The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
sent colonists to Signia and Circeii, to serve as defensive barriers
hereafter to the city by land and sea. While he was thus employed a
frightful prodigy appeared to him. A serpent sliding out of a wooden
pillar, after causing dismay and a run into the palace, not so much
struck the king's heart with sudden terror, as filled him with anxious
solicitude. Accordingly when Etrurian soothsayers only were employed for
public prodigies, terrified at this as it were domestic apparition, he
determined on sending persons to Delphos to the most celebrated oracle
in the world; and not venturing to intrust the responses of the oracle
to any other person, he despatched his two sons to Greece through lands
unknown at that time, and seas still more so. Titus and Aruns were the
two who went. To them were added, as a companion, L. Junius Brutus, the
son of Tarquinia, sister to the king, a youth of an entirely different
quality of mind from that the disguise of which he had assumed. Brutus,
on hearing that the chief men of the city, and among others his own
brother, had been put to death by his uncle, resolved to leave nothing
in his intellects that might be dreaded by the king, nor any thing in
his fortune to be coveted, and thus to be secure in contempt, where
there was but little protection in justice. Therefore designedly
fashioning himself to the semblance of foolishness, after he suffered
himself and his whole estate to become a prey to the king, he did not
refuse to take even the surname of Brutus, that, concealed under the
cover of such a cognomen, that genius that was to liberate the Roman
people might await its proper time. He, being brought to Delphos by the
Tarquinii rather as a subject of sport than as a companion, is said to
have brought with him as an offering to Apollo a golden rod, enclosed in
a staff of cornel-wood hollowed out for the purpose, a mystical emblem
of his own mind. When they arrived there, their father's commission
being executed, a desire seized the young men of inquiring on which of
them the sovereignty of Rome should devolve. They say that a voice was
returned from the bottom of the cave, "Young men, whichever of you shall
first kiss his mother shall enjoy the sovereign power at Rome." The
Tarquinii order the matter to be kept secret with the utmost care, that
Sextus, who had been left behind at Rome, might be ignorant of the
response, and have no share in the kingdom; they cast lots among
themselves, as to which of them should first kiss his mother, after they
had returned to Rome. Brutus, thinking that the Pythian response had
another meaning, as if he had stumbled and fallen, touched the ground
with his lips; she being, forsooth, the common mother of all mankind.
After this they all returned to Rome, where preparations were being made
with the greatest vigour for a war against the Rutulians.
[Footnote 63: _The principal sewer_--the _cloaca maxima_. This is
attributed to Tarquinius Priscus by several writers. Dio. iii. 67,
states that it was he who commenced it. See Plin. H. N. xxxvi. Nieb. i.
p. 385.]
57. The Rutulians, a nation very wealthy, considering the country and
age they lived in, were at that time in possession of Ardea. Their
riches gave occasion to the war; for the king of the Romans, being
exhausted of money by the magnificence of his public works, was desirous
both to enrich himself, and by a large booty to soothe the minds of his
subjects, who, besides other instances of his tyranny, were incensed
against his government, because they were indignant that they had been
kept so long a time by the king in the employments of mechanics, and in
labour fit for slaves. An attempt was made to take Ardea by storm; when
that did not succeed, the enemy began to be distressed by a blockade,
and by works raised around them. As it commonly happens in standing
camps, the war being rather tedious than violent, furloughs were easily
obtained, more so by the officers, however, than the common soldiers.
The young princes sometimes spent their leisure hours in feasting and
entertainments. One day as they were drinking in the tent of Sextus
Tarquin, where Collatinus Tarquinius, the son of Egerius, was also at
supper, mention was made of wives. Every one commended his own in an
extravagant manner, till a dispute arising about it, Collatinus said,
"There was no occasion for words, that it might be known in a few hours
how far his Lucretia excelled all the rest. If then, added he, we have
any share of the vigour of youth, let us mount our horses and examine
the behaviour of our wives; that must be most satisfactory to every one,
which shall meet his eyes on the unexpected arrival of the husband."
They were heated with wine; "Come on, then," say all. They immediately
galloped to Rome, where they arrived in the dusk of the evening. From
thence they went to Collatia, where they find Lucretia, not like the
king's daughters-in-law, whom they had seen spending their time in
luxurious entertainments with their equals, but though at an advanced
time of night, employed at her wool, sitting in the middle of the house
amid her maids working around her. The merit of the contest regarding
the ladies was assigned to Lucretia. Her husband on his arrival, and the
Tarquinii, were kindly received; the husband, proud of his victory,
gives the young princes a polite invitation. There the villanous passion
for violating Lucretia by force seizes Sextus Tarquin; both her beauty,
and her approved purity, act as incentives. And then, after this
youthful frolic of the night, they return to the camp.
58. A few days after, without the knowledge of Collatinus, Sextus came
to Collatia with one attendant only; where, being kindly received by
them, as not being aware of his intention, after he had been conducted
after supper into the guests' chamber, burning with passion, when every
thing around seemed sufficiently secure, and all fast asleep, he comes
to Lucretia, as she lay asleep, with a naked sword, and with his left
hand pressing down the woman's breast, he says, "Be silent, Lucretia; I
am Sextus Tarquin; I have a sword in my hand; you shall die, if you
utter a word." When awaking terrified from sleep, the woman beheld no
aid, impending death nigh at hand; then Tarquin acknowledged his
passion, entreated, mixed threats with entreaties, tried the female's
mind in every possible way. When he saw her inflexible, and that she was
not moved even by the terror of death, he added to terror the threat of
dishonour; he says that he will lay a murdered slave naked by her side
when dead, so that she may be said to have been slain in infamous
adultery. When by the terror of this disgrace his lust, as it were
victorious, had overcome her inflexible chastity, and Tarquin had
departed, exulting in having triumphed over a lady's honour, Lucretia,
in melancholy distress at so dreadful a misfortune, despatches the same
messenger to Rome to her father, and to Ardea to her husband, that they
would come each with one trusty friend; that it was necessary to do so,
and that quickly.[64] Sp. Lucretius comes with P. Valerius, the son of
Volesus, Collatinus with L. Junius Brutus, with whom, as he was
returning to Rome, he happened to be met by his wife's messenger. They
find Lucretia sitting in her chamber in sorrowful dejection. On the
arrival of her friends the tears burst from her eyes; and to her
husband, on his inquiry "whether all was right," she says, "By no means,
for what can be right with a woman who has lost her honour? The traces
of another man are on your bed, Collatinus. But the body only has been
violated, the mind is guiltless; death shall be my witness. But give me
your right hands, and your honour, that the adulterer shall not come off
unpunished. It is Sextus Tarquin, who, an enemy in the guise of a guest,
has borne away hence a triumph fatal to me, and to himself, if you are
men." They all pledge their honour; they attempt to console her,
distracted as she was in mind, by turning away the guilt from her,
constrained by force, on the perpetrator of the crime; that it is the
mind sins, not the body; and that where intention was wanting guilt
could not be. "It is for you to see," says she, "what is due to him. As
for me, though I acquit myself of guilt, from punishment I do not
discharge myself; nor shall any woman survive her dishonour pleading the
example of Lucretia." The knife, which she kept concealed beneath her
garment, she plunges into her heart, and falling forward on the wound,
she dropped down expiring. The husband and father shriek aloud.
[Footnote 64: _To do so, and that quickly_,--a use of the participles
_facto_ and _maturato_ similar to that already noticed in chap. 53,
_degeneratum_.]
59. Brutus, while they were overpowered with grief, having drawn the
knife out of the wound, and holding it up before him reeking with blood,
said, "By this blood, most pure before the pollution of royal villany, I
swear, and I call you, O gods, to witness my oath, that I shall pursue
Lucius Tarquin the Proud, his wicked wife, and all their race, with
fire, sword, and all other means in my power; nor shall I ever suffer
them or any other to reign at Rome." Then he gave the knife to
Collatinus, and after him to Lucretius and Valerius, who were surprised
at such extraordinary mind in the breast of Brutus. However, they all
take the oath as they were directed, and converting their sorrow into
rage, follow Brutus as their leader, who from that time ceased not to
solicit them to abolish the regal power. They carry Lucretia's body
from her own house, and convey it into the forum; and assemble a number
of persons by the strangeness and atrocity of the extraordinary
occurrence, as usually happens. They complain, each for himself, of the
royal villany and violence. Both the grief of the father moves them, as
also Brutus, the reprover of their tears and unavailing complaints, and
their adviser to take up arms against those who dared to treat them as
enemies, as would become men and Romans. Each most spirited of the youth
voluntarily presents himself in arms; the rest of the youth follow also.
From thence, after leaving an adequate garrison at the gates at
Collatia, and having appointed sentinels, so that no one might give
intelligence of the disturbance to the king's party, the rest set out
for Rome in arms under the conduct of Brutus. When they arrived there,
the armed multitude cause panic and confusion wherever they go. Again,
when they see the principal men of the state placing themselves at their
head, they think that, whatever it may be, it was not without good
reason. Nor does the heinousness of the circumstance excite less violent
emotions at Rome than it had done at Collatia; accordingly they run from
all parts of the city into the forum, whither, when they came, the
public crier summoned them to attend the tribune of the celeres, with
which office Brutus happened to be at that time vested. There an
harangue was delivered by him, by no means of that feeling and capacity
which had been counterfeited up to that day, concerning the violence and
lust of Sextus Tarquin, the horrid violation of Lucretia and her
lamentable death, the bereavement of Tricipitinus, to whom the cause of
his daughter's death was more exasperating and deplorable than the death
itself. To this was added the haughty insolence of the king himself, and
the sufferings and toils of the people, buried in the earth in cleansing
sinks and sewers; that the Romans, the conquerors of all the surrounding
states, instead of warriors had become labourers and stone-cutters. The
unnatural murder of king Servius Tullius was dwelt on, and his
daughter's driving over the body of her father in her impious chariot,