his wealth already inspired Lucumo, on the other hand, the heir of all his father's wealth, with elevated notions, Tanaquil, whom he married, further increased such feeling, she being descended from a very high family, and one who would not readily brook the condition into which she had married to be inferior to that in which she had been born. As the Etrurians despised Lucumo, because sprung from a foreign exile, she could not bear the affront, and regardless of the innate love of her native country, provided she might see her husband advanced to honours, she formed the determination to leave Tarquinii. Rome seemed particularly suited for her purpose. In this state, lately founded, where all nobility is recent and the result of merit, there would be room for her husband, a man of courage and activity. Tatius a Sabine had been king of Rome: Numa had been sent for from Cures to reign there: Ancus was sprung from a Sabine mother, and rested his nobility on the single statue of Numa. She easily persuades him, as being ambitious of honours, and one to whom Tarquinii was his country only on the mother's side. Accordingly, removing their effects they set out together for Rome. They happened to have reached the Janiculum; there, as he sat in the chariot with his wife, an eagle, suspended on her wings, gently stooping, takes off his cap, and flying round the chariot with loud screams, as if she had been sent from heaven for the very purpose, orderly replaced it on his head, and then flew aloft. Tanaquil is said to have received this omen with great joy, being a woman well skilled, as the Etrurians generally are, in celestial prodigies, and embracing her husband, bids him hope for high and elevated fortune: that such bird had come from such a quarter of the heavens, and the messenger of such a god: that it had exhibited the omen around the highest part of man: that it had lifted the ornament placed on the head of man, to restore it to the same, by direction of the gods. Carrying with them these hopes and thoughts, they entered the city, and having purchased a house there, they gave out the name of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. His being a stranger and very rich, caused him to be taken notice of by the Romans. He also promoted his own good fortune by his affable address, by the courteousness of his invitations, and by conciliating those whom he could by acts of kindness; until a report of him reached even to the palace; and by paying court to the king with politeness and address, he in a short time so improved the acquaintance to the footing of intimate friendship, that he was present at all public and private deliberations, foreign and domestic; and being now tried in every trust, he was at length, by the king's will, appointed guardian to his children.

35 (Tarquin elected king, first to compaign)

Ancus reigned twenty-four years, equal to any of the former kings both in the arts and renown of war and peace. His sons were now nigh the age of puberty, for this reason Tarquin was more urgent that the assembly for the election of a king should be held as soon as possible. The assembly being proclaimed, he sent away the boys to hunt towards the time of their meeting. He is said to have been the first who earnestly sued for the crown, and to have made a set speech for the purpose of gaining the affections of the people: he said "that he did not aim at any thing unprecedented; for that he was not the first foreigner, (a thing at which any one might feel indignation or surprise,) but the third who aspired to the sovereignty of Rome. That Tatius not only from being an alien, but even an enemy, was made king: that Numa, unacquainted with the city, and without soliciting it, had been voluntarily invited by them to the throne. That he, as soon as he was his own master, had come to Rome with his wife and whole fortune, and had there spent a greater part of that age, in which men are employed in civil offices, than he had in his native country: that he had both in peace and war thoroughly learned the Roman laws and religious customs, under a master not to be objected to, king Ancus himself; that he had vied with all in duty and loyalty to his prince, and even with the king himself in his bounty to others." While he was recounting these undoubted facts, the people by a great majority elected him king. The same ambition which had prompted Tarquin, in other respects an excellent man, to aspire to the crown, followed him whilst on the throne. And being no less mindful of strengthening his own power, than of increasing that of the commonwealth, he elected a hundred into the fathers, who from that time were called Minorum Gentium, i.e. of the younger families: a party hearty in the king's cause, by whose favour they had got into the senate. The first war he waged was with the Latins, from whom he took the town of Apiolæ by storm, and having brought back thence more booty than the character of the war would lead one to expect, he celebrated games with more cost and magnificence than former kings. The place for the circus, which is now called Maximus, was then first marked out, and spaces were parted off for the senators and knights, where they might each erect seats for themselves: they were called fori (benches). They viewed the games from scaffolding which supported seats twelve feet high from the ground. The show took place; horses and boxers were sent for, chiefly from Etruria. These solemn games afterwards continued annual, being variously called the Roman and Great (games). By the same king also spaces round the forum were portioned off for private individuals to build on; porticoes and shops were erected.

36 (auguries concerning new orders of knights)

He was also preparing to surround the city with a stone wall, when a Sabine war obstructed his designs. The matter was so sudden, that the enemy had passed the Anio before the Roman army could meet and stop them; great alarm therefore was produced at Rome. And at first they fought with dubious success, but with great slaughter on both sides. After this, the enemy's forces being led back into their camp, and the Romans getting time to make new levies for the war, Tarquin, thinking that the weakness of his army lay in the want of horse, determined to add other centuries to the Ramnenses, the Titienses, and Luceres which Romulus had appointed, and to leave them distinguished by his own name. Because Romulus had done this by augury, Attus Navius, at that time a celebrated soothsayer, insisted that no alteration or new appointment of that kind could be made, unless the birds approved of it. The king, enraged at this, and, as it is related, ridiculing the art, said, "Come, thou diviner, tell me, whether what I am thinking on can be done or not?" When he had tried the matter by divination, he affirmed it certainly could. "But I was thinking," says he, "whether you could cut asunder this whetstone with a razor. Take it, and perform what thy birds portend may be done." Upon this, as they say, he immediately cut the whetstone in two. A statue of Attus, with his head veiled, was erected in the comitium, upon the very steps on the left of the senate-house, on the spot where the transaction occurred. They say that the whetstone also was deposited in the same place, that it might remain a monument of that miracle to posterity. There certainly accrued so much honour to augury and the college of augurs, that nothing was undertaken either in peace or war without taking the auspices. Assemblies of the people, the summoning of armies, and affairs of the greatest importance were put off, when the birds would not allow of them. Nor did Tarquin then make any other alteration in the centuries of horse, except doubling the number of men in each of these corps, so that the three centuries consisted of one thousand eight hundred knights. Those that were added were called "the younger," but by the same names with the former; which, now that they have been doubled, they call six centuries.

37 (defeat of the Sabines)

This part of his forces being augmented, a second battle is fought with the Sabines. But, besides that the Roman army was thus reinforced, a stratagem also is secretly resorted to, persons having been sent to throw into the river a great quantity of timber that lay on the banks of the Anio, it being first set on fire; and the wood being further kindled by favour of the wind, and the greater part of it (being placed) on rafts, when it stuck firmly impacted against the piers, sets the bridge on fire. This accident struck terror into the Sabines during the battle, and, after they were routed, impeded their flight; so that many, who had escaped the enemy, perished in the river. Their arms floating down the Tiber, and being recognised at the city, made known the victory, almost before any account of it could be carried there. In that action the glory of the cavalry was prominent: they say that, being posted in the two wings, when the centre of their own infantry was being beaten, they charged so briskly in flank, that they not only checked the Sabine legions who pressed hard on those who retired, but quickly put them to flight. The Sabines made for the mountains with great precipitation, yet few reached them; for, as we said before, the greatest part were driven by the cavalry into the river. Tarquin, thinking it advisable to pursue the enemy closely while in this consternation, after sending the booty and the prisoners to Rome, piling up and burning the spoils which he had vowed to Vulcan, proceeds to lead his army onward into the Sabine territory. And though matters had turned out adversely, nor could they hope for better success; yet, because the occasion did not allow time for deliberation, the Sabines came out to meet him with a hastily raised army; and being again defeated there, and matters having now become desperate, they sued for peace.

38 (various cities taken, roman walls and other improvements built)

Collatia and all the land about it was taken from the Sabines, and Egerius, son to the king's brother, was left there with a garrison. I understand that the people of Collatia were thus surrendered, and that the form of the surrender was as follows: the king asked them, "Are ye ambassadors and deputies sent by the people of Collatia to surrender yourselves and the people of Collatia?" "We are." "Are the people of Collatia their own masters?" "They are." "Do ye surrender yourselves and the people of Collatia, their city, lands, water, boundaries, temples, utensils, and every thing sacred or profane belonging to them, into my power, and that of the Roman people?" "We do." "Then I receive them." The Sabine war being ended, Tarquin returned in triumph to Rome. After that he made war upon the ancient Latins, where they came on no occasion to a general engagement; yet by carrying about his arms to the several towns, he subdued the whole Latin nation. Corniculum, old Ficulea, Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia, and Nomentum, towns which either belonged to the ancient Latins, or which had revolted to them, were taken. Upon this a peace was concluded. The works of peace were then set about with greater spirit, even than the efforts with which he had conducted his wars; so that the people enjoyed no more ease and quiet at home, than they had done abroad: for he both set about surrounding the city with a stone wall, on the side where he had not fortified it, the beginning of which work had been interrupted by the Sabine war, and the lower parts of the city round the forum and the other valleys lying between the hills, because they did not easily carry off the water from the flat grounds, he drains by means of sewers drawn sloping downward into the Tiber. Moreover he levels an area for founding a temple to Jupiter in the Capitol, which he had vowed to him in the Sabine war; his mind even then presaging the future grandeur of the place.

39 (Tarquin's son-in-law)

At that time, a prodigy occurred in the palace, wonderful both in its appearance and in its result. They relate, that the head of a boy, called Servius Tullius, as he lay fast asleep, blazed with fire in the sight of many persons. That by the very great noise made at so miraculous a phenomenon, the royal family were awakened; and when one of the servants was bringing water to extinguish the flame, that he was kept back by the queen, and after the confusion was over, that she forbade the boy to be disturbed till he should awake of his own accord. As soon as he awoke the flame disappeared. Then Tanaquil, taking her husband into a private place, said, "Do you observe this boy whom we bring up in so mean a style? Be assured that hereafter he will be a light to us in our adversity, and a protector to our palace in distress. From henceforth let us, with all our care, train up this youth, who is capable of becoming a great ornament publicly and privately." From this time the boy began to be treated as their own son, and instructed in those arts by which men's minds are qualified to maintain high rank. The matter was easily accomplished, because it was agreeable to the gods. The young man turned out to be of a disposition truly royal. Nor, when they looked out for a son-in-law for Tarquin, could any of the Roman youth be compared to him in any accomplishment; therefore the king betrothed his own daughter to him. This high honour conferred upon him, from whatever cause, prevents us from believing that he was the son of a slave, and that he had himself been a slave when young. I am rather of the opinion of those who say that, on the taking of Corniculum, the wife of Servius Tullius, who had been the leading man in that city, being pregnant when her husband was slain, being known among the other female prisoners, and, in consequence of her high rank, exempted from servitude by the Roman queen, was delivered of a child at Rome, in the house of Tarquinius Priscus. Upon this, that both the intimacy between the ladies was improved by so great a kindness, and that the boy, having been brought up in the house from his infancy, was beloved and respected; that his mother's lot, in having fallen into the hands of the enemy, caused him to be considered the son of a slave.

40 (Ancus's sons conspire to kill Tarquin)

About the thirty-eighth year of Tarquin's reign, Servius Tullius was in the highest esteem, not only with the king, but also with the senate and people. At this time the two sons of Ancus, though they had before that always considered it the highest indignity that they had been deprived of their father's crown by the treachery of their guardian, that a stranger should be king of Rome, who was not only not of a civic, but not even of an Italian family, yet now felt their indignation rise to a still higher pitch at the notion that the crown would not only not revert to them after Tarquin, but would descend even lower to a slave, so that in the same state about the hundredth year after Romulus, descended from a deity, and a deity himself, occupied the throne as long as he lived, a slave, and one born of a slave, should now possess it. That it would be a disgrace both common to the Roman name, and more especially to their family, if, whilst there was male issue of king Ancus still living, the sovereignty of Rome should be accessible not only to strangers, but even to slaves. They determine therefore to prevent that disgrace by the sword. But both resentment for the injury done to them incensed them more against Tarquin himself, than against Servius; and (the consideration) that a king was likely to prove a more severe avenger of the murder, if he should survive, than a private person; and moreover, in case of Servius being put to death, whatever other person he might select as his son-in-law, it seemed likely that he would adopt as his successor on the throne. For these reasons the plot is laid against the king himself. Two of the most ferocious of the shepherds being selected for the daring deed, with the rustic implements to which each had been accustomed, by conducting themselves in as violent a manner as possible in the porch of the palace, under pretence of a quarrel, draw the attention of all the king's attendants to themselves; then, when both appealed to the king, and their clamour reached even the interior of the palace, they are called in and proceed before the king. At first both bawled aloud, and vied in interrupting each other by their clamour, until being restrained by the lictor, and commanded to speak in turns, they at length cease railing. According to concert, one begins to state the matter. When the king, attentive to him, had turned himself quite that way, the other, raising up his axe, struck it into his head, and leaving the weapon in the wound, they both rush out of the house.

41 (Servius takes the throne without an election)

When those who were around had raised up the king in a dying state, the lictors seize on the men who were endeavouring to escape. Upon this followed an uproar and concourse of people, wondering what the matter was. Tanaquil, during the tumult, orders the palace to be shut, thrusts out all who were present: at the same time she sedulously prepares every thing necessary for dressing the wound, as if a hope still remained; at the same time, in case her hopes should disappoint her, she projects other means of safety. Sending immediately for Servius, after she had showed to him her husband almost expiring, holding his right hand, she entreats him not to suffer the death of his father-in-law to pass unavenged, nor his mother-in-law to be an object of insult to their enemies. "Servius," she said, "if you are a man, the kingdom is yours, not theirs, who, by the hands of others, have perpetrated the worst of crimes. Exert yourself, and follow the guidance of the gods, who portended that this head would be illustrious by having formerly shed a blaze around it. Now let that celestial flame arouse you. Now awake in earnest. We, too, though foreigners, have reigned. Consider who you are, not whence you are sprung. If your own plans are not matured by reason of the suddenness of this event, then follow mine." When the uproar and violence of the multitude could scarcely be withstood, Tanaquil addresses the populace from the upper part of the palace through the windows facing the new street (for the royal family resided near the temple of Jupiter Stator). She bids them "be of good courage; that the king was stunned by the suddenness of the blow; that the weapon had not sunk deep into his body; that he was already come to himself again; that the wound had been examined, the blood having been wiped off; that all the symptoms were favourable; that she hoped they would see him very soon; and that, in the mean time, he commanded the people to obey the orders of Servius Tullius. That he would administer justice, and would perform all the functions of the king." Servius comes forth with the trabea and lictors, and seating himself on the king's throne, decides some cases, with respect to others pretends that he will consult the king. Therefore, the death being concealed for several days, though Tarquin had already expired, he, under pretence of discharging the duty of another, strengthened his own interest. Then at length the matter being made public, and lamentations being raised in the palace, Servius, supported by a strong guard, took possession of the kingdom by the consent of the senate, being the first who did so without the orders of the people. The children of Ancus, the instruments of their villany having been already seized, as soon as it was announced that the king still lived, and that the power of Servius was so great, had already gone into exile to Suessa Pometia.

42 (census)

And now Servius began to strengthen his power, not more by public than by private measures; and lest the feelings of the children of Tarquin might be the same towards himself as those of the children of Ancus had been towards Tarquin, he unites his two daughters in marriage to the young princes, the Tarquinii, Lucius and Aruns. Nor yet did he break through the inevitable decrees of fate by human measures, so that envy of the sovereign power should not produce general treachery and animosity even among the members of his own family. Very opportunely for maintaining the tranquillity of the present state, a war was commenced with the Veientes (for the truce had now expired) and with the other Etrurians. In that war, both the valour and good fortune of Tullius were conspicuous, and he returned to Rome, after routing a great army of the enemy, now unquestionably king, whether he tried the dispositions of the fathers or the people. He then sets about a work of peace of the utmost importance; that, as Numa had been the author of religious institutions, so posterity might celebrate Servius as the founder of all distinction among the members of the state, and of those orders by which a limitation is established between the degrees of rank and fortune. For he instituted the census, a most salutary measure for an empire destined to become so great, according to which the services of war and peace were to be performed, not by every person, (indiscriminately,) as formerly, but in proportion to the amount of property. Then he formed, according to the census, the classes and centuries, and the arrangement as it now exists, eminently suited either to peace or war.

46 (young Tarquin still has aspirations)

Servius, though he had now acquired an indisputable right to the kingdom by long possession, yet as he heard that expressions were sometimes thrown out by young Tarquin, importing, "That he held the crown without the consent of the people," having first secured their good will by dividing among them, man by man, the lands taken from their enemies, he ventured to propose the question to the people, whether they "chose and ordered that he should be king," and was declared king with such unanimity, as had not been observed in the election of any of his predecessors. But this circumstance diminished not Tarquin's hope of obtaining the throne; nay, because he had observed that the question of the distribution of land to the people was carried against the will of the fathers, he felt so much the more satisfied that an opportunity was now presented to him of arraigning Servius before the fathers, and of increasing his own influence in the senate, he being himself naturally of a fiery temper, and his wife, Tullia, at home stimulating his restless temper. For the Roman palace also afforded an instance of tragic guilt, so that through their disgust of kings, liberty might come more matured, and the throne, which should be attained through crime, might be the last. This L. Tarquinius (whether he was the son or grandson of Tarquinius Priscus is not clear; with the greater number of authorities, however, I would say, his son) had a brother, Aruns Tarquinius, a youth of a mild disposition. To these two, as has been already stated, the two Tulliæ, daughters of the king, had been married, they also being of widely different tempers. It had so happened that the two violent dispositions were not united in marriage, through the good fortune, I suspect, of the Roman people, in order that the reign of Servius might be more protracted, and the morals of the state be firmly established. The haughty Tullia was chagrined, that there was no material in her husband, either for ambition or bold daring. Directing all her regard to the other Tarquinius, him she admired, him she called a man, and one truly descended of royal blood; she expressed her contempt of her sister, because, having got a man, she was deficient in the spirit becoming a woman. Similarity of mind soon draws them together, as wickedness is in general most congenial to wickedness. But the commencement of producing general confusion originated with the woman. She, accustomed to the secret conversations of the other's husband, refrained not from using the most contumelious language of her husband to his brother, of her sister to (her sister's) husband, and contended, that it were better that she herself were unmarried, and he single, than that they should be matched unsuitably, so that they must languish away through life by reason of the dastardly conduct of others. If the gods had granted her the husband of whom she was worthy, that she should soon see the crown in her own house, which she now saw at her father's. She soon inspires the young man with her own daring notions. Aruns Tarquinius and the younger Tullia, when they had, by immediate successive deaths, made their houses vacant for new nuptials, are united in marriage, Servius rather not prohibiting than approving the measure.

47 (Tarquin seizes the throne by force)

Then indeed the old age of Servius began to be every day more disquieted, his reign to be more unhappy. For now the woman looked from one crime to another, and suffered not her husband to rest by night or by day, lest their past murders might go for nothing. "That what she had wanted was not a person whose wife she might be called, or one with whom she might in silence live a slave; what she had wanted was one who would consider himself worthy of the throne; who would remember that he was the son of Tarquinius Priscus; who would rather possess a kingdom than hope for it. If you, to whom I consider myself married, are such a one, I address you both as husband and king; but if not, our condition has been changed so far for the worse, as in that person crime is associated with meanness. Why not prepare yourself? It is not necessary for you, as for your father, (coming here) from Corinth or Tarquinii, to strive for foreign thrones. Your household and country's gods, the image of your father, and the royal palace, and the royal throne in that palace, constitute and call you king. Or if you have too little spirit for this, why do you disappoint the nation? Why do you suffer yourself to be looked up to as a prince? Get hence to Tarquinii or Corinth. Sink back again to your (original) race, more like your brother than your father." By chiding him in these and other terms, she spurs on the young man; nor can she herself rest; (indignant) that when Tanaquil, a foreign woman, could achieve so great a project, as to bestow two successive thrones on her husband, and then on her son-in-law, she, sprung from royal blood, should have no weight in bestowing and taking away a kingdom. Tarquinius, driven on by these frenzied instigations of the woman, began to go round and solicit the patricians, especially those of the younger families; reminded them of his father's kindness, and claimed a return for it; enticed the young men by presents; increased his interest, as well by making magnificent promises on his own part, as by inveighing against the king at every opportunity. At length, as soon as the time seemed convenient for accomplishing his object, he rushed into the forum, accompanied by a party of armed men; then, whilst all were struck with dismay, seating himself on the throne before the senate-house, he ordered the fathers to be summoned to the senate-house by the crier to attend king Tarquinius. They assembled immediately, some being already prepared for the occasion, some through fear, lest their not having come might prove detrimental to them, astounded at the novelty and strangeness of the matter, and considering that it was now all over with Servius. Then Tarquinius, commencing his invectives against his immediate ancestors: "that a slave, and born of a slave, after the untimely death of his parent, without an interregnum being adopted, as on former occasions, without any comitia (being held), without the suffrages of the people, or the sanction of the fathers, he had taken possession of the kingdom as the gift of a woman. That so born, so created king, ever a favourer of the most degraded class, to which he himself belongs, through a hatred of the high station of others, he had taken their land from the leading men of the state and divided it among the very meanest; that he had laid all the burdens, which were formerly common, on the chief members of the community; that he had instituted the census, in order that the fortune of the wealthier citizens might be conspicuous to (excite) public envy, and that all was prepared whence he might bestow largesses on the most needy, whenever he might please."

48 (Servius is killed)

When Servius, aroused by the alarming announcement, came in during this harangue, immediately from the porch of the senate-house, he says with a loud voice, "What means this, Tarquin? by what audacity hast thou dared to summon the fathers, while I am still alive? or to sit on my throne?" To this, when he fiercely replied "that he, the son of a king, occupied the throne of his father, a much fitter successor to the throne than a slave; that he (Servius) had insulted his masters full long enough by his arbitrary shuffling," a shout arises from the partisans of both, and a rush of the people into the senate-house took place, and it became evident that whoever came off victor would have the throne. Then Tarquin, necessity itself now obliging him to have recourse to the last extremity, having much the advantage both in years and strength, seizes Servius by the middle, and having taken him out of the senate-house, throws him down the steps to the bottom. He then returns to the senate-house to assemble the senate. The king's officers and attendants fly. He himself, almost lifeless, when he was returning home with his royal retinue frightened to death, and had arrived at the top of the Cyprian street, is slain by those who had been sent by Tarquin, and had overtaken him in his flight. As the act is not inconsistent with her other marked conduct, it is believed to have been done by Tullia's advice. Certain it is, (for it is readily admitted,) that driving into the forum in her chariot, and not abashed by the crowd of persons there, she called her husband out of the senate-house, and was the first to style him king; and when, on being commanded by him to withdraw from such a tumult, she was returning home, and had arrived at the top of the Cyprian street, where Diana's temple lately was, as she was turning to the right to the Orbian hill, in order to arrive at the Esquiline, the person who was driving, being terrified, stopped and drew in the reins, and pointed out to his mistress the murdered Servius as he lay. On this occasion a revolting and inhuman crime is stated to have been committed, and the place is a monument of it. They call it the Wicked Street, where Tullia, frantic and urged on by the furies of her sister and husband, is reported to have driven her chariot over her father's body, and to have carried a portion of her father's body and blood to her own and her husband's household gods, herself also being stained and sprinkled with it; through whose vengeance results corresponding to the wicked commencement of the reign were soon to follow. Tullius reigned forty-four years in such a manner that a competition with him would prove difficult even for a good and moderate successor. But this also has been an accession to his glory, that with him perished all just and legitimate reigns. This authority, so mild and so moderate, yet, because it was vested in one, some say that he had it in contemplation to resign, had not the wickedness of his family interfered with him whilst meditating the liberation of his country.

49 (Tarquin the Proud, tyrannical reign)

After this period Tarquin began his reign, whose actions procured him the surname of the Proud, for he refused his father-in-law burial, alleging, that even Romulus died without sepulture. He put to death the principal senators, whom he suspected of having been in the interest of Servius. Then, conscious that the precedent of obtaining the crown by evil means might be adopted from him against himself, he surrounded his person with armed men, for he had no claim to the kingdom except force, inasmuch as he reigned without either the order of the people or the sanction of the senate. To this was added (the fact) that, as he reposed no hope in the affection of his subjects, he found it necessary to secure his kingdom by terror; and in order to strike this into the greater number, he took cognizance of capital cases solely by himself without assessors; and under that pretext he had it in his power to put to death, banish, or fine, not only those who were suspected or hated, but those also from whom he could obtain nothing else but plunder. The number of the fathers more especially being thus diminished, he determined to elect none into the senate, in order that the order might become contemptible by their very paucity, and that they might feel the less resentment at no business being transacted by them. For he was the first king who violated the custom derived from his predecessors of consulting the senate on all subjects; he administered the public business by domestic counsels. War, peace, treaties, alliances, he contracted and dissolved with whomsoever he pleased, without the sanction of the people and senate. The nation of the Latins in particular he wished to attach to him, so that by foreign influence also he might be more secure among his own subjects; and he contracted not only ties of hospitality but affinities also with their leading men. To Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum he gives his daughter in marriage; (he was by far the most eminent of the Latin name, being descended, if we believe tradition, from Ulysses and the goddess Circe, and by this match he attaches to himself his numerous kinsmen and friends).

50 (Tarquin tries to influence the Latins)

The influence of Tarquin among the chief men of the Latins was now considerable, when he issues an order that they should assemble on a certain day at the grove of Ferentina; that there was business about which he wished to confer with them touching their common interest. They assemble in great numbers at the break of day. Tarquinius himself observed the day indeed, but he came a little before sun-set. Many matters were there canvassed in the meeting in various conversations. Turnus Herdonius, from Aricia, inveighed violently against Tarquin for his absence. "That it was no wonder the cognomen of Proud was given him at Rome;" for they now called him so secretly and in whispers, but still generally. "Could anything be more proud than thus to trifle with the entire nation of the Latins? After their chiefs had been called at so great a distance from home, that he who summoned the meeting did not attend; that no doubt their patience was tried, in order that if they submitted to the yoke, he may crush them when at his mercy. For to whom did it not plainly appear that he was aiming at sovereignty over the Latins? But if his own countrymen did well in intrusting it to him, or if it was intrusted, and not seized on by means of murder, that the Latins also ought to intrust him (though not even so, inasmuch as he was a foreigner). But if his own subjects are dissatisfied with him, (seeing that they are butchered one upon another, driven into exile, and deprived of their property,) what better prospects are held out to the Latins? If they follow his advice, that they would depart thence, each to his own home, and take no more notice of the day of meeting than the person who appointed it." When this man, turbulent and daring, and one who had attained influence at home by these means, was pressing these and other observations having the same tendency, Tarquin came in. This put a conclusion to his harangue. All turned away from him to salute Tarquin, who, on silence being enjoined, being advised by those next him to apologize for having come at that time, says, that he had been chosen arbiter between a father and a son; that, from his anxiety to reconcile them, he had delayed; and because that circumstance had consumed that day, that on the morrow he would transact the business which he had determined on. They say that he did not make even that observation without a remark from Turnus; "that no controversy was shorter than one between a father and son, and that it might be decided in a few words,—unless he submitted to his father, that he must prove unfortunate."

51 (false witness against rival Latin)

The Arician withdrew from the meeting, uttering these reflections against the Roman king. Tarquin, feeling the matter much more acutely than he appeared to do, immediately sets about planning the death of Turnus, in order that he might inspire into the Latins the same terror with which he had crushed the spirits of his own subjects at home; and because he could not be put to death openly, by virtue of his authority, he accomplished the ruin of this innocent man by bringing a false accusation against him. By means of some Aricians of the opposite faction, he bribed a servant of Turnus with gold, to suffer a great number of swords to be introduced privately into his lodging. When this had been completed in the course of one night, Tarquin, having summoned the chiefs of the Latins to him a little before day, as if alarmed by some strange occurrence, says, "that his delay of yesterday, having been occasioned as it were by some providential care of the gods, had been the means of preservation to him and them; that it was told to him that destruction was prepared by Turnus for him and the chiefs of the Latins, that he alone might obtain the government of the Latins. That he was to have made the attempt yesterday at the meeting; that the matter was deferred, because the person who summoned the meeting was absent, whom he chiefly aimed at. That thence arose that abuse of him for being absent, because he disappointed his hopes by delaying. That he had no doubt, but that if the truth were told him, he would come at the break of day, when the assembly met, attended with a band of conspirators, and with arms in his hands. That it was said that a great number of swords had been conveyed to his house. Whether that be true or not, might be known immediately. He requested that they would accompany him thence to Turnus." Both the daring temper of Turnus, and his harangue of yesterday, and the delay of Tarquin, rendered the matter suspicious, because it seemed possible that the murder might have been put off in consequence of it. They proceed then with minds inclined indeed to believe, yet determined to consider every thing false, unless the swords were detected. When they arrived there, Turnus is aroused from sleep, and guards are placed around him; and the servants, who, from affection to their master, were preparing to use force, being secured, when the swords, which had been concealed, were drawn out from all parts of the lodging, then indeed the whole matter appeared manifest, and chains were placed on Turnus; and forthwith a meeting of the Latins was summoned amid great confusion. There, on the swords being brought forward in the midst, such violent hatred arose against him, that without being allowed a defence, by a novel mode of death, being thrown into the reservoir of the water of Ferentina, a hurdle being placed over him, and stones being thrown into that, he was drowned.

52 (union with Latins)

Tarquin, having recalled the Latins to the meeting, and applauded those who had inflicted well-merited punishment on Turnus, as one convicted of parricide, by his attempting a change of government, spoke as follows: "That he could indeed proceed by a long-established right; because, since all the Latins were sprung from Alba, they were included in that treaty by which the entire Alban nation, with their colonies, fell under the dominion of Rome, under Tullus. However, for the sake of the interest of all parties, he thought rather, that that treaty should be renewed; and that the Latins should, as participators, enjoy the prosperity of the Roman people, rather than that they should be constantly either apprehending or suffering the demolition of their town and the devastations of their lands, which they suffered formerly in the reign of Ancus, afterwards in the reign of his own father." The Latins were persuaded without any difficulty, though in that treaty the advantage lay on the side of Rome; but they both saw that the chiefs of the Latin nation sided and concurred with the king, and Turnus was a recent instance of his danger to each, if he should make any opposition. Thus the treaty was renewed, and notice was given to the young men of the Latins, that, according to the treaty, they should attend in considerable numbers in arms, on a certain day, at the grove of Ferentina. And when they assembled from all the states according to the edict of the Roman king, in order that they should neither have a general of their own, nor a separate command, or their own standards, he compounded companies of Latins and Romans, so as to make one out of two, and two out of one; the companies being thus doubled, he appointed centurions over them.

53 (wars and plots against Gabii)

Nor was Tarquin, though a tyrannical prince in peace, a despicable general in war; nay, he would have equalled his predecessors in that art, had not his degeneracy in other respects likewise detracted from his merit here. He began the war against the Volsci, which lasted two hundred years after his time, and took from them Suessa Pometia by storm; and when by the sale of the spoils he had amassed forty talents of silver and of gold, he designed such magnificence for a temple to Jupiter, as should be worthy of the king of gods and men, of the Roman empire, and of the majesty of the place itself: for the building of this temple he set apart the money arising from the spoils. Soon after a war came upon him, more tedious than he expected, in which, having in vain attempted to storm Gabii, a city in his neighbourhood, when being repulsed from the walls all hopes of taking it by siege also was taken from him, he assailed it by fraud and stratagem, arts by no means Roman. For when, as if the war was laid aside, he pretended to be busily taken up with laying the foundation of the temple, and with his other works in the city, Sextus, the youngest of his three sons, according to concert, fled to Gabii, complaining of the inhuman cruelty of his father, "that he had turned his tyranny from others against his own family, and was uneasy at the number of his own children, intending to make the same desolations in his own house which he had made in the senate, in order that he might leave behind him no issue, nor heir to his kingdom. That for his own part, as he had escaped from amidst the swords and other weapons of his father, he was persuaded he could find no safety any where but among the enemies of L. Tarquin. And, that they might not be led astray, that the war, which it is now pretended has been given up, still lies in reserve, and that he would attack them when off their guard on the occurrence of an opportunity. But if there be no refuge for suppliants among them, that he would traverse all Latium, and would apply to the Volscians, and Æquians, and Hernicians, until he should come to those who knew how to protect children from the impious and cruel persecution of parents. That perhaps he would find some ardour also to take up arms and wage war against this proud king and his haughty subjects." As he seemed a person likely to go further onward, incensed with anger, if they paid him no regard, he is received by the Gabians very kindly. They bid him not to be surprised, if he were at last the same to his children as he had been to his subjects and allies;—that he would ultimately vent his rage on himself if other objects failed him;—that his coming was very acceptable to them, and they thought that it would come to pass that by his aid the war would be transferred from the gates of Gabii to the walls of Rome.

54 (Tarquin's son deceptively usurps power in Gabii)

Upon this he was admitted into their public councils, where though, with regard to other matters, he professed to submit to the judgment of the old inhabitants of Gabii, to whom they were better known, yet he every now and then advised them to renew the war; to that he pretended to a superior knowledge, because he was well acquainted with the strength of both nations, and knew that the king's pride was decidedly become hateful to his subjects, which not even his own children could now endure. As he thus by degrees stirred up the nobles of the Gabians to renew the war, went himself with the most active of their youth on plundering parties and expeditions, and ill-grounded credit was attached to all his words and actions, framed as they were for deception, he is at length chosen general-in-chief in the war. There when, the people being still ignorant of what was really going on, several skirmishes with the Romans took place, wherein the Gabians generally had the advantage, then all the Gabians, from the highest to the lowest, were firmly persuaded, that Sextus Tarquinius had been sent to them as their general, by the special favour of the gods. By his exposing himself to fatigues and dangers, and by his generosity in dividing the plunder, he was so beloved by the soldiers, that Tarquin the father had not greater power at Rome than the son at Gabii. When he saw he had got sufficient strength collected to support him in any undertaking, he sent one of his confidants to Rome to ask his father what he wished him to do, seeing the gods had granted him the sole management of all affairs at Gabii. To this courier no answer by word of mouth was given, because, I suppose, he appeared of questionable fidelity. The king going into a garden of the palace, as it were to consider of the matter, followed by his son's messenger; walking there for some time in silence, he is said to have struck off the heads of the tallest poppies with his staff. The messenger, wearied with demanding and waiting for an answer, returned to Gabii as if without having accomplished his object, and told what he had said himself, and what he had observed, adding, "that Tarquin, either through passion, aversion to him, or his innate pride, had not spoke a word." As soon as it became evident to Sextus what his father wished, and what conduct he recommended by those silent intimations, he put to death the most eminent men of the city, accusing some of them to the people, and others who were exposed by their own unpopularity. Many were executed publicly, and some, against whom an impeachment was likely to prove less specious, were secretly assassinated. Means of escape were to some allowed, and others were banished, and their estates, as well as the estates of those who were put to death, publicly distributed. By the sweets of corruption, plunder, and private advantage resulting from these distributions, the sense of the public calamities became extinguished in them, till the state of Gabii, destitute of counsel and assistance, was delivered without a struggle into the hands of the Roman king.

55 (starting a temple to Jupiter on the Tarpeian mount)

Tarquin, thus put in possession of Gabii, made peace with the Æquians, and renewed the treaty with the Etrurians. Then he turned his thoughts to the business of the city. The chief whereof was that of leaving behind him the temple of Jupiter on the Tarpeian mount, as a monument of his name and reign; [since posterity would remember] that of two Tarquinii, both kings, the father had vowed, the son completed it. And that the area, excluding all other forms of worship, might be entirely appropriated to Jupiter, and his temple, which was to be erected upon it, he resolved to unhallow several small temples and chapels, which had been vowed first by king Tatius, in the heat of the battle against Romulus, and which he afterwards consecrated and dedicated. In the very beginning of founding this work it is said that the gods exerted their divinity to presage the future greatness of this empire; for though the birds declared for the unhallowing of all the other temples, they did not admit of it with respect to that of Terminus. This omen and augury were taken to import that Terminus's not changing his residence, and being the only one of the gods who was not called out of the places devoted to their worship, presaged the duration and stability of their empire. This being deemed an omen of the perpetuity, there followed another portending the greatness of the empire. It is reported that the head of a man, with the face entire, appeared to the workmen when digging the foundation of the temple. The sight of this phenomenon unequivocally presaged that this temple should be the metropolis of the empire, and the head of the world; and so declared the soothsayers, both those who were in the city, and those whom they had sent for from Etruria, to consult on this subject. The king was encouraged to enlarge the expense; so that the spoils of Pometia, which had been destined to complete the work, scarcely sufficed for laying the foundation. On this account I am more inclined to believe Fabius Pictor, besides his being the more ancient historian, that there were only forty talents, than Piso, who says that forty thousand pounds weight of silver were set apart for that purpose; a sum of money neither to be expected from the spoils of any one city in those times, and one that would more than suffice for the foundation of any structure, even though exhibiting the magnificence of modern structures.

56 (building temples, trip to Delphi, Brutus)

Tarquin, intent upon finishing this temple, having sent for workmen from all parts of Etruria, employed on it not only the public money, but the manual labour of the people; and when this labour, by no means inconsiderable in itself, was added to their military service, still the people murmured less at their building the temples of the gods with their own hands; they were afterwards transferred to other works, which, whilst less in show, (required) still greater toil: such as the erecting benches in the circus, and conducting under ground the principal sewer, the receptacle of all the filth of the city; to which two works even modern splendour can scarcely produce any thing equal. The people having been employed in these works, because he both considered that such a multitude was a burden to the city when there was no employment for them, and further, he was anxious that the frontiers of the empire should be more extensively occupied by sending colonists, he sent colonists to Signia and Circeii, to serve as defensive barriers hereafter to the city by land and sea. While he was thus employed a frightful prodigy appeared to him. A serpent sliding out of a wooden pillar, after causing dismay and a run into the palace, not so much struck the king's heart with sudden terror, as filled him with anxious solicitude. Accordingly when Etrurian soothsayers only were employed for public prodigies, terrified at this as it were domestic apparition, he determined on sending persons to Delphos to the most celebrated oracle in the world; and not venturing to intrust the responses of the oracle to any other person, he despatched his two sons to Greece through lands unknown at that time, and seas still more so. Titus and Aruns were the two who went. To them were added, as a companion, L. Junius Brutus, the son of Tarquinia, sister to the king, a youth of an entirely different quality of mind from that the disguise of which he had assumed. Brutus, on hearing that the chief men of the city, and among others his own brother, had been put to death by his uncle, resolved to leave nothing in his intellects that might be dreaded by the king, nor any thing in his fortune to be coveted, and thus to be secure in contempt, where there was but little protection in justice. Therefore designedly fashioning himself to the semblance of foolishness, after he suffered himself and his whole estate to become a prey to the king, he did not refuse to take even the surname of Brutus, that, concealed under the cover of such a cognomen, that genius that was to liberate the Roman people might await its proper time. He, being brought to Delphos by the Tarquinii rather as a subject of sport than as a companion, is said to have brought with him as an offering to Apollo a golden rod, enclosed in a staff of cornel-wood hollowed out for the purpose, a mystical emblem of his own mind. When they arrived there, their father's commission being executed, a desire seized the young men of inquiring on which of them the sovereignty of Rome should devolve. They say that a voice was returned from the bottom of the cave, "Young men, whichever of you shall first kiss his mother shall enjoy the sovereign power at Rome." The Tarquinii order the matter to be kept secret with the utmost care, that Sextus, who had been left behind at Rome, might be ignorant of the response, and have no share in the kingdom; they cast lots among themselves, as to which of them should first kiss his mother, after they had returned to Rome. Brutus, thinking that the Pythian response had another meaning, as if he had stumbled and fallen, touched the ground with his lips; she being, forsooth, the common mother of all mankind. After this they all returned to Rome, where preparations were being made with the greatest vigour for a war against the Rutulians.

57 (Sextus Tarquin become enamoured with Lucretia)

The Rutulians, a nation very wealthy, considering the country and age they lived in, were at that time in possession of Ardea. Their riches gave occasion to the war; for the king of the Romans, being exhausted of money by the magnificence of his public works, was desirous both to enrich himself, and by a large booty to soothe the minds of his subjects, who, besides other instances of his tyranny, were incensed against his government, because they were indignant that they had been kept so long a time by the king in the employments of mechanics, and in labour fit for slaves. An attempt was made to take Ardea by storm; when that did not succeed, the enemy began to be distressed by a blockade, and by works raised around them. As it commonly happens in standing camps, the war being rather tedious than violent, furloughs were easily obtained, more so by the officers, however, than the common soldiers. The young princes sometimes spent their leisure hours in feasting and entertainments. One day as they were drinking in the tent of Sextus Tarquin, where Collatinus Tarquinius, the son of Egerius, was also at supper, mention was made of wives. Every one commended his own in an extravagant manner, till a dispute arising about it, Collatinus said, "There was no occasion for words, that it might be known in a few hours how far his Lucretia excelled all the rest. If then, added he, we have any share of the vigour of youth, let us mount our horses and examine the behaviour of our wives; that must be most satisfactory to every one, which shall meet his eyes on the unexpected arrival of the husband." They were heated with wine; "Come on, then," say all. They immediately galloped to Rome, where they arrived in the dusk of the evening. From thence they went to Collatia, where they find Lucretia, not like the king's daughters-in-law, whom they had seen spending their time in luxurious entertainments with their equals, but though at an advanced time of night, employed at her wool, sitting in the middle of the house amid her maids working around her. The merit of the contest regarding the ladies was assigned to Lucretia. Her husband on his arrival, and the Tarquinii, were kindly received; the husband, proud of his victory, gives the young princes a polite invitation. There the villanous passion for violating Lucretia by force seizes Sextus Tarquin; both her beauty, and her approved purity, act as incentives. And then, after this youthful frolic of the night, they return to the camp.

58 (Lucretia is violated, makes men vow revenge, and kills herself)

A few days after, without the knowledge of Collatinus, Sextus came to Collatia with one attendant only; where, being kindly received by them, as not being aware of his intention, after he had been conducted after supper into the guests' chamber, burning with passion, when every thing around seemed sufficiently secure, and all fast asleep, he comes to Lucretia, as she lay asleep, with a naked sword, and with his left hand pressing down the woman's breast, he says, "Be silent, Lucretia; I am Sextus Tarquin; I have a sword in my hand; you shall die, if you utter a word." When awaking terrified from sleep, the woman beheld no aid, impending death nigh at hand; then Tarquin acknowledged his passion, entreated, mixed threats with entreaties, tried the female's mind in every possible way. When he saw her inflexible, and that she was not moved even by the terror of death, he added to terror the threat of dishonour; he says that he will lay a murdered slave naked by her side when dead, so that she may be said to have been slain in infamous adultery. When by the terror of this disgrace his lust, as it were victorious, had overcome her inflexible chastity, and Tarquin had departed, exulting in having triumphed over a lady's honour, Lucretia, in melancholy distress at so dreadful a misfortune, despatches the same messenger to Rome to her father, and to Ardea to her husband, that they would come each with one trusty friend; that it was necessary to do so, and that quickly. Sp. Lucretius comes with P. Valerius, the son of Volesus, Collatinus with L. Junius Brutus, with whom, as he was returning to Rome, he happened to be met by his wife's messenger. They find Lucretia sitting in her chamber in sorrowful dejection. On the arrival of her friends the tears burst from her eyes; and to her husband, on his inquiry "whether all was right," she says, "By no means, for what can be right with a woman who has lost her honour? The traces of another man are on your bed, Collatinus. But the body only has been violated, the mind is guiltless; death shall be my witness. But give me your right hands, and your honour, that the adulterer shall not come off unpunished. It is Sextus Tarquin, who, an enemy in the guise of a guest, has borne away hence a triumph fatal to me, and to himself, if you are men." They all pledge their honour; they attempt to console her, distracted as she was in mind, by turning away the guilt from her, constrained by force, on the perpetrator of the crime; that it is the mind sins, not the body; and that where intention was wanting guilt could not be. "It is for you to see," says she, "what is due to him. As for me, though I acquit myself of guilt, from punishment I do not discharge myself; nor shall any woman survive her dishonour pleading the example of Lucretia." The knife, which she kept concealed beneath her garment, she plunges into her heart, and falling forward on the wound, she dropped down expiring. The husband and father shriek aloud.

59 (Brutus takes charge of the revolt)

Brutus, while they were overpowered with grief, having drawn the knife out of the wound, and holding it up before him reeking with blood, said, "By this blood, most pure before the pollution of royal villany, I swear, and I call you, O gods, to witness my oath, that I shall pursue Lucius Tarquin the Proud, his wicked wife, and all their race, with fire, sword, and all other means in my power; nor shall I ever suffer them or any other to reign at Rome." Then he gave the knife to Collatinus, and after him to Lucretius and Valerius, who were surprised at such extraordinary mind in the breast of Brutus. However, they all take the oath as they were directed, and converting their sorrow into rage, follow Brutus as their leader, who from that time ceased not to solicit them to abolish the regal power. They carry Lucretia's body from her own house, and convey it into the forum; and assemble a number of persons by the strangeness and atrocity of the extraordinary occurrence, as usually happens. They complain, each for himself, of the royal villany and violence. Both the grief of the father moves them, as also Brutus, the reprover of their tears and unavailing complaints, and their adviser to take up arms against those who dared to treat them as enemies, as would become men and Romans. Each most spirited of the youth voluntarily presents himself in arms; the rest of the youth follow also. From thence, after leaving an adequate garrison at the gates at Collatia, and having appointed sentinels, so that no one might give intelligence of the disturbance to the king's party, the rest set out for Rome in arms under the conduct of Brutus. When they arrived there, the armed multitude cause panic and confusion wherever they go. Again, when they see the principal men of the state placing themselves at their head, they think that, whatever it may be, it was not without good reason. Nor does the heinousness of the circumstance excite less violent emotions at Rome than it had done at Collatia; accordingly they run from all parts of the city into the forum, whither, when they came, the public crier summoned them to attend the tribune of the celeres, with which office Brutus happened to be at that time vested. There an harangue was delivered by him, by no means of that feeling and capacity which had been counterfeited up to that day, concerning the violence and lust of Sextus Tarquin, the horrid violation of Lucretia and her lamentable death, the bereavement of Tricipitinus, to whom the cause of his daughter's death was more exasperating and deplorable than the death itself. To this was added the haughty insolence of the king himself, and the sufferings and toils of the people, buried in the earth in cleansing sinks and sewers; that the Romans, the conquerors of all the surrounding states, instead of warriors had become labourers and stone-cutters. The unnatural murder of king Servius Tullius was dwelt on, and his daughter's driving over the body of her father in her impious chariot, and the gods who avenge parents were invoked by him. By stating these and other, I suppose, more exasperating circumstances, which though by no means easily detailed by writers, the heinousness of the case suggested at the time, he persuaded the multitude, already incensed, to deprive the king of his authority, and to order the banishment of L. Tarquin with his wife and children. He himself, having selected and armed some of the young men, who readily gave in their names, set out for Ardea to the camp to excite the army against the king: the command in the city he leaves to Lucretius, who had been already appointed prefect of the city by the king. During this tumult Tullia fled from her house, both men and women cursing her wherever she went, and invoking on her the furies the avengers of parents.

60 (Tarquin banished)

News of these transactions having reached the camp, when the king, alarmed at this sudden revolution, was going to Rome to quell the commotions, Brutus, for he had notice of his approach, turned out of the way, that he might not meet him; and much about the same time Brutus and Tarquin arrived by different routes, the one at Ardea, the other at Rome. The gates were shut against Tarquin, and an act of banishment passed against him; the deliverer of the state the camp received with great joy, and the king's sons were expelled. Two of them followed their father, and went into banishment to Cære, a city of Etruria. Sextus Tarquin, having gone to Gabii, as to his own kingdom, was slain by the avengers of the old feuds, which he had raised against himself by his rapines and murders. Lucius Tarquin the Proud reigned twenty-five years: the regal form of government continued from the building of the city to this period of its deliverance, two hundred and forty-four years. Two consuls, viz. Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, were elected by the prefect of the city at the comitia by centuries, according to the commentaries of Servius Tullius.

BOOK 2

1 (lookup fasces,consul) (beginning of the republic, oath to not allow kings)

The affairs, civil and military, of the Roman people, henceforward free, their annual magistrates, and the sovereignty of the laws, more powerful than that of men, I shall now detail.—The haughty insolence of the late king had caused this liberty to be the more welcome: for the former kings reigned in such a manner that they all in succession might be not undeservedly set down as founders of the parts, at least of the city, which they added as new residences for the population augmented by themselves. Nor is there a doubt but that the very same Brutus who earned so much glory for expelling this haughty monarch, would have done so to the greatest injury of the public weal, if, through an over-hasty desire of liberty, he had wrested the kingdom from any of the preceding kings. For what would have been the consequence if that rabble of shepherds and strangers, fugitives from their own countries, having, under the protection of an inviolable asylum, found liberty, or at least impunity, uncontrolled by the dread of regal authority, had begun to be distracted by tribunician storms, and to engage in contests with the fathers in a strange city, before the pledges of wives and children, and love of the very soil, to which it requires a length of time to become habituated, had united their affections. Their affairs not yet matured would have been destroyed by discord, which the tranquil moderation of the government so cherished, and by proper nourishment brought to such perfection, that, their strength being now developed, they were able to produce the wholesome fruits of liberty. But the origin of liberty you may date from this period, rather because the consular authority was made annual, than that any diminution was made from the kingly prerogative. The first consuls had all their privileges and ensigns of authority, only care was taken that the terror might not appear doubled, by both having the fasces at the same time. Brutus was, with the consent of his colleague, first attended by the fasces, who had not been a more zealous assertor of liberty than he was afterwards its guardian. First of all he bound over the people, whilst still enraptured with their newly-acquired liberty, by an oath that they would suffer no one to be king in Rome, lest afterwards they might be perverted by the importunities or bribes of the royal family. Next in order, that the fulness of the house might produce more of strength in the senate, he filled up the number of the senators, diminished by the king's murders, to the amount of three hundred, having elected the principal men of the equestrian rank; and from thence it is said the custom was derived of summoning into the senate both those who were patres and those who were conscripti. Forsooth they styled those who were elected into the new senate Conscripti. It is wonderful how much that contributed to the concord of the state, and to attach the affection of the commons to the patricians.

2 (Tarquinian family banished from Rome for fear of the name being kingly)

Then attention was paid to religious matters, and as some part of the public worship had been performed by the kings in person, that they might not be missed in any respect, they elect a king of the sacrifices. This office they made subject to the pontiff, that honour being added to the name might be no infringement on their liberty, which was now their principal care. And I know not whether by fencing it on every side to excess, even in the most trivial matters, they may not have exceeded bounds. For when there was nothing else to offend, the name of one of the consuls became an object of dislike to the state. "That the Tarquinii had been too much habituated to sovereignty; Priscus first commenced; that Servius Tullus reigned next; that though an interval thus intervened, that Tarquinius Superbus, not losing sight of the kingdom as the property of another, had reclaimed it by crime and violence, as the hereditary right of his family. That Superbus being expelled, the government was in the hands of Collatinus: that the Tarquinii knew not how to live in a private station; the name pleased them not; that it was dangerous to liberty."—Such discourses were at first gradually circulated through the entire state by persons sounding their dispositions; and the people, now excited by jealousy, Brutus convenes to a meeting. There first of all he recites the people's oath: "that they would suffer no one to be king, nor any thing to be in Rome whence danger might result to liberty. That it ought to be maintained with all their might, and nothing that could tend that way ought to be overlooked; he said it with reluctance, for the sake of the individual; and would not say it, did not his affection for the commonwealth predominate; that the people of Rome do not believe that entire liberty has been recovered; that the regal family, the regal name, was not only in the state but even in the government; that was unfavourable, that was injurious to liberty. Do you, L. Tarquinius," says he, "do you, of your own accord, remove this apprehension. We remember, we own it, you expelled the royal family; complete your kindness; take hence the royal name—your property your fellow citizens shall not only restore you, by my advice, but if any thing is wanting they will generously supply. Depart in amity. Relieve the state from a dread which is perhaps groundless. So firmly are they persuaded in mind that only with the Tarquinian race will kingly power depart hence." Amazement at so extraordinary and sudden an occurrence at first impeded the consul's utterance; then, when he was commencing to speak, the chief men of the state stand around him, and by many importunities urge the same request. Others indeed had less weight with him. After Sp. Lucretius, superior in age and rank, his father-in-law besides, began to try various methods, by entreating and advising alternately, that he would suffer himself to be prevailed on by the general feeling of the state, the consul, apprehending lest hereafter these same things might befall him, when again in a private station, together with loss of property and other additional disgrace, he resigned his consulship; and removing all his effects to Lavinium, he withdrew from the state. Brutus, according to a decree of the senate, proposed to the people, that all the family of the Tarquins should be banished from Rome; and in an assembly by centuries he elected P. Valerius, with whose assistance he had expelled the kings for his colleague.

3 (treacherous plotting by the Tarquins)

Though nobody doubted that a war was impending from the Tarquins, yet it broke out later than was universally expected; but liberty was well nigh lost by treachery and fraud, a thing they had never apprehended. There were, among the Roman youth, several young men of no mean families, who, during the regal government, had pursued their pleasures without any restraint; being of the same age with, and companions of, the young Tarquins, and accustomed to live in princely style. Longing for that licentiousness, now that the privileges of all were equalized, they complained that the liberty of others has been converted to their slavery: "that a king was a human being, from whom you can obtain, where right, or where wrong may be necessary; that there was room for favour and for kindness; that he could be angry, and could forgive; that he knew the difference between a friend and an enemy; that laws were a deaf, inexorable thing, more beneficial and advantageous for the poor than the rich; that they allowed of no relaxation or indulgence, if you transgress bounds; that it was a perilous state, amid so so many human errors, to live solely by one's integrity." Whilst their minds were already thus discontented of their own accord, ambassadors from the royal family come unexpectedly, demanding restitution of their effects merely, without any mention of return. After their application was heard in the senate, the deliberation on it lasted for several days, (fearing) lest the non-restitution might be a pretext for war, and the restitution a fund and assistance for war. In the mean time the ambassadors were planning different schemes; openly demanding the property, they secretly concerted measures for recovering the throne, and soliciting them as if for the object which appeared to be under consideration, they sound their feelings; to those by whom their proposals were favourably received they give letters from the Tarquins, and confer with them about admitting the royal family into the city secretly by night.

4 (conspiracy is discovered)

The matter was first intrusted to brothers of the name of Vitellii and those of the name of Aquilii. A sister of the Vitellii had been married to Brutus the consul, and the issue of that marriage were young men, Titus and Tiberius; these also their uncles admit into a participation of the plot: several young noblemen also were taken in as associates, the memory of whose names has been lost from distance of time. In the mean time, when that opinion had prevailed in the senate, which recommended the giving back of the property, and the ambassadors made use of this as a pretext for delay in the city, because they had obtained from the consuls time to procure modes of conveyance, by which they might convey away the effects of the royal family; all this time they spend in consulting with the conspirators, and by pressing they succeed in having letters given to them for the Tarquins. For otherwise how were they to believe that the accounts brought by the ambassadors on matters of such importance were not idle? The letters, given to be a pledge of their sincerity, discovered the plot; for when, the day before the ambassadors set out to the Tarquins, they had supped by chance at the house of the Vitellii, and the conspirators there in private discoursed much together concerning their new design, as is natural, one of the slaves, who had already perceived what was going on, overheard their conversation; but waited for the occasion when the letters should be given to the ambassadors, the detection of which would prove the transaction; when he perceived that they were given, he laid the whole affair before the consuls. The consuls, having left their home to seize the ambassadors and conspirators, crushed the whole affair without any tumult; particular care being taken of the letters, lest they should escape them. The traitors being immediately thrown into chains, a little doubt was entertained respecting the ambassadors, and though they deserved to be considered as enemies, the law of nations however prevailed.

5 (punishing the conspirators)

The question concerning the restitution of the tyrants' effects, which the senate had formerly voted, came again under consideration. The fathers, fired with indignation, expressly forbad them either to be restored or confiscated. They were given to be rifled by the people, that after being made participators in the royal plunder, they might lose for ever all hopes of a reconciliation with the Tarquins. A field belonging to them, which lay between the city and the Tiber, having been consecrated to Mars, has been called the Campus Martius. It happened that there was a crop of corn upon it ready to be cut down, which produce of the field, as they thought it unlawful to use, after it was reaped, a great number of men carried the corn and straw in baskets, and threw them into the Tiber, which then flowed with shallow water, as is usual in the heat of summer; that thus the heaps of corn as it stuck in the shallows became settled when covered over with mud: by these and the afflux of other things, which the river happened to bring thither, an island was formed by degrees. Afterwards I believe that mounds were added, and that aid was afforded by art, that a surface so well raised might be firm enough for sustaining temples and porticoes. After plundering the tyrants' effects, the traitors were condemned and capital punishment inflicted. Their punishment was the more remarkable, because the consulship imposed on the father the office of punishing his own children, and him who should have been removed as a spectator, fortune assigned as the person to exact the punishment. Young men of the highest quality stood tied to a stake; but the consul's sons attracted the eyes of all the spectators from the rest of the criminals, as from persons unknown; nor did the people pity them more on account of the severity of the punishment, than the horrid crime by which they had deserved it. "That they, in that year particularly, should have brought themselves to betray into the hands of Tarquin, formerly a proud tyrant, and now an exasperated exile, their country just delivered, their father its deliverer, the consulate which took its rise from the family of the Junii, the fathers, the people, and whatever belonged either to the gods or the citizens of Rome." The consuls seated themselves in their tribunal, and the lictors, being despatched to inflict punishment, strip them naked, beat them with rods, and strike off their heads. Whilst during all this time, the father, his looks and his countenance, presented a touching spectacle, the feelings of the father bursting forth occasionally during the office of superintending the public execution. Next after the punishment of the guilty, that there might be a striking example in either way for the prevention of crime, a sum of money was granted out of the treasury as a reward to the discoverer; liberty also and the rights of citizenship were granted him. He is said to have been the first person made free by the Vindicta; some think even that the term vindicta is derived from him. After him it was observed as a rule, that those who were set free in this manner were supposed to be admitted to the rights of Roman citizens.

6 (Tarquins raise troops for war, Aruns Tarquin and Brutus kill each other, battle inconclusive)

On these things being announced to him, as they had occurred, Tarquin, inflamed not only with grief for the frustration of such great hopes, but with hatred and resentment also, when he saw that the way was blocked up against stratagem, considering that he should have recourse to war openly, went round as a suppliant to the cities of Etruria, "that they should not suffer him, sprung from themselves, of the same blood, exiled and in want, lately in possession of so great a kingdom, to perish before their eyes, with the young men his sons. That others had been invited to Rome from foreign lands to the throne; that he, a king, extending the Roman empire by his arms, was driven out by those nearest to him by a villanous conspiracy; that they had by violence divided the parts among themselves, because no one individual among them was deemed sufficiently deserving of the kingdom; that they had given up his effects to the people to be pillaged by them, that no one might be free from that guilt. That he was desirous to recover his country and his kingdom, and to punish his ungrateful subjects. That they should bring succour and aid him; that they might also revenge the injuries done to them of old, their legions so often slaughtered, their land taken from them." These arguments prevailed on the people of Veii, and with menaces they declare that now at least, under the conduct of a Roman general, their former disgrace should be wiped off, and what they had lost in war should be recovered. His name and relation to them induced the people of Tarquinii to take part with him; it seemed an honour that their countrymen should reign at Rome. Therefore the two armies of these two states followed Tarquin in order to recover his kingdom, and to take vengeance upon the Romans. When they entered the Roman territories, the consuls marched to meet them. Valerius led up the foot in a square battalion, and Brutus marched before with his horse to reconnoitre (the enemy). Their cavalry likewise came up first; Aruns, Tarquin's son, commanded it; the king himself followed with the legions. Aruns, when he knew at a distance by the lictors that it was a consul, and on coming nigher discovered for certain that it was Brutus by his face, all inflamed with rage, he cried out, "There is the villain who has banished us from our native country! see how he rides in state adorned with the ensigns of our dignity! now assist me, gods, the avengers of kings." He put spurs to his horse and drove furiously against the consul. Brutus perceived the attack made on him; as it was honourable in these days for the generals to engage in combat, he eagerly offered himself to the combat. They encountered one another with such furious animosity, neither mindful of protecting his own person, provided he could wound his adversary; so that both, transfixed through the buckler by the blow from the opposite direction, fell lifeless from their horses, entangled together by the two spears. The engagement between the rest of the horse commenced at the same time, and soon after the foot came up. There they fought with doubtful success, and as it were with equal advantage, and the victory doubtful. The right wings of both armies were victorious and the left worsted. The Veientians, accustomed to be discomfited by the Roman soldiers, were routed and put to flight. The Tarquinienses, who were a new enemy, not only stood their ground, but even on their side obliged the Romans to give way.

7 (Enemies withdraw, remaining consul suspected of royal aspirations and mollifies the people)

After the issue of this battle, so great a terror seized Tarquin and the Etrurians, that both the armies, the Veientian and Tarquinian, giving up the matter as impracticable, departed to their respective homes. They annex strange incidents to this battle,—that in the silence of the next night a loud voice was emitted from the Arsian wood; that it was believed to be the voice of Silvanus: these words were spoken, "that more of the Etrurians by one had fallen in the battle; that the Roman was victorious in the war." Certainly the Romans departed thence as victors, the Etrurians as vanquished. For as soon as it was light, and not one of the enemy was now to be seen, P. Valerius the consul collected the spoils, and returned thence in triumph to Rome. His colleague's funeral he celebrated with all the magnificence then possible. But a far greater honour to his death was the public sorrow, singularly remarkable in this particular, that the matrons mourned him a year, as a parent, because he had been so vigorous an avenger of violated chastity. Afterwards the consul who survived, so changeable are the minds of the people, from great popularity, encountered not only jealousy, but suspicion, originating in an atrocious charge. Report represented that he aspired to the crown, because he had not substituted a colleague in the room of Brutus, and was building a house on the summit of Mount Velia, that there would be there an impregnable fortress on an elevated and well-fortified place. When these things, thus circulated and believed, affected the consul's mind with indignation, having summoned the people to an assembly, he mounts the rostrum, after lowering the fasces. It was a grateful sight to the multitude that the insignia of authority were lowered to them, and that an acknowledgment was made, that the majesty and power of the people were greater than that of the consul. When they were called to silence, Valerius highly extolled the good fortune of his colleague, "who after delivering his country had died vested with the supreme power, fighting bravely in defence of the commonwealth, when his glory was in its maturity, and not yet converted into jealousy. That he himself, having survived his glory, now remained as an object of accusation and calumny; that from the liberator of his country he had fallen to the level of the Aquilii and Vitellii. Will no merit then, says he, ever be so tried and approved by you, as to be exempted from the attacks of suspicion. Could I apprehend that myself, the bitterest enemy of kings, should fall under the charge of a desire of royalty? Could I believe that, even though I dwelt in the very citadel and the Capitol, that I could be dreaded by my fellow citizens? Does my character among you depend on so mere a trifle? Is my integrity so slightly founded, that it makes more matter where I may be, than what I may be. The house of Publius Valerius shall not stand in the way of your liberty, Romans; the Velian mount shall be secure to you. I will not only bring down my house into the plain, but I will build it beneath the hill, that you may dwell above me a suspected citizen. Let those build on the Velian mount to whom liberty is more securely intrusted than to P. Valerius." Immediately all the materials were brought down to the foot of the Velian mount, and the house was built at the foot of the hill where the temple of Victory now stands.

8 (Valerius surnamed Poplicola, new consul elected, end of first year)

After this laws were passed, which not only cleared him of all suspicions of aiming at the regal power, but had so contrary a tendency, that they made him popular. From thence he was surnamed Poplicola. Above all, the laws regarding an appeal to the people against the magistrates, and that devoting the life and property of any one who should form a design of assuming regal authority, were grateful to the people. And after he had passed these while sole consul, so that the merit in them was exclusively his own, he then held an assembly for the election of a new colleague. Sp. Lucretius was elected consul, who being very old, and his strength being inadequate to discharge the consular duties, dies in a few days. M. Horatius Pulvillus was substituted in the room of Lucretius. In some old writers I find no mention of Lucretius as consul; they place Horatius immediately after Brutus. I believe that, because no important event signalized his consulate, it has been unnoticed. Jupiter's temple in the Capitol had not yet been dedicated; the consuls Valerius and Horatius cast lots which should dedicate it. It fell by lot to Horatius. Publicola departed to the war of the Veientians. The friends of Valerius were more annoyed than they should have been, that the dedication of so celebrated a temple should be given to Horatius. Having endeavoured by every means to prevent that, when all other attempts had been tried in vain, when the consul was now holding the door-post during his offering of prayer to the gods, they suddenly announce to him the shocking intelligence that his son was dead, and that his family being defiled he could not dedicate the temple. Whether he did not believe the fact, or possessed such great firmness of mind, is neither handed down for certain, nor is a conjecture easy. Diverted from his purpose at this intelligence in no other way than to order that the body should be buried, he goes through the prayer, and dedicates the temple. These were the transactions at home and abroad the first year after the expulsion of the kings. After this P. Valerius, a second time, and Titus Lucretius, were elected consuls.

9 (new Tarquin army, reforms and excellect government)

By this time the Tarquins had fled to Lars Porsena, king of Clusium. There, mixing advice with their entreaties, "They sometimes besought him not to suffer them, who were descended from the Etrurians, and of the same blood and name, to live in exile and poverty; at other times they advised him not to let this commencing practice of expelling kings pass unpunished. That liberty has charms enough in itself; and unless kings defend their crowns with as much vigour as the people pursue their liberty, that the highest must be reduced to a level with the lowest; there will be nothing exalted, nothing distinguished above the rest; and hence there must be an end of regal government, the most beautiful institution both among gods and men." Porsena, thinking that it would be an honour to the Tuscans both that there should be a king at Rome, and especially one of the Etrurian nation, marched towards Rome with a hostile army. Never before on any other occasion did so great terror seize the senate; so powerful was the state of Clusium at the time, and so great the renown of Porsena. Nor did they only dread their enemies, but even their own citizens, lest the common people, through excess of fear, should, by receiving the Tarquins into the city, accept peace even if purchased with slavery. Many conciliatory concessions were therefore granted to the people by the senate during that period. Their attention, in the first place, was directed to the markets, and persons were sent, some to the Volscians, others to Cumæ, to buy up corn. The privilege of selling salt, also, because it was farmed at a high rent, was all taken into the hands of government, and withdrawn from private individuals; and the people were freed from port-duties and taxes; that the rich, who were adequate to bearing the burden, should contribute; that the poor paid tax enough if they educated their children. This indulgent care of the fathers accordingly kept the whole state in such concord amid the subsequent severities in the siege and famine, that the highest abhorred the name of king not more than the lowest; nor was any single individual afterwards so popular by intriguing practices, as the whole senate then was by their excellent government.

10 (Cocles defends the bridge singlehanded)

Some parts seemed secured by the walls, others by the interposition of the Tiber. The Sublician bridge well nigh afforded a passage to the enemy, had there not been one man, Horatius Cocles, (that defence the fortune of Rome had on that day,) who, happening to be posted on guard at the bridge, when he saw the Janiculum taken by a sudden assault, and that the enemy were pouring down from thence in full speed, and that his own party, in terror and confusion, were abandoning their arms and ranks, laying hold of them one by one, standing in their way, and appealing to the faith of gods and men, he declared, "That their flight would avail them nothing if they deserted their post; if they passed the bridge and left it behind them, there would soon be more of the enemy in the Palatium and Capitol than in the Janiculum; for that reason he advised and charged them to demolish the bridge, by their sword, by fire, or by any means whatever; that he would stand the shock of the enemy as far as could be done by one man." He then advances to the first entrance of the bridge, and being easily distinguished among those who showed their backs in retreating from the fight, facing about to engage the foe hand to hand, by his surprising bravery he terrified the enemy. Two indeed a sense of shame kept with him, Sp. Lartius and T. Herminius, men eminent for their birth, and renowned for their gallant exploits. With them he for a short time stood the first storm of the danger, and the severest brunt of the battle. But as they who demolished the bridge called upon them to retire, he obliged them also to withdraw to a place of safety on a small portion of the bridge still left. Then casting his stern eyes round all the officers of the Etrurians in a threatening manner, he sometimes challenged them singly, sometimes reproached them all; "the slaves of haughty tyrants, who, regardless of their own freedom, came to oppress the liberty of others." They hesitated for a considerable time, looking round one at the other, to commence the fight; shame then put the army in motion, and a shout being raised, they hurl their weapons from all sides on their single adversary; and when they all stuck in the shield held before him, and he with no less obstinacy kept possession of the bridge with firm step, they now endeavoured to thrust him down from it by one push, when at once the crash of the falling bridge, at the same time a shout of the Romans raised for joy at having completed their purpose, checked their ardour with sudden panic. Then Cocles says, "Holy father Tiberinus, I pray that thou wouldst receive these arms, and this thy soldier, in thy propitious stream." Armed as he was, he leaped into the Tiber, and amid showers of darts hurled on him, swam across safe to his party, having dared an act which is likely to obtain more fame than credit with posterity. The state was grateful towards such valour; a statue was erected to him in the comitium, and as much land was given to him as he ploughed around in one day. The zeal of private individuals also was conspicuous among the public honours. For, amid the great scarcity, each person contributed something to him according to his supply at home, depriving himself of his own support.

11 (Etrurians plunder, are ambushed)

Porsena being repulsed in his first attempt, having changed his plans from a siege to a blockade, after he had placed a garrison in Janiculum, pitched his camp in the plain and on the banks of the Tiber. Then sending for boats from all parts, both to guard the river, so as not to suffer any provision to be conveyed to Rome, and also to transport his soldiers across the river, to plunder different places as occasion required; in a short time he so harassed the entire country round Rome, that not only every thing else from the country, but even their cattle, was driven into the city, and nobody durst venture thence without the gates. This liberty of action was granted to the Etrurians, not more through fear than from policy; for Valerius, intent on an opportunity of falling unawares upon a number of them, and when straggling, a remiss avenger in trifling matters, reserved the weight of his vengeance for more important occasions. Wherefore, to decoy the pillagers, he ordered his men to drive their cattle the next day out at the Esquiline gate, which was farthest from the enemy, presuming that they would get intelligence of it, because during the blockade and famine some slaves would turn traitors and desert. Accordingly they were informed of it by a deserter, and parties more numerous than usual, in hopes of seizing the entire body, crossed the river. Then P. Valerius commanded T. Herminius, with a small body of men, to lie concealed two miles from the city, on the Gabian road, and Sp. Lartius, with a party of light-armed troops, to post himself at the Colline gate till the enemy should pass by, and then to throw himself in their way so that there may be no return to the river. The other consul, T. Lucretius, marched out of the Nævian gate with some companies of soldiers; Valerius himself led some chosen cohorts down from the Cœlian mount, and they were first descried by the enemy. Herminius, when he perceived the alarm, rose out of the ambush and fell upon the rear of the Tuscans, who had charged Valerius. The shout was returned on the right and left, from the Colline gate on the one hand, and the Nævian on the other. By this stratagem the plunderers were put to the sword between both, they not being a match in strength for fighting, and all the ways being blocked up to prevent escape: this put an end to the Etrurians strolling about in so disorderly a manner.

12 (Mucius attempts to assassinate Porsena)

Nevertheless the blockade continued, and there was a scarcity of corn, with a very high price. Porsena entertained a hope that by continuing the siege he should take the city, when C. Mucius, a young nobleman, to whom it seemed a disgrace that the Roman people, when enslaved under kings, had never been confined within their walls in any war, nor by any enemy, should now when a free people be blocked up by these very Etrurians whose armies they had often routed, thinking that such indignity should be avenged by some great and daring effort, at first designed of his own accord to penetrate into the enemy's camp. Then, being afraid if he went without the permission of the consuls, or the knowledge of any one, he might be seized by the Roman guards and brought back as a deserter, the circumstances of the city at the time justifying the charge, he went to the senate: "Fathers," says he, "I intend to cross the Tiber, and enter the enemy's camp, if I can; not as a plunderer, or as an avenger in our turn of their devastations. A greater deed is in in my mind, if the gods assist." The senate approved his design. He set out with a sword concealed under his garment. When he came thither, he stationed himself among the thickest of the crowd, near the king's tribunal. There, when the soldiers were receiving their pay, and the king's secretary sitting by him, dressed nearly in the same style, was busily engaged, and to him they commonly addressed themselves, being afraid to ask which of them was Porsena, lest by not knowing the king he should discover on himself, as fortune blindly directed the blow, he killed the secretary instead of the king. When, as he was going off thence where with his bloody dagger he had made his way through the dismayed multitude, a concourse being attracted at the noise, the king's guards immediately seized and brought him back standing alone before the king's tribunal; even then, amid such menaces of fortune, more capable of inspiring dread than of feeling it, "I am," says he, "a Roman citizen, my name is Caius Mucius; an enemy, I wished to slay an enemy, nor have I less of resolution to suffer death than I had to inflict it. Both to act and to suffer with fortitude is a Roman's part. Nor have I alone harboured such feelings towards you; there is after me a long train of persons aspiring to the same honour. Therefore, if you choose it, prepare yourself for this peril, to contend for your life every hour; to have the sword and the enemy in the very entrance of your pavilion; this is the war which we the Roman youth declare against you; dread not an army in array, nor a battle; the affair will be to yourself alone and with each of us singly." When the king, highly incensed, and at the same time terrified at the danger, in a menacing manner, commanded fires to be kindled about him, if he did not speedily explain the plots, which, by his threats, he had darkly insinuated against him; Mucius said, "Behold me, that you may be sensible of how little account the body is to those who have great glory in view;" and immediately he thrusts his right hand into the fire that was lighted for the sacrifice. When he continued to broil it as if he had been quite insensible, the king, astonished at this surprising sight, after he had leaped from his throne and commanded the young man to be removed from the altar, says, "Be gone, having acted more like an enemy towards thyself than me. I would encourage thee to persevere in thy valour, if that valour stood on the side of my country. I now dismiss you untouched and unhurt, exempted from the right of war." Then Mucius, as if making a return for the kindness, says, "Since bravery is honoured by you, so that you have obtained by kindness that which you could not by threats, three hundred of us, the chief of the Roman youth, have conspired to attack you in this manner. It was my lot first. The rest will follow, each in his turn, according as the lot shall set him forward, unless fortune shall afford an opportunity of you."

13 (Persena makes peace, courage of Claelia)

Mucius being dismissed, to whom the cognomen of Scævola was afterwards given, from the loss of his right hand, ambassadors from Porsena followed him to Rome. The risk of the first attempt, from which nothing had saved him but the mistake of the assailant, and the risk to be encountered so often in proportion to the number of conspirators, made so strong an impression upon him, that of his own accord he made propositions of peace to the Romans. Mention was made to no purpose regarding the restoration of the Tarquinii to the throne, rather because he had been unable to refuse that to the Tarquinii, than from not knowing that it would be refused to him by the Romans. The condition of restoring their territory to the Veientians was obtained by him, and the necessity of giving hostages in case they wished the garrison to be withdrawn from the Janiculum was extorted from the Romans. Peace being concluded on these terms, Porsena drew his troops out of the Janiculum, and marched out of the Roman territories. The fathers gave Mucius, as a reward of his valour, lands on the other side of the Tiber, which were afterwards called the Mucian meadows. By this honour paid to valour the women were excited to merit public distinctions. As the camp of the Etrurians had been pitched not far from the banks of the Tiber, a young lady named Clælia, one of the hostages, deceiving her keepers, swam over the river, amidst the darts of the enemy, at the head of a troop of virgins, and brought them all safe to their relations. When the king was informed of this, at first highly incensed, he sent deputies to Rome to demand the hostage Clælia; that he did not regard the others; and afterwards, being changed into admiration of her courage, he said, "that this action surpassed those of Cocles and Mucius," and declared, "as he would consider the treaty as broken if the hostage were not delivered up, so, if given up, he would send her back safe to her friends." Both sides kept their faith: the Romans restored their pledge of peace according to treaty; and with the king of Etruria merit found not only security, but honour; and, after making encomiums on the young lady, promised to give her, as a present, half of the hostages, and that she should choose whom she pleased. When they were all brought out, she is said to have pitched upon the young boys below puberty, which was both consonant to maiden delicacy, and by consent of the hostages themselves it was deemed reasonable, that that age which was most exposed to injury should be freed from the enemy's hand. The peace being re-established, the Romans marked the uncommon instance of bravery in the woman, by an uncommon kind of honour, an equestrian statue; (the statue representing) a lady sitting on horseback was placed at the top of the Via Sacra.

14 (Etrurians fail attempt on another city, vanquished take refuge at Rome, well received, some stay)

Inconsistent with this so peaceful a departure of the Etrurian king from the city, is the custom handed down from the ancients, and which continues down to our times among other usages at public sales, (I mean) that of selling the goods of king Porsena; the origin of which custom must either have occurred during the war, and was not relinquished in peace, or it must have increased from a milder source than the form of expression imports, of selling the goods in a hostile manner. Of the accounts handed down, the most probable is, that Porsena, on retiring from the Janiculum, made a present to the Romans of his camp well stored with provisions conveyed from the neighbouring and fertile fields of Etruria, the city being then exhausted by the long siege; that this, lest it should be carried away in a hostile manner, by the people being admitted in, was then sold, and called the goods of Porsena, the expression rather importing gratitude for the gift, than an auction of the king's property, which never even was in the power of the Roman people. Porsena, after ending the Roman war, that his army might not seem to have been led into these parts without effecting any thing, sent his son Aruns with a part of his forces to besiege Aricia. The matter not being expected, the Aricians were at first terrified; afterwards assistance, which was sent for from the people of Latium and Cumæ, inspired so much hope, that they ventured to meet them in the field. At the commencement of the battle the Etrurians attacked the Aricians so furiously, that they routed them at the first onset. But the Cuman cohorts, opposing stratagem to force, moved off a little to one side, and when the enemy were carried beyond them in great disorder, they faced about and charged them in the rear. By this means the Etrurians, when they had almost got the victory, were enclosed and cut to pieces. A very small part of them, having lost their general, because they had no nearer refuge, came to Rome without their arms, in the condition and with the air of suppliants. There they were kindly received and provided with lodgings. When their wounds were cured, many of them went home and told the kind hospitality they had met with. Affection for their hosts and for the city detained many at Rome; a place was assigned them to dwell in, which they have ever since called the Tuscan Street.

15 (Porsena confirms peace, and exiles Tarquins)

Then P. Lucretius and P. Valerius Publicola were elected consuls. This year ambassadors came from Porsena for the last time, regarding the restoration of Tarquin to the throne. And when they were answered, that the senate would send deputies to the king; some of the principal persons of that order were forthwith despatched to represent to him "that it was not because the answer could not have been given in a few words, that the royal family would not be received, that select members of the senate had been deputed to him, rather than an answer given to his ambassadors at Rome; but (it was done) that all mention of the matter might be put an end to for evermore, and that their minds might not be disturbed amid so many mutual acts of kindness, by his requiring what was adverse to the liberty of the Roman people, and by their denying to him to whom they would willingly deny nothing, unless they would submit to their own ruin. That the Roman people were not now under a kingly government, but in a state of freedom, and were firmly determined rather to open their gates to enemies than to kings. That it was the wish of all, that their city might have the same period of existence as their freedom in that city. Wherefore, if he wished Rome to be safe, they entreated that he would suffer it to be free." The king, overcome by modesty, says, "Since it is your firm and fixed resolve, I will neither tease you by repeatedly urging these same subjects more frequently, nor will I disappoint the Tarquinii by holding out hopes of aid which it is not in my power to give them; whether they have need of peace, or of war, let them seek another place from here for their exile, that nothing may disturb the peace between you and me." To these kind promises he added actions still more friendly, for he delivered up the remainder of the hostages, and restored to them the land of the Veientians, which had been taken from them by the treaty concluded at Janiculum. Tarquin, all hopes of return being now cut off, went to Tusculum to live in exile with his son-in-law Mamilius Octavius. Thus the peace between Porsena and the Romans was inviolably preserved.