From:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy01.html
Livy's History of Rome: Book 1
Text Source:
Library
collection: "Everyman's Library"
· Published
work: "The History of Rome, Vol.
1"
· Author:
Titus Livius
· Translator:
Rev. Canon Roberts
· Editor:
Ernest Rhys
· Publisher:
J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., London, 1905
PREFACE
[1.Preface]Whether
the task I have undertaken of writing a complete history of the Roman people
from the very commencement of its existence will reward me for the labour spent
on it, I neither know for certain, nor if I did know would I venture to say.
For I see that this is an old-established and a common practice, each fresh
writer being invariably persuaded that he will either attain greater certainty
in the materials of his narrative, or surpass the rudeness of antiquity in the
excellence of his style. However this may be, it will still be a great
satisfaction to me to have taken my part, too, in investing, to the utmost of
my abilities, the annals of the foremost nation in the world with a deeper
interest; and if in such a crowd of writers my own reputation is thrown into
the shade, I would console myself with the renown and greatness of those who
eclipse my fame. The subject, moreover, is one that demands immense labour. It
goes back beyond 700 years and, after starting from small and humble
beginnings, has grown to such dimensions that it begins to be overburdened by
its greatness. I have very little doubt, too, that for the majority of my
readers the earliest times and those immediately succeeding, will possess
little attraction; they will hurry on to these modern days in which the might
of a long paramount nation is wasting by internal decay. I, on the other hand,
shall look for a further reward of my labours in being able to close my eyes to
the evils which our generation has witnessed for so many years; so long, at
least, as I am devoting all my thoughts to retracing those pristine records,
free from all the anxiety which can disturb the historian of his own times even
if it cannot warp him from the truth.
The traditions of what happened prior to the
foundation of the City or whilst it was being built, are more fitted to adorn
the creations of the poet than the authentic records of the historian, and I
have no intention of establishing either their truth or their falsehood. This
much licence is conceded to the ancients, that by intermingling human actions
with divine they may confer a more august dignity on the origins of states.
Now, if any nation ought to be allowed to claim a sacred origin and point back
to a divine paternity that nation is Rome. For such
is her renown in war that when she chooses to represent Mars as her own and her
founder's father, the nations of the world accept the statement with the same
equanimity with which they accept her dominion. But whatever opinions may be
formed or criticisms passed upon these and similar traditions, I regard them as
of small importance. The subjects to which I would ask each of my readers to
devote his earnest attention are these - the life and morals of the community;
the men and the qualities by which through domestic policy and foreign war
dominion was won and extended. Then as the standard of morality gradually
lowers, let him follow the decay of the national character, observing how at
first it slowly sinks, then slips downward more and more rapidly, and finally
begins to plunge into headlong ruin, until he reaches these days, in which we
can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies.
There is this exceptionally beneficial and fruitful
advantage to be derived from the study of the past, that
you see, set in the clear light of historical truth, examples of every possible
type. From these you may select for yourself and your country what to imitate,
and also what, as being mischievous in its inception and disastrous in its
issues, you are to avoid. Unless, however, I am misled by affection for my
undertaking, there has never existed any commonwealth greater in power, with a
purer morality, or more fertile in good examples; or any state in which avarice
and luxury have been so late in making their inroads, or poverty and frugality
so highly and continuously honoured, showing so clearly that the less wealth
men possessed the less they coveted. In these latter years wealth has brought
avarice in its train, and the unlimited command of pleasure has created in men
a passion for ruining themselves and everything else through self-indulgence
and licentiousness. But criticisms which will be unwelcome, even when perhaps
necessary, must not appear in the commencement at all events of this extensive
work. We should much prefer to start with favourable omens, and if we could
have adopted the poets' custom, it would have been much pleasanter to commence
with prayers and supplications to gods and goddesses that they would grant a
favourable and successful issue to the great task before us.
Book 1: The Earliest Legends
[1.1]To
begin with, it is generally admitted that after the capture of Troy, whilst the
rest of the Trojans were massacred, against two of them - Aeneas and Antenor -
the Achivi refused to exercise the rights of war, partly owing to old ties of
hospitality, and partly because these men had always been in favour of making
peace and surrendering Helen. Their subsequent fortunes were different. Antenor
sailed into the furthest part of the Adriatic, accompanied by a number of
Enetians who had been driven from Paphlagonia by a revolution, and after losing
their king Pylaemenes before Troy were looking for a settlement and a leader.
The combined force of Enetians and Trojans defeated the Euganei, who dwelt
between the sea and the Alps and
occupied their land. The place where they disembarked was called Troy, and the
name was extended to the surrounding district; the whole nation
were called Veneti. Similar misfortunes led to Aeneas becoming a
wanderer, but the Fates were preparing a higher destiny for him. He first
visited Macedonia, then was
carried down to Sicily in quest of
a settlement; from Sicily he directed
his course to the Laurentian territory. Here, too, the name of Troy is found,
and here the Trojans disembarked, and as their almost infinite wanderings had
left them nothing but their arms and their ships, they began to plunder the
neighbourhood. The Aborigines, who occupied the country, with their king
Latinus at their head, came hastily together from the city and the country
districts to repel the inroads of the strangers by force of arms.
From this point there is a twofold tradition.
According to the one, Latinus was defeated in battle, and made peace with
Aeneas, and subsequently a family alliance. According to the other, whilst the
two armies were standing ready to engage and waiting for the signal, Latinus
advanced in front of his lines and invited the leader of the strangers to a
conference. He inquired of him what manner of men they were, whence they came,
what had happened to make them leave their homes, what were they in quest of
when they landed in Latinus' territory. When he heard that the men were
Trojans, that their leader was Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Venus, that
their city had been burnt, and that the homeless exiles were now looking for a
place to settle in and build a city, he was so struck with the noble bearing of
the men and their leader, and their readiness to accept alike either peace or
war, that he gave his right hand as a solemn pledge of friendship for the
future. A formal treaty was made between the leaders and mutual greetings
exchanged between the armies. Latinus received Aeneas as a guest in his house,
and there, in the presence of his tutelary deities, completed the political
alliance by a domestic one, and gave his daughter in marriage to Aeneas. This
incident confirmed the Trojans in the hope that they had reached the term of
their wanderings and won a permanent home. They built a town, which Aeneas
called Lavinium after his wife. In a short time a boy was born of the new
marriage, to whom his parents gave the name of
Ascanius.
[1.2]In a
short time the Aborigines and Trojans became involved in war with Turnus, the
king of the Rutulians. Lavinia had been betrothed to him before the arrival of
Aeneas, and, furious at finding a stranger preferred to him, he declared war
against both Latinus and Aeneas. Neither side could
congratulate themselves on the result of the battle; the Rutulians were
defeated, but the victorious Aborigines and Trojans lost their leader Latinus.
Feeling their need of allies, Turnus and the Rutulians had recourse to the
celebrated power of the Etruscans and Mezentius, their king, who was reigning
at Caere, a wealthy city in those days. From the first he had felt anything but
pleasure at the rise of the new city, and now he
regarded the growth of the Trojan state as much too rapid to be safe to its
neighbours, so he welcomed the proposal to join forces with the Rutulians. To
keep the Aborigines from abandoning him in the face of this strong coalition
and to secure their being not only under the same laws, but also the same
designation, Aeneas called both nations by the common name of Latins. From that
time the Aborigines were not behind the Trojans in their loyal devotion to
Aeneas. So great was the power of Etruria that the renown of her people had
filled not only the inland parts of Italy but also the coastal districts along
the whole length of the land from the Alps to the Straits of Messina. Aeneas,
however, trusting to the loyalty of the two nations who were day by day growing
into one, led his forces into the field, instead of awaiting the enemy behind
his walls. The battle resulted in favour of the Latins, but it was the last
mortal act of Aeneas. His tomb - whatever it is lawful and right to call him -
is situated on the bank of the Numicius. He is addressed as "Jupiter
Indiges."
[1.3]His
son, Ascanius, was not old enough to assume the government; but his throne
remained secure throughout his minority. During that interval - such was
Lavinia's force of character - though a woman was regent, the Latin State, and the
kingdom of his father and grandfather, were preserved unimpaired for her son. I
will not discuss the question - for who could speak decisively about a matter
of such extreme antiquity? - whether the man whom the Julian house claim, under
the name of Iulus, as the founder of their name, was this Ascanius or an older
one than he, born of Creusa, whilst Ilium was still intact, and after its fall
a sharer in his father's fortunes. This Ascanius, where ever born, or of
whatever mother - it is generally agreed in any case that he was the son of
Aeneas - left to his mother (or his stepmother) the city of Lavinium, which was
for those days a prosperous and wealthy city, with a superabundant population,
and built a new city at the foot of the Alban hills, which from its position,
stretching along the side of the hill, was called "Alba Longa." An
interval of thirty years elapsed between the foundation of Lavinium and the
colonisation of Alba Longa. Such had
been the growth of the Latin power, mainly through the defeat of the Etruscans,
that neither at the death of Aeneas, nor during the regency of Lavinia, nor
during the immature years of the reign of Ascanius, did either Mezentius and
the Etruscans or any other of their neighbours venture to attack them. When
terms of peace were being arranged, the river Albula, now called the Tiber, had been
fixed as the boundary between the Etruscans and the Latins.
Ascanius was succeeded by his son Silvius, who by some
chance had been born in the forest. He became the father of Aeneas Silvius, who
in his turn had a son, Latinus Silvius. He planted a number of colonies: the
colonists were called Prisci Latini. The cognomen of Silvius was common to all
the remaining kings of Alba, each of whom succeeded his father. Their names are
Alba, Atys, Capys, Capetus, Tiberinus, who was drowned in crossing the Albula,
and his name transferred to the river, which became henceforth the famous Tiber. Then came his son Agrippa, after him his son Romulus Silvius. He
was struck by lightning and left the crown to his son Aventinus, whose shrine
was on the hill which bears his name and is now a part of the city of Rome. He was
succeeded by Proca, who had two sons, Numitor and Amulius. To Numitor, the
elder, he bequeathed the ancient throne of the Silvian house. Violence,
however, proved stronger than either the father's will or the respect due to
the brother's seniority; for Amulius expelled his brother and seized the crown.
Adding crime to crime, he murdered his brother's sons and made the daughter,
Rea Silvia, a Vestal virgin; thus, under the presence of honouring her,
depriving her of all hopes of issue.
[1.4]But the
Fates had, I believe, already decreed the origin of this great city and the
foundation of the mightiest empire under heaven. The Vestal was forcibly
violated and gave birth to twins. She named Mars as their father, either
because she really believed it, or because the fault might appear less heinous
if a deity were the cause of it. But neither gods nor men sheltered her or her
babes from the king's cruelty; the priestess was thrown into prison, the boys
were ordered to be thrown into the river. By a heaven-sent chance it happened
that the Tiber was then overflowing its banks, and
stretches of standing water prevented any approach to the main channel. Those
who were carrying the children expected that this stagnant water would be
sufficient to drown them, so under the impression that they were carrying out
the king's orders they exposed the boys at the nearest point of the overflow,
where the Ficus Ruminalis (said to have been formerly called Romularis) now
stands. The locality was then a wild solitude. The tradition goes on to say
that after the floating cradle in which the boys had been exposed had been left
by the retreating water on dry land, a thirsty she-wolf from the surrounding
hills, attracted by the crying of the children, came to them, gave them her
teats to suck and was so gentle towards them that the king's flock-master found
her licking the boys with her tongue. According to the story, his name was
Faustulus. He took the children to his hut and gave them to his wife Larentia
to bring up. Some writers think that Larentia, from her unchaste life, had got
the nickname of "She-wolf" amongst the shepherds, and that this was
the origin of the marvellous story. As soon as the boys, thus born and thus
brought up, grew to be young men they did not neglect their pastoral duties,
but their special delight was roaming through the woods on hunting expeditions.
As their strength and courage were thus developed, they used not only to lie in
wait for fierce beasts of prey, but they even attacked brigands when loaded
with plunder. They distributed what they took amongst the shepherds, with whom,
surrounded by a continually increasing body of young men, they associated
themselves in their serious undertakings and in their sports and pastimes.
[1.5]It is
said that the festival of the Lupercalia, which is still observed, was even in
those days celebrated on the Palatine hill. This hill was originally called
Pallantium from a city of the same name in Arcadia; the name
was afterwards changed to Palatium. Evander, an Arcadian, had held that
territory many ages before, and had introduced an annual festival from Arcadia
in which young men ran about naked for sport and wantonness, in honour of the
Lycaean Pan, whom the Romans afterwards called Inuus. The existence of this
festival was widely recognised, and it was while the two brothers were engaged
in it that the brigands, enraged at losing their plunder, ambushed them.
Romulus successfully defended himself, but Remus was taken prisoner and brought
before Amulius, his captors impudently accusing him of their own crimes. The
principal charge brought against them was that of invading Numitor's lands with
a body of young men whom they had got together, and carrying off plunder as
though in regular warfare. Remus accordingly was handed over to Numitor for
punishment. Faustulus had from the beginning suspected that it was royal
offspring that he was bringing up, for he was aware that the boys had been
exposed at the king's command and the time at which he had taken them away
exactly corresponded with that of their exposure. He had, however, refused to
divulge the matter prematurely, until either a fitting opportunity occurred or
necessity demanded its disclosure. The necessity came first. Alarmed for the
safety of Remus he revealed the state of the case to Romulus. It so
happened that Numitor also, who had Remus in his custody, on hearing that he
and his brother were twins and comparing their ages and the character and bearing
so unlike that of one in a servile condition, began to recall the memory of his
grandchildren, and further inquiries brought him to the same conclusion as
Faustulus; nothing was wanting to the recognition of Remus. So the king Amulius
was being enmeshed on all sides by hostile purposes. Romulus shrunk from
a direct attack with his body of shepherds, for he was no match for the king in
open fight. They were instructed to approach the palace by different routes and
meet there at a given time, whilst from Numitor's house Remus lent his
assistance with a second band he had collected. The attack succeeded and the
king was killed.
[1.6]At the
beginning of the fray, Numitor gave out that an enemy had entered the City and
was attacking the palace, in order to draw off the Alban soldiery to the
citadel, to defend it. When he saw the young men coming to congratulate him
after the assassination, he at once called a council of his people and
explained his brother's infamous conduct towards him, the story of his grandsons,
their parentage and bringing up, and how he recognised them. Then he proceeded
to inform them of the tyrant's death and his responsibility for it. The young
men marched in order through the midst of the assembly and saluted their
grandfather as king; their action was approved by the whole population, who
with one voice ratified the title and sovereignty of the king. After the
government of Alba was thus transferred to Numitor, Romulus and Remus
were seized with the desire of building a city in the locality where they had
been exposed. There was the superfluous population of the Alban and Latin
towns, to these were added the shepherds: it was natural to hope that with all
these Alba would be small and Lavinium small in comparison with the city which was
to be founded. These pleasant anticipations were disturbed by the ancestral
curse - ambition - which led to a deplorable quarrel over what was at first a
trivial matter. As they were twins and no claim to precedence could be based on
seniority, they decided to consult the tutelary deities of the place by means
of augury as to who was to give his name to the new city, and who was to rule
it after it had been founded. Romulus accordingly selected the Palatine as his
station for observation, Remus the Aventine.
[1.7]Remus
is said to have been the first to receive an omen: six vultures appeared to
him. The augury had just been announced to Romulus when double
the number appeared to him. Each was saluted as king by his own party. The one
side based their claim on the priority of the appearance, the other on the
number of the birds. Then followed an angry altercation; heated passions led to
bloodshed; in the tumult Remus was killed. The more common report is that Remus
contemptuously jumped over the newly raised walls and was forthwith killed by
the enraged Romulus, who
exclaimed, "So shall it be henceforth with every one who leaps over my
walls." Romulus thus became sole ruler, and the city was called after him,
its founder. His first work was to fortify the Palatine hill where he had been
brought up. The worship of the other deities he conducted according to the use
of Alba, but that of Hercules in accordance with the Greek rites as they had
been instituted by Evander. It was into this neighbourhood, according to the
tradition, that Hercules, after he had killed Geryon, drove his oxen, which
were of marvellous beauty. He swam across the Tiber, driving
the oxen before him, and wearied with his journey, lay down in a grassy place
near the river to rest himself and the oxen, who
enjoyed the rich pasture. When sleep had overtaken him, as he was heavy with
food and wine, a shepherd living near, called Cacus, presuming on his strength,
and captivated by the beauty of the oxen, determined to secure them. If he
drove them before him into the cave, their hoof-marks would have led their
owner on his search for them in the same direction, so he dragged the finest of
them backwards by their tails into his cave. At the first streak of dawn
Hercules awoke, and on surveying his herd saw that some were missing. He
proceeded towards the nearest cave, to see if any tracks pointed in that
direction, but he found that every hoof-mark led from the cave and none towards
it. Perplexed and bewildered he began to drive the herd away from so dangerous
a neighbourhood. Some of the cattle, missing those which were left behind,
lowed as they often do, and an answering low sounded from the cave. Hercules
turned in that direction, and as Cacus tried to prevent him by force from
entering the cave, he was killed by a blow from Hercules' club, after vainly
appealing for help to his comrades
The king of the country at that time was Evander, a
refugee from Peloponnesus, who ruled
more by personal ascendancy than by the exercise of power. He was looked up to
with reverence for his knowledge of letters - a new and marvellous thing for
uncivilised men - but he was still more revered because of his mother Carmenta,
who was believed to be a divine being and regarded with wonder by all as an
interpreter of Fate, in the days before the arrival of the Sibyl in Italy. This
Evander, alarmed by the crowd of excited shepherds standing round a stranger
whom they accused of open murder, ascertained from them the nature of his act
and what led to it. As he observed the bearing and stature of the man to be
more than human in greatness and august dignity, he asked who he was. When he
heard his name, and learnt his father and his country he said, "Hercules,
son of Jupiter, hail! My mother, who speaks truth in the name of the gods, has
prophesied that thou shalt join the company of the gods, and that here a shrine
shall be dedicated to thee, which in ages to come the most powerful nation in
all the world shall call their Ara Maxima and honour with shine own special
worship." Hercules grasped Evander's right hand and said that he took the
omen to himself and would fulfil the prophecy by building and consecrating the
altar. Then a heifer of conspicuous beauty was taken from the herd, and the
first sacrifice was offered; the Potitii and Pinarii, the two principal
families in those parts, were invited by Hercules to assist in the sacrifice
and at the feast which followed. It so happened that the Potitii were present
at the appointed time, and the entrails were placed before them; the Pinarii
arrived after these were consumed and came in for the rest of the banquet. It
became a permanent institution from that time, that as
long as the family of the Pinarii survived they should not eat of the entrails
of the victims. The Potitii, after being instructed by Evander, presided over
that rite for many ages, until they handed over this ministerial office to
public servants after which the whole race of the Potitii perished. This out of
all foreign rites, was the only one which Romulus adopted, as
though he felt that an immortality won through courage, of which this was the
memorial, would one day be his own reward.
[1.8]After
the claims of religion had been duly acknowledged, Romulus called his
people to a council. As nothing could unite them into one political body but
the observance of common laws and customs, he gave them a body of laws, which
he thought would only be respected by a rude and uncivilised race of men if he
inspired them with awe by assuming the outward symbols of power. He surrounded
himself with greater state, and in particular he called into his service twelve
lictors. Some think that he fixed upon this number from the number of the birds
who foretold his sovereignty; but I am inclined to agree with those who think
that as this class of public officers was borrowed from the same people from
whom the "sella curulis" and the "toga praetexta" were
adopted - their neighbours, the Etruscans - so the number itself also was taken
from them. Its use amongst the Etruscans is traced to the custom of the twelve
sovereign cities of Etruria, when
jointly electing a king, furnishing him each with one lictor. Meantime the City
was growing by the extension of its walls in various directions; an increase
due rather to the anticipation of its future population than to any present
overcrowding. His next care was to secure an addition to the population that
the size of the City might not be a source of weakness. It had been the ancient
policy of the founders of cities to get together a multitude of people of
obscure and low origin and then to spread the fiction that they were the
children of the soil. In accordance with this policy, Romulus opened a
place of refuge on the spot where, as you go down from the Capitol, you find an
enclosed space between two groves. A promiscuous crowd of freemen and slaves,
eager for change, fled thither from the neighbouring states. This was the first
accession of strength to the nascent greatness of the city. When he was
satisfied as to its strength, his next step was to provide for that strength
being wisely directed. He created a hundred senators; either because that
number was adequate, or because there were only a hundred heads of houses who could be created. In any case they were called the
"Patres" in virtue of their rank, and their descendants were called
"Patricians."
[1.9]The Roman State had now
become so strong that it was a match for any of its neighbours in war, but its
greatness threatened to last for only one generation, since through the absence
of women there was no hope of offspring, and there was no right of
intermarriage with their neighbours. Acting on the advice of the senate, Romulus sent envoys
amongst the surrounding nations to ask for alliance and the right of
intermarriage on behalf of his new community. It was represented that cities,
like everything else, sprung from the humblest beginnings, and those who were
helped on by their own courage and the favour of heaven won for themselves
great power and great renown. As to the origin of Rome, it was
well known that whilst it had received divine assistance, courage and
self-reliance were not wanting. There should, therefore, be no reluctance for
men to mingle their blood with their fellow-men. Nowhere did the envoys meet
with a favourable reception. Whilst their proposals were treated with
contumely, there was at the same time a general feeling of alarm at the power
so rapidly growing in their midst. Usually they were dismissed with the
question, "whether they had opened an asylum for women, for nothing short
of that would secure for them intermarriage on equal terms." The Roman
youth could ill brook such insults, and matters began to look like an appeal to
force. To secure a favourable place and time for such an attempt, Romulus,
disguising his resentment, made elaborate preparations for the celebration of
games in honour of "Equestrian Neptune," which he called "the
Consualia." He ordered public notice of the spectacle to be given amongst
the adjoining cities, and his people supported him in making the celebration as
magnificent as their knowledge and resources allowed, so that expectations were
raised to the highest pitch. There was a great gathering; people were eager to
see the new City, all their
nearest neighbours - the people of Caenina, Antemnae, and Crustumerium - were
there, and the whole Sabine population came, with their wives and families.
They were invited to accept hospitality at the different houses, and after
examining the situation of the City, its walls and the large number of
dwelling-houses it included, they were astonished at the rapidity with which
the Roman State had grown.
When the hour for the games had come, and their eyes
and minds were alike riveted on the spectacle before them, the preconcerted
signal was given and the Roman youth dashed in all directions to carry off the
maidens who were present. The larger part were carried
off indiscriminately, but some particularly beautiful girls who had been marked
out for the leading patricians were carried to their houses by plebeians told
off for the task. One, conspicuous amongst them all for grace and beauty, is
reported to have been carried off by a group led by a certain Talassius, and to
the many inquiries as to whom she was intended for, the invariable answer was
given, "For Talassius." Hence the use of this word in the marriage
rites. Alarm and consternation broke up the games, and the parents of the
maidens fled, distracted with grief, uttering bitter reproaches on the
violators of the laws of hospitality and appealing to the god to whose solemn
games they had come, only to be the victims of impious perfidy. The abducted
maidens were quite as despondent and indignant. Romulus, however, went round in
person, and pointed out to them that it was all owing to the pride of their
parents in denying right of intermarriage to their neighbours. They would live
in honourable wedlock, and share all their property and civil rights, and -
dearest of all to human nature - would be the mothers of freemen. He begged
them to lay aside their feelings of resentment and give their affections to
those whom fortune had made masters of their persons. An injury had often led
to reconciliation and love; they would find their husbands all the more
affectionate, because each would do his utmost, so far as in him lay, to make
up for the loss of parents and country. These arguments were reinforced by the
endearments of their husbands, who excused their conduct by pleading the
irresistible force of their passion - a plea effective beyond all others in appealing
to a woman's nature.
[1.10]The
feelings of the abducted maidens were now pretty completely appeased, but not
so those of their parents. They went about in mourning garb, and tried by their
tearful complaints to rouse their countrymen to action. Nor did they confine
their remonstrances to their own cities; they flocked from all sides to Titus
Tatius, the king of the Sabines, and sent formal deputations to him, for his
was the most influential name in those parts. The people of Caenina, Crustumerium,
and Antemnae were the greatest sufferers; they thought Tatius and his Sabines
were too slow in moving, so these three cities prepared to make war conjointly.
Such, however, were the impatience and anger of the Caeninensians that even the
Crustuminians and Antemnates did not display enough energy for them, so the men
of Caenina made an attack upon Roman territory on their own account. Whilst
they were scattered far and wide, pillaging and destroying, Romulus came upon
them with an army, and after a brief encounter taught them that anger is futile
without strength. He put them to a hasty flight, and following them up, killed
their king and despoiled his body; then after slaying their leader took their
city at the first assault. He was no less anxious to display his achievements
than he had been great in performing them, so, after leading his victorious
army home, he mounted to the Capitol with the spoils of his dead foe borne
before him on a frame constructed for the purpose. He hung them there on an
oak, which the shepherds looked upon as a sacred tree, and at the same time
marked out the site for the temple of Jupiter, and addressing the god by a new
title, uttered the following invocation: "Jupiter Feretrius! these arms
taken from a king, I, Romulus a king and conqueror, bring to thee, and on this
domain, whose bounds I have in will and purpose traced, I dedicate a temple to
receive the 'spolia opima' which posterity following my example shall bear
hither, taken from the kings and generals of our foes slain in battle."
Such was the origin of the first temple dedicated in Rome. And the
gods decreed that though its founder did not utter idle words in declaring that
posterity would thither bear their spoils, still the splendour of that offering
should not be dimmed by the number of those who have rivalled his achievement.
For after so many years have elapsed and so many wars been waged, only twice
have the "spolia opima" been offered. So seldom has Fortune granted
that glory to men.
[1.11]Whilst
the Romans were thus occupied, the army of the Antemnates seized the
opportunity of their territory being unoccupied and made a raid into it. Romulus hastily led
his legion against this fresh foe and surprised them as they were scattered
over the fields. At the very first battle-shout and charge the enemy were routed and their city captured. Whilst Romulus was
exulting over this double victory, his wife, Hersilia, moved by the entreaties
of the abducted maidens, implored him to pardon their parents and receive them
into citizenship, for so the State would increase in unity and strength. He
readily granted her request. He then advanced against the Crustuminians, who
had commenced war, but their eagerness had been damped by the successive
defeats of their neighbours, and they offered but slight resistance. Colonies
were planted in both places; owing to the fertility of the soil of the
Crustumine district, the majority gave their names for that colony. On the
other hand there were numerous migrations to Rome mostly of
the parents and relatives of the abducted maidens. The last of these wars was
commenced by the Sabines and proved the most serious of all, for nothing was
done in passion or impatience; they masked their designs till war had actually
commenced. Strategy was aided by craft and deceit, as the following incident
shows. Spurius Tarpeius was in command of the Roman citadel. Whilst his
daughter had gone outside the fortifications to fetch water for some religious
ceremonies, Tatius bribed her to admit his troops within the citadel. Once
admitted, they crushed her to death beneath their shields, either that the
citadel might appear to have been taken by assault, or that her example might
be left as a warning that no faith should be kept with traitors. A further
story runs that the Sabines were in the habit of wearing heavy gold armlets on
their left arms and richly jewelled rings, and that the girl made them promise
to give her "what they had on their left arms," accordingly they
piled their shields upon her instead of golden gifts. Some say that in
bargaining for what they had in their left hands, she expressly asked for their
shields, and being suspected of wishing to betray them, fell a victim to her
own bargain.
[1.12]However
this may be, the Sabines were in possession of the citadel. And they would not
come down from it the next day, though the Roman army was drawn up in battle
array over the whole of the ground between the Palatine and the Capitoline
hill, until, exasperated at the loss of their citadel and determined to recover
it, the Romans mounted to the attack. Advancing before the rest, Mettius
Curtius, on the side of the Sabines, and Hostius Hostilius, on the side of the
Romans, engaged in single combat. Hostius, fighting on disadvantageous ground,
upheld the fortunes of Rome by his intrepid bravery, but at last he fell; the
Roman line broke and fled to what was then the gate of the Palatine. Even Romulus was being
swept away by the crowd of fugitives, and lifting up his hands to heaven he
exclaimed: "Jupiter, it was thy omen that I obeyed when I laid here on the
Palatine the earliest foundations of the City.
Now the Sabines hold its citadel, having bought it by a bribe, and coming
thence have seized the valley and are pressing hitherwards in battle. Do thou,
Father of gods and men, drive hence our foes, banish terror from Roman hearts,
and stay our shameful flight! Here do I vow a temple to thee, 'Jove the
Stayer,' as a memorial for the generations to come that it is through thy
present help that the City has been saved." Then, as though he had become
aware that his prayer had been heard, he cried, "Back, Romans! Jupiter
Optimus Maximus bids you stand and renew the battle." They stopped as
though commanded by a voice from heaven - Romulus dashed up to the foremost line,
just as Mettius Curtius had run down from the citadel in front of the Sabines
and driven the Romans in headlong flight over the whole of the ground now
occupied by the Forum. He was now not far from the gate of the Palatine, and was
shouting: "We have conquered our faithless hosts, our cowardly foes; now
they know that to carry off maidens is a very different thing from fighting
with men." In the midst of these vaunts Romulus, with a
compact body of valiant troops, charged down on him. Mettius happened to be on
horseback, so he was the more easily driven back, the Romans followed in
pursuit, and, inspired by the courage of their king, the rest of the Roman army
routed the Sabines. Mettius, unable to control his horse, maddened by the noise
of his pursuers, plunged into a morass. The danger of their general drew off
the attention of the Sabines for a moment from the battle; they called out and
made signals to encourage him, so, animated to fresh efforts, he succeeded in
extricating himself. Thereupon the Romans and Sabines renewed the fighting in
the middle of the valley, but the fortune of Rome was in the
ascendant.
[1.13]Then
it was that the Sabine women, whose wrongs had led to the war, throwing off all
womanish fears in their distress, went boldly into the midst of the flying
missiles with dishevelled hair and rent garments. Running across the space
between the two armies they tried to stop any further fighting and calm the
excited passions by appealing to their fathers in the one army and their husbands
in the other not to bring upon themselves a curse by staining their hands with
the blood of a father-in-law or a son-in-law, nor upon their posterity the
taint of parricide. "If," they cried, "you are weary of these
ties of kindred, these marriage-bonds, then turn your anger upon us; it is we
who are the cause of the war, it is we who have wounded and slain our husbands
and fathers. Better for us to perish rather than live without one or the other
of you, as widows or as orphans." The armies and their leaders were alike
moved by this appeal. There was a sudden hush and silence. Then the generals
advanced to arrange the terms of a treaty. It was not only peace that was made,
the two nations were united into one State, the royal power was shared between
them, and the seat of government for both nations was Rome. After thus
doubling the City, a concession was made to the Sabines in the new appellation
of Quirites, from their old capital of Cures. As a memorial of the battle, the
place where Curtius got his horse out of the deep marsh on to safer ground was
called the Curtian lake. The joyful peace, which put an abrupt close to such a
deplorable war, made the Sabine women still dearer to their husbands and
fathers, and most of all to Romulus himself.
Consequently when he effected the distribution of the people into the thirty
curiae, he affixed their names to the curiae. No doubt there were many more
than thirty women, and tradition is silent as to whether those whose names were
given to the curiae were selected on the ground of age, or on that of personal
distinction - either their own or their husbands' - or
merely by lot. The enrolment of the three centuries of knights took place at
the same time; the Ramnenses were called after Romulus, the
Titienses from T. Tatius. The origin of the Luceres and why they were so called
is uncertain. Thenceforward the two kings exercised their joint sovereignty
with perfect harmony.
[1.14]Some
years subsequently the kinsmen of King Tatius ill-treated the ambassadors of
the Laurentines. They came to seek redress from him in accordance with
international law, but the influence and importunities of his friends had more
weight with Tatius than the remonstrances of the Laurentines. The consequence
was that he brought upon himself the punishment due to them, for when he had
gone to the annual sacrifice at Lavinium, a tumult arose in which he was
killed. Romulus is reported
to have been less distressed at this incident than his position demanded,
either because of the insincerity inherent in all joint sovereignty, or because
he thought he had deserved his fate. He refused, therefore, to go to war, but
that the wrong done to the ambassadors and the murder of the king might be
expiated, the treaty between Rome and
Lavinium was renewed. Whilst in this direction an unhoped-for peace was
secured, war broke out in a much nearer quarter, in fact almost at the very
gates of Rome. The people
of Fidenae considered that a power was growing up too close to them, so to
prevent the anticipations of its future greatness from being realised, they
took the initiative in making war. Armed bands invaded and devastated the
country lying between the City and Fidenae. Thence they turned to the left -
the Tiber barred their advance on the right - and
plundered and destroyed, to the great alarm of the country people. A sudden
rush from the fields into the City was the first intimation of what was
happening. A war so close to their gates admitted of no delay, and Romulus hurriedly
led out his army and encamped about a mile from Fidenae. Leaving a small
detachment to guard the camp, he went forward with his whole force, and whilst
one part were ordered to lie in ambush in a place overgrown with dense
brushwood, he advanced with the larger part and the whole of the cavalry
towards the city, and by riding up to the very gates in a disorderly and
provocative manner he succeeded in drawing the enemy. The cavalry continued
these tactics and so made the flight which they were to feign seem less
suspicious, and when their apparent hesitation whether to fight or to flee was
followed by the retirement of the infantry, the enemy suddenly poured out of
the crowded gates, broke the Roman line and pressed on in eager pursuit till
they were brought to where the ambush was set. Then the Romans suddenly rose
and attacked the enemy in flank; their panic was increased by the troops in the
camp bearing down upon them. Terrified by the threatened attacks from all
sides, the Fidenates turned and fled almost before Romulus and his men
could wheel round from their simulated flight. They made for their town much
more quickly than they had just before pursued those who pretended to flee, for
their flight was a genuine one. They could not, however, shake off the pursuit;
the Romans were on their heels, and before the gates could be closed against
them, burst through pell-mell with the enemy.
[1.15]The
contagion of the war-spirit in Fidenae infected the Veientes. This people were
connected by ties of blood with the Fidenates, who were also Etruscans, and an
additional incentive was supplied by the mere proximity of the place, should
the arms of Rome be turned
against all her neighbours. They made an incursion into Roman territory, rather
for the sake of plunder than as an act of regular war. After securing their
booty they returned with it to Veii, without
entrenching a camp or waiting for the enemy. The Romans, on the other hand, not
finding the enemy on their soil, crossed the Tiber, prepared
and determined to fight a decisive battle. On hearing that they had formed an
entrenched camp and were preparing to advance on their city, the Veientes went
out against them, preferring a combat in the open to being shut up and having
to fight from houses and walls. Romulus gained the
victory, not through stratagem, but through the prowess of his veteran army. He
drove the routed enemy up to their walls, but in view of the strong position
and fortifications of the city, he abstained from assaulting it. On his march
homewards, he devastated their fields more out of revenge than for the sake of
plunder. The loss thus sustained, no less than the previous defeat, broke the
spirit of the Veientes, and they sent envoys to Rome to sue for
peace. On condition of a cession of territory a truce was granted to them for a
hundred years. These were the principal events at home and in the field that
marked the reign of Romulus. Throughout
- whether we consider the courage he showed in recovering his ancestral throne,
or the wisdom he displayed in founding the City and adding to its strength
through war and peace alike - we find nothing incompatible with the belief in
his divine origin and his admission to divine immortality after death. It was,
in fact, through the strength given by him that the City was powerful enough to
enjoy an assured peace for forty years after his departure. He was, however,
more acceptable to the populace than to the patricians, but most of all was he
the idol of his soldiers. He kept a bodyguard of three hundred men round him in
peace as well as in war. These he called the "Celeres."
[1.16]After
these immortal achievements, Romulus held a
review of his army at the "Caprae Palus" in the Campus Martius. A
violent thunderstorm suddenly arose and enveloped the king in so dense a cloud
that he was quite invisible to the assembly. From that hour Romulus was no
longer seen on earth. When the fears of the Roman youth were allayed by the
return of bright, calm sunshine after such fearful weather, they saw that the
royal seat was vacant. Whilst they fully believed the assertion of the
senators, who had been standing close to him, that he had been snatched away to
heaven by a whirlwind, still, like men suddenly bereaved, fear and grief kept
them for some time speechless. At length, after a few had taken the initiative,
the whole of those present hailed Romulus as "a
god, the son of a god, the King and Father of the City of Rome." They
put up supplications for his grace and favour, and prayed that he would be
propitious to his children and save and protect them. I believe, however, that
even then there were some who secretly hinted that he had been torn limb from
limb by the senators - a tradition to this effect, though certainly a very dim
one, has filtered down to us. The other, which I follow, has been the prevailing
one, due, no doubt, to the admiration felt for the man and the apprehensions
excited by his disappearance. This generally accepted belief was strengthened
by one man's clever device. The tradition runs that Proculus Julius, a man
whose authority had weight in matters of even the gravest importance, seeing
how deeply the community felt the loss of the king, and how incensed they were
against the senators, came forward into the assembly and said: "Quirites!
at break of dawn, to-day, the Father of this City suddenly descended from
heaven and appeared to me. Whilst, thrilled with awe, I stood rapt before him
in deepest reverence, praying that I might be pardoned for gazing upon him,
'Go,' said he, 'tell the Romans that it is the will of heaven that my Rome should be
the head of all the world. Let them henceforth
cultivate the arts of war, and let them know assuredly, and hand down the
knowledge to posterity, that no human might can withstand the arms of
Rome.'" It is marvellous what credit was given to this man's story, and
how the grief of the people and the army was soothed by the belief which had
been created in the immortality of Romulus.
[1.17]Disputes
arose among the senators about the vacant throne. It was not the jealousies of
individual citizens, for no one was sufficiently prominent in so young a State,
but the rivalries of parties in the State that led to this strife. The Sabine
families were apprehensive of losing their fair share of the sovereign power,
because after the death of Tatius they had had no representative on the throne;
they were anxious, therefore, that the king should be elected from amongst
them. The ancient Romans could ill brook a foreign king; but amidst this
diversity of political views, all were for a monarchy; they had not yet tasted
the sweets of liberty. The senators began to grow apprehensive of some
aggressive act on the part of the surrounding states, now that the City was
without a central authority and the army without a general. They decided that
there must be some head of the State, but no one could make up his mind to
concede the dignity to any one else. The matter was settled by the hundred
senators dividing themselves into ten "decuries," and one was chosen
from each decury to exercise the supreme power. Ten therefore were in office,
but only one at a time had the insignia of authority and the lictors. Their
individual authority was restricted to five days, and they exercised it in
rotation. This break in the monarchy lasted for a year, and it was called by
the name it still bears - that of "interregnum." After a time the
plebs began to murmur that their bondage was multiplied, for they had a hundred
masters instead of one. It was evident that they would insist upon a king being
elected and elected by them. When the senators became aware of this growing
determination, they thought it better to offer spontaneously what they were
bound to part with, so, as an act of grace, they committed the supreme power
into the hands of the people, but in such a way that they did not give away
more privilege than they retained. For they passed a decree
that when the people had chosen a king, his election would only be valid after
the senate had ratified it by their authority. The same procedure exists
to-day in the passing of laws and the election of magistrates, but the power of
rejection has been withdrawn; the senate give their
ratification before the people proceed to vote, whilst the result of the
election is still uncertain. At that time the "interrex" convened the
assembly and addressed it as follows: "Quirites! elect your king, and may
heaven's blessing rest on your labours! If you elect one who shall be counted
worthy to follow Romulus, the senate
will ratify your choice." So gratified were the people at the proposal
that, not to appear behindhand in generosity, they passed a resolution that it
should be left to the senate to decree who should reign in Rome.
[1.18]There
was living, in those days, at Cures, a Sabine city, a man of renowned justice
and piety - Numa Pompilius. He was as conversant as any one in that age could
be with all divine and human law. His master is given as Pythagoras of Samos, as
tradition speaks of no other. But this is erroneous, for it is generally agreed
that it was more than a century later, in the reign of Servius Tullius, that
Pythagoras gathered round him crowds of eager students, in the most distant
part of Italy, in the neighbourhood of Metapontum, Heraclea, and Crotona. Now,
even if he had been contemporary with Numa, how could his reputation have reached
the Sabines? From what places, and in what common language could he have
induced any one to become his disciple? Who could have guaranteed the safety of
a solitary individual travelling through so many nations differing in speech
and character? I believe rather that Numa's virtues were the result of his
native temperament and self-training, moulded not so much by foreign influences
as by the rigorous and austere discipline of the ancient Sabines, which was the
purest type of any that existed in the old days. When Numa's name was
mentioned, though the Roman senators saw that the balance of power would be on
the side of the Sabines if the king were chosen from amongst them, still no one
ventured to propose a partisan of his own, or any senator, or citizen in
preference to him. Accordingly they all to a man decreed that the crown should
be offered to Numa Pompilius. He was invited to Rome, and
following the precedent set by Romulus, when he
obtained his crown through the augury which sanctioned the founding of the
City, Numa ordered that in his case also the gods should be consulted. He was
solemnly conducted by an augur, who was afterwards honoured by being made a
State functionary for life, to the Citadel, and took his seat on a stone facing
south. The augur seated himself on his left hand, with his head covered, and
holding in his right hand a curved staff without any knots, which they called a
"lituus." After surveying the prospect over the City and surrounding
country, he offered prayers and marked out the heavenly regions by an imaginary
line from east to west; the southern he defined as "the right hand,"
the northern as "the left hand." He then fixed upon an object, as far
as he could see, as a corresponding mark, and then transferring the lituus to
his left hand, he laid his right upon Numa's head and offered this prayer:
"Father Jupiter, if it be heaven's will that this Numa Pompilius, whose
head I hold, should be king of Rome, do thou signify it to us by sure signs
within those boundaries which I have traced." Then he described in the
usual formula the augury which he desired should be sent. They were sent, and
Numa being by them manifested to be king, came down from the
"templum."
[1.19]Having
in this way obtained the crown, Numa prepared to found, as it were, anew, by
laws and customs, that City which had so recently been founded by force of
arms. He saw that this was impossible whilst a state of war lasted, for war
brutalised men. Thinking that the ferocity of his subjects might be mitigated
by the disuse of arms, he built the temple of Janus at the foot of the Aventine
as an index of peace and war, to signify when it was open that the State was
under arms, and when it was shut that all the surrounding nations were at
peace. Twice since Numa's reign has it been shut, once after the first Punic
war in the consulship of T. Manlius, the second time, which heaven has allowed
our generation to witness, after the battle of Actium, when peace on land and
sea was secured by the emperor Caesar Augustus. After forming treaties of
alliance with all his neighbours and closing the temple of Janus, Numa
turned his attention to domestic matters. The removal of all danger from
without would induce his subjects to luxuriate in idleness, as they would be no
longer restrained by the fear of an enemy or by military discipline. To prevent
this, he strove to inculcate in their minds the fear of the gods, regarding
this as the most powerful influence which could act upon an uncivilised and, in
those ages, a barbarous people. But, as this would fail to make a deep
impression without some claim to supernatural wisdom, he pretended that he had
nocturnal interviews with the nymph Egeria: that it was on her advice that he
was instituting the ritual most acceptable to the gods and appointing for each
deity his own special priests. First of all he divided the year into twelve
months, corresponding to the moon's revolutions. But as the moon does not
complete thirty days in each month, and so there are fewer days in the lunar
year than in that measured by the course of the sun, he interpolated
intercalary months and so arranged them that every twentieth year the days
should coincide with the same position of the sun as when they started, the
whole twenty years being thus complete. He also established a distinction
between the days on which legal business could be transacted and those on which
it could not, because it would sometimes be advisable that there should be no
business transacted with the people.
[1.20]Next
he turned his attention to the appointment of priests. He himself, however,
conducted a great many religious services, especially those which belong to the
Flamen of Jupiter. But he thought that in a warlike state there would be more
kings of the type of Romulus than of
Numa who would take the field in person. To guard, therefore, against the
sacrificial rites which the king performed being interrupted, he appointed a
Flamen as perpetual priest to Jupiter, and ordered that he should wear a
distinctive dress and sit in the royal curule chair. He appointed two
additional Flamens, one for Mars, the other for Quirinus, and also chose
virgins as priestesses to Vesta. This order of priestesses came into existence
originally in Alba and was connected with the race of the founder. He assigned
them a public stipend that they might give their whole time to the temple, and
made their persons sacred and inviolable by a vow of chastity and other
religious sanctions. Similarly he chose twelve "Salii" for Mars
Gradivus, and assigned to them the distinctive dress of an embroidered tunic
and over it a brazen cuirass. They were instructed to march in solemn
procession through the City, carrying the twelve shields called the
"Ancilia," and singing hymns accompanied by a solemn dance in triple
time. The next office to be filled was that of the Pontifex Maximus. Numa
appointed the son of Marcus, one of the senators - Numa Marcius - and all the
regulations bearing on religion, written out and sealed, were placed in his
charge. Here was laid down with what victims, on what days, and at what temples
the various sacrifices were to be offered, and from what sources the expenses
connected with them were to be defrayed. He placed all other sacred functions,
both public and private, under the supervision of the Pontifex, in order that
there might be an authority for the people to consult, and so all trouble and
confusion arising through foreign rites being adopted and their ancestral ones
neglected might be avoided. Nor were his functions confined to directing the
worship of the celestial gods; he was to instruct the people how to conduct
funerals and appease the spirits of the departed, and what prodigies sent by
lightning or in any other way were to be attended to and expiated. To elicit
these signs of the divine will, he dedicated an altar to Jupiter Elicius on the
Aventine, and consulted the god through
auguries, as to which prodigies were to receive attention.
[1.21]The
deliberations and arrangements which these matters involved diverted the people
from all thoughts of war and provided them with ample occupation. The watchful
care of the gods, manifesting itself in the providential guidance of human
affairs, had kindled in all hearts such a feeling of piety that the sacredness
of promises and the sanctity of oaths were a controlling force for the
community scarcely less effective than the fear inspired by laws and penalties.
And whilst his subjects were moulding their characters upon the unique example
of their king, the neighbouring nations, who had hitherto believed that it was
a fortified camp and not a city that was placed amongst them to vex the peace
of all, were now induced to respect them so highly that they thought it sinful
to injure a State so entirely devoted to the service of the gods. There was a
grove through the midst of which a perennial stream flowed, issuing from a dark
cave. Here Numa frequently retired unattended as if to meet the goddess, and he
consecrated the grove to the Camaenae, because it was there that their meetings
with his wife Egeria took place. He also instituted a yearly sacrifice to the
goddess Fides and ordered that the Flamens should ride to her temple in a
hooded chariot, and should perform the service with their hands covered as far
as the fingers, to signify that Faith must be sheltered and that her seat is
holy even when it is in men's right hands. There were many other sacrifices
appointed by him and places dedicated for their performance which the pontiffs
call the Argei. The greatest of all his works was the preservation of peace and
the security of his realm throughout the whole of his reign. Thus by two
successive kings the greatness of the State was advanced; by each in a
different way, by the one through war, by the other through peace. Romulus reigned
thirty-seven years, Numa forty-three. The State was strong and disciplined by
the lessons of war and the arts of peace.
[1.22]The
death of Numa was followed by a second interregnum. Then Tullus Hostilius, a
grandson of the Hostilius who had fought so brilliantly at the foot of the
Citadel against the Sabines, was chosen king by the people, and their choice
was confirmed by the senate. He was not only unlike the last king, but he was a
man of more warlike spirit even than Romulus, and his ambition was kindled by
his own youthful energy and by the glorious achievements of his grandfather.
Convinced that the vigour of the State was becoming enfeebled through inaction,
he looked all round for a pretext for getting up a war. It so happened that
Roman peasants were at that time in the habit of carrying off plunder from the
Alban territory, and the Albans from Roman territory. Gaius Cluilius was at the
time ruling in Alba. Both parties sent envoys almost simultaneously to seek
redress. Tullus had told his ambassadors to lose no time in carrying out their
instructions; he was fully aware that the Albans would refuse satisfaction, and
so a just ground would exist for proclaiming war. The Alban envoys proceeded in
a more leisurely fashion. Tullus received them with all courtesy and
entertained them sumptuously. Meantime the Romans had preferred their demands,
and on the Alban governor's refusal had declared that war would begin in thirty
days. When this was reported to Tullus, he granted the Albans an audience in
which they were to state the object of their coming. Ignorant of all that had
happened, they wasted time in explaining that it was with great reluctance that
they would say anything which might displease Tullus, but they were bound by
their instructions; they were come to demand redress, and if that were refused
they were ordered to declare war. "Tell your king," replied Tullus,
"that the king of Rome calls the
gods to witness that whichever nation is the first to dismiss with ignominy the
envoys who came to seek redress, upon that nation they
will visit all the sufferings of this war."
[1.23]The
Albans reported this at home. Both sides made extraordinary preparations for a
war, which closely resembled a civil war between parents and children, for both
were of Trojan descent, since Lavinium was an offshoot of Troy, and Alba of
Lavinium, and the Romans were sprung from the stock of the kings of Alba. The
outcome of the war, however, made the conflict less deplorable, as there was no
regular engagement, and though one of the two cities was destroyed, the two
nations were blended into one. The Albans were the first to move, and invaded
the Roman territory with an immense army. They fixed their camp only five miles
from the City and surrounded it with a moat; this was called for several
centuries the "Cluilian Dyke" from the name of the Alban general,
till through lapse of time the name and the thing itself disappeared. While
they were encamped Cluilius, the Alban king, died, and the Albans made Mettius
Fufetius dictator. The king's death made Tullus more sanguine than ever of
success. He gave out that the wrath of heaven which had fallen first of all on
the head of the nation would visit the whole race of Alba with condign
punishment for this unholy war. Passing the enemy's camp by a night march, he
advanced upon Alban territory. This drew Mettius from his entrenchments. He
marched as close to his enemy as he could, and then sent on an officer to
inform Tullus that before engaging it was necessary that they should have a
conference. If he granted one, then he was satisfied that the matters he would
lay before him were such as concerned Rome no less
than Alba. Tullus did not reject the proposal, but in case the conference
should prove illusory, he led out his men in order of battle. The Albans did
the same. After they had halted, confronting each other, the two commanders,
with a small escort of superior officers, advanced between the lines. The Alban
general, addressing Tullus, said: "I think I have heard our king Cluilius
say that acts of robbery and the non-restitution of plundered property, in
violation of the existing treaty, were the cause of this war, and I have no
doubt that you, Tullus, allege the same pretext. But if we are to say what is
true, rather than what is plausible, we must admit that it is the lust of
empire which has made two kindred and neighbouring peoples take up arms.
Whether rightly or wrongly I do not judge; let him who began the war settle
that point; I am simply placed in command by the Albans to conduct the war. But
I want to give you a warning, Tullus. You know, you especially who are nearer
to them, the greatness of the Etruscan State, which hems
us both in; their immense strength by land, still more by sea. Now remember,
when once you have given the signal to engage, our two armies will fight under
their eyes, so that when we are wearied and exhausted they may attack us both,
victor and vanquished alike. If then, not content with the secure freedom we
now enjoy, we are determined to enter into a game of chance, where the stakes
are either supremacy or slavery, let us, in heaven's name, choose some method
by which, without great suffering or bloodshed on either side, it can be
decided which nation is to be master of the other." Although, from natural
temperament, and the certainty he felt of victory, Tullus was eager to fight,
he did not disapprove of the proposal. After much consideration on both sides a
method was adopted, for which Fortune herself provided the necessary means.
[1.24]There
happened to be in each of the armies a triplet of brothers, fairly matched in
years and strength. It is generally agreed that they were called Horatii and
Curiatii. Few incidents in antiquity have been more widely celebrated, yet in
spite of its celebrity there is a discrepancy in the accounts as to which
nation each belonged. There are authorities on both sides, but I find that the majority give the name of Horatii to the Romans, and my
sympathies lead me to follow them. The kings suggested to them that they should
each fight on behalf of their country, and where victory rested, there should
be the sovereignty. They raised no objection; so the time and place were fixed.
But before they engaged a treaty was concluded between the Romans and the
Albans, providing that the nation whose representatives proved victorious
should receive the peaceable submission of the other. This is the earliest
treaty recorded, and as all treaties, however different the conditions they
contain, are concluded with the same forms, I will describe the forms with
which this one was concluded as handed down by tradition. The Fetial put the
formal question to Tullus: "Do you, King, order me to make a treaty with
the Pater Patratus of the Alban nation?" On the king replying in the
affirmative, the Fetial said: "I demand of thee, King, some tufts of
grass." The king replied: "Take those that are pure." The Fetial
brought pure grass from the Citadel. Then he asked the king: "Do you
constitute me the plenipotentiary of the People of Rome, the
Quirites, sanctioning also my vessels and comrades?" To which the king
replied: "So far as may be without hurt to myself and the People of Rome, the
Quirites, I do." The Fetial was M. Valerius. He made Spurius Furius the
Pater Patratus by touching his head and hair with the grass. Then the Pater
Patratus, who is constituted for the purpose of giving the treaty the religious
sanction of an oath, did so by a long formula in verse, which it is not worth
while to quote. After reciting the conditions he said: "Hear, O Jupiter, hear!
thou Pater Patratus of the people of Alba! Hear ye, too, people of Alba! As
these conditions have been publicly rehearsed from first to last, from these
tablets, in perfect good faith, and inasmuch as they have here and now been
most clearly understood, so these conditions the People of Rome will not be the
first to go back from. If they shall, in their national council, with false and
malicious intent be the first to go back, then do thou, Jupiter, on that day,
so smite the People of Rome, even as I here and now shall smite this swine, and
smite them so much the more heavily, as thou art greater in power and
might." With these words he struck the swine with a flint. In similar wise
the Albans recited their oath and formularies through their own dictator and
their priests.
[1.25]On the
conclusion of the treaty the six combatants armed themselves. They were greeted
with shouts of encouragement from their comrades, who reminded them that their
fathers' gods, their fatherland, their fathers, every fellow-citizen, every
fellow-soldier, were now watching their weapons and the hands that wielded
them. Eager for the contest and inspired by the voices round them, they
advanced into the open space between the opposing lines. The two armies were
sitting in front of their respective camps, relieved from personal danger but
not from anxiety, since upon the fortunes and courage of this little group hung
the issue of dominion. Watchful and nervous, they gaze with feverish intensity
on a spectacle by no means entertaining. The signal was given, and with
uplifted swords the six youths charged like a battle-line with the courage of a
mighty host. Not one of them thought of his own danger; their sole thought was
for their country, whether it would be supreme or subject, their
one anxiety that they were deciding its future fortunes. When, at the first
encounter, the flashing swords rang on their opponents' shields, a deep shudder
ran through the spectators; then a breathless silence followed, as neither side
seemed to be gaining any advantage. Soon, however, they saw something more than
the swift movements of limbs and the rapid play of sword and shield: blood
became visible flowing from open wounds. Two of the Romans fell one on the
other, breathing out their life, whilst all the three Albans were wounded. The
fall of the Romans was welcomed with a burst of exultation from the Alban army;
whilst the Roman legions, who had lost all hope, but not all anxiety, trembled
for their solitary champion surrounded by the three Curiatii. It chanced that
he was untouched, and though not a match for the three together, he was
confident of victory against each separately. So, that he might encounter each
singly, he took to flight, assuming that they would follow as well as their
wounds would allow. He had run some distance from the spot where the combat
began, when, on looking back, he saw them following at long intervals from each
other, the foremost not far from him. He turned and made a desperate attack
upon him, and whilst the Alban army were shouting to the other Curiatii to come
to their brother's assistance, Horatius had already slain his foe and, flushed
with victory, was awaiting the second encounter. Then the Romans cheered their
champion with a shout such as men raise when hope succeeds to despair, and he
hastened to bring the fight to a close. Before the third, who was not far away,
could come up, he despatched the second Curiatius. The survivors were now equal
in point of numbers, but far from equal in either confidence or strength. The
one, unscathed after his double victory, was eager for the third contest; the
other, dragging himself wearily along, exhausted by his wounds and by his
running, vanquished already by the previous slaughter of his brothers, was an
easy conquest to his victorious foe. There was, in fact, no fighting. The Roman
cried exultingly: "Two have I sacrificed to appease my brothers' shades;
the third I will offer for the issue of this fight, that the Roman may rule the
Alban." He thrust his sword downward into the neck of his opponent, who
could no longer lift his shield, and then despoiled him as he lay. Horatius was
welcomed by the Romans with shouts of triumph, all the more joyous for the
fears they had felt. Both sides turned their attention to burying their dead
champions, but with very different feelings, the one rejoicing in wider
dominion, the other deprived of their liberty and under alien rule. The tombs
stand on the spots where each fell; those of the Romans close together, in the
direction of Alba; the three Alban tombs, at intervals, in the direction of
Rome.
[1.26]Before
the armies separated, Mettius inquired what commands he was to receive in
accordance with the terms of the treaty. Tullus ordered him to keep the Alban
soldiery under arms, as he would require their services if there were war with
the Veientines. Both armies then withdrew to their homes. Horatius was marching
at the head of the Roman army, carrying in front of him his triple spoils. His
sister, who had been betrothed to one of the Curiatii, met him outside the
Capene gate. She recognised on her brother's shoulders the cloak of her
betrothed, which she had made with her own hands; and bursting into tears she
tore her hair and called her dead lover by name. The triumphant soldier was so enraged
by his sister's outburst of grief in the midst of his own triumph and the
public rejoicing that he drew his sword and stabbed the girl. "Go,"
he cried, in bitter reproach, "go to your betrothed with your ill-timed
love, forgetful as you are of your dead brothers, of the one who still lives,
and of your country! So perish every Roman woman who mourns for an enemy!"
The deed horrified patricians and plebeians alike; but his recent services were
a set-off to it. He was brought before the king for trial. To avoid
responsibility for passing a harsh sentence, which would be repugnant to the
populace, and then carrying it into execution, the king summoned an assembly of
the people, and said: "I appoint two duumvirs to judge the treason of
Horatius according to law." The dreadful language of the law was:
"The duumvirs shall judge cases of treason; if the accused appeal from the
duumvirs, the appeal shall be heard; if their sentence be confirmed, the lictor
shall hang him by a rope on the fatal tree, and shall scourge him either within
or without the pomoerium." The duumvirs appointed under this law did not
think that by its provisions they had the power to acquit even an innocent
person. Accordingly they condemned him; then one of them said: "Publius
Horatius, I pronounce you guilty of treason. Lictor, bind his hands." The
lictor had approached and was fastening the cord, when Horatius, at the
suggestion of Tullus, who placed a merciful interpretation on the law, said,
"I appeal." The appeal was accordingly brought before the people.
Their decision was mainly influenced by Publius
Horatius, the father, who declared that his daughter had been justly slain; had
it not been so, he would have exerted his authority as a father in punishing
his son. Then he implored them not to bereave of all his children the man whom
they had so lately seen surrounded with such noble offspring. Whilst saying
this he embraced his son, and then, pointing to the spoils of the Curiatii
suspended on the spot now called the Pila Horatia, he said: "Can you bear,
Quirites, to see bound, scourged, and tortured beneath the gallows the man whom
you saw, lately, coming in triumph adorned with his foemen's spoils? Why, the
Albans themselves could not bear the sight of such a hideous spectacle. Go,
lictor, bind those hands which when armed but a little time ago won dominion
for the Roman people. Go, cover the head of the liberator of this City! Hang
him on the fatal tree, scourge him within the pomoerium, if only it be amongst
the trophies of his foes, or without, if only it be amongst the tombs of the
Curiatii! To what place can you take this youth where the monuments of his
splendid exploits will not vindicate him from such a shameful punishment?"
The father's tears and the young soldier's courage ready to meet every peril
were too much for the people. They acquitted him because they admired his
bravery rather than because they regarded his cause as a just one. But since a
murder in broad daylight demanded some expiation, the father was commanded to
make an atonement for his son at the cost of the
State. After offering certain expiatory sacrifices he erected a beam across the
street and made the young man pass under it, as under a yoke, with his head
covered. This beam exists to-day, having always been
kept in repair by the State: it is called "The Sister's Beam." A tomb
of hewn stone was constructed for Horatia on the spot where she was murdered.
[1.27]But
the peace with Alba was not a lasting one. The Alban dictator had incurred
general odium through having entrusted the fortunes of the State to three
soldiers, and this had an evil effect upon his weak character. As
straightforward counsels had turned out so unfortunate, he tried to recover the
popular favour by resorting to crooked ones, and as he had previously made
peace his aim in war, so now he sought the occasion of war in peace. He
recognised that his State possessed more courage than strength, he therefore
incited other nations to declare war openly and formally, whilst he kept for
his own people an opening for treachery under the mask of an alliance. The
people of Fidenae, where a Roman colony existed, were induced to go to war by a
compact on the part of the Albans to desert to them; the Veientines were taken
into the plot. When Fidenae had broken out into open revolt, Tullus summoned
Mettius and his army from Alba and marched against the enemy. After crossing
the Anio he encamped at the junction of that river with the Tiber. The army
of the Veientines had crossed the Tiber at a spot
between his camp and Fidenae. In the battle they formed the right wing near the
river, the Fidenates were on the left nearer the mountains. Tullus formed his
troops in front of the Veientines, and stationed the Albans against the legion
of the Fidenates. The Alban general showed as little courage as fidelity;
afraid either to keep his ground or to openly desert, he drew away gradually
towards the mountains. When he thought he had retired far enough, he halted his
entire army, and still irresolute, he began to form his men for attack, by way
of gaining time, intending to throw his strength on the winning side. Those
Romans who had been stationed next to the Albans were astounded to find that
their allies had withdrawn and left their flank exposed, when a horseman rode
up at full speed and reported to the king that the Albans were leaving the
field. In this critical situation, Tullus vowed to found a college of twelve
Salii and to build temples to Pallor and Pavor. Then, reprimanding the horseman
loud enough for the enemy to hear, he ordered him to rejoin the fighting line,
adding that there was no occasion for alarm, as it was by his orders that the
Alban army was making a circuit that they might fall on the unprotected rear of
the Fidenates. At the same time he ordered the cavalry to raise their spears;
this action hid the retreating Alban army from a large part of the Roman
infantry. Those who had seen them, thinking that what the king had said was
actually the case, fought all the more keenly. It was now the enemies' turn to
be alarmed; they had heard clearly the words of the king, and, moreover, a
large part of the Fidenates who had formerly joined the Roman colonists
understood Latin. Fearing to be cut off from their town by a sudden charge of
the Albans from the hills, they retreated. Tullus pressed the attack, and after
routing the Fidenates, returned to attack the Veientines with greater
confidence, as they were already demoralised by the panic of their allies. They
did not wait for the charge, but their flight was checked by the river in their
rear. When they reached it, some, flinging away their arms, rushed blindly into
the water, others, hesitating whether to fight or fly, were overtaken and
slain. Never had the Romans fought in a bloodier battle.
[1.28]Then the
Alban army, who had been watching the fight, marched down into the plain.
Mettius congratulated Tullus on his victory, Tullus replied in a friendly tone,
and as a mark of goodwill, ordered the Albans to form their camp contiguous to
that of the Romans, and made preparations for a "lustral sacrifice"
on the morrow. As soon as it was light, and all the preparations were made, he
gave the customary order for both armies to muster on parade. The heralds began
at the furthest part of the camp, where the Albans were, and summoned them
first of all; they, attracted by the novelty of hearing the Roman addressing
his troops, took up their position close round him. Secret instructions had
been given for the Roman legion to stand fully armed behind them, and the centurions
were in readiness to execute instantly the orders they received. Tullus
commenced as follows: "Romans! if in any war that you have ever waged
there has been reason for you to thank, first, the immortal gods, and then your
own personal courage, such was certainly the case in yesterday's battle. For whilst you had to contend with an open enemy, you had a still
more serious and dangerous conflict to maintain against the treachery and
perfidy of your allies. For I must undeceive you - it was by no command
of mine that the Albans withdrew to the mountains. What you heard was not a
real order but a pretended one, which I used as an artifice to prevent your
knowing that you were deserted, and so losing heart for the battle, and also to
fill the enemy with alarm and a desire to flee by making them think that they
were being surrounded. The guilt which I am denouncing does not involve all the
Albans; they only followed their general, just as you would have done had I
wanted to lead my army away from the field. It is Mettius who is the leader of
this march, Mettius who engineered this war, Mettius who broke the treaty
between Rome and Alba.
Others may venture on similar practices, if I do not make this man a signal
lesson to all the world." The armed centurions closed
round Mettius, and the king proceeded: "I shall take a course which will
bring good fortune and happiness to the Roman people and myself, and to you,
Albans; it is my intention to transfer the entire Alban population to Rome, to
give the rights of citizenship to the plebeians, and enrol the nobles in the
senate, and to make one City, one State. As formerly the Alban State was broken
up into two nations, so now let it once more become one." The Alban
soldiery listened to these words with conflicting feelings, but unarmed as they
were and hemmed in by armed men, a common fear kept them silent. Then Tullus
said: "Mettius Fufetius! if you could have learnt to keep your word and
respect treaties, I would have given you that instruction in your lifetime, but
now, since your character is past cure, do at least teach mankind by your
punishment to hold those things as sacred which have been outraged by you. As
yesterday your interest was divided between the Fidenates and the Romans, so
now you shall give up your body to be divided and dismembered." Thereupon
two four-horse chariots were brought up, and Mettius was bound at full length
to each, the horses were driven in opposite directions, carrying off parts of
the body in each chariot, where the limbs had been secured by the cords. All
present averted their eyes from the horrible spectacle. This is the first and
last instance amongst the Romans of a punishment so regardless of humanity.
Amongst other things which are the glory of Rome is this,
that no nation has ever been contented with milder punishments.
[1.29]Meanwhile
the cavalry had been sent on in advance to conduct the population to Rome; they were
followed by the legions, who were marched thither to
destroy the city. When they entered the gates there was not that noise and
panic which are usually found in captured cities, where, after the gates have
been shattered or the walls levelled by the battering-ram or the citadel
stormed, the shouts of the enemy and the rushing of the soldiers through the
streets throw everything into universal confusion with fire and sword. Here, on
the contrary, gloomy silence and a grief beyond words so petrified the minds of
all, that, forgetting in their terror what to leave behind, what to take with
them, incapable of thinking for themselves and asking one another's advice, at
one moment they would stand on their thresholds, at another wander aimlessly
through their houses, which they were seeing then for the last time. But now
they were roused by the shouts of the cavalry ordering their instant departure,
now by the crash of the houses undergoing demolition, heard in the furthest
corners of the city, and the dust, rising in different places, which covered
everything like a cloud. Seizing hastily what they could carry, they went out
of the city, and left behind their hearths and household gods and the homes in
which they had been born and brought up. Soon an unbroken line of emigrants
filled the streets, and as they recognised one another the sense of their
common misery led to fresh outbursts of tears. Cries of grief, especially from
the women, began to make themselves heard, as they walked past the venerable
temples and saw them occupied by troops, and felt that they were leaving their
gods as prisoners in an enemy's hands. When the Albans had left their city the
Romans levelled to the ground all the public and private edifices in every
direction, and a single hour gave over to destruction and ruin the work of
those four centuries during which Alba had stood. The temples of the gods,
however, were spared, in accordance with the king's proclamation.
[1.30]The
fall of Alba led to the growth of Rome. The number
of the citizens was doubled, the Caelian hill was included in the city, and
that it might become more populated, Tullus chose it for the site of his
palace, and for the future lived there. He nominated Alban nobles to the senate
that this order of the State might also be augmented. Amongst them were the
Tullii, the Servilii, the Quinctii, the Geganii, the Curiatii, and the Cloelii.
To provide a consecrated building for the increased number of senators he built
the senate-house, which down to the time of our fathers went by the name of the
Curia Hostilia. To secure an accession of military strength of all ranks from
the new population, he formed ten troops of knights from the Albans; from the
same source he brought up the old legions to their full strength and enrolled
new ones. Impelled by the confidence in his strength which these measures
inspired, Tullus proclaimed war against the Sabines, a nation at that time
second only to the Etruscans in numbers and military strength. Each side had
inflicted injuries on the other and refused all redress. Tullus complained that
Roman traders had been arrested in open market at the shrine of Feronia; the
Sabines' grievance was that some of their people had previously sought refuge
in the Asylum and been kept in Rome. These were the ostensible grounds of the
war. The Sabines were far from forgetting that a portion of their strength had
been transferred to Rome by Tatius, and that the Roman State had lately been
aggrandised by the inclusion of the population of Alba; they, therefore, on
their side began to look round for outside help. Their nearest neighbour was Etruria, and, of
the Etruscans, the nearest to them were the Veientines. Their past defeats were
still rankling in their memories, and the Sabines, urging them to revolt,
attracted many volunteers; others of the poorest and homeless classes were paid
to join them. No assistance was given by the State. With the Veientes - it is
not so surprising that the other cities rendered no assistance - the truce with
Rome was still
held to be binding. Whilst preparations were being made on both sides with the
utmost energy, and it seemed as though success depended upon which side was the
first to take the offensive, Tullus opened the campaign by invading the Sabine
territory. A severe action was fought at the Silva Malitiosa. Whilst the Romans
were strong in their infantry, their main strength was in their lately
increased cavalry force. A sudden charge of horse threw the Sabine ranks into confusion, they could neither offer a steady resistance nor
effect their flight without great slaughter.
[1.31]This
victory threw great lustre upon the reign of Tullus, and upon the whole State,
and added considerably to its strength. At this time it was reported to the
king and the senate that there had been a shower of stones on the Alban Mount.
As the thing seemed hardly credible, men were sent to inspect the prodigy, and
whilst they were watching, a heavy shower of stones fell from the sky, just
like hailstones heaped together by the wind. They fancied, too, that they heard
a very loud voice from the grove on the summit, bidding the Albans celebrate
their sacred rites after the manner of their fathers. These solemnities they
had consigned to oblivion, as though they had abandoned their gods when they
abandoned their country and had either adopted Roman rites, or, as sometimes
happens, embittered against Fortune, had given up the service of the gods. In
consequence of this prodigy, the Romans, too, kept up a public religious
observance for nine days, either - as tradition asserts - owing to the voice
from the Alban Mount, or because of the warning of the soothsayers. In either
case, however, it became permanently established whenever the same prodigy was
reported; a nine days' solemnity was observed. Not long after a pestilence
caused great distress, and made men indisposed for the hardships of military
service. The warlike king, however, allowed no respite from arms; he thought,
too, that it was more healthy for the soldiery in the
field than at home. At last he himself was seized with a lingering illness, and
that fierce and restless spirit became so broken through bodily weakness, that
he who had once thought nothing less fitting for a king than devotion to sacred
things, now suddenly became a prey to every sort of religious terror, and
filled the City with religious observances. There was a general desire to recall
the condition of things which existed under Numa, for men felt that the only
help that was left against sickness was to obtain the forgiveness of the gods
and be at peace with heaven. Tradition records that the king, whilst examining
the commentaries of Numa, found there a description of certain secret
sacrificial rites paid to Jupiter Elicius: he withdrew into privacy whilst
occupied with these rites, but their performance was marred by omissions or
mistakes. Not only was no sign from heaven vouchsafed to him, but the anger of
Jupiter was roused by the false worship rendered to him, and he burnt up the
king and his house by a stroke of lightning. Tullus had achieved great renown
in war, and reigned for two-and-thirty years.
[1.32]On the
death of Tullus, the government, in accordance with the original constitution,
again devolved on the senate. They appointed an interrex to conduct the
election. The people chose Ancus Martius as king, the senate confirmed the
choice. His mother was Numa's daughter. At the outset of his reign -
remembering what made his grandfather glorious, and recognising that the late
reign, so splendid in all other respects, had, on one side, been most
unfortunate through the neglect of religion or the improper performance of its
rites - he determined to go back to the earliest source and conduct the state
offices of religion as they had been organised by Numa. He gave the Pontifex
instructions to copy them out from the king's commentaries and set them forth
in some public place. The neighbouring states and his own people, who were
yearning for peace, were led to hope that the king would follow his grandfather
in disposition and policy. In this state of affairs, the Latins, with whom a
treaty had been made in the reign of Tullus, recovered their confidence, and
made an incursion into Roman territory. On the Romans seeking redress, they
gave a haughty refusal, thinking that the king of Rome was going
to pass his reign amongst chapels and altars. In the temperament of Ancus there
was a touch of Romulus as well as
Numa. He realised that the great necessity of Numa's reign was peace,
especially amongst a young and aggressive nation, but he saw, too, that it
would be difficult for him to preserve the peace which had fallen to his lot
unimpaired. His patience was being put to the proof, and not only put to the
proof but despised; the times demanded a Tullus rather than a Numa. Numa had
instituted religious observances for times of peace, he would hand down the
ceremonies appropriate to a state of war. In order, therefore, that wars might
be not only conducted but also proclaimed with some formality, he wrote down
the law, as taken from the ancient nation of the Aequicoli, under which the
Fetials act down to this day when seeking redress for injuries. The procedure
is as follows: -
The ambassador binds his head in a woollen fillet.
When he has reached the frontiers of the nation from whom satisfaction is
demanded, he says, "Hear, O Jupiter! Hear, ye confines" - naming the
particular nation whose they are - "Hear, O Justice! I am the public
herald of the Roman People. Rightly and duly authorised do I come; let
confidence be placed in my words." Then he recites the terms of the
demands, and calls Jupiter to witness: "If I am demanding the surrender of
those men or those goods, contrary to justice and religion, suffer me nevermore
to enjoy my native land." He repeats these words as he crosses the
frontier, he repeats them to whoever happens to be the first person he meets,
he repeats them as he enters the gates and again on entering the forum, with
some slight changes in the wording of the formula. If what he demands are not surrendered at the expiration of thirty-three days -
for that is the fixed period of grace - he declares war in the following terms:
"Hear, O Jupiter, and thou Janus Quirinus, and all ye heavenly gods, and
ye, gods of earth and of the lower world, hear me! I call you to witness that
this people" - mentioning it by name - "is unjust and does not fulfil
its sacred obligations. But about these matters we must consult the elders in
our own land in what way we may obtain our rights."
With these words the ambassador returned to Rome for
consultation. The king forthwith consulted the senate in words to the following
effect: "Concerning the matters, suits, and causes, whereof the Pater
Patratus of the Roman People and Quirites hath complained to the Pater Patratus
of the Prisci Latini, and to the people of the Prisci Latini, which matters
they were bound severally to surrender, discharge, and make good, whereas they
have done none of these things - say, what is your opinion?" He whose
opinion was first asked, replied, "I am of opinion that they ought to be
recovered by a just and righteous war, wherefore I give my consent and vote for
it." Then the others were asked in order, and when the majority of those
present declared themselves of the same opinion, war
was agreed upon. It was customary for the Fetial to carry to the enemies'
frontiers a blood-smeared spear tipped with iron or burnt at the end, and, in
the presence of at least three adults, to say, "Inasmuch as the peoples of
the Prisci Latini have been guilty of wrong against the People of Rome and the
Quirites, and inasmuch as the People of Rome and the Quirites have ordered that
there be war with the Prisci Latini, and the Senate of the People of Rome and
the Quirites have determined and decreed that there shall be war with the
Prisci Latini, therefore I and the People of Rome, declare and make war upon
the peoples of the Prisci Latini." With these words he hurled his spear
into their territory. This was the way in which at that time satisfaction was
demanded from the Latins and war declared, and posterity adopted the custom.
[1.33]After
handing over the care of the various sacrificial rites to the Flamens and other
priests, and calling up a fresh army, Ancus advanced against Politorium a city
belonging to the Latins. He took it by assault, and following the custom of the
earlier kings who had enlarged the State by receiving its enemies into Roman
citizenship, he transferred the whole of the population to Rome. The Palatine had been
settled by the earliest Romans, the Sabines had occupied the Capitoline hill
with the Citadel, on one side of the Palatine, and the
Albans the Caelian hill, on the other, so the Aventine was
assigned to the new-comers. Not long afterwards there was a further addition to
the number of citizens through the capture of Tellenae and Ficana. Politorium
after its evacuation was seized by the Latins and was again recovered; and this
was the reason why the Romans razed the city, to prevent its being a perpetual
refuge for the enemy. At last the whole war was concentrated round Medullia,
and fighting went on for some time there with doubtful result. The city was
strongly fortified and its strength was increased by the presence of a large
garrison. The Latin army was encamped in the open and had had several
engagements with the Romans. At last Ancus made a supreme effort with the whole
of his force and won a pitched battle, after which he returned with immense
booty to Rome, and many
thousands of Latins were admitted into citizenship. In order to connect the Aventine with the Palatine, the
district round the altar of Venus Murcia was
assigned to them. The Janiculum also was brought into the city boundaries, not
because the space was wanted, but to prevent such a strong position from being
occupied by an enemy. It was decided to connect this hill with the City, not
only by carrying the City wall round it, but also by a bridge, for the
convenience of traffic. This was the first bridge thrown over the Tiber, and was
known as the Pons Sublicius. The Fossa Quiritium also was the work of King
Ancus, and afforded no inconsiderable protection to the lower and therefore
more accessible parts of the City. Amidst this vast population, now that the
State had become so enormously increased, the sense of right and wrong was
obscured, and secret crimes were committed. To overawe the growing lawlessness
a prison was built in the heart of the City, overlooking the Forum. The
additions made by this king were not confined to the City. The Mesian Forest was taken
from the Veientines, and the Roman dominion extended to the sea; at the mouth
of the Tiber the city of Ostia was built;
salt-pits were constructed on both sides of the river, and the temple of Jupiter
Feretrius was enlarged in consequence of the
brilliant successes in the war.
[1.34]During
the reign of Ancus a wealthy and ambitious man named Lucumo removed to Rome, mainly
with the hope and desire of winning high distinction, for which no opportunity
had existed in Tarquinii, since
there also he was an alien. He was the son of Demaratus a Corinthian, who had
been driven from home by a revolution, and who happened to settle in Tarquinii. There he
married and had two sons, their names were Lucumo and Arruns. Arruns died
before his father, leaving his wife with child; Lucumo survived his father and
inherited all his property. For Demaratus died shortly after Arruns, and being
unaware of the condition of his daughter-in-law, had made no provision in his
will for a grandchild. The boy, thus excluded from any share of his
grandfather's property, was called, in consequence of his poverty, Egerius.
Lucumo, on the other hand, heir to all the property, became elated by his
wealth, and his ambition was stimulated by his
marriage with Tanaquil. This woman was descended from one of the foremost
families in the State, and could not bear the thought of her position by
marriage being inferior to the one she claimed by birth. The Etruscans looked
down upon Lucumo as the son of a foreign refugee; she could not brook this
indignity, and forgetting all ties of patriotism if only she could see her
husband honoured, resolved to emigrate from Tarquinii. Rome seemed the
most suitable place for her purpose. She felt that among a young nation where
all nobility is a thing of recent growth and won by personal merit, there would
be room for a man of courage and energy. She remembered that the Sabine Tatius
had reigned there, that Numa had been summoned from Cures to fill the throne,
that Ancus himself was sprung from a Sabine mother, and could not trace his
nobility beyond Numa. Her husband's ambition and the fact that Tarquinii was his
native country only on the mother's side, made him give a ready ear to her
proposals. They accordingly packed up their goods and removed to Rome.
They had got as far as the Janiculum when a hovering
eagle swooped gently down and took off his cap as he was sitting by his wife's
side in the carriage, then circling round the vehicle with loud cries, as
though commissioned by heaven for this service, replaced it carefully upon his
head and soared away. It is said that Tanaquil, who, like most Etruscans, was
expert in interpreting celestial prodigies, was delighted at the omen. She
threw her arms round her husband and bade him look for a high and majestic
destiny, for such was the import of the eagle's appearance, of the particular
part of the sky where it appeared, and of the deity who sent it. The omen was
directed to the crown and summit of his person, the bird had raised
aloft an adornment put on by human hands, to replace it as the gift of heaven.
Full of these hopes and surmises they entered the City, and after procuring a domicile
there, they announced his name as Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. The fact of his
being a stranger, and a wealthy one, brought him into notice, and he increased
the advantage which Fortune gave him by his courteous demeanour, his lavish
hospitality, and the many acts of kindness by which he won all whom it was in
his power to win, until his reputation even reached the palace. Once introduced
to the king's notice, he soon succeeded by adroit complaisance in getting on to
such familiar terms that he was consulted in matters of state, as much as in
private matters, whether they referred to either peace or war. At last, after
passing every test of character and ability, he was actually appointed by the
king's will guardian to his children.
[1.35]Ancus
reigned twenty-four years, unsurpassed by any of his predecessors in ability
and reputation, both in the field and at home. His sons had now almost reached
manhood. Tarquin was all the more anxious for the election of the new king to
be held as soon as possible. At the time fixed for it he sent the boys out of
the way on a hunting expedition. He is said to have been the first who
canvassed for the crown and delivered a set speech to secure the interest of
the plebs. In it he asserted that he was not making an unheard-of request, he
was not the first foreigner who aspired to the Roman throne; were this so, any
one might feel surprise and indignation. But he was the third. Tatius was not
only a foreigner, but was made king after he had been their enemy; Numa, an entire
stranger to the City, had been called to the throne without any seeking it on
his part. As to himself, as soon as he was his own master, he had removed to
Rome with his wife and his whole fortune; he had lived at Rome for a larger
part of the period during which men discharge the functions of citizenship than
he had passed in his old country; he had learnt the laws of Rome, the
ceremonial rites of Rome, both civil and military, under Ancus himself, a very
sufficient teacher; he had been second to none in duty and service towards the
king; he had not yielded to the king himself in generous treatment of others.
Whilst he was stating these facts, which were certainly true, the Roman people
with enthusiastic unanimity elected him king. Though in all other respects an
excellent man, his ambition, which impelled him to seek the crown, followed him
on to the throne; with the design of strengthening himself quite as much as of
increasing the State, he made a hundred new senators. These were afterwards
called "the Lesser Houses" and formed a body of uncompromising
supporters of the king, through whose kindness they had entered the senate. The
first war he engaged in was with the Latins. He took the town of Apiolae by storm,
and carried off a greater amount of plunder than could have been expected from
the slight interest shown in the war. After this had been brought in wagons to Rome, he
celebrated the Games with greater splendour and on a larger scale than his
predecessors. Then for the first time a space was marked for what is now the
"Circus Maximus." Spots were allotted to the patricians and knights
where they could each build for themselves stands - called "ford" -
from which to view the Games. These stands were raised on wooden props, branching
out at the top, twelve feet high. The contests were horse-racing and boxing,
the horses and boxers mostly brought from Etruria. They were
at first celebrated on occasions of especial solemnity; subsequently they
became an annual fixture, and were called indifferently the "Roman"
or the "Great Games." This king also divided the ground round the
Forum into building sites; arcades and shops were put up.
[1.36]He was
also making preparations for surrounding the City with a stone wall when his
designs were interrupted by a war with the Sabines. So sudden was the outbreak
that the enemy were crossing the Anio before a Roman
army could meet and stop them. There was great alarm in Rome. The first
battle was indecisive, and there was great slaughter on both sides. The
enemies' return to their camp allowed time for the Romans to make preparations
for a fresh campaign. Tarquin thought his army was weakest in cavalry and
decided to double the centuries, which Romulus had formed,
of the Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres, and to distinguish them by his own name.
Now as Romulus had acted
under the sanction of the auspices, Attus Navius, a celebrated augur at that
time, insisted that no change could be made, nothing new introduced, unless the
birds gave a favourable omen. The king's anger was roused, and in mockery of
the augur's skill he is reported to have said, "Come, you diviner, find
out by your augury whether what I am now contemplating can be done."
Attus, after consulting the omens, declared that it could. "Well," the
king replied, "I had it in my mind that you should cut a whetstone with a
razor. Take these, and perform the feat which your birds portend can be
done." It is said that without the slightest hesitation he cut it through.
There used to be a statue of Attus, representing him with his head covered, in
the Comitium, on the steps to the left of the senate-house, where the incident
occurred. The whetstone also, it is recorded, was placed there to be a memorial
of the marvel for future generations. At all events, auguries and the college
of augurs were held in such honour that nothing was undertaken in peace or war
without their sanction; the assembly of the curies, the assembly of the
centuries, matters of the highest importance, were suspended or broken up if
the omen of the birds was unfavourable. Even on that occasion Tarquin was
deterred from making changes in the names or numbers of the centuries of
knights; he merely doubled the number of men in each, so that the three
centuries contained eighteen hundred men. Those who were added to the centuries
bore the same designation, only they were called the "Second"
knights, and the centuries being thus doubled are now called the "Six
Centuries."
[1.37]After
this division of the forces was augmented there was a second collision with the
Sabines, in which the increased strength of the Roman army was aided by an
artifice. Men were secretly sent to set fire to a vast quantity of logs lying
on the banks of the Anio, and float them down the river on rafts. The wind
fanned the flames, and as the logs drove against the piles and stuck there they
set the bridge on fire. This incident, occurring during the battle, created a
panic among the Sabines and led to their rout, and at the same time prevented
their flight; many after escaping from the enemy perished in the river. Their
shields floated down the Tiber as far as
the City, and being recognised, made it clear that there had been a victory
almost before it could be announced. In that battle the cavalry especially
distinguished themselves. They were posted on each wing, and when the infantry
in the centre were being forced back, it is said that they made such a
desperate charge from both sides that they not only arrested the Sabine legions
as they were pressing on the retreating Romans, but immediately put them to
flight. The Sabines, in wild disorder, made for the hills, a few gained them,
by far the greater number, as was stated above, were driven by the cavalry into
the river. Tarquin determined to follow them up before they could recover from their
panic. He sent the prisoners and booty to Rome; the spoils
of the enemy had been devoted to Vulcan, they were accordingly collected into
an enormous pile and burnt; then he proceeded forthwith to lead his army into
the Sabine territory. In spite of their recent defeat and the hopelessness of
repairing it, the Sabines met him with a hastily raised body of militia, as
there was no time for concerting a plan of operations. They were again
defeated, and as they were now brought to the verge of ruin, sought for peace.
[1.38]Collatia
and all the territory on this side of it was taken from the Sabines; Egerius,
the king's nephew, was left to hold it. I understand that the procedure on the
surrender of Collatia was as follows: The king asked, "Have you been sent
as envoys and commissioners by the people of Collatia to make the surrender of
yourselves and the people of Collatia?" "We have." "And is the people of Collatia an independent people?"
"It is." "Do you surrender into my power and that of the People
of Rome yourselves, and the people of Collatia, your city, lands, water,
boundaries, temples, sacred vessels, all things divine and human?"
"We do surrender them." "Then I accept them." After
bringing the Sabine war to a conclusion Tarquin returned in triumph to Rome. Then he
made war on the Prisci Latini. No general engagement took place, he attacked
each of their towns in succession and subjugated the whole nation. The towns of
Corniculum, Old Ficulea, Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia, Nomentum,
were all taken from the Prisci Latini or those who had gone over to them. Then
peace was made. Works of peace were now commenced with greater energy even than
had been displayed in war, so that the people enjoyed no more quiet at home
than they had had in the field. He made preparations for completing the work,
which had been interrupted by the Sabine war, of enclosing the City in those
parts where no fortification yet existed with a stone wall. The low-lying parts
of the City round the Forum, and the other valleys between the hills, where the
water could not escape, were drained by conduits which emptied into the Tiber. He built
up with masonry a level space on the Capitol as a site for the temple of Jupiter which he
had vowed during the Sabine war, and the magnitude of the work revealed his
prophetic anticipation of the future greatness of the place.
[1.39]At
that time an incident took place as marvellous in the appearance as it proved
in the result. It is said that whilst a boy named Servius Tullius was asleep,
his head was enveloped in flames, before the eyes of many who were present. The
cry which broke out at such a marvellous sight aroused the royal family, and
when one of the domestics was bringing water to quench the flames the queen
stopped him, and after calming the excitement forbade the boy to be disturbed
until he awoke of his own accord. Presently he did so, and the flames
disappeared. Then Tanaquil took her husband aside and said to him, "Do you
see this boy, whom we are bringing up in such a humble style? You may be
certain that he will one day be a light to us in trouble and perplexity, and a
protection to our tottering house. Let us henceforth bring up with all care and
indulgence one who will be the source of measureless glory to the State and to ourselves." From this time the boy began to be treated
as their child and trained in those accomplishments by which characters are
stimulated to the pursuit of a great destiny. The task was an easy one, for it
was carrying out the will of the gods. The youth turned out to be of a truly
kingly disposition, and when search was made for a son-in-law to Tarquinius,
none of the Roman youths could be compared with him in any respect, so the king
betrothed his daughter to him. The bestowal of this great honour upon him,
whatever the reason for it, forbids our believing that he was the son of a
slave, and, in his boyhood, a slave himself. I am more inclined to the opinion
of those who say that in the capture of Corniculum, Servius Tullius, the
leading man of that city, was killed, and his wife, who was about to become a
mother, was recognised amongst the other captive women, and in consequence of
her high rank was exempted from servitude by the Roman queen, and gave birth to
a son in the house of Priscus Tarquinius. This kind treatment strengthened the
intimacy between the women, and the boy, brought up as he was from infancy in
the royal household, was held in affection and honour.
It was the fate of his mother, who fell into the hands of the enemy when her
native city was taken, that made people think he was the son of a slave.
[1.40]When
Tarquin had been about thirty-eight years on the throne, Servius Tullius was
held in by far the highest esteem of any one, not only with the king but also
with the patricians and the commons. The two sons of Ancus had always felt most
keenly their being deprived of their father's throne through the treachery of
their guardian; its occupation by a foreigner who was not even of Italian, much
less Roman descent, increased their indignation, when they saw that not even
after the death of Tarquin would the crown revert to them, but would suddenly
descend to a slave - that crown which Romulus, the offspring of a god, and
himself a god, had worn whilst he was on earth, now to be the possession of a
slave-born slave a hundred years later! They felt that it would be a disgrace
to the whole Roman nation, and especially to their house, if, while the male
issue of Ancus was still alive, the sovereignty of Rome should be open not only
to foreigners but even to slaves. They determined, therefore, to repel that
insult by the sword. But it was on Tarquin rather than on Servius that they
sought to avenge their wrongs; if the king were left alive he would be able to
deal more summary vengeance than an ordinary citizen, and in the event of
Servius being killed, the king would certainly make any one else whom he chose
for a son-in-law heir to the crown. These considerations decided them to form a
plot against the king's life. Two shepherds, perfect desperadoes, were selected
for the deed. They appeared in the vestibule of the palace, each with his usual
implement, and by pretending to have a violent and outrageous quarrel, they
attracted the attention of all the royal guards. Then, as they both began to appeal
to the king, and their clamour had penetrated within the palace, they were
summoned before the king. At first they tried, by shouting each against the
other, to see who could make the most noise, until, after being repressed by
the lictor and ordered to speak in turn, they became quiet, and one of the two
began to state his case. Whilst the king's attention was absorbed in listening
to him, the other swung aloft his axe and drove it into the king's head, and
leaving the weapon in the wound both dashed out of the palace.
[1.41]Whilst
the bystanders were supporting the dying Tarquin in their arms, the lictors
caught the fugitives. The shouting drew a crowd together, wondering what had
happened. In the midst of the confusion, Tanaquil ordered the palace to be
cleared and the doors closed; she then carefully prepared medicaments for
dressing the wound, should there be hopes of life; at the same time she decided
on other precautions, should the case prove hopeless, and hastily summoned
Servius. She showed him her husband at the point of death, and taking his hand,
implored him not to leave his father-in-law's death unavenged, nor to allow his
mother-in-law to become the sport of her enemies. "The throne is yours,
Servius," she said, "if you are a man; it does not belong to those
who have, through the hands of others, wrought this worst of crimes. Up! follow
the guidance of the gods who presaged the exaltation of that head round which
divine fire once played! Let that heaven-sent flame now inspire you. Rouse yourself
in earnest! We, too, though foreigners, have reigned.
Bethink yourself not whence you sprang, but who you are. If in this sudden
emergency you are slow to resolve, then follow my counsels." As the
clamour and impatience of the populace could hardly be restrained, Tanaquil
went to a window in the upper part of the palace looking out on the Via Nova -
the king used to live by the temple of Jupiter Stator - and addressed the
people. She bade them hope for the best; the king had been stunned by a sudden
blow, but the weapon had not penetrated to any depth, he had already recovered
consciousness, the blood had been washed off and the wound examined, all the
symptoms were favourable, she was sure they would soon see him again, meantime
it was his order that the people should recognise the authority of Servius
Tullius, who would administer justice and discharge the other functions of
royalty. Servius appeared in his trabea attended by the lictors, and after
taking his seat in the royal chair decided some cases and adjourned others
under presence of consulting the king. So for several days after Tarquin's
death Servius continued to strengthen his position by giving out that he was
exercising a delegated authority. At length the sounds of mourning arose in the
palace and divulged the fact of the king's death. Protected by a strong
bodyguard Servius was the first who ascended the throne without being elected
by the people, though without opposition from the senate. When the sons of
Ancus heard that the instruments of their crime had been arrested, that the
king was still alive, and that Servius was so powerful, they went into exile at
Suessa Pometia.
[1.42]Servius
consolidated his power quite as much by his private as by his public measures.
To guard against the children of Tarquin treating him as those of Ancus had
treated Tarquin, he married his two daughters to the scions of the royal house,
Lucius and Arruns Tarquin. Human counsels could not arrest the inevitable
course of destiny, nor could Servius prevent the jealousy aroused by his
ascending the throne from making his family the scene of disloyalty and hatred.
The truce with the Veientines had now expired, and the resumption of war with
them and other Etruscan cities came most opportunely to help in maintaining
tranquillity at home. In this war the courage and good fortune of Tullius were
conspicuous, and he returned to Rome, after defeating an immense force of the
enemy, feeling quite secure on the throne, and assured of the goodwill of both
patricians and commons. Then he set himself to by far the greatest of all works
in times of peace. Just as Numa had been the author of religious laws and
institutions, so posterity extols Servius as the founder of those divisions and
classes in the State by which a clear distinction is drawn between the various
grades of dignity and fortune. He instituted the census, a most beneficial
institution in what was to be a great empire, in order that by its means the
various duties of peace and war might be assigned, not as heretofore,
indiscriminately, but in proportion to the amount of property each man
possessed. From it he drew up the classes and centuries and the following
distribution of them, adapted for either peace or war.
[1.43]Those
whose property amounted to, or exceeded 100,000 lbs. weight of copper were
formed into eighty centuries, forty of juniors and forty of seniors. These were
called the First Class. The seniors were to defend the City, the juniors to
serve in the field. The armour which they were to provide themselves with
comprised helmet, round shield, greaves, and coat of mail, all of brass; these
were to protect the person. Their offensive weapons were spear and sword. To
this class were joined two centuries of carpenters whose duty it was to work
the engines of war; they were without arms. The Second Class consisted of those
whose property amounted to between 75,000 and 100,000 lbs. weight of copper;
they were formed, seniors and juniors together, into twenty centuries. Their
regulation arms were the same as those of the First Class, except that they had
an oblong wooden shield instead of the round brazen one and no coat of mail.
The Third Class he formed of those whose property fell as low as 50,000 lbs.;
these also consisted of twenty centuries, similarly divided into seniors and
juniors. The only difference in the armour was that they did not wear greaves.
In the Fourth Class were those whose property did not fall below 25,000 lbs.
They also formed twenty centuries; their only arms were a spear and a javelin.
The Fifth Class was larger it formed thirty centuries. They carried slings and
stones, and they included the supernumeraries, the horn-blowers, and the
trumpeters, who formed three centuries. This Fifth Class was assessed at 11,000
lbs. The rest of the population whose property fell below this were formed into
one century and were exempt from military service.
After thus regulating the equipment and distribution
of the infantry, he re-arranged the cavalry. He enrolled from amongst the
principal men of the State twelve centuries. In the same way he made six other
centuries (though only three had been formed by Romulus) under the
same names under which the first had been inaugurated. For the purchase of the
horse, 10,000 lbs. were assigned them from the public treasury; whilst for its
keep certain widows were assessed to pay 2000 lbs. each, annually. The burden
of all these expenses was shifted from the poor on to the rich. Then additional
privileges were conferred. The former kings had maintained the constitution as
handed down by Romulus, viz.,
manhood suffrage in which all alike possessed the same weight and enjoyed the
same rights. Servius introduced a graduation; so that whilst no one was
ostensibly deprived of his vote, all the voting power was in the hands of the
principal men of the State. The knights were first summoned to record their
vote, then the eighty centuries of the infantry of the First Class; if their
votes were divided, which seldom happened, it was arranged for the Second Class
to be summoned; very seldom did the voting extend to the lowest Class. Nor need
it occasion any surprise, that the arrangement which now exists since the
completion of the thirty-five tribes, their number being doubled by the
centuries of juniors and seniors, does not agree with the total as instituted
by Servius Tullius. For, after dividing the City with its districts and the
hills which were inhabited into four parts, he called these divisions
"tribes," I think from the tribute they paid, for he also introduced
the practice of collecting it at an equal rate according to the assessment.
These tribes had nothing to do with the distribution and number of the
centuries.
[1.44]The
work of the census was accelerated by an enactment in which Servius denounced
imprisonment and even capital punishment against those who evaded assessment.
On its completion he issued an order that all the citizens of Rome, knights
and infantry alike, should appear in the Campus Martius, each in their
centuries. After the whole army had been drawn up there, he purified it by the
triple sacrifice of a swine, a sheep, and an ox. This was called "a closed
lustrum," because with it the census was completed. Eighty thousand
citizens are said to have been included in that census. Fabius Pictor, the oldest
of our historians, states that this was the number of those who could bear
arms. To contain that population it was obvious that the City would have to be
enlarged. He added to it the two hills - the Quirinal and the Viminal - and then
made a further addition by including the Esquiline, and to
give it more importance he lived there himself. He surrounded the City with a
mound and moats and wall; in this way he extended the "pomoerium."
Looking only to the etymology of the word, they explain "pomoerium"
as "postmoerium"; but it is rather a "circamoerium." For
the space which the Etruscans of old, when founding their cities, consecrated
in accordance with auguries and marked off by boundary stones at intervals on
each side, as the part where the wall was to be carried, was to be kept vacant
so that no buildings might connect with the wall on the inside (whilst now they
generally touch), and on the outside some ground might remain virgin soil
untouched by cultivation. This space, which it was forbidden either to build
upon or to plough, and which could not be said to be behind the wall any more
than the wall could be said to be behind it, the Romans called the
"pomoerium." As the City grew, these sacred boundary stones were
always moved forward as far as the walls were advanced.
[1.45]After the State was augmented by the expansion of the City and all
domestic arrangements adapted to the requirements of both peace and war,
Servius endeavoured to extend his dominion by state-craft, instead of
aggrandising it by arms, and at the same time made an addition to the adornment
of the City. The temple of the Ephesian Diana was famous at that time,
and it was reported to have been built by the co-operation of the states of Asia. Servius
had been careful to form ties of hospitality and friendship with the chiefs of
the Latin nation, and he used to speak in the highest praise of that
co-operation and the common recognition of the same deity. By constantly
dwelling on this theme he at length induced the Latin tribes to join with the
people of Rome in building
a temple to Diana in Rome. Their
doing so was an admission of the predominance of Rome; a question
which had so often been disputed by arms. Though the Latins, after their many
unfortunate experiences in war, had as a nation laid aside all thoughts of
success, there was amongst the Sabines one man who believed that an opportunity
presented itself of recovering the supremacy through his own individual
cunning. The story runs that a man of substance belonging to that nation had a
heifer of marvellous size and beauty. The marvel was attested in after ages by
the horns which were fastened up in the vestibule of the temple of Diana. The
creature was looked upon as - what it really was - a prodigy, and the
soothsayers predicted that, whoever sacrificed it to Diana, the state of which
he was a citizen should be the seat of empire. This prophecy had reached the
ears of the official in charge of the temple of Diana. When the
first day on which the sacrifice could properly be offered arrived, the Sabine
drove the heifer to Rome, took it to
the temple, and placed it in front of the altar. The official in charge was a
Roman, and, struck by the size of the victim, which was well known by report,
he recalled the prophecy and addressing the Sabine, said, "Why, pray, are
you, stranger, preparing to offer a polluted sacrifice to Diana? Go and bathe
yourself first in running water. The Tiber is flowing
down there at the bottom of the valley." Filled with misgivings, and
anxious for everything to be done properly that the prediction might be
fulfilled, the stranger promptly went down to the Tiber. Meanwhile
the Roman sacrificed the heifer to Diana. This was a cause of intense
gratification to the king and to his people.
[1.46]Servius
was now confirmed on the throne by long possession. It had, however, come to
his ears that the young Tarquin was giving out that he was reigning
without the assent of the people. He first secured the goodwill of the plebs by
assigning to each householder a slice of the land which had been taken from the
enemy. Then he was emboldened to put to them the question whether it was their
will and resolve that he should reign. He was acclaimed as king by a unanimous
vote such as no king before him had obtained. This action in no degree damped
Tarquin's hopes of making his way to the throne, rather the reverse. He was a
bold and aspiring youth, and his wife Tullia stimulated his restless ambition.
He had seen that the granting of land to the commons was in defiance of the opinion
of the senate, and he seized the opportunity it afforded him of traducing
Servius and strengthening his own faction in that assembly. So it came about
that the Roman palace afforded an instance of the crime which tragic poets have
depicted, with the result that the loathing felt for kings hastened the advent
of liberty, and the crown won by villainy was the last that was worn.
This Lucius Tarquinius - whether he was the son or the
grandson of King Priscus Tarquinius is not clear; if I should give him as the
son I should have the preponderance of authorities - had a brother, Arruns
Tarquinius, a youth of gentle character. The two Tullias, the king's daughters,
had, as I have already stated, married these two brothers; and they themselves
were of utterly unlike dispositions. It was, I believe, the good fortune of Rome which
intervened to prevent two violent natures from being joined in marriage, in
order that the reign of Servius Tullius might last long enough to allow the
State to settle into its new constitution. The high-spirited one of the two
Tullias was annoyed that there was nothing in her husband for her to work on in
the direction of either greed or ambition. All her affections were transferred
to the other Tarquin; he was her admiration, he, she said, was a man, he was
really of royal blood. She despised her sister, because having a man for her
husband she was not animated by the spirit of a woman. Likeness of character
soon drew them together, as evil usually consorts best with evil. But it was the
woman who was the originator of all the mischief. She constantly held
clandestine interviews with her sister's husband, to whom she unsparingly
vilified alike her husband and her sister, asserting that it would have been
better for her to have remained unmarried and he a bachelor, rather than for
them each to be thus unequally mated, and fret in idleness through the
poltroonery of others. Had heaven given her the husband she deserved, she would
soon have seen the sovereignty which her father wielded established in her own
house. She rapidly infected the young man with her own recklessness. Lucius
Tarquin and the younger Tullia, by a double murder, cleared from their houses
the obstacles to a fresh marriage; their nuptials were solemnised with the
tacit acquiescence rather than the approbation of Servius.
[1.47]From
that time the old age of Tullius became more embittered, his reign more
unhappy. The woman began to look forward from one crime to another; she allowed
her husband no rest day or night, for fear lest the past murders should prove
fruitless. What she wanted, she said, was not a man who was only her husband in
name, or with whom she was to live in uncomplaining servitude; the man she
needed was one who deemed himself worthy of a throne, who remembered that he
was the son of Priscus Tarquinius, who preferred to wear a crown rather than
live in hopes of it. "If you are the man to whom I thought I was married,
then I call you my husband and my king; but if not, I have changed my condition
for the worse, since you are not only a coward but a criminal to boot. Why do
you not prepare yourself for action? You are not, like your father, a native of
Corinth or Tarquinii, nor is it a foreign crown you have to win. Your father's
household gods, your father's image, the royal palace, the kingly throne within
it, the very name of Tarquin, all declare you king. If you have not courage
enough for this, why do you excite vain hopes in the State? Why do you allow
yourself to be looked up to as a youth of kingly stock? Make your way back to Tarquinii or Corinth, sink back
to the position whence you sprung; you have your brother's nature rather than
your father's." With taunts like these she egged him on. She, too, was
perpetually haunted by the thought that whilst Tanaquil, a woman of alien
descent, had shown such spirit as to give the crown to her husband and her
son-in-law in succession, she herself, though of royal descent, had no power
either in giving it or taking it away. Infected by the woman's madness Tarquin
began to go about and interview the nobles, mainly those of the Lesser Houses;
he reminded them of the favour his father had shown them, and asked them to
prove their gratitude; he won over the younger men with presents. By making
magnificent promises as to what he would do, and by bringing charges against
the king, his cause became stronger amongst all ranks.
At last, when he thought the time for action had
arrived, he appeared suddenly in the Forum with a body of armed men. A general
panic ensued, during which he seated himself in the royal chair in the
senate-house and ordered the Fathers to be summoned by the crier "into the
presence of King Tarquin." They hastily assembled, some already prepared
for what was coming; others, apprehensive lest their absence should arouse
suspicion, and dismayed by the extraordinary nature of the incident, were
convinced that the fate of Servius was sealed. Tarquin went back to the king's
birth, protested that he was a slave and the son of a slave, and after his (the
speaker's) father had been foully murdered, seized the throne, as a woman's
gift, without any interrex being appointed as heretofore, without any assembly
being convened, without any vote of the people being taken or any confirmation
of it by the Fathers. Such was his origin, such was his right to the crown. His
sympathies were with the dregs of society from which he had sprung, and through
jealousy of the ranks to which he did not belong, he had taken the land from
the foremost men in the State and divided it amongst the vilest; he had shifted
on to them the whole of the burdens which had formerly been borne in common by
all; he had instituted the census that the fortunes of the wealthy might be
held up to envy, and be an easily available source from which to shower doles,
whenever he pleased, upon the neediest.
[1.48]Servius
had been summoned by a breathless messenger, and arrived on the scene while
Tarquin was speaking. As soon as he reached the vestibule, he exclaimed in loud
tones, "What is the meaning of this, Tarquin? How dared you, with such
insolence, convene the senate or sit in that chair whilst I am alive?"
Tarquin replied fiercely that he was occupying his father's seat, that a king's
son was a much more legitimate heir to the throne than a slave, and that he,
Servius, in playing his reckless game, had insulted his masters long enough.
Shouts arose from their respective partisans, the people made a rush to the
senate-house, and it was evident that he who won the fight would reign. Then
Tarquin, forced by sheer necessity into proceeding to the last extremity,
seized Servius round the waist, and being a much younger and stronger man,
carried him out of the senate-house and flung him down the steps into the Forum
below. He then returned to call the senate to order. The officers and
attendants of the king fled. The king himself, half dead from the violence, was
put to death by those whom Tarquin had sent in pursuit of him. It is the
current belief that this was done at Tullia's suggestion, for it is quite in keeping
with the rest of her wickedness. At all events, it is generally agreed that she
drove down to the Forum in a two-wheeled car, and, unabashed by the presence of
the crowd, called her husband out of the senate-house and was the first to
salute him as king. He told her to make her way out of the tumult, and when on
her return she had got as far as the top of the Cyprius Vicus, where the temple
of Diana lately stood, and was turning to the right on the Urbius Clivus, to
get to the Esquiline, the driver stopped horror-struck and pulled up, and
pointed out to his mistress the corpse of the murdered Servius. Then, the
tradition runs, a foul and unnatural crime was committed, the memory of which
the place still bears, for they call it the Vicus Sceleratus. It is said that
Tullia, goaded to madness by the avenging spirits of her sister and her
husband, drove right over her father's body, and carried back some of her
father's blood with which the car and she herself were defiled to her own and
her husband's household gods, through whose anger a reign which began in
wickedness was soon brought to a close by a like cause. Servius Tullius reigned
forty-four years, and even a wise and good successor would have found it
difficult to fill the throne as he had done. The glory of his reign was all the
greater because with him perished all just and lawful kingship in Rome. Gentle and
moderate as his sway had been, he had nevertheless, according to some
authorities, formed the intention of laying it down, because it was vested in a
single person, but this purpose of giving freedom to the State was cut short by
that domestic crime.
[1.49]Lucius
Tarquinius now began his reign. His conduct procured for him the nickname of
"Superbus," for he deprived his father-in-law of burial, on the plea
that Romulus was not
buried, and he slew the leading nobles whom he suspected of being partisans of
Servius. Conscious that the precedent which he had set, of winning a throne by
violence, might be used against himself, he surrounded
himself with a guard. For he had nothing whatever by which to
make good his claim to the crown except actual violence; he was reigning
without either being elected by the people, or confirmed by the senate.
As, moreover, he had no hope of winning the affections of the citizens, he had
to maintain his dominion by fear. To make himself more dreaded, he conducted
the trials in capital cases without any assessors, and under this presence he
was able to put to death, banish, or fine not only those whom he suspected or disliked,
but also those from whom his only object was to extort money. His main object
was so to reduce the number of senators, by refusing to fill up any vacancies,
that the dignity of the order itself might be lowered through the smallness of
its numbers, and less indignation felt at all public business being taken out
of its hands. He was the first of the kings to break through the traditional
custom of consulting the senate on all questions, the first to conduct the
government on the advice of his palace favourites. War, peace, treaties,
alliances were made or broken off by him, just as he thought good, without any
authority from either people or senate. He made a special point of securing the
Latin nation, that through his power and influence abroad he might be safer
amongst his subjects at home; he not only formed ties of hospitality with their
chief men, but established family connections. He gave his daughter in marriage
to Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, who was quite the foremost man of the Latin race,
descended, if we are to believe traditions, from Ulysses and the goddess Circe;
through that connection he gained many of his son-in-law's relations and
friends.
[1.50]Tarquin
had now gained considerable influence amongst the Latin nobility, and he sent
word for them to meet on a fixed date at the Grove of Ferentina, as there were
matters of mutual interest about which he wished to consult them. They
assembled in considerable numbers at daybreak; Tarquin kept his appointment, it
is true, but did not arrive till shortly before sunset. The council spent the
whole day in discussing many topics. Turnus Herdonius, from Aricia, had made a
fierce attack on the absent Tarquin. It was no wonder, he said, that the
epithet "Tyrant" had been bestowed upon him at Rome - for this was
what people commonly called him, though only in whispers - could anything show
the tyrant more than his thus trifling with the whole Latin nation? After
summoning the chiefs from distant homes, the man who had called the council was
not present. He was in fact trying how far he could go, so that if they
submitted to the yoke he might crush them. Who could not see that he was making
his way to sovereignty over the Latins? Even supposing that his own countrymen
did well to entrust him with supreme power, or rather that it was entrusted and
not seized by an act of parricide, the Latins ought not, even in that case, to
place it in the hands of an alien. But if his own people bitterly rue his sway,
seeing how they are being butchered, sent into exile, stripped of all their
property, what better fate can the Latins hope for? If they followed the
speaker's advice they would go home and take as little notice of the day fixed
for the council as he who had fixed it was taking. Just while these and similar
sentiments were being uttered by the man who had gained his influence in Aricia
by treasonable and criminal practice, Tarquin appeared on the scene. That put a
stop to his speech, for all turned from the speaker to salute the king. When
silence was restored, Tarquin was advised by those near to explain why he had
come so late. He said that having been chosen as arbitrator between a father
and a son, he had been detained by his endeavours to reconcile them, and as
that matter had taken up the whole day, he would bring forward the measures he
had decided upon the next day. It is said that even this explanation was not
received by Turnus without his commenting on it; no case, he argued, could take
up less time than one between a father and a son, it could be settled in a few
words; if the son did not comply with the father's wishes he would get into
trouble.
[1.51]With
these censures on the Roman king he left the council. Tarquin took the matter
more seriously than he appeared to do and at once began to plan Turnus' death,
in order that he might inspire the Latins with the same terror through which he
had crushed the spirits of his subjects at home. As he had not the power to get
him openly put to death, he compassed his destruction by bringing a false charge
against him. Through the agency of some of the Aricians who were opposed to
Turnus, he bribed a slave of his to allow a large quantity of swords to be
carried secretly into his quarters. This plan was executed in one night.
Shortly before daybreak Tarquin summoned the Latin chiefs into his presence, as
though something had happened to give him great alarm. He told them that his
delay on the previous day had been brought about by some divine providence, for
it had proved the salvation both of them and himself.
He was informed that Turnus was planning his murder and that of the leading men
in the different cities, in order that he might hold sole rule over the Latins.
He would have attempted it the previous day in the council; but the attempt was
deferred owing to the absence of the convener of the council, the chief object
of attack. Hence the abuse levelled against him in his absence, because his
delay had frustrated the hopes of success. If the reports which reached him
were true, he had no doubt that, on the assembling of the council at daybreak,
Turnus would come armed and with a strong body of conspirators. It was asserted
that a vast number of swords had been conveyed to him. Whether this was an idle
rumour or not could very soon be ascertained, he asked them to go with him to
Turnus. The restless, ambitious character of Turnus, his speech of the previous
day, and Tarquin's delay, which easily accounted for the postponement of the
murder, all lent colour to their suspicions. They went, inclined to accept
Tarquin's statement, but quite prepared to regard the whole story as baseless,
if the swords were not discovered. When they arrived, Turnus was roused from
sleep and placed under guard, and the slaves who from affection to their master
were preparing to defend him were seized. Then, when the concealed swords were
produced from every corner of his lodgings, the matter appeared only too
certain and Turnus was thrown into chains. Amidst great excitement a council of
the Latins was at once summoned. The sight of the swords, placed in the midst,
aroused such furious resentment that he was condemned, without being heard in
his defence, to an unprecedented mode of death. He was thrown into the fountain
of Ferentina and drowned by a hurdle weighted with stones being placed over
him.
[1.52]After
the Latins had reassembled in council and had been commended by Tarquin for
having inflicted on Turnus a punishment befitting his revolutionary and
murderous designs, Tarquin addressed them as follows: It was in his power to
exercise a long-established right, since, as all the Latins traced their origin
to Alba, they were included in the treaty made by Tullus under which the whole
of the Alban State with its colonies passed under the suzerainty of Rome. He
thought, however, that it would be more advantageous for all parties if that
treaty were renewed, so that the Latins could enjoy a share in the prosperity
of the Roman people, instead of always looking out for, or actually suffering,
the demolition of their towns and the devastation of their fields, as happened
in the reign of Ancus and afterwards whilst his own father was on the throne.
The Latins were persuaded without much difficulty, although by that treaty Rome
was the predominant State, for they saw that the heads of the Latin League were
giving their adhesion to the king, and Turnus afforded a present example of the
danger incurred by any one who opposed the king's wishes. So the treaty was
renewed, and orders were issued for the "juniors" amongst the Latins
to muster under arms, in accordance with the treaty, on a given day, at the
Grove of Ferentina. In compliance with the order contingents assembled from all
the thirty towns, and with a view to depriving them of their own general or a
separate command, or distinctive standards, he formed one Latin and one Roman
century into a maniple, thereby making one unit out of the two, whilst he
doubled the strength of the maniples, and placed a centurion over each half.
[1.53]However
tyrannical the king was in his domestic administration he was by no means a
despicable general; in military skill he would have rivalled any of his
predecessors had not the degeneration of his character in other directions
prevented him from attaining distinction here also. He was the first to stir up
war with the Volscians - a war which was to last for more than two hundred
years after his time - and took from them the city of Pomptine
Suessa. The booty was sold and he realised out of the
proceeds forty talents of silver. He then sketched out the design of a temple
to Jupiter, which in its extent should be worthy of the king of gods and men,
worthy of the Roman empire, worthy of
the majesty of the City itself. He set apart the above-mentioned sum for its
construction. The next war occupied him longer than he expected. Failing to
capture the neighbouring city of Gabii by assault
and finding it useless to attempt an investment, after being defeated under its
walls, he employed methods against it which were anything but Roman, namely,
fraud and deceit. He pretended to have given up all thoughts of war and to be
devoting himself to laying the foundations of his temple and other undertakings
in the City. Meantime, it was arranged that Sextus, the youngest of his three
sons, should go as a refugee to Gabii, complaining loudly of his father's
insupportable cruelty, and declaring that he had shifted his tyranny from
others on to his own family, and even regarded the presence of his children as
a burden and was preparing to devastate his own family as he had devastated the
senate, so that not a single descendant, not a single heir to the crown might
be left. He had, he said, himself escaped from the murderous violence of his
father, and felt that no place was safe for him except amongst Lucius Tarquin's
enemies. Let them not deceive themselves, the war which apparently was
abandoned was hanging over them, and at the first chance he would attack them
when they least expected it. If amongst them there was no place for suppliants,
he would wander through Latium, he would petition the Volsci, the Aequi, the
Hernici, until he came to men who know how to protect children against the
cruel and unnatural persecutions of parents. Perhaps he would find people with
sufficient spirit to take up arms against a remorseless tyrant backed by a
warlike people. As it seemed probable that if they paid no attention to him he
would, in his angry mood, take his departure, the people of Gabii gave him a
kind reception. They told him not to be surprised if his father treated his
children as he had treated his own subjects and his allies; failing others he
would end by murdering himself. They showed pleasure at his arrival and
expressed their belief that with his assistance the war would be transferred
from the gates of Gabii to the walls of Rome.
[1.54]He was
admitted to the meetings of the national council. Whilst expressing his
agreement with the elders of Gabii on other subjects, on which they were better
informed, he was continually urging them to war, and claimed to speak with
special authority, because he was acquainted with the strength of each nation,
and knew that the king's tyranny, which even his own children had found
insupportable, was certainly detested by his subjects. So after gradually
working up the leaders of the Gabinians to revolt, he went in person with some
of the most eager of the young men on foraging and plundering expeditions. By
playing the hypocrite both in speech and action, he gained their mistaken
confidence more and more; at last he was chosen as commander in the war. Whilst
the mass of the population were unaware of what was intended, skirmishes took
place between Rome and Gabii in which the advantage generally rested with the
latter, until the Gabinians from the highest to the lowest firmly believed that
Sextus Tarquin had been sent by heaven to be their leader. As for the soldiers,
he became so endeared to them by sharing all their toils and dangers, and by a
lavish distribution of the plunder, that the elder Tarquin was not more
powerful in Rome than his
son was in Gabii.
When he thought himself strong enough to succeed in
anything that he might attempt, he sent one of his friends to his father at Rome to ask what
he wished him to do now that the gods had given him sole and absolute power in
Gabii. To this messenger no verbal reply was given, because, I believe, he
mistrusted him. The king went into the palace-garden, deep in thought, his
son's messenger following him. As he walked along in silence it is said that he
struck off the tallest poppy-heads with his stick. Tired of asking and waiting
for an answer, and feeling his mission to be a failure, the messenger returned
to Gabii, and reported what he had said and seen, adding that the king, whether
through temper or personal aversion or the arrogance which was natural to him,
had not uttered a single word. When it had become clear to Sextus what his
father meant him to understand by his mysterious silent action, he proceeded to
get rid of the foremost men of the State by traducing some of them to the
people, whilst others fell victims to their own unpopularity. Many were
publicly executed, some against whom no plausible charges could be brought were
secretly assassinated. Some were allowed to seek safety in flight, or were
driven into exile; the property of these as well as of those who had been put
to death was distributed in grants and bribes. The gratification felt by each
who received a share blunted the sense of the public mischief that was being
wrought, until, deprived of all counsel and help, the State of Gabii was
surrendered to the Roman king without a single battle.
[1.55]After
the acquisition of Gabii, Tarquin made peace with the Aequi and renewed the
treaty with the Etruscans. Then he turned his attention to the business of the
City. The first thing was the temple of Jupiter on the Tarpeian Mount, which he
was anxious to leave behind as a memorial of his reign and name; both the
Tarquins were concerned in it, the father had vowed it, the son completed it.
That the whole of the area which the temple of Jupiter was to occupy might be
wholly devoted to that deity, he decided to deconsecrate the fanes and chapels,
some of which had been originally vowed by King Tatius at the crisis of his
battle with Romulus, and subsequently consecrated and inaugurated. Tradition
records that at the commencement of this work the gods sent a divine intimation
of the future vastness of the empire, for whilst the omens were favourable for
the deconsecration of all the other shrines, they were unfavourable for that of
the fane of Terminus. This was interpreted to mean that as the abode of
Terminus was not moved and he alone of all the deities was not called forth
from his consecrated borders, so all would be firm and immovable in the future
empire. This augury of lasting dominion was followed by a prodigy which portended the greatness of the empire. It is said that
whilst they were digging the foundations of the temple, a human head came to
light with the face perfect; this appearance unmistakably portended that the
spot would be the stronghold of empire and the head of all
the world. This was the interpretation given by the soothsayers in the
City, as well as by those who had been called into council from Etruria. The king's
designs were now much more extensive; so much so that his share of the spoils
of Pometia, which had been set apart to complete the work, now hardly met the
cost of the foundations. This makes me inclined to trust Fabius - who, moreover
is the older authority - when he says that the amount was only forty talents,
rather than Piso, who states that forty thousand pounds of silver were set
apart for that object. For not only is such a sum more than could be expected
from the spoils of any single city at that time, but it would more than suffice
for the foundations of the most magnificent building of the present day.
[1.56]Determined
to finish his temple, he sent for workmen from all parts of Etruria, and not
only used the public treasury to defray the cost, but also compelled the plebeians
to take their share of the work. This was in addition to their military
service, and was anything but a light burden. Still they felt it less of a
hardship to build the temples of the gods with their own hands, than they did
afterwards when they were transferred to other tasks less imposing, but
involving greater toil - the construction of the "ford" in the Circus
and that of the Cloaca Maxima, a subterranean tunnel to receive all the sewage
of the City. The magnificence of these two works could hardly be equalled by
anything in the present day. When the plebeians were no longer required for
these works, he considered that such a multitude of unemployed would prove a
burden to the State, and as he wished the frontiers of the empire to be more
widely colonised, he sent colonists to Signia and Circeii to serve as a
protection to the City by land and sea. While he was carrying out these
undertakings a frightful portent appeared; a snake gliding out of a wooden
column created confusion and panic in the palace. The king himself was not so
much terrified as filled with anxious forebodings. The Etruscan soothsayers
were only employed to interpret prodigies which affected the State; but this
one concerned him and his house personally, so he decided to send to the
world-famed oracle of Delphi. Fearing to
entrust the oracular response to any one else, he sent two of his sons to
Greece, through lands at that time unknown and over seas still less known.
Titus and Arruns started on their journey. They had as a travelling companion
L. Junius Brutus, the son of the king's sister, Tarquinia, a young man of a
very different character from that which he had assumed. When he heard of the
massacre of the chiefs of the State, amongst them his own brother, by his
uncle's orders, he determined that his intelligence should give the king no
cause for alarm nor his fortune any provocation to his avarice, and that as the
laws afforded no protection, he would seek safety in obscurity and neglect.
Accordingly he carefully kept up the appearance and conduct of an idiot,
leaving the king to do what he liked with his person and property, and did not
even protest against his nickname of "Brutus"; for under the
protection of that nickname the soul which was one day to liberate Rome was awaiting
its destined hour. The story runs that when brought to Delphi by the Tarquins,
more as a butt for their sport than as a companion, he had with him a golden
staff enclosed in a hollow one of corner wood, which he offered to Apollo as a
mystical emblem of his own character. After executing their father's commission
the young men were desirous of ascertaining to which of them the kingdom of Rome would come.
A voice came from the lowest depths of the cavern: "Whichever of you,
young men, shall be the first to kiss his mother, he shall hold supreme sway in
Rome."
Sextus had remained behind in Rome, and to keep him in ignorance of this oracle
and so deprive him of any chance of coming to the throne, the two Tarquins
insisted upon absolute silence being kept on the subject. They drew lots to
decide which of them should be the first to kiss his mother on their return to Rome. Brutus, thinking that the oracular utterance had another meaning,
pretended to stumble, and as he fell kissed the ground, for the earth is of
course the common mother of us all. Then they returned to Rome, where
preparations were being energetically pushed forward for a war with the
Rutulians.
[1.57]This
people, who were at that time in possession of Ardea, were, considering the
nature of their country and the age in which they lived, exceptionally wealthy.
This circumstance really originated the war, for the Roman king was anxious to
repair his own fortune, which had been exhausted by the magnificent scale of
his public works, and also to conciliate his subjects by a distribution of the
spoils of war. His tyranny had already produced disaffection, but what moved
their special resentment was the way they had been so long kept by the king at
manual and even servile labour. An attempt was made to take Ardea by assault;
when that failed recourse was had to a regular investment to starve the enemy
out. When troops are stationary, as is the case in a protracted more than in an
active campaign, furloughs are easily granted, more so to the men of rank,
however, than to the common soldiers. The royal princes sometimes spent their
leisure hours in feasting and entertainments, and at a wine party given by
Sextus Tarquinius at which Collatinus, the son of Egerius, was present, the
conversation happened to turn upon their wives, and each began to speak of his
own in terms of extraordinarily high praise. As the dispute became warm,
Collatinus said that there was no need of words, it could in a few hours be
ascertained how far his Lucretia was superior to all the rest. "Why do we
not," he exclaimed, "if we have any youthful vigour about us, mount
our horses and pay our wives a visit and find out their characters on the spot?
What we see of the behaviour of each on the unexpected arrival of her husband,
let that be the surest test." They were heated with wine, and all shouted:
"Good! Come on!" Setting spur to their horses they galloped off to Rome, where they
arrived as darkness was beginning to close in. Thence they proceeded to
Collatia, where they found Lucretia very differently employed from the king's
daughters-in-law, whom they had seen passing their time in feasting and luxury
with their acquaintances. She was sitting at her wool work in the hall, late at
night, with her maids busy round her. The palm in this competition of wifely
virtue was awarded to Lucretia. She welcomed the arrival of her husband and the
Tarquins, whilst her victorious spouse courteously invited the royal princes to
remain as his guests. Sextus Tarquin, inflamed by the beauty and exemplary
purity of Lucretia, formed the vile project of effecting
her dishonour. After their youthful frolic they returned for the time to camp.
[1.58]A few
days afterwards Sextus Tarquin went, unknown to Collatinus, with one companion
to Collatia. He was hospitably received by the household, who suspected
nothing, and after supper was conducted to the bedroom set apart for guests.
When all around seemed safe and everybody fast asleep, he went in the frenzy of
his passion with a naked sword to the sleeping Lucretia, and placing his left
hand on her breast, said, "Silence, Lucretia! I am Sextus Tarquin, and I
have a sword in my hand; if you utter a word, you shall die." When the
woman, terrified out of her sleep, saw that no help was near, and instant death
threatening her, Tarquin began to confess his passion, pleaded, used threats as
well as entreaties, and employed every argument likely to influence a female
heart. When he saw that she was inflexible and not moved even by the fear of
death, he threatened to disgrace her, declaring that he would lay the naked
corpse of the slave by her dead body, so that it might be said that she had
been slain in foul adultery. By this awful threat, his lust triumphed over her
inflexible chastity, and Tarquin went off exulting in having successfully
attacked her honour. Lucretia, overwhelmed with grief at such a frightful
outrage, sent a messenger to her father at Rome and to her husband at Ardea,
asking them to come to her, each accompanied by one faithful friend; it was necessary
to act, and to act promptly; a horrible thing had happened. Spurius Lucretius
came with Publius Valerius, the son of Volesus; Collatinus with Lucius Junius
Brutus, with whom he happened to be returning to Rome when he was met by his
wife's messenger. They found Lucretia sitting in her room prostrate with grief.
As they entered, she burst into tears, and to her husband's inquiry whether all
was well, replied, "No! what can be well with a woman when her honour is
lost? The marks of a stranger, Collatinus, are in your bed. But it is only the
body that has been violated, the soul is pure; death shall bear witness to
that. But pledge me your solemn word that the adulterer shall not go
unpunished. It is Sextus Tarquin, who, coming as an enemy instead of a guest,
forced from me last night by brutal violence a pleasure fatal to me, and, if
you are men, fatal to him." They all successively pledged their word, and
tried to console the distracted woman by turning the guilt from the victim of
the outrage to the perpetrator, and urging that it is the mind that sins, not
the body, and where there has been no consent there is no guilt. "It is
for you," she said, "to see that he gets his deserts; although I
acquit myself of the sin, I do not free myself from the penalty; no unchaste
woman shall henceforth live and plead Lucretia's example." She had a knife
concealed in her dress which she plunged into her heart, and fell dying on the
floor. Her father and husband raised the death-cry.
[1.59]Whilst
they were absorbed in grief, Brutus drew the knife from Lucretia's wound, and
holding it, dripping with blood, in front of him, said, "By this blood -
most pure before the outrage wrought by the king's son - I swear, and you, O
gods, I call to witness that I will drive hence Lucius Tarquinius Superbus,
together with his cursed wife and his whole brood, with fire and sword and
every means in my power, and I will not suffer them or any one else to reign in
Rome." Then he handed the knife to Collatinus and then to Lucretius and Valerius,
who were all astounded at the marvel of the thing, wondering whence Brutus had
acquired this new character. They swore as they were directed; all their grief
changed to wrath, and they followed the lead of Brutus, who summoned them to
abolish the monarchy forthwith. They carried the body of Lucretia from her home
down to the Forum, where, owing to the unheard-of atrocity of the crime, they
at once collected a crowd. Each had his own complaint to make of the wickedness
and violence of the royal house. Whilst all were moved by the father's deep
distress, Brutus bade them stop their tears and idle laments, and urged them to
act as men and Romans and take up arms against their insolent foes. All the
high-spirited amongst the younger men came forward as armed volunteers, the
rest followed their example. A portion of this body was left to hold Collatia,
and guards were stationed at the gates to prevent any news of the movement from
reaching the king; the rest marched in arms to Rome with Brutus
in command. On their arrival, the sight of so many men in arms spread panic and
confusion wherever they marched, but when again the people saw that the
foremost men of the State were leading the way, they realised that whatever the
movement was it was a serious one. The terrible occurrence created no less
excitement in Rome than it had
done in Collatia; there was a rush from all quarters of the City to the Forum.
When they had gathered there, the herald summoned them to attend the
"Tribune of the Celeres"; this was the office which Brutus happened
at the time to be holding. He made a speech quite out of keeping with the
character and temper he had up to that day assumed. He dwelt upon the brutality
and licentiousness of Sextus Tarquin, the infamous outrage on Lucretia and her
pitiful death, the bereavement sustained by her father, Tricipitinus, to whom
the cause of his daughter's death was more shameful and distressing than the
actual death itself. Then he dwelt on the tyranny of the king, the toils and
sufferings of the plebeians kept underground clearing out ditches and sewers -
Roman men, conquerors of all the surrounding nations, turned from warriors into
artisans and stonemasons! He reminded them of the shameful murder of Servius
Tullius and his daughter driving in her accursed chariot over her father's
body, and solemnly invoked the gods as the avengers of murdered parents. By
enumerating these and, I believe, other still more atrocious incidents which
his keen sense of the present injustice suggested, but which it is not easy to
give in detail, he goaded on the incensed multitude to strip the king of his
sovereignty and pronounce a sentence of banishment against Tarquin with his
wife and children. With a picked body of the "Juniors," who
volunteered to follow him, he went off to the camp at Ardea to incite the army
against the king, leaving the command in the City to Lucretius, who had
previously been made Prefect of the City by the king. During the commotion
Tullia fled from the palace amidst the execrations of all whom she met, men and
women alike invoking against her her father's avenging spirit.
[1.60]When
the news of these proceedings reached the camp, the king, alarmed at the turn
affairs were taking, hurried to Rome to quell
the outbreak. Brutus, who was on the same road had become aware of his
approach, and to avoid meeting him took another route, so that he reached Ardea
and Tarquin Rome almost at the same time, though by different ways. Tarquin
found the gates shut, and a decree of banishment passed against him; the
Liberator of the City received a joyous welcome in the camp, and the king's
sons were expelled from it. Two of them followed their father into exile
amongst the Etruscans in Caere. Sextus Tarquin proceeded to Gabii, which he
looked upon as his kingdom, but was killed in revenge for the old feuds he had
kindled by his rapine and murders. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus reigned
twenty-five years. The whole duration of the regal government from the
foundation of the City to its liberation was two hundred and forty-four years.
Two consuls were then elected in the assembly of centuries by the prefect of
the City, in accordance with the regulations of Servius Tullius. They were
Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus.
End of Book
1
Copyright (c) 1996 by Bruce J. Butterfield.
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