the new Gentes, whom his father had raised; and when he thought he was strong enough, he came into the Comitium and took his seat upon the throne in front of the Senate-house, and summoned the Patricians to attend on "King Tarquinius." But when King Servius heard of it he came forth and asked how any one dared sit upon the throne while he was alive. But Lucius said it was his father's throne, and that now it was his own by right. Then he seized the old man by the waist and cast him down the steps of the throne, and he himself entered into the Senate-house. Servius, when he saw that all were against him, endeavoured to escape homewards; but certain men, sent by Lucius, overtook him and slew him, and left his body lying in the way.

And when Tullia heard what was done, she mounted her chariot and drove to the Forum and saluted her husband King. But he bade her go home, for such scenes were not fit for women. And she came to the foot of the Esquiline Hill, to the place where the body of her father lay in the way. And when the charioteer saw it, he was much shocked, and pulled in his horses that he might not drive over the body. But his wicked mistress chid him angrily and bade him drive on. So she went home "with her father's blood upon her chariotwheels ;" and that place was called the Wicked Street ever after.

So King Servius died when he had reigned four and forty years, and Lucius Tarquinius the Proud reigned in his stead.

CHAPTER IV.

TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS, AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REPUBLIC.

§ 11. First at

§ 1. Despotism of second Tarquin. § 2. Alliance with Etruscans and Latins. § 3. Temple on Capitoline. § 4. Legend of Sibyl. § 5. Stratagem by which Gabii was taken. § 6. King's sons, with Brutus, sent to consult the Delphic Oracle. § 7. Legend of Lucretia. Expulsion of Tarquins. § 8. Consuls. § 9. Patres Conscripti. § 10. Rex Sacrorum. tempt to restore Tarquin, by conspiracy: Judgment of Brutus. § 12. Second attempt, by Etruscans of Tarquinii and Veii. Death of Brutus. § 13. P. Valerius Poplicola. § 14. Consecration of Capitoline Temple by M. Horatius. § 15. Third attempt to restore Tarquin, by Porsenna: Legends of Horatius Cocles, Mucius Scævola, Cloelia. § 16. Tarquin at Tusculum. § 17. First Dictator. § 18. Fourth attempt to restore Tarquin, by Latins: Battle of Lake Regillus. § 19. Death of Tarquin at Cumæ.

§ 1. TARQUIN had made himself king by the aid of the Patricians, and chiefly by means of the third or Lucerian Tribe, to which his family belonged. The Burgesses of the Gentes were indignant at the curtailment of their privileges by the popular reforms of Servius, and were glad to lend themselves to any enterprise that promised to overthrow his power. But Tarquin soon kicked away the ladder by which he had risen. He abrogated, it is true, the hated Assembly of the Centuries; but neither did he pay any heed to the Curiate Assembly, nor did he allow any new members to be chosen into the Senate in place of those who were removed by death or other causes; so that even those who had helped him to the throne repented them of their deed. The name of Superbus, or the Proud, testifies to the general feeling against the despotic rule of the second Tarquin.

§ 2. It was by foreign alliances that he calculated on supporting his despotism at home. The Etruscans of Tarquinii, and all its associate cities, were his friends; and among the Latins also he sought to raise a power which might counterbalance the Senate and People of Rome.

VOL. I.

F

The wisdom of Tarquinius Priscus and Servius had united all the Latin Name to Rome, so that Rome had become the sovereign city of Latium. The last Tarquin drew those ties still closer. He gave his daughter in marriage to Octavius Mamilius, Chief of Tusculum, and favoured the Latins in all things. But at a general assembly of the Latins at the Ferentine Grove, beneath the Alban Mount, where they had been accustomed to meet of olden time to settle their national affairs, Turnus Herdonius of Aricia rose and spoke against him. Then Tarquinius accused him of high treason, and brought false witness against him; and so powerful with the Latins was the King that they condemned their countryman to be drowned in the Ferentine water, and obeyed Tarquinius in all things.

§ 3. With them he made war upon the Volscians and took the city of Suessa, wherein was a great booty. This booty he applied to the execution of great works in the city, in emulation of his father and King Servius. The elder Tarquin had built up the side of the Tarpeian Rock and levelled the summit, to be the foundation of a temple of Jupiter, but he had not completed the work. Tarquinius Superbus now removed all the temples and shrines of the old Sabine gods which had been there since the time of Titus Tatius; but the goddess of Youth and the god Terminus refused to yield their places, whereby was signified that Rome should enjoy undecaying vigour, and that the boundaries of her empire should never be drawn in. And on the Tarpeian height he built a magnificent temple, to be dedicated jointly to the three Great Gods of the Latins and Etruscans, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; and this part of the Saturnian Hill was ever after called the CAPITOL or the Chief Place, while the upper part was still named the ARX or Citadel.

He brought architects from Etruria to plan the temple, but he forced the Roman people to work for him without hire.

§ 4. One day a strange woman appeared before the King and offered him nine books to buy; and when he refused them she went away and burnt three of the nine books, and brought back the remaining six and offered to sell them at the same a See Chapt. i. § 7.

price that she had asked for the nine; and when he laughed at her and again refused, she went as before and burnt three more books, and came back and asked still the same price for the three that were left. Then the King was struck by her pertinacity, and he consulted his augurs what this might be; and they bade him by all means buy the three, and said he had done wrong not to buy the nine, for these were the Books of the Sibyl and contained great secrets. So the books were kept underground in the Capitol in a stone chest, and two men (duumviri) were appointed to take charge of them, and consult them when the state was in danger.

§ 5. The only Latin town that defied Tarquin's power was Gabii; and Sextus, the king's youngest son, promised to win this place also for his father. So he fled from Rome and presented himself at Gabii; and there he made complaints of his father's tyranny and prayed for protection. The Gabians believed him, and took him into their city, and they trusted him, so that in time he was made commander of their army. Now his father suffered him to conquer in many trifling battles, and the Gabians trusted him more and more. Then he sent privately to his father and asked what he should do to make the Gabians submit. King Tarquin gave no answer to the messenger, but, as he walked up and down his garden, he kept striking off the heads of the tallest poppies with his staff. At last the messenger was tired, and went back to Sextus and told him what had passed. But Sextus understood what his father meant, and he began to accuse falsely all the chief men, and some of them he put to death and some he banished. So at last the city of Gabii was left defenceless, and Sextus delivered it up to his father.b

§ 6. While Tarquin was building his temple on the Capitol, a strange portent offered itself; for a snake came forth and devoured the sacrifices on the altar. The king, not content with the interpretation of his Etruscan soothsayers, sent persons to consult the famous oracle of the Greeks at Delphi; and the persons he sent were his own sons Titus and Aruns, and his sister's son, L. Junius, a young man who, to avoid his uncle's

b It is well known that this Legend occurs in Herodotus, who relates that Babylon was betrayed to Darius Hystaspes in a similar manner, iii. 154, sqq.

jealousy, feigned to be without common sense, wherefore he was called Brutus or the Dullard. The answer given by the oracle was, that the chief power of Rome should belong to him of the three who should first kiss his mother; and the two sons of King Tarquin agreed to draw lots, to determine which of them should do this, as soon as they returned home. But Brutus perceived that the oracle had another sense; so as soon as they landed in Italy he fell down on the ground as if he had stumbled, and kissed the earth, for she (he thought) was the true mother of all mortal things.

§ 7. When the sons of Tarquin returned with their cousin, L. Junius Brutus, they found the king at war with the Rutulians of Ardea. Being unable to take the place by storm, he was forced to blockade it; and while the Roman army was encamped before the town, the young men used to amuse themselves at night with wine and wassail. One night there was a feast, at which Sextus, the king's third son, was present, as also Collatinus, the son of Egerius, the king's uncle, who had been made governor of Collatia. So they began to dispute about the worthiness of their wives; and when each maintained that his own wife was worthiest, "Come, gentlemen," said Collatinus, "let us take horse and see what our wives are doing; they expect us not, and so we shall know the truth." All agreed, and they galloped to Rome, and there they found the wives of all the others feasting and revelling but when they came to Collatia they found Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, not making merry like the rest, but sitting in the midst of her handmaids carding wool and spinning. So they all allowed that Lucretia was the worthiest.

Now Lucretia was the daughter of a noble Roman, Spurius Lucretius, who was at this time Prefect of the City; for it was the custom, when the Kings went out to war, that they left a chief man at home to administer all things in the king's name, and he was called Prefect of the City.

But it chanced that Sextus, the king's son, when he saw the fair Lucretia, was smitten with lustful passion; and a few days after he came again to Collatia, and Lucretia entertained him hospitably as her husband's cousin and friend. But at midnight he arose and came with stealthy steps to her bedside and