[1.1] King Tarquinius, accordingly, who had conferred not a few important benefits upon the Romans, died in the manner I have mentioned, after holding the sovereignty for thirty-eight years, leaving two grandsons who were infants and two daughters already married. His son-in-law Tullius succeeded him in the sovereignty in the fourth year of the fiftieth Olympiad (the one in which Epitelides, a Lacedaemonian, won the short-distance foot-race), Archestratides being archon at Athens. It is now the proper time to mention those particulars relating to Tullius which we at first omitted, namely, who his parents were and what deeds he performed while he was yet a private citizen, before his accession to the sovereignty. [2] Concerning his family, then, the account with which I can best agree is this: There lived at Corniculum, a city of the Latin nation, a man of the royal family named Tullius, who was married to Ocrisia, a woman far excelling all the other women in Corniculum in beauty and modesty. When this city was taken by the Romans, Tullius himself was slain while fighting, and Ocrisia, then with child, was selected from the spoils and taken by King Tarquinius, who gave her to his wife. She, having been informed of everything that related to this woman, freed her soon afterwards and continued to treat her with kindness and honour above all other women. [3] While Ocrisia was yet a slave she bore a son, to whom, when he had left the nursery, she gave the name of Tullius, from his father, as his proper and family name, and also that of Servius as his common and first name, from her own condition, since she had been a slave when she had given birth to him. Servius, if translated into the Greek tongue, would be doulios or “servile.”
[2.1] There is also current in the local records another story relating to his birth which raises the circumstances attending to the realm of the fabulous, and we have found it in many Roman histories. This account — if it be pleasing to the gods and the lesser divinities that it be related — is somewhat as follows: They say that from the hearth in the palace, on which the Romans offer various other sacrifices and also consecrate the first portion of their meals, there rose up above the fire a man’s privy member, and that Ocrisia was the first to see it as she was carrying the customary cakes to the fire, and immediately informed the king and queen of it. [2] Tarquinius, they add, upon hearing this and left beholding the prodigy, was astonished; but Tanaquil, who was not only wise in other matters but also inferior to none of the Tyrrhenians in her knowledge of divination, told him it was ordained by fate that from the royal hearth should issue a scion superior to the race of mortals, to be born of the woman who should conceive by that phantom. And the other soothsayers affirming the same thing, the king thought it fitting that Ocrisia, to whom the prodigy had first appeared, should have intercourse with it. Thereupon this woman, having adorned herself as brides are usually adorned, was shut up alone in the room in which the prodigy had been seen. [3] And one of the gods or lesser divinities, whether Vulcan, as some think, or the tutelary deity of the house, having had intercourse with her and afterwards disappearing, she conceived and was delivered of Tullius at the proper time. This fabulous account, although it seems not altogether credible, is rendered less incredible by reason of another manifestation of the gods relating to Tullius which was wonderful and extraordinary. [4] For when he had fallen asleep one day while sitting in the portico of the palace about noon, a fire shone forth from his head. This was seen by his mother and by the king’s wife, as they were walking through the portico, as well as by all who happened to be present with them at the time. The flame continued to illumine his whole head till his mother ran to him and wakened him; and with the ending of his sleep the flame was dispersed and vanished. Such are the accounts that are given of his birth.
[3.1] The memorable actions he performed before becoming king, in consideration of which Tarquinius admired him and the Roman people honoured him next to the king, are these: When, scarcely more than a boy as yet, he was serving in the cavalry in the first campaign that Tarquinius undertook against the Tyrrhenians, he was thought to have fought so splendidly that he straightway became famous and received the prize of valour ahead of all others. Afterwards, when another expedition was undertaken against the same nation and a sharp battle was fought near the city of Eretum, he showed himself the bravest of all and was again crowned by the king as first in valour. [2] And when he was about twenty years old he was appointed to command the auxiliary forces sent by the Latins, and assisted King Tarquinius in obtaining the sovereignty over the Tyrrhenians. In the first war that arose against the Sabines, being general of the horse, he put to flight that of the enemy, pursuing them as far as the city of Antemnae, and again received the prize of valour because of this battle. He also took part in many other engagements against the same nation, sometimes commanding the horse and sometimes the foot, in all of which he showed himself a man of the greatest courage and was always the first to be crowned ahead of the others. [3] And when that nation came to surrender themselves and deliver up their cities to the Romans, he was regarded by Tarquinius as the chief cause of his gaining this dominion also, and was crowned by him with the victor’s crown. Moreover, he not only had the shrewdest understanding of public affairs, but was inferior to none in his ability to express his plans; and he possessed in an eminent degree the power of accommodating himself to every circumstance of fortune and to every kind of person. [4] Because of these accomplishments the Romans thought proper to transfer him by their votes from the plebeian to the patrician order, an honour they had previously conferred on Tarquinius, and, still earlier, on Numa Pompilius. The king also made him his son-in-law, giving him one of his two daughters in marriage, and whatever business his infirmities or his age rendered him incapable of performing by himself, he ordered Tullius to transact, not only entrusting to him the private interests of his own family, but also asking him to manage the public business of the commonwealth. In all these employments he was found faithful and just, and the people felt that it made no difference whether it was Tarquinius or Tullius who looked after the public affairs, so effectually had he won them to himself by the services he had rendered to them.
[4.1] This man, therefore, being endowed with a nature adequately equipped for command and also supplied by Fortune with many great opportunities for attaining it, believed, when Tarquinius died by the treachery of the sons of Ancus Marcius, who desired to recover their father’s kingdom, as I have related in the preceding book, that he was called to the kingship by the very course of events and so, being a man of action, he did not let the opportunity slip from his grasp. [2] The person who helped him to seize possession of the supreme power and the author of all his good fortune was the wife of the deceased conflict, who aided him both because he was her son-in-law and also because she knew from many oracles that it was ordained by fate that this man should be king of the Romans. It chanced that her son, a youth, had died shortly before and that two infant sons were left by him. [3] She, therefore, reflecting on the desolation of her house and being under the greatest apprehension lest, if the sons of Marcius possessed themselves of the sovereignty, they should destroy these infants and extirpate all the royal family, first commanded that the gates of the palace should be shut and guards stationed there with orders to allow no one to pass either in or out. Then, ordering all the rest to leave the room in which they had laid Tarquinius when he was at the point of death, she detained Ocrisia, Tullius and her daughter who married to Tullius, and after ordering the children to be brought by their nurses, she spoke to them as follows:
[4] “Our king Tarquinius, in whose home you received your nurture and training, Tullius, and who honoured you above all his friends and relations, has finished his destined course, the victim of an impious crime, without having either made any disposition by will of his private interests or left injunctions concerning the public business of the commonwealth, and without having had it in his power even to embrace any of us and utter his last farewells. And these unhappy children here are left destitute and orphaned and in imminent danger of their lives. For if the power falls into the hands of the Marcii, the murderers of their grandfather, they will be put to death by them in the most piteous manner. Even the lives of you men, to whom Tarquinius gave his daughters in preference to them, will not be safe, should his murderers obtain the sovereignty, any more than the lives of the rest of his friends and relations or of us miserable women; but they will endeavour to destroy us all both openly and secretly. [5] Bearing all this in mind, then, we must not permit the wicked murderers of Tarquinius and the enemies of us all to obtain so great power, but must oppose and prevent them, now by craft and deceit, since these means are necessary at present, but when our first attempt has succeeded, then coming to grips with them openly with all our might and with arms, if those too shall be necessary. But they will not be necessary if we are willing to take the proper measures now. [6] And what are these measures? Let us, in the first place, conceal the king’s death and cause a report to be spread among the people that he has received no mortal wound, and let the physicians state that in a few days they will show him safe and sound. Then I will appear in public and will announce to the people, as if Tarquinius had so enjoined, that he has committed to one of his two sons-in-law (naming you, Tullius) the care and guardianship both of his private interests and of the public business till he is recovered of his wounds; and the Romans, far from being displeased, will be glad to see the state administered by you, who often have administered it already in the past. [7] Then, when we have averted the present danger — for the power of our enemies will be at an end the moment the king is reported to be alive — do you assume the rods and the military power and summon before the people those who formed the plot to assassinate Tarquinius, beginning with the sons of Marcius, and cause them to stand trial. After you have punished all these, with death, if they submit to be tried, or with perpetual banishment and the confiscation of their estates, if they let their case go by default, which I think they will be more apt to do, then at last set about establishing your government. Win the affections of the people by kindly affability, take great care that no injustice be committed, and gain the favour of the poorer citizens by sundry benefactions and gifts. Afterwards, when we see a proper time, let us announce that Tarquinius is dead and hold a public funeral for him. [8] And as for you, Tullius, if you, who have been brought up and educated by us, have partaken of every advantage that sons receive from their mother and father, and are married to our daughter, shall in addition actually become king of the Romans, it is but just, since I helped to win this also for you, that you should show all the kindness of a father to these little children, and when they come to manhood and are capable of handling public affairs, that you should appoint the elder to be leader of the Romans.”
[5.1] With these words she thrust each of the children in turn into the arms of both her son-in-law and her daughter and roused great compassion in them both; then, when it was the proper time, she went out of the room and ordered the servants to get everything ready for dressing the king’s wounds and to call the physicians. And letting that night pass, the next day, when the people flocked in great numbers to the palace, she appeared at the windows that gave upon the narrow street before the gates and first informed them who the persons were who had plotted the murder of the king, and produced in chains those whom they had sent to commit the deed. [2] Then, finding that many lamented the calamity and were angry at the authors of it, she at last told them that these men had gained naught from their wicked designs, since they had not been able to kill Tarquinius. This statement being received with universal joy, she then commended Tullius to them as the person appointed by the king to be the guardian of all his interests, both private and public, till he himself recovered. [3] The people, therefore, went away greatly rejoicing, in the belief that the king had suffered no fatal injury, and continued for a long time in that opinion. Afterwards Tullius, attended by a strong body of men and taking along the king’s lictors, went to the Forum and caused proclamation to be made for the Marcii to appear and stand trial; and upon their failure to obey, he pronounced sentence of perpetual banishment against them, and having confiscated their property, he was now in secure possession of the sovereignty of Tarquinius.
[6.1] I shall interrupt the narration of what follows that I may give the reasons which have induced me to disagree with Fabius and the rest of the historians who affirm that the children left by Tarquinius were his sons, to the end that none who have read those histories may suspect that I am inventing when I call them his grandsons rather than his sons. For it is sheer heedlessness and indolence that has led these historians to publish that account of them without first examining any of the impossibilities and absurdities that are fatal to it. Each of these absurdities I will endeavour to point out in a few words. [2] Tarquinius packed up and removed from Tyrrhenia with all his household at an age the most capable of reflection; for it is reported that he already aspired to take part in public life, to hold magistracies and to handle public affairs, and that he removed from there because he was not allowed to share in any position of honour in the state. [3] Anyone else, then, might have assumed that he was at least in his thirtieth year when he left Tyrrhenia, since it is from this age onwards, as a rule, that the laws call to the magistracies and to the administration of public affairs those who desire such a career; but I will suppose him five whole years younger than this and put him in his twenty-fifth year when he removed. Moreover, all the Roman historians agree that he brought with him a Tyrrhenian wife, whom he had married while his father was yet alive. [4] He came to Rome in the first year of the reign of Ancus Marcius, as Gellius writes, but according to Licinius, in the eighth year. Grant, then, that he came in the year Licinius states and not before; for he could not have come after that time, since in the ninth year of the reign of Ancus he was sent by the king to command the cavalry in the war against the Latins, as both these historians state. Now, if he was not more than twenty-five years old when he came to Rome, and, having been received into the friendship of Ancus, who was then king, in the eighth year of his reign (for Ancus reigned twenty-four years), and if he himself reigned thirty-eight, as all agree, he must have been fourscore years old when he died; for this is the sum obtained by adding up the years. [5] If his wife was five years younger, as may well be supposed, she was presumably in her seventy-fifth year when Tarquinius died. Accordingly, if she conceived her second and last son when she was in her fiftieth year (for at a more advanced age a woman no longer conceives, but this is itself the limit of her child-bearing, as those authors write who have looked into these things), this son could not have been less than twenty-five years old when his father died, and Lucius, the elder, not less than twenty-seven; hence the sons whom Tarquinius left by this wife could not have been infants. [6] But surely, if her sons had been grown men when their father died, it cannot be imagined either that their mother would have been so miserable a creature or so infatuated as to deprive her own children of the sovereignty their father had left them and bestow it upon an outsider and the son of a slave-woman, or, again, that her sons themselves, when thus deprived of their father’s sovereignty, would have borne the injustice in so abject and supine a manner, and that at an age when they were at the very height of their powers both of speech and of action. For Tullius neither had the advantage of them in birth, being the son of a slave-woman, nor excelled them much in the dignity of age, being only three years older than one of them; so that they would not willingly have yielded the kingship to them.
[7.1] This view involves some other absurdities, too, of which all the Roman historians have been ignorant, with the exception of one whom I shall name presently. For it has been agreed that Tullius, having succeeded to the kingdom after the death of Tarquinius, held it for forty-four years; so that, if the eldest of the Tarquinii was twenty-seven years old when he was deprived of the sovereignty, he must have been above seventy when he killed Tullius. [2] But he was then in the prime of life, according to the tradition handed down by the historians, and they state that he himself lifted up Tullius, and carrying him out of the senate-house, hurled him down the steps. His expulsion from the kingship happened in the twenty-fifth year after this, and in that same year he is represented as making war against the people of Ardea and performing all the duties himself; but it is not reasonable to suppose that a man ninety-six years old should be taking part in wars. [3] And after his expulsion he still makes war against the Romans for no less than fourteen years, being present himself, they say, at all the engagements — which is contrary to all common sense. Thus, according to them, he must have lived above one hundred and ten years; but this length of life is not produced by our climes. [4] Some of the Roman historians, being sensible of these absurdities, have endeavoured to solve them by means of other absurdities, alleging that not Tanaquil but one Gegania, of whom no other account has come down to us, was the mother of the children. But here again, the marriage of Tarquinius is unseasonable, he being then very near fourscore years old, and the begetting of children by men of that age is incredible; nor was he a childless man, who would wish by all means for children, for he had two daughters and these already married. [5] In the light, therefore, of these various impossibilities and absurdities, I state that the children were not the sons, but the grandsons, of Tarquinius, agreeing therein with Lucius Piso Frugi (for he in his Annals is the only historian who has given this account); unless, indeed, the children were the king’s grandsons by birth and his sons by adoption and this circumstance misled all the other Roman historians. Now that these explanations have been made by way of preface, it is time to resume my narrative where it was broken off.
[8.1] When Tullius, after receiving the guardianship of the kingdom and expelling the faction of the Marcii, thought he was now in secure possession of the sovereignty, he honoured King Tarquinius, as if he had but recently died of his wounds, with a very costly funeral, an imposing monument, and the other usual honours. And from that time, as guardian of the royal children, he took under his protection and care both their private fortunes and the public interests of the commonwealth. [2] The patricians, however, were not pleased with these proceedings, but felt indignation and resentment, being unwilling that Tullius should build up a kind of royal power for himself without either a decree of the senate or the other formalities prescribed by law. And the most powerful of them met together frequently and discussed with one another means of putting an end to his illegal rule; and they resolved that in the first time Tullius should assemble them in the senate-house they would compel him to lay aside the rods and the other symbols of royalty, and that after this was done they would appoint the magistrates called interreges and through them choose a man to rule the state in accordance with the laws. [3] While they were making these plans, Tullius, becoming aware of their purpose, applied himself to flattering and courting the poorer citizens, and hopes of retaining the sovereignty through them; and having called an assembly of the people, he brought the children forward to the tribunal and delivered a speech somewhat as follows:
[9.1] “I find myself under great obligation, citizens, to take care of these infant children. For Tarquinius, their grandfather, received me when I was fatherless and without a country, and brought me up, holding me in no respect inferior to his own children. He also gave me one of his two daughters in marriage, and during the whole course of his life continued to honour and love me, as you also know, with the same affection as if I had been his own son. And after that treacherous attack was made upon him he entrusted me with the guardianship of these children in case he should suffer the fate of all mortals. [2] Who, therefore, will think me pious towards the gods or just towards men if I abandon and betray the orphans to with I owe so great a debt of gratitude? But, to the best of my ability, I shall neither betray the trust reposed in me nor yet abandon the children in their forlorn condition. You too ought in justice to remember the benefits their grandfather conferred upon the commonwealth in reducing to your obedience so many cities of the Latins, your rivals for the sovereignty, in making all the Tyrrhenians, the most powerful of your neighbours, your subjects, and in forcing the Sabine nation to submit to you — all of which he effected at the cost of many great dangers. [3] As long, therefore, as he himself was living, it became you to give him thanks for the benefits you had received from him; and now that he is dead, it becomes you to make a grateful return to his posterity, and not to bury the remembrance of their deeds together with the persons of your benefactors. Consider, therefore, that you have all jointly been left guardians of these little children, and confirm to them the sovereignty which their grandfather left them. For they would not receive so great an advantage from my guardianship, which is that of one man only, as from the joint assistance of you all. [4] I have been compelled to say these things because I have perceived that some persons are conspiring against them and desire to hand the sovereignty over the others. I ask you, Romans, also to call to mind the struggles I have undergone in the interest of your supremacy — struggles neither inconsiderable nor few, which I need not relate to you who are familiar with them — and to repay to these little children the gratitude you owe me in return. For it has not been with a view to securing a sovereignty of my own — of which, if that had been my aim, I was as worthy as anyone — but in order to aid the family of Tarquinius, that I have chosen to direct public affairs. [5] And I entreat you as a suppliant not to abandon these orphans, who are now, indeed, only in danger of losing the sovereignty, but, if this first attempt of their enemies succeeds, will also be expelled from the city. But on this subject I need say no more to you, since you both know what is required and will perform your duty.
[6] “Hear from me now the benefits I myself have arranged to confer upon you and the reasons that induced me to summon this assembly. Those among you who already have debts which through poverty they are unable to discharge, I am eager to help, since they are citizens and have undergone many hardships in the service of their country; hence, in order that these men who have securely established the common liberty may not be deprived of their own, I am giving them from my own means enough to pay their debts. [7] And those who shall hereafter borrow I will not permit to be haled to prison on account of their debts, but will make a law that no one shall lend money on the security of the persons of free men; for I hold that it is enough for the lenders to possess the property of those who contracted the debts. And in order to lighten for the future the burden also of the war taxes you pay to the public treasury, by which the poor are oppressed and obliged to borrow, I will order all the citizens to give in a valuation of their property and everyone to pay his share of the taxes according to that valuation, as I learn is done in the greatest and best governed cities; for I regard it as both just and advantageous to the public that those who possess much should pay much in taxes and those who have little should pay little. [8] I also believe that the public lands, which you have obtained by your arms and now enjoy, should not, as at present, be held by those who are the most shameless, whether they got them by favour or acquired them by purchase, but by those among you who have no allotment of land, to the end that you, being free men, may not be serfs to others or cultivate others’ lands instead of your own; for a noble spirit cannot dwell in the breasts of men who are in want of the necessaries of daily life. [9] But, above all these things, I have determined to make the government fair and impartial and justice the same for all and towards all. For some have reached that degree of presumption that they take upon themselves to maltreat the common people and do not look upon the poor among you as being even free men. To the end, therefore, that the more powerful may both receive justice from and do justice to their inferior impartially, I will establish such laws as shall prevent violence and preserve justice, and I myself will never cease to take thought for the equality of all the citizens.”
[10.1] While he was thus speaking there was much praise from the assembly, some commending him for his loyalty and justice to his benefactors, others for his humanity and generosity to the poor, and still others for his moderation and democratic spirit towards those of humbler station; but all loved and admired him for being a lawful and just ruler. [2] The assembly having been dismissed, during the following days he ordered lists to be made of all the debtors who were unable to keep their pledges, with the amount each owed and the names of the creditors; and when this list had been delivered to him, he commanded tables to be placed in the Forum and in the presence of all the citizens counted out to the lenders the amount of the debts. [3] Having finished with this, he published a royal edict commanding that all those who were enjoying the use of the public lands and holding them for their own should quit possession within a certain specified time, and that those citizens who had no allotments of land should give in their names to him. He also drew up laws, in some cases renewing old laws that had been introduced by Romulus and Numa Pompilius and had fallen into abeyance, and establishing others himself. [4] While he was pursuing these measures, the patricians were growing indignant as they saw the power of the senate being overthrown, and they proceeded to a plan of action which was no longer the same as before, but the opposite. [5] For whereas at first they had determined to deprive him of his illegal power, to appoint interreges, and through them to choose one who should hold the office legally, they now thought they ought to acquiesce in the existing state of affairs and not to interfere at all. For it occurred to them that, if the senate attempted to place a man of its own choosing at the head of affairs, the people, when they came to give their votes, would oppose him; whereas, if they should leave the choice of the king to the people, all the curiae would elect Tullius and the result would be that he would seem to hold the office legally. They thought it better, therefore, to permit him to continue in the possession of the sovereignty by stealth and by deceiving the citizens rather than after persuading them and receiving it openly. [6] But none of their calculations availed them aught, so artfully did Tullius outmanoeuvre them and get possession of the royal power against their will. For having long before caused a report to be spread through the city that the patricians were plotting against him, he came into the Forum meanly dressed and with a dejected countenance, accompanied by his mother Ocrisia, Tanaquil, the wife of Tarquinius, and all the royal family. And when great crowds flocked together at so unexpected a sight, he called an assembly, and ascending the tribunal, addressed them much as follows:
[11.1] “It is no longer the children of Tarquinius alone whom I see in danger of suffering some injury at the hands of their enemies, but I am already coming to fear for my own life, lest I receive a bitter requital for my justice. For the patricians are plotting against me and I have received information that some of them are conspiring to kill me, not because they can charge me with any crime, great or trivial, but because they resent the benefits I have conferred and am prepared to confer upon the people and feel that they are being treated unjustly. [2] The money-lenders, for their part, feel aggrieved because I did not permit the poor among you to be haled to prison by them because of their debts and to be deprived of their liberty. And those who misappropriate and hold what belongs to the state, finding themselves obliged to give up the land which you acquired with your blood, are as angry as if they were being deprived of their inheritances instead of merely restoring what belongs to others. Those, again, who have been exempt from war taxes resent being compelled to give in a valuation of their property and to pay taxes in property to those valuations. But the general complaint of them all is that they will have to accustom themselves to live according to written laws and impartially dispense justice to you and receive it from you, instead of abusing the poor, as they now do, as if they were so many purchased slaves. [3] And making common cause of these complaints, they have taken counsel and sworn to recall the exiles and to restore the kingdom to Marcius’ sons, against whom you passed a vote forbidding them the use of fire and water for having assassinated Tarquinius, your king, a worthy man and a lover of his country, and, after they had committed such an act of pollution, for having failed to appear for their trial and thus condemned themselves to exile. And if I had not received early information of these designs, they would, with the assistance of a foreign force, have brought back the exiles into the city in the dead of night. [4] You all know, of course, what would have been the consequence of this, even without my mentioning it — that the Marcii, with the support of the patricians, after getting control of affairs without any trouble, would first have seized me, as the guardian of the royal family and as the person who had pronounced sentence against them, and after that would have destroyed these children and all the other kinsmen and friends of Tarquinius; and, as they have much of the savage and the tyrant in their nature, they would have treated our wives, mothers and daughters and all the female sex like slaves. [5] If, therefore, it is your pleasure also, citizens, to recall the assassins and make them kings, to banish the sons of your benefactors and to deprive them of the kingdom their grandfather left them, we shall submit to our fate. But we all, together with our wives and children, make supplication to you by all the gods and lesser divinities who watch over the lives of men that, in return for the many benefits Tarquinius, the grandfather of these children, never ceased to confer upon you, and in return for the many services I myself, as far as I have been able, have done you, you will grant us this single boon — to declare your own sentiments. [6] For if you have come to believe that any others are more worthy than we of this honour, the children, with all the other relations of Tarquinius, shall withdraw, leaving the city to you. As for me, I shall take a more generous resolution in my own case For I have already lived long enough both for virtue and for glory, and if I am disappointed of your goodwill, which I have preferred to every other good thing, I could never bring myself to live in disgrace among any other people. Take the rods, then, and give them to the patricians, if you wish; I shall not trouble you with my presence.”
[12.1] While he was speaking these words and seemed about to leave the tribunal, they all raised a tremendous clamour, and mingling tears with their entreaties, besought him to remain and to retain control of affairs, fearing no one. Thereupon some of his partisans, who had stationed themselves in different parts of the Forum, following his instructions, cried out, “Make him king,” and demanded that the curiae should be called together and a vote taken; and after these had set the example, the whole populace was promptly of the same opinion. [2] Tullius, seeing this, no longer let the occasion slip, but told them that he felt very grateful to them for remembering his services; and after promising to confer even more benefits if they should make him king, he appointed a day for the election, at which he ordered everybody to be present including those from the country. [3] When the people had assembled he called the curiae and took the vote of each curia separately. And upon being judged worthy of the kingship by all the curiae, he then accepted it from the populace, telling the senate to go hang; for he did not ask that body to ratify the decision of the people, as it was accustomed to do. After coming to the sovereignty in this manner, he introduced many reforms in the civil administration and also carried on a great and memorable war against the Tyrrhenians. But I shall first give an account of his administrative reforms.
[13.1] Immediately upon receiving the sovereignty he divided the public lands among those of the Romans who served others for hire. Next he caused both the laws relating to private contracts and those concerning torts to be ratified by the curiae; these laws were about fifty in number, of which I need not make any mention at present. [2] He also added two hills to the city, those called the Viminal and the Esquiline, each of which has the size of a fairly large city. These he divided among such of the Romans as had no homes of their own, so that they might build houses there; and he himself fixed his habitation there, in the best part of the Esquiline Hill. [3] This king was the last who enlarged the circuit of the city, by adding these two hills to the other five, after he had first consulted the auspices, as the law directed, and performed the other religious rites. Farther than this the building of the city has not yet progressed, since the gods, they say, have not permitted it; but all the inhabited places round it, which are many and large, are unprotected and without walls, and very easy to be taken by any enemies who may come. [4] If anyone wishes to estimate the size of Rome by looking at these suburbs he will necessarily be misled for want of a definite clue by which to determine up to what point it is still the city and where it ceases to be the city; so closely is the city connected with the country, giving the beholder the impression of a city stretching out indefinitely. [5] But if one should wish to measure Rome by the wall, which, though hard to be discovered by reason of the buildings that surround it in many places, yet preserves in several parts of it some traces of its ancient structure, and to compare it with the circuit of the city of Athens, the circuit of Rome would not seem to him very much larger than the other. But for an account of the extent and beauty of the city of Rome, as it existed in my day, another occasion will be more suitable.
[14.1] After Tullius had surrounded the seven hills with one wall, he divided the city into four regions, which he named after the hills, calling the first the Palatine, the second the Suburan, the third the Colline, and the fourth the Esquiline region; and by this means he made the city contain four tribes, whereas it previously had consisted of but three. [2] And he ordered that the citizens inhabiting each of the four regions should, like persons living in villages, neither take up another abode nor be enrolled elsewhere; and the levies of troops, the collection of taxes for military purposes, and the other services which every citizen was bound to offer to the commonwealth, he no longer based upon the three national tribes, as aforetime, but upon the four local tribes established by himself. And over each region he appointed commanders, like heads of tribes or villages, whom he ordered to know what house each man lived in. [3] After this he commanded that there should be erected in every street by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood chapels to heroes whose statues stood in front of the houses, and he made a law that sacrifices should be performed to them every year, each family contributing a honey-cake. He directed also that the persons attending and assisting those who performed the sacrifices at these shrines on behalf of the neighbourhood should not be free men, but slaves, the ministry of servants being looked upon as pleasing to the heroes. [4] This festival the Romans still continued to celebrate even in my day in the most solemn and sumptuous manner a few days after the Saturnalia, calling it the Compitalia, after the streets; for compiti, is their name for streets. And they still observe the ancient custom in connexion with those sacrifices, propitiating the heroes by the ministry of their servants, and during these days removing every badge of their servitude, in order that the slaves, being softened by this instance of humanity, which has something great and solemn about it, may make themselves more agreeable to their masters and be less sensible of the severity of their condition.
[15.1] Tullius also divided the country as a whole into twenty-six parts, according to Fabius, who calls these divisions tribes also and, adding the four city tribes to them, says that there were thirty tribes in all under Tullius. But according to Vennonius he divided the country into thirty-one parts, so that with the four city tribes the number was rounded out to the thirty-five tribes that exist down to our day. However, Cato, who is more worthy of credence than either of these authors, does not specify the number of the parts into which the country was divided. [2] After Tullius, therefore, had divided the country into a certain number of parts, whatever that number was, he built places of refuge upon such lofty eminences as could afford ample security for the husbandmen, and called them by a Greek name, pagi or “hills.” Thither all the inhabitants fled from the fields whenever a raid was made by enemies, and generally passed the night there. [3] These places also had their governors, whose duty it was to know not only the names of all the husbandmen who belonged to the same district but also the lands which afforded them their livelihood. And whenever there was occasion to summon the countrymen to take arms or to collect the taxes that were assessed against each of them, these governors assembled the men together and collected the money. And in order that the number of these husbandmen might not be hard to ascertain, but might be easy to compute and be known at once, he ordered them to erect altars to the gods who presided over and were guardians of the district, and directed them to assemble every year and honour these gods with public sacrifices. This occasion also he made one of the most solemn festivals, calling it the Paganalia; and he drew up laws concerning these sacrifices, which the Romans still observe. [4] Towards the expense of this sacrifice and of this assemblage he ordered all those of the same district to contribute each of them a certain piece of money, the men paying one kind, the women another and the children a third kind. When these pieces of money were counted by those who presided over the sacrifices, the number of people, distinguished by their sex and age, became known. [5] And wishing also, as Lucius Piso writes in the first book of his Annals, to know the number of the inhabitants of the city, and of all who were born and died and arrived at the age of manhood, he prescribed the piece of money which their relations were to pay for each — into the treasury of Ilithiya (called by the Romans Juno Lucina) for those who were born, into that of the Venus of the Grove (called by them Libitina) for those who died, and into the treasury of Juventas for those who were arriving at manhood. By means of these pieces of money he would know every year both the number of all the inhabitants and which of them were of military age. [6] After he had made these regulations, he ordered all the Romans to register their names and give in a monetary valuation of their property, at the same time taking the oath required by law that they had given in a true valuation in good faith; they were also to set down the names of their fathers, with their own age and the names of their wives and children, and every man was to declare in what tribe of the city or in what district of the country he lived. If any failed to give in their valuation, the penalty he established was that their property should be forfeited and they themselves whipped and sold for slaves. This law continued in force among the Romans for a long time.
[16.1] After all had given in their valuations, Tullius took the registers and the size of their estates, introduced the wisest of all measures, and one which has been the source of the greatest advantages to the Romans, as the results have shown. [2] The measure was this: He selected from the whole number of the citizens one part, consisting of those whose property was rated the highest and amounted to no less than one hundred minae. Of these he formed eighty centuries, whom he ordered to be armed with Argolic bucklers, with spears, brazen helmets, corslets, greaves and swords. Dividing these centuries into two groups, he made forty centuries of younger men, whom he appointed to take the field in time of war, and forty of older men, whose duty it was, when the youth went forth to war, to remain in the city and guard everything inside the walls. [3] This was the first class; in wars it occupied a position in the forefront of the whole army. Next, from those who were left he took another part whose rating was under ten thousand drachmae but not less than seventy-five minae. Of these he formed twenty centuries and ordered them to wear the same armour as those of the first class, except that he took from them the corslets, and instead of the bucklers gave them shields. Here also he distinguished between those who were over forty-five years old and those who were of military age, constituting ten centuries of the younger men, whose duty it was to serve their country in the field, and ten of the older, to whom he committed the defence of the walls. This was the second class; in engagements they were drawn up behind those fighting in the front ranks. [4] The third class he constituted out of those who were left, taking such as had a rating of less than seven thousand five hundred drachmae but not less than fifty minae. The armour of these he diminished not only by taking away the corslets, as from the second class, but also the greaves. [5] He formed likewise twenty centuries of these, dividing them, like the former, according to their age and assigning ten centuries to the younger men and ten to the older. In battles the post and station of these centuries was in the third line from the front.
Again taking from the remainder those whose property amounted to less than five thousand drachmae but was as much as twenty-five minae, he formed a fourth class. This he also divided into twenty centuries, ten of which he composed of such as were in the vigour of their age, and the other ten of those who were just past it, in the same manner as with the former classes. He ordered the arms of these to be shields, swords and spears, and their post in engagements to be in the last line. [2] The fifth class, consisting of those whose property was between twenty-five minae and twelve minae and a half, he divided into thirty centuries. These were also distinguished according to their age, fifteen of the centuries being composed of the older men and fifteen of the younger. These he armed with javelins and slings, and placed outside the line of battle. [3] He ordered four unarmed centuries to follow those that were armed, two of them consisting of armourers and carpenters and of those whose business it was to prepare everything that might be of use in time of war, and the other two of trumpeters and horn-blowers and such as sounded the various calls with any other instruments. The artisans were attached to the second class and divided according to their age, one of their centuries following the older centuries, and the other the younger centuries; [4] the trumpeters and horn-blowers were added to the fourth class, and one of their centuries also consisted of the older men and the other of the younger. Out of all the centuries the bravest men were chosen as centurions, and each of these commanders took care that his century should yield a ready obedience to orders.
[18.1] This was the arrangement he made of the entire infantry, consisting of both the heavy-armed and light-armed troops. As for the cavalry, he chose them out of such as had the highest rating and were of distinguished birth, forming eighteen centuries of them, and added them to the first eighty centuries of the heavy-armed infantry; these centuries of cavalry were also commanded by persons of the greatest distinction. [2] The rest of the citizens, who had a rating of less than twelve minae and a half but were more numerous than those already mentioned, he put into a single century and exempted them from service in the army and from every sort of tax. Thus there were six divisions which the Romans call classes, by a slight change of the Greek word klêseis (for the verb which we Greeks pronounce in the imperative mood kalei, the Romans call cala, and the classes they anciently called caleses), [3] and the centuries included in these divisions amounted to one hundred and ninety-three. The first class contained ninety-eight centuries, counting the cavalry; the second, twenty-two, counting the artificers; the third, twenty; the fourth, again, contained twenty-two, counting the trumpeters and horn-blowers; the fifth, thirty; and the last of all, one century, consisting of the poor citizens.
[19] In pursuance of this arrangement he levied troops according to the division of the centuries, and imposed taxes in proportion to the valuation of their possessions. For instance, whenever he had occasion to raise ten thousand men, or, if it should so happen, twenty thousand, he would divide that number among the hundred and ninety-three centuries and then order each century to furnish the number of men that fell to its share. As to the expenditures that would be needed for the provisioning of soldiers while on duty and for the various warlike supplies, he would first calculate how much money would be sufficient, and having in like manner divided that sum among the hundred and ninety-three centuries, he would order every man to pay his share towards it in proportion to his rating. [2] Thus it happened that those who had the largest possessions, being fewer in number but distributed into more centuries, were obliged to serve oftener and without any intermission, and to pay greater taxes than the rest; that those who had small and moderate possessions, being more numerous but distributed into fewer centuries, serve seldom and in rotation and paid small taxes, and that those whose possessions were not sufficient to maintain them were exempt from all burdens. [3] Tullius made none of these regulations without reason, but from the conviction that all men look upon their possessions as the prizes at stake in war and that it is for the sake of retaining these that they all endure its hardships; he thought it right, therefore, that those who had greater prizes at stake should suffer greater hardships, both with their persons and with their possessions, that those who had less at stake should be less burdened in respect to both, and that those who had no loss to fear should endure no hardships, but be exempt from taxes by reason of their poverty and from military service because they paid no tax. For at that time the Romans received no pay as soldiers from the public treasury but served at their own expense. [4] Accordingly, he did not think it right either that those should pay taxes who were so far from having wherewithal to pay them that they were in want of the necessities of daily life, or that such as contributed nothing to the public taxes should, like mercenary troops, be maintained in the field at the expense of others.
[20.1] Having by this means laid upon the rich the whole burden of both the dangers and expenses and observing that they hand discontented, he contrived by another method to relieve their uneasiness and mitigate their resentment by granting to them an advantage which would make them complete masters of the commonwealth, while he excluded the poor from any part in the government; and he effected this without the plebeians noticing it. This advantage that he gave to the rich related to the assemblies, where the matters of greatest moment were ratified by the people. [2] I have already said before that by the ancient laws the people had control over the three most important and vital matters: they elected the magistrates, both civil and military; they sanctioned and repealed laws; and they declared war and made peace. In discussing and deciding these matters they voted by curiae, and citizens of the smallest means had an equal vote with those of the greatest; but as the rich were few in number, as may well be supposed, and the poor much more numerous, the latter carried everything by a majority of votes. [3] Tullius, observing this, transferred this preponderance of votes from the poor to the rich. For whenever he thought proper to have magistrates elected, a law considered, or war to be declared, he assembled the people by centuries instead of by curiae. And the first centuries that he called to express their opinion were those with the highest rating, consisting of the eighteen centuries of cavalry and the eighty centuries of infantry. [4] As these centuries amounted to three more than all the rest together, if they agreed they prevailed over the others and the matter was decided. But in case these were not all of the same mind, then he called the twenty-two centuries of the second class; and if the votes were still divided, he called the centuries of the third class, and, in the fourth place, those of the fourth class; and this he continued to do till ninety-seven centuries concurred in the same opinion. [5] And if after the calling of the fifth class this had not yet happened but the opinions of the hundred and ninety-two centuries were equally divided, he then called the last century, consisting of the mass of the citizens who were poor and for that reason exempt from all military service and taxes; and whichever side this century joined, that side carried the day. But this seldom happened and was next to impossible. Generally the question was determined by calling the first class, and it rarely went as far as the fourth; so that the fifth and the last were superfluous.
[21.1] In establishing this political system, which gave so great an advantage to the rich, Tullius outwitted the people, as I said, without their noticing it and excluded the poor from any part in public affairs. For they all thought that they had an equal share in the government because every man was asked his opinion, each in his own century; but they were deceived in this, that the whole century, whether it consisted of a small or a very large number of citizens, had but one vote; and also in that the centuries which voted first, consisting of men of the highest rating, though they were more in number than all the rest, yet contained fewer citizens; but, above all, in that the poor, who were very numerous, had but one vote and were the last called. [2] When this had been brought about, the rich, though paying out large sums and exposed without intermission to the dangers of war, were less inclined to feel aggrieved now that they had obtained control of the most important matters and had taken the whole power out of the hands of those who were not performing the same services; and the poor, who had but the slightest share in the government, finding themselves exempt both from taxes and from military service, prudently and quietly submitted to this diminution of their power; and the commonwealth itself had the advantage of seeing the same persons who were to deliberate concerning its interests allotted the greatest share of the dangers and ready to do whatever required to be done. [3] This form of government was maintained by the Romans for many generations, but is altered in our times and changed to a more democratic form, some urgent needs having forced the change, which was effected, not by abolishing the centuries, but by no longer observing the strict ancient manner of calling them — a fact which I myself have noted, having often been present at the elections of their magistrates. But this is not the proper occasion to discuss these matters.
[22.1] Thereupon Tullius, having completed the business of the census, commanded all the citizens to assemble in arms in the largest field before the city; and having drawn up the horse in their respective squadrons and the foot in their massed ranks, and placed the light-armed troops each in their own centuries, he performed an expiatory sacrifice for them with a bull, a ram and a boar. These victims he ordered to be led three times round the army and then sacrificed them to Mars, to whom that field is consecrated. [2] The Romans are to this day purified by this same expiatory sacrifice, after the completion of each census, by those who are invested with the most sacred magistracy, and they call the purification a lustrum.
The number of all the Romans who then gave in a valuation of their possessions was, as appears by the censors’ records, 84,700. [3] This king also took no small care to enlarge the body of citizens, hitting upon a method that had been overlooked by all the kings before him. For they, by receiving foreigners and bestowing upon them equal rights of citizenship without rejecting any, whatever their birth or condition, had indeed rendered the city populous; [4] but Tullius permitted even manumitted slaves to enjoy these same rights, unless they chose to return to their own countries. For he ordered these also to report the value of their property at the same time as all the other free men, and he distributed them among the four city tribes, in which the body of freedmen, however numerous, continued to be ranked even to my day; and he permitted them to share in all the privileges which were open to the rest of the plebeians.
[23.1] The patricians being displeased and indignant at this, he called an assembly of the people and told them that he wondered at those who were displeased at his course, first, for thinking that free men differed from slaves by their very nature rather than by their condition, and, second, for not determining by men’s habits and character, rather than by the accidents of their fortune, those who were worthy of honours, particularly when they saw how unstable a thing good fortune is and how subject to sudden change, and how difficult it is for anyone, even of the most fortunate, to say how long it will remain with him. [2] He asked them also to consider how many states, both barbarian and Greek, had passed from slavery to freedom and how many from freedom to slavery. He called it great folly on their part if, after they had granted liberty to such of their slaves as deserved it, they envied them the rights of citizens; and he advised them, if they thought them bad men, not to make them free, and if good men, not to ignore them because they were foreigners. [3] He declared that they were doing an absurd and stupid thing, if, while permitting all strangers to share the rights of citizenship without distinguishing their condition or inquiring closely whether any of them had been manumitted or not, they regarded such as had been slaves among themselves as unworthy of this favour. And he said that, though they thought themselves wiser than other people, they did not even see what lay at their very feet and was to be observed every day and what was clear to the most ordinary men, namely, that not only the masters would take great care not to manumit any of their slaves rashly, for fear of granting the greatest of human blessings indiscriminately, but the slaves too would be more zealous to observe their masters faithfully when they knew that if they were thought worthy of liberty they should presently become citizens of a great and flourishing state and receive both these blessings from their masters. [4] He concluded by speaking of the advantage that would result from this policy, reminding those who understood such matters, and informing the ignorant, that to a state which aimed at supremacy and thought itself worthy of great things nothing was so essential as a large population, in order that it might be equal to carrying on all its wars with its own armed forces and might not exhaust itself as well as its wealth in hiring mercenary troops; and for this reason, he said, the former kings had granted citizenship to all foreigners. [5] But if they enacted this law also, great numbers of youths would be reared from those who were manumitted and the state would never lack for armed forces of its own, but would always have sufficient troops, even if it should be forced to make war against all the world. [6] And besides this advantage to the public, the richest men would privately receive many benefits if they permitted the freedmen to share in the government, since in the assemblies and in the voting and in their other acts as citizens they would receive their reward in the very situations in which they most needed it, and furthermore would be leaving the children of these freedmen as so many clients to their posterity. [7] These arguments of Tullius induced the patricians to permit this custom to be introduced into the commonwealth, and to this day it continues to be observed by the Romans as one of their sacred and unalterable usages.
[24.1] Now that I have come to this part of my narrative, I think it necessary to give an account of the customs which at that time prevailed among the Romans with regard to slaves, in order that no one may accuse either the king who first undertook to make citizens of those who had been slaves, or the Romans who accepted the law, of recklessly abandoning their noble traditions. [2] The Romans acquired their slaves by the most just means; for they either purchased them from the state at an auction as part of the spoils, or the general permitted the soldiers to keep the prisoners they had taken together with the rest of the booty, or else they bought them of those who had obtained possession of them by these same means. [3] So that neither Tullius, who established this custom, nor those who received and maintained thought they were doing anything dishonourable or detrimental to the public interest, if those who had lost both their country and their liberty in war and had proved loyal to those who had enslaved them, or to those who had purchased them from these, had both those blessings restored to them by their masters. [4] Most of these slaves obtained their liberty as a free gift because of meritorious conduct, and this was the best kind of discharge from their masters; but a few paid a ransom raised by lawful and honest labour.
This, however, is not the case in our day, but things have come to such a state of confusion and the noble traditions of the Roman commonwealth have become so debased and sullied, that some who have made a fortune by robbery, housebreaking, prostitution and every other base means, purchase their freedom with the money so acquired and straightway are Romans. [5] Others, who have been confidants and accomplices of their masters in poisonings, receive from them this favour as their reward. Some are freed in order that, when they have received the monthly allowance of corn given by the public or some other largesse distributed by the men in power to the poor among the citizens, they may bring it to those who granted them their freedom. And others owe their freedom to the levity of their masters and to their vain thirst for popularity. [6] I, at any rate, know of some who have allowed all their slaves to be freed after their death, in order that they might be called good men when they were dead and that many people might follow their biers wearing their liberty-caps; indeed, some of those taking part in these processions, as one might have heard from those who knew, have been malefactors just out of jail, who had committed crimes deserving of a thousand deaths. Most people, nevertheless, as they look upon these stains that can scarce be washed away from the city, are grieved and condemn the custom, looking upon it as unseemly that a dominant city which aspires to rule the whole world should make such men citizens.
[7] One might justly condemn many other customs also which were wisely devised by the ancients but are shamefully abused by the men of to-day. Yet, for my part, I do not believe that this law ought to be abolished, lest as a result some greater evil should break out to the detriment of the public; but I do say that it ought to be amended, as far as possible, and that great reproaches and disgraces hard to be wiped out should not be permitted entrance into the body politic. [8] And I could wish that the censors, preferably, or, if that may not be, then the consuls, would take upon themselves the care of this matter, since it requires the control of some it magistracy, and that they would make inquiries about the persons who are freed each year — who they are and for what reason they have been freed and how — just as they inquire into the lives of the knights and senators; after which they should enroll in the tribes such of them as they find worthy to be citizens and allow them to remain in the city, but should expel from the city the foul and corrupt herd under the specious pretence of sending them out as a colony. These are the things, then, which as the subject required it, I thought it both necessary and just to say to those who censure the customs of the Romans.
[25.1] Tullius showed himself a friend to the people, not only in these measures by which he seemed to lessen the authority of the senate and the power of the patricians, but also in those by which he diminished the royal power, of half of which he deprived himself. [2] For whereas the kings before him had thought proper to have all causes brought before them and had determined all suits both private and public as they themselves thought fit, he, making a distinction between public and private suits, took cognizance himself of all crimes which affected the public, but in private cases appointed private persons to be judges, prescribing for them as norms and standards the laws which he himself had established.
[3] When he had arranged affairs in the city in the best manner, he conceived a desire to perpetuate his memory with posterity by some illustrious enterprise. And upon turning his attention to the monuments both of ancient kings and statesmen by which they had gained reputation and glory, he did not envy either that Assyrian woman for having built the walls of Babylon, or the kings of Egypt for having raised the pyramids at Memphis, or any other prince for whatever monument he might have erected as a display of his riches and of the multitude of workmen at his command. On the contrary, he regarded all these things as trivial and ephemeral and unworthy of serious attention, mere beguilements for the eyes, but no real aids to the conduct of life or to the administration of public affairs, since they led to nothing more than a reputation for great felicity on the part of those who built them. But the things that he regarded as worthy of praise and emulation were the works of the mind, the advantages from which are enjoyed by the greatest number of people and for the greatest length of time. And of all the achievements of this nature he admired most the plan of Amphictyon, the son of Hellen, who, seeing the Greek nation weak and easy to be destroyed by the barbarians who surrounded them, brought them together in a general council and assemblage of the whole nation, named after him the Amphictyonic council; and then, apart from the particular laws by which each city was governed, established others common to all, which they call the Amphictyonic laws, in consequence of which they lived in mutual friendship, and fulfilling the obligations of kinship by their actions rather than by their professions, continued troublesome and formidable neighbours to the barbarians. [4] His example was followed by the Ionians who, leaving Europe, settled in the maritime parts of Caria, and also by the Dorians, who built their cities in the same region and erected temples at the common expense — the Ionians building the temple of Diana at Ephesus and the Dorians that of Apollo at Triopium — where they assembled with their wives and children at the appointed times, joined together in sacrificing and celebrating the festival, engaged in various contests, equestrian, gymnastic and musical, and made joint offerings to the gods. [5] After they had witnessed the spectacles, celebrated the festival, and received the other evidences of goodwill from one another, if any difference had arisen between one city and another, arbiters sat in judgment and decided the controversy; and they also consulted together concerning the means both of carrying on the war against the barbarians and of maintaining their mutual concord. [6] These and the like examples inspired Tullius also with a desire of bringing together and uniting all the cities belonging to the Latin race, so that they might not, as the result of engaging in strife at home and in wars with one another, be deprived of their liberty by the neighbouring barbarians.
[26.1] After he had taken this resolution he called together the most important men of every city, stating that he was summoning them to take counsel with him about matters of great consequence and of mutual concern. When they had assembled, he caused the Roman senate and these men who came from the cities to meet together, and made a long speech exhorting them to concord, pointing out what a fine thing it is when a number of states agree together and what a disgraceful sight when kinsmen are at variance, and declaring that concord is a source of strength to weak states, while mutual slaughter reduces and weakens even the strongest. [2] After this he went on to show them that the Latins ought to have the command over their neighbours and, being Greeks, ought to give laws to barbarians, and that the Romans ought to have the leadership of all the Latins, not only because they excelled in the size of their city and the greatness of their achievements, but also because they, more than the others, had enjoyed the favour of divine providence and in consequence had attained to so great eminence. [3] Having said this, he advised them to build a temple of refuge at Rome at their joint expense, to which the cities should repair every year and offer up sacrifices both individually and in common, and also celebrate festivals at such times as they should appoint; and if any difference should arise between these cities, they should terminate it over the sacrifices, submitting their complaints to the rest of the cities for decision. [4] By enlarging upon these and the many other advantages they would reap from the appointment of a general council, he prevailed on all who were present at the session to give their consent. And later, with the money contributed by all the cities, he built the temple of Diana, which stands upon the Aventine, the largest of all the hills in Rome; and he drew up laws relating to the mutual rights of the cities and prescribed the manner in which everything else that concerned the festival and the general assembly should be performed. [5] And to the end that no lapse of time should obliterate these laws, he erected a bronze pillar upon which he engraved both the decrees of the council and the names of the cities which had taken part in it. This pillar still existed down to my time in the temple of Diana, with the inscription in the characters that were anciently used in Greece. This alone would serve as no slight proof that the founders of Rome were not barbarians; for if they had been, they would not have used Greek characters. [6] These are the most important and most conspicuous administrative measures that are recorded of this king, besides many others of less note and certainty. His military operations were directed against one nation only, that of the Tyrrhenians; of these I shall now give an account.
[27.1] After the death of Tarquinius those cities which had yielded the sovereignty to him refused to observe the terms of their treaties any longer, disdaining to submit to Tullius, since he was a man of lowly birth, and anticipating great advantages for themselves from the discord that had arisen between the patricians and their ruler. [2] The people called the Veientes were the leaders of this revolt; and when Tullius sent ambassadors they replied that they had no treaty with him either concerning their yielding the sovereignty or concerning friendship and an alliance. These having set the example, the people of Caere and Tarquinii followed it, and at last all Tyrrhenia was in arms. [3] This war lasted for twenty years without intermission, during which time both sides made many irruptions into one another’s territories with great armies and fought one pitched battle after another. But Tullius, after being successful in all the battles in which he engaged, both against the several cities and against the whole nation, and after being honoured with three most splendid triumphs, at last forced those who refused to be ruled to accept the yoke against their will. [4] In the twentieth year, therefore, the twelve cities, having become exhausted by the war both in men and in money, again met together and decided to yield the sovereignty to the Romans upon the same terms as previously. And so the men chosen as envoys from each city arrived with the tokens of suppliants, and entrusting their cities to Tullius, begged of him not to adopt any extreme measures against them. [5] Tullius told them that because of their folly and their impiety towards the gods whom they had made sponsors of their treaties, only to violate their agreements afterwards, they deserved many severe punishments; but that, since you acknowledged their fault and were come with the fillets of suppliants and with entreaties to deprecate the resentment they had merited, they should fail of none of the clemency and moderation of the Romans at this time. [6] Having said this, he put an end to the war against them, and in the case of most of the cities, without imposing any conditions or harbouring any resentment for past injuries, he permitted them to retain the same government as before and also to enjoy their own possessions as long as they should abide by the treaties made with them by Tarquinius. But in the case of the three cities of Caere, Tarquinii and Veii, which had not only begun the revolt but had also induced the rest to make war upon the Romans, he punished them by seizing a part of their lands, which he portioned out among those who had lately been added to the body of Roman citizens.
[7] Besides these achievements in both peace and war, he built two temples to Fortune, who seemed to have favoured him all his life, one in the market called the Cattle Market, the other on the banks of the Tiber to the Fortune which he named Fortuna Virilis, as she is called by the Romans even to this day. And being now advanced in years and not far from a natural death, he was treacherously slain by Tarquinius, his son-in-law, and by his own daughter. I shall also relate the manner in which this treacherous deed was carried out; but first I must go back and mention a few things that preceded it.
[28.1] Tullius had two daughters by his wife Tarquinia, whom King Tarquinius had given to him in marriage. When these maidens were of marriageable age, he gave them to the nephews of their mother, who were also the grandsons of Tarquinius, joining the elder daughter to the elder nephew and the younger to the younger, since he thought they would thus live most harmoniously with their husbands. [2] But it happened that each of his sons-in-law was joined by an adverse fate in the matter of dissimilarity of character. For the wife of Lucius, the elder of the two brothers, who was of a bold, arrogant and tyrannical nature, was a good woman, modest and fond of her father; on the other hand, the wife of Arruns, the younger brother, a man of great mildness and prudence, was a wicked woman who hated her father and was capable of any rash action. [3] Thus it chanced that each of the husbands tried to follow his own bent, but was drawn in the opposite direction by his wife. For when the wicked husband desired to drive his father-in-law from the throne and was devising every means to accomplish this, his wife by her prayers and tears endeavoured to prevail on him to desist. And when the good husband thought himself obliged to abstain from all attempts against the life of his father-in-law and to wait till he should end his days by the course of nature, and tried to prevent his brother from doing what was wrong, his wicked wife, by her remonstrances and reproaches and by reviling him with a want of spirit, sought to draw him in the opposite direction. [4] But when nothing was accomplished by either the entreaties of the virtuous wife as she urged upon her unjust husband the best course, or by the exhortations of the wicked wife when she strove to incite to impious deeds the husband who was not by nature evil, but each husband followed his natural bent and thought his wife troublesome because her wishes differed from his own, nothing remained but for the first wife to lament and submit to her fate and for her audacious sister to rage and endeavour to rid herself of her husband. [5] At last this wicked woman, grown desperate and believing her sister’s husband to be most suitable to her own character, sent for him, as if she wanted to talk with him concerning a matter of urgent importance.
[29.1] And when he came, after first ordering those who were in the room to withdraw, that she might talk with him in private, she said: “May I, Tarquinius, speak freely and without risk all my thoughts concerning our common interests? And will you keep to yourself what you shall hear? Or is it better for me to remain silent and not to communicate plans that require secrecy?” [2] And when Tarquinius bade her say what she wished, and gave her assurances, by such oaths as she herself proposed, that he would keep everything to himself, Tullia, laying aside all shame from that moment, said to him: “How long, Tarquinius, do you intend to permit yourself to be deprived of the kingship? Are you descended from mean and obscure ancestors, that you refuse to entertain high thoughts of yourself? But everyone knows that your early ancestors, who were Greeks and descended from Hercules, exercised the sovereign power in the flourishing city of Corinth for many generations, as I am informed, and that your grandfather, Tarquinius, after removing from Tyrrhenia, was able by his merits to become king of this state; and not only his possessions, but his kingdom as well, ought to descend to you who are the elder of his grandsons. [3] Or have you been given a body incapable of performing the duties of a king because of some weakness and deformity? But surely you are endowed both with strength equal to those most highly favoured by Nature and with a presence worthy of your royal birth. Or is it neither of these, but your youth, as yet weak and far from being capable of forming sound judgments, that holds you back and causes you to decline the government of the state — you who want not many years from being fifty? Yet at about this age a man’s judgment is naturally at its best. [4] Well, then, is it the high birth of the man who is now in control of affairs and his popularity with the best citizens — which makes him difficult to attack — that forces you to submit? But in both these respects too he happens to be unfortunate, as not even he himself is unaware. Moreover, boldness and willingness to undergo danger are inherent in your character, qualities most necessary to one who is going to reign. You have sufficient wealth also, numerous friends, and many other important qualifications for public life. [5] Why, then, do you still hesitate and wait for an occasion to be provided by chance, an occasion that will come bringing to you the kingship without your having made any effort to obtain it? And that, I presume, will be after the death of Tullius! As if Fate waited on men’s delays or Nature dispensed death to each man according to his age, and the outcome of all human affairs were not, on the contrary, obscure and difficult to be foreseen! [6] But I will declare frankly, even though you may call me bold for it, what seems to me to be the reason why you reach out for no coveted honour or glory. You have a wife whose disposition is in no respect like your own and who by her allurements and enchantments has softened you; and by her you will insensibly be transformed from a man into a nonentity. Just so have I a husband who is timorous and has nothing of a man in him, who makes me humble though I am worthy of great things, and though I am fair of body, yet because of him I have withered away. [7] But if it had been possible for you to take me as your wife and for me to get you as my husband, we had not lived so long in a private station. Why, therefore, do we not ourselves correct this error of fate by exchanging our marital ties, you removing your wife from life and I making this disposition of my husband? And when we have put them out of the way and are joined together, we will then consider in secure what remains to be done, having rid ourselves of what now causes our distress. For though one may hesitate to commit all the other crimes, yet for the sake of a throne one cannot be blamed for daring anything.”
[30.1] Such were Tullia’s words, and Tarquinius, gladly agreeing to the course she proposed, immediately exchanged pledges with her, and then, after celebrating the rites preliminary to their unholy nuptials, he departed. Not long after this the elder daughter of Tullius and the year Tarquinius died the same kind of death.
[2] Here again, I find myself obliged to make mention of Fabius and to show him guilty of negligence in his investigation of the chronology of events. For when he comes to the death of Arruns he commits not only one error, as I said before, in stating that he was the son of Tarquinius, but also another in saying that after his death he was buried by his mother Tanaquil, who could not possibly have been alive at that time. [3] For it was shown in the beginning that when Tarquinius died Tanaquil was seventy-five years of age; and if to the seventy-five years forty more are added (for we find in the annals that Arruns died in the fortieth year of the reign of Tullius), Tanaquil must have been one hundred and fifteen years old. So little evidence of a laborious inquiry after truth do we find in that author’s history.
[4] After this deed of theirs Tarquinius married Tullia without any further delay, though the marriage had neither the sanction of her father nor the approval of her mother, but he took her of her own gift. [5] As soon as these impious and bloodthirsty natures were commingled they began plotting to drive Tullius from the throne if he would not willingly resign his power. They got together bands of their adherents, appealed to such of the patricians as were ill-disposed towards the king and his popular institutions, and bribed the poorest among the plebeians who had no regard for justice; and all this they did without any secrecy. [6] Tullius, seeing what was afoot, was not only disturbed because of his fears for his own safety, if he should be caught unprepared and come to some harm, but was especially grieved at the thought that he should be forced to take up arms against his own daughter and his son-in-law and to punish them as enemies. Accordingly, he repeatedly invited Tarquinius and his friends to confer with him, and sought, with by reproaches, now by admonitions, and again by arguments, to prevent him from doing him any wrong. When Tarquinius gave no heed to what he said but declared he would plead his cause before the senate, Tullius called the senators together and said to them: [7] “Senators, it has become clear to me that Tarquinius is gathering bands of conspirators against me and is anxious to drive me from power. I desire to learn from him, therefore, in the presence of you all, what wrong he has personally received from me or what injury he has seen the commonwealth suffer at my hands, that he should be forming these plots against me. Answer me, then, Tarquinius, concealing nothing, and say what you have to accuse me of, since you have asked that these men should hear you.”
[31.1] Tarquinius answered him: “My arriving, Tullius, is brief and founded on justice, and for that reason I have chosen to lay it before these men. Tarquinius, my grandfather, obtained the sovereignty of the Romans after fighting many hard battles in its defence. He being dead, I am his successor according to the laws common to all men, both Greeks and barbarians, and it is my right, just as it is of any others who succeed to the estates of their grandfathers, to inherit not only his property but his kingship as well. [2] You have, it is true, delivered up to me the property that he left, but you are depriving me of the kingship and have retained possession of it for so long a time now, though you obtained it wrongfully. For neither did any interreges appoint you king nor did the senate pass a vote in your favour, nor did you obtain this power by a legal election of the people, as my grandfather and all the kings before him obtained it; but by bribing and corrupting in every way possible the crowd of vagabonds and paupers, who had been disfranchised for convictions or for debts and had no concern for the public interests, and by not admitting even then that you were seeking the power for yourself, but by pretending that you were going to guard it for us who were orphans and infants, you came into control of affairs and kept promising in the hearing of all that when we came to manhood you would hand over the sovereignty to me as the elder brother. [3] You ought, therefore, if you desired to do right, when you handed over to me the estate of my grandfather, to have delivered up his kingship also together with his property, following the example of all the upright guardians who, having taken upon themselves the care of royal children bereft of their parents, have rightly and justly restored to them the kingdoms of their fathers and ancestors when they came to be men. [4] But if you thought I had not yet attained a proper degree of prudence and that by reason of my youth I was still unequal to the government of so great a state, yet when I attained to my full vigour of body and mind at the age of thirty, you ought, at the same time that you gave me your daughter in marriage, to have put also the affairs of the state into my hands; for it was at that very age that you yourselves first undertook both the guardianship of our family and the oversight of the kingship.
[32.1] “If you had done this you would, in the first place, have gained the reputation of a loyal and just man, and again, you would have reigned with me and shared in every honour; and you would have been called my benefactor, my father, my preserver, and all the other laudatory names that men bestow in recognition of noble actions, instead of depriving me for all these forty-four years of what was mine, though I was neither maimed in body nor stupid in mind. And after that have you the assurance to ask me what ill-treatment provokes me to look upon you as my enemy and for what reason I accuse you? [2] Nay, do you, answer me rather, Tullius, and declare why you think me unworthy to inherit the honours of my grandfather and what specious reason you allege for depriving me of them. Is it because you do not regard me as the legitimate offspring of his blood, but as some supposititious and illegitimate child? If so, why did you act as guardian to one who was a stranger to his blood, and why did you deliver up his estate to me as soon as I reached manhood? Or is it that you still look upon me as an orphan child and incapable of handling the business of the state — me who am not far from fifty years old? Lay aside now the dissimulation of your shameless questions and cease at last to play the rogue. [3] However, if you have any just reason to allege against what I have said, I am ready to leave the decision to these men as judges, than whom you can name none better in the city. But if you attempt to run away from this tribunal and fly for refuge, as is ever your habit, to the rabble you mislead by your cajolery, I will not permit it. For I am prepared, not only to speak in defence of my rights, but also, if this should fail to convince you, to act with force.”
[33.1] When he had done speaking, Tullius took the floor and said: “Anything, it seems, senators, that is unexpected is to be expected by a mortal man, and nothing should be regarded as incredible, since Tarquinius here is set upon deposing me from my office, though I received him when he was an infant and, when his enemies were forming designs against his life, preserved him and brought him up, and when he came to be a man, saw fit to take him for a son-in-law and in the event of my death was intending to leave him heir to all that I possessed. [2] But now that everything has happened to me contrary to my expectation and I myself am accused of wrongdoing, I shall lament my misfortune later one, but at present I will plead my just cause against him. I took upon myself, Tarquinius, the guardianship of your brother and yourself when you were left infants, not of my own will, but compelled by the circumstances, since those who aspired to the kingship had openly assassinated your grandfather and were said to be plotting secretly against you and the rest of his kin; and all your friends acknowledged that if those men once got the power into their hands they would not leave even a seed of the race of Tarquinius. And there was no one else to care for you and guard you but a woman, the mother of your father, and she, by reason of her great age, herself stood in need of others to care for her; but you children were left in my charge alone, to be guarded in your destitute condition — though you now call me a stranger and in no degree related to you. [3] Nevertheless, when I had been put in command of such a situation, I not only punished the assassins of your grandfather and reared you boys to manhood, but, as I had no male issue, I proposed to make you the owners of what I possessed. You have now, Tarquinius, the account of my guardianship, and you will not venture to say that a word of it is false.
[34] “But concerning the kingship, since this is the point of your accusation, learn not only by what means I obtained it, but also for what reasons I am not resigning it either to you or to anyone else. When I took upon myself the oversight of the commonwealth, finding that there were certain plots forming against me, I desired to surrender the conduct of affairs to the people; and having called them all together in assembly, I offered to resign the power to them, exchanging this envied sovereignty, the source of more pains than pleasures, for a quiet life free from danger. [2] But the Romans would not permit me to follow this preference, nor did they see fit to make anyone else master of the state, but retained me and by their votes gave me the kingship — thing which belonged to them, Tarquinius, rather than to you or your brother — [3] in the same manner as they had entrusted the government to your grandfather, who was a foreigner and in no way related to the king who preceded him; and yet King Ancus Marcius had left sons in their prime of life, not children and infants, as you and your brother were left by Tarquinius. But if it were a general law that the heirs to the estate and possessions of deceased kings should also be heirs to their kingly office, Tarquinius, your grandfather would not have succeeded to the sovereignty upon the death of Ancus, but rah the elder of the king’s sons. [4] But the Roman people did not call to power the heir of the father, but rather the person who was worthy to rule. For they held that, while property belongs to those who acquired it, the kingly office belongs to those who conferred it, and that the former, when anything happens to its owners, ought to descend to the natural heirs or the testamentary heirs, but that the latter, when the persons who received it die, should return to those who gave it. Unless, indeed, you have some claim to offer to the effect that your grandfather received the kingship upon certain express conditions, whereby he was not to be deprived of it himself and could also leave it to you, his grandsons, and that it was not in the power of the people to take it from you and confer it upon me. [5] If you have any such claim to allege, why do you not produce the contract? But you cannot do so. And if I did not obtain the office in the most justifiable manner, as you say, since I was neither chosen by the interreges nor entrusted with the government by the senate and the other legal requirements were not observed, then surely it is these men here that I am wronging and not you, and I deserve to be deprived of power by them, not by you. [6] But I am not wronging either these men nor anyone else. The length of my reign, which has now lasted forty years, bears me witness that power was both then justly given to me and is now justly vested in me; for during this time none of the Romans ever thought I reigned unjustly, nor did either the people or the senate ever endeavour to drive me from power.
[35.1] “But — to pass over all these matters and to come to grips with your charges — if I had been depriving you of a deposit that had been left in my hands by your grandfather in trust for you and, contrary to all the established rules of justice recognized by mankind, had been retaining the kingship which was yours, you ought to have gone to those who granted the power to me and to have vented your indignation and reproaches, both against me, for continuing to hold what did not belong to me, and against them, for having conferred on me what belonged to others; for you would easily have convinced them if you had been able to urge any just claim. [2] If, however, you had no confidence in this argument and yet thought that I had no right to rule the state and that you were a more suitable person to be entrusted with its oversight, you ought to have done as follows — to have made an investigation of my mistakes and enumerated your own services and then to have challenged me to a trial for the determination of our respective merits. Neither of these things did you do; but, after all this time, as if recovered from a long fit of drunkenness, you now come to accuse me, and even now not where you should have come. [3] For it is not here that you should present these charges — do not take any offence at this statement of mine, senators, for it is not with a view of taking the decision away from you that I say this, but from the desire to expose this man’s calumnies — but you ought to have told me beforehand to call an assembly of the people and there to have accused me. However, since you have avoided doing so, I will do it for you, and having called the people together, I will appoint them judges of any crimes of which you may accuse me, and will again leave it to them to decide which of us two is the more suitable to hold the sovereignty; and whatever they shall unanimously decide I ought to do, I will do. [4] As for you, this is a sufficient answer, since it is all the same whether one urges many or few just claims against unreasonable adversaries; for mere words naturally cannot bring any argument which will persuade them to be honest.
[36.1] “But I have been surprised, senators, that any of you wish to remove me from power and have conspired with this man against me. I should like to learn from them what injury provokes them to attack me and at what action of mine they are offended. Is it because they know that great numbers during my reign have been put to death without a trial, banished from their country, deprived of their possessions, or have met with any other misfortune which they have not merited? Or, though they can accuse most of none of these tyrannical misdeeds, are they acquainted with any outrages I have been guilty of toward married women, or insults to their maiden daughters, or any other wanton attempt upon a person of free condition? If I have been guilty of any such crime I should deserve to be deprived at the same time both of the kingship and of my life. [2] Well then, am I haughty, am I burdensome by my severity, and can no one bear the arrogance of my administration? And yet which of my predecessors constantly used his power with such moderation and kindliness, treating all the citizens as an indulgent father treats his own children? What, I did not even desire to retain all the power which you, following the traditions of your fathers, gave to me, but after establishing laws, which you all confirmed, relating to the most essential matters, I then granted to you the privilege of giving and receiving justice in accordance with these laws; and to these rules of justice which I prescribed for others I showed myself the first to yield obedience, like any private citizen. Nor did I make myself the judge of all sorts of crimes, but causes of a private nature I restored to your jurisdiction — a thing which none of the former kings ever did. [3] But it appears that it is no wrongdoing on my part that has drawn upon me the ill-will of certain persons, but it is rather the benefits I have conferred on the plebeians that grieve you unjustly — concerning which I have often given you my reasons. But there is no need for such explanations now. If you believe that Tarquinius here by taking over the government will administer affairs better than I, I shall not envy the commonwealth a better ruler; and after I have surrendered the sovereignty to the people, from whom I received it, and have become a private citizen, I shall endeavour to make it plain to all that I not only know how to rule well, but can also obey with equanimity.”