The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
assembly for the election of a king should be held as soon as possible.
The assembly being proclaimed, he sent away the boys to hunt towards the
time of their meeting. He is said to have been the first who earnestly
sued for the crown, and to have made a set speech for the purpose of
gaining the affections of the people: _he said_ "that he did not aim at
any thing unprecedented; for that he was not the first foreigner, (a
thing at which any one might feel indignation or surprise,) but the
third who aspired to the sovereignty of Rome. That Tatius not only from
being an alien, but even an enemy, was made king: that Numa,
unacquainted with the city, and without soliciting it, had been
voluntarily invited by them to the throne. That he, as soon as he was
his own master, had come to Rome with his wife and whole fortune, and
had there spent a greater part of that age, in which men are employed in
civil offices, than he had in his native country: that he had both in
peace and war thoroughly learned the Roman laws and religious customs,
under a master not to be objected to, king Ancus himself; that he had
vied with all in duty and loyalty to his prince, and even with the king
himself in his bounty to others." While he was recounting these
undoubted facts, the people by a great majority elected him king. The
same ambition which had prompted Tarquin, in other respects an excellent
man, to aspire to the crown, followed him whilst on the throne. And
being no less mindful of strengthening his own power, than of increasing
that of the commonwealth, he elected a hundred into the fathers, who
from that time were called Minorum Gentium, _i. e._ of the younger
families: a party hearty in the king's cause, by whose favour they had
got into the senate. The first war he waged was with the Latins, from
whom he took the town of Apiolæ by storm, and having brought back thence
more booty than the character of the war would lead one to expect, he
celebrated games with more cost and magnificence than former kings. The
place for the circus, which is now called Maximus, was then first marked
out, and spaces were parted off for the senators and knights, where they
might each erect seats for themselves: they were called fori (benches).
They viewed the games from scaffolding which supported seats twelve
feet high from the ground. The show took place; horses and boxers were
sent for, chiefly from Etruria. These solemn games afterwards continued
annual, being variously called the Roman and Great (games). By the same
king also spaces round the forum were portioned off for private
individuals to build on; porticoes and shops were erected.
36. He was also preparing to surround the city with a stone wall, when a
Sabine war obstructed his designs. The matter was so sudden, that the
enemy had passed the Anio before the Roman army could meet and stop
them; great alarm therefore was produced at Rome. And at first they
fought with dubious success, but with great slaughter on both sides.
After this, the enemy's forces being led back into their camp, and the
Romans getting time to make new levies for the war, Tarquin, thinking
that the weakness of his army lay in the want of horse, determined to
add other centuries to the Ramnenses, the Titienses, and Luceres which
Romulus had appointed, and to leave them distinguished by his own name.
Because Romulus had done this by augury, Attus Navius, at that time a
celebrated soothsayer, insisted that no alteration or new appointment of
that kind could be made, unless the birds approved of it. The king,
enraged at this, and, as it is related, ridiculing the art, said, "Come,
thou diviner, tell me, whether what I am thinking on can be done or
not?" When he had tried the matter by divination, he affirmed it
certainly could. "But I was thinking," says he, "whether you could cut
asunder this whetstone with a razor. Take it, and perform what thy birds
portend may be done." Upon this, as they say, he immediately cut the
whetstone in two. A statue of Attus, with his head veiled, was erected
in the comitium, upon the very steps on the left of the senate-house, on
the spot where the transaction occurred. They say that the whetstone
also was deposited in the same place, that it might remain a monument of
that miracle to posterity. There certainly accrued so much honour to
augury and the college of augurs, that nothing was undertaken either in
peace or war without taking the auspices. Assemblies of the people, the
summoning of armies, and affairs of the greatest importance were put
off, when the birds would not allow of them. Nor did Tarquin then make
any other alteration in the centuries of horse, except doubling the
number of men in each of these corps, so that the three centuries
consisted of one thousand eight hundred knights. Those that were added
were called "the younger," but by the same names with the former; which,
now that they have been doubled, they call six centuries.
37. This part of his forces being augmented, a second battle is fought
with the Sabines. But, besides that the Roman army was thus reinforced,
a stratagem also is secretly resorted to, persons having been sent to
throw into the river a great quantity of timber that lay on the banks of
the Anio, it being first set on fire; and the wood being further kindled
by favour of the wind, and the greater[49] part of it (being placed) on
rafts, when it stuck firmly impacted against the piers, sets the bridge
on fire. This accident struck terror into the Sabines during the battle,
and, after they were routed, impeded their flight; so that many, who had
escaped the enemy, perished in the river. Their arms floating down the
Tiber, and being recognised at the city, made known the victory, almost
before any account of it could be carried there. In that action the
glory of the cavalry was prominent: they say that, being posted in the
two wings, when the centre of their own infantry was being beaten, they
charged so briskly in flank, that they not only checked the Sabine
legions who pressed hard on those who retired, but quickly put them to
flight. The Sabines made for the mountains with great precipitation, yet
few reached them; for, as we said before, the greatest part were driven
by the cavalry into the river. Tarquin, thinking it advisable to pursue
the enemy closely while in this consternation, after sending the booty
and the prisoners to Rome, piling up and burning the spoils which he had
vowed to Vulcan, proceeds to lead his army onward into the Sabine
territory. And though matters had turned out adversely, nor could they
hope for better success; yet, because the occasion did not allow time
for deliberation, the Sabines came out to meet him with a hastily raised
army; and being again defeated there, and matters having now become
desperate, they sued for peace.
[Footnote 49: In my version of this passage I have followed the reading,
_et pleraque in ratibus, impacta sublicis quum hærerent_, p. i. The
burning logs were not sent down the river one by one, but were placed on
rafts, so that being incapable of passing on between the piers of the
bridge, they firmly stuck there, and burnt the bridge. This mode of
interpretation is confirmed by Dion. iii. 5, 6. The bridge here meant is
the one built by the Sabines at the confluence of the Anio and the
Tiber----Another reading is, _pleraque in ratibus impacta subliciis quam
hærerent_, "most of them being driven against the boats, resting on
piles, stuck there," &c.]
38. Collatia and all the land about it was taken from the Sabines, and
Egerius, son to the king's brother, was left there with a garrison. I
understand that the people of Collatia were thus surrendered, and that
the form of the surrender was as follows: the king asked them, "Are ye
ambassadors and deputies sent by the people of Collatia to surrender
yourselves and the people of Collatia?" "We are." "Are the people of
Collatia their own masters?" "They are." "Do ye surrender yourselves and
the people of Collatia, their city, lands, water, boundaries, temples,
utensils, and every thing sacred or profane belonging to them, into my
power, and that of the Roman people?" "We do." "Then I receive them."
The Sabine war being ended, Tarquin returned in triumph to Rome. After
that he made war upon the ancient Latins, where they came on no occasion
to a general engagement; yet by carrying about his arms to the several
towns, he subdued the whole Latin nation. Corniculum, old Ficulea,
Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia, and Nomentum, towns which
either belonged to the ancient Latins, or which had revolted to them,
were taken. Upon this a peace was concluded. The works of peace were
then set about with greater spirit, even than the efforts with which he
had conducted his wars; so that the people enjoyed no more ease and
quiet at home, than they had done abroad: for he both set about
surrounding the city with a stone wall, on the side where he had not
fortified it, the beginning of which work had been interrupted by the
Sabine war, and the lower parts of the city round the forum and the
other valleys lying between the hills, because they did not easily carry
off the water from the flat grounds, he drains by means of sewers drawn
sloping downward into the Tiber. Moreover he levels an area for founding
a temple to Jupiter in the Capitol, which he had vowed to him in the
Sabine war; his mind even then presaging the future grandeur of the
place.
39. At that time, a prodigy occurred in the palace, wonderful both in
its appearance and in its result. They relate, that the head of a boy,
called Servius Tullius, as he lay fast asleep, blazed with fire in the
sight of many persons. That by the very great noise made at so
miraculous a phenomenon, the royal family were awakened; and when one of
the servants was bringing water to extinguish the flame, that he was
kept back by the queen, and after the confusion was over, that she
forbade the boy to be disturbed till he should awake of his own accord.
As soon as he awoke the flame disappeared. Then Tanaquil, taking her
husband into a private place, said, "Do you observe this boy whom we
bring up in so mean a style? Be assured that hereafter he will be a
light to us in our adversity, and a protector to our palace in distress.
From henceforth let us, with all our care, train up this youth, who is
capable of becoming a great ornament publicly and privately." From this
time the boy began to be treated as their own son, and instructed in
those arts by which men's minds are qualified to maintain high rank. The
matter was easily accomplished, because it was agreeable to the gods.
The young man turned out to be of a disposition truly royal. Nor, when
they looked out for a son-in-law for Tarquin, could any of the Roman
youth be compared to him in any accomplishment; therefore the king
betrothed his own daughter to him. This high honour conferred upon him,
from whatever cause, prevents us from believing that he was the son of a
slave, and that he had himself been a slave when young. I am rather of
the opinion of those who say that, on the taking of Corniculum, the wife
of Servius Tullius, who had been the leading man in that city, being
pregnant when her husband was slain, being known among the other female
prisoners, and, in consequence of her high rank, exempted from servitude
by the Roman queen, was delivered of a child at Rome, in the house of
Tarquinius Priscus. Upon this, that both the intimacy between the ladies
was improved by so great a kindness, and that the boy, having been
brought up in the house from his infancy, was beloved and respected;
that his mother's lot, in having fallen into the hands of the enemy,
caused him to be considered the son of a slave.