the Tiber; the sewers, which yet remain, for draining the marshes and lakes in the vicinity of the capital; the porticos around the market-place, the race-course of the circus, and the foundations of the city walls, which were of hewn stone. It is said that Tarquin, after a reign of thirty-eight years, was assassinated at the instigation of the sons of Ancus Martius, who feared that he would secure the succession to his son-in-law Servius Tullius, his own favorite, and the darling of the Roman people. (579 B. C.) VIII. SERVIUS 24. Notwithstanding the efforts of the sons of Ancus Martius, the senate and the people decided that Servius should rule over them. The birth of this man is said, in the old legends, to have been very humble, and his infancy to have been attended with marvellous omens, which foretold his future greatness. supposed wars with the revolted Etrus' cans nothing certain is known; but his renown as a law-giver rests on more substantial grounds than his military fame. Of his 25. The first great political act of his reign was the institution of the census, and the division of the people into one hundred and ninetythree centuries, whose rights of suffrage and military duties were regulated on the basis of property qualifications. The several Latin communities that had hitherto been allied with the Romans by treaty he now incorporated with them by a federal union; and to render that union more firm and lasting, he induced the confederates to unite in erecting a temple on Mount Aventine to the goddess Diana, and there unitedly to celebrate her worship. He also made wise regulations for the impartial administration of justice, prohibited bondage for debt, and relieved the people from the oppressions with which they already began to be harassed by the higher orders. 26. His legislation was received with displeasure by the patricians; and when it was known that Servius thought of resigning the crown, and establishing a consular form of government, which would have rendered a change of his laws difficult, a conspiracy was formed for securing the throne to Tarquinius, surnamed the Proud, a son of the former king, who had married a daughter of Servius. The old king Servius was murdered by the agents of Tarquin, and his body left exposed in the street, while his wicked daughter Tullia, in her haste to congratulate her husband on his success, drove her chariot over her father's corpse, so that her garments were stained with his blood. (535 B. C.) 27. The reign of Tarquinius Superbus, or the Proud, was distin guished by a series of tyrannical usurpations, which made his name odious to all classes; for although he at first gratified his supporters by diminishing the privileges of the plebeians, or the IX. TARQUIN common people, he soon made the patricians themselves THE PROUD. feel the weight of his tyranny. The laws of Servius were swept away-the equality of civil rights abolished-and even the ordinances of religion suffered to fall into neglect. But although Tarquin was a tyrant, he exalted the Roman name by his successful wars, and alliances with the surrounding nations. In the midst of his successes, however, he was disturbed by the most fearful dreams and appalling prodigies. He dreamed that the sun changed its course, rising in the west; and that when the two rams were brought to him for sacrifice, one of them pushed him down with its horns. At one time a serpent crawled from the altar and seized the flesh which he had brought for sacrifice: a flock of vultures attacked an eagle's nest in his garden, threw out the unfledged eaglets upon the ground and drove the old birds away; and when he sent to Delphi to consult the oracle, the responses were dark and fearful. 28. The reverses threatened were brought upon him by the wickedness of Sextus, one of his sons. It is related that while the Romans were besieging Ardea,' a Rutulian city, Sextus, with his brothers Titus and Aruns, and their cousin Collatínus, happened to be disputing, over their wine, about the good qualities of their wives, when, to settle the dispute, they agreed to visit their homes by surprise, and, seeing with their own eyes how their wives were then employed, thus decide which was the worthiest lady. So they hastily rode, first to Rome, where they found the wives of the three Tar: quins feasting and making merry. They then proceeded to Collátia,2 the residence of Collatínus, where, although it was then late at night, they found his wife Lucretia, with her maids around her, all busy working at the loom. On their return to the camp all agreed that Lucretia was the worthiest lady. 29. But a spirit of wicked passion had seized upon Sextus, and a few days later he went alone to Collátia, and being hospitably lodged in his kinsman's house, violated the honor of Lucretia. Thereupon 1. Ardea, a city of Latium, and the capital of the Rutulians, was about twenty-four miles south from Rome, and three miles from the sea. Some ruins of the ancient city are still visible, and bear the name of Ardea. (Maps Nos. VIII. and X.) 2. Collatia, a town of Latium, was near the south bank of the river Anio, twelve or thirteen miles east from Rome. Its ruins may still be traced on a hill which has obtained the name of Castillacio. (Maps Nos. VIII, and X.) she sent in haste for her father, and husband, and other relatives, and having told them of the wicked deed of Sextus, and made them swear that they would avenge it, she drew a knife from her bosom and stabbed herself to the heart. The vow was renewed over the dead body, and Lucius Junius Brutus, who had long concealed patriotic resolutions under the mask of pretended stupidity, and thus saved his life from the jealousy of Tarquin, exhibited the corpse to the people, whom he influenced, by his eloquence, to pronounce sentence of banishment against Tarquin and his family, and to declare that the dignity of king should be abolished forever. (510 B. C.) SECTION II. THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, FROM THE ABOLITION OF ROYALTY, 510 B.C., TO THE BEGINNING OF THE WARS WITH CARTHAGE: ANALYSIS. 1. Royalty abolished. The laws of Servius reestablished. CONSULs elected.— 2. Aristocratic character of the government. The struggle between the patricians and plebeians begins.-3. Extent of Roman territory.-4. Conspiracy in favor of the Tarquins. ETRUS'CAN WAR.-5. Conflicting accounts. Legend of the Etrus' can war. [Clusium.]-6. The story of Mutius Scævola.-7. Farther account of the Roman legend. The probable truth.-8. Humiliating condition of the plebeians after the Etrus can war.-9. Continued contentions. The office of DICTATOR.-10. Circumstances of the first PLEBEIAN INSURRECTION. [Volscians.]-11. Confusion. Withdrawal of the Plebeians. [Mons Sacer.]-12. The terms of reconciliation. Office and power of the TRIBUNES.-13. League with the Latins and Hernicians.-14. VOLSCIAN AND EQUIAN WARS. Contradictory statements. [Equians. Corioli.] Proposal of Coriolánus.-15. His trial-exile-and war against the Romans.-16. The story of Cincinátus.— 17. The public lands-and the fate of Spurius Cassius.-18. Continued demands of the people. Election and office of THE DECEM VIRS.-19. The laws of the decem' virs.-20. The decem'virs are continued in office-their additional laws-and tyranny.-21. The story of Virginia.22. Overthrow of the decem' virs, and death of Appius.-23. Plebeian innovations. The office of CENSORS.-24. Rome, as viewed by the surrounding people. Circumstances that led to the WAR WITH VEI. [Situation of Veii.]-25. Destruction of Veil, and extension of Roman territory. 26. GALLIC INVASION. Circumstances of the introduction of the Gauls into Italy. [Cisalpine Gaul.-27. The Roman ambassadors. Conduct of Brennus.-28. The Romans defeated by the Gauls. General abandonment of Rome. [The Allia. Roman Forum.]-29. Entrance of the Gauls into the city. Massacre of the Senators. Rome plundered and burned.-30. Vain attempts to storm the citadel. The Roman legend of the expulsion of the Gauls. The more probable account. [The Venetians.]-31. The rebuilding of Rome.-32. Renewal of the PLEBEIAN AND PATRICIAN CONTESTS. Philanthropy and subsequent history of Manlius.-33. Continued oppression of the plebeians.-34. Great reforms made by Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextus. The office of PRÆTOR.-35. Progress of the Roman power. The Samnite confederacy. [The Samnites.]-36. FIRST SAMNITE WAR. [Cap' ua.] League with the Samnites. Latin war.-37 SECOND SAMNITE WAR.-Defeat of the Romans, and renewed alliance. [Caudine Forks]-38. The senate declares the treaty vold. Magnanimity of Pontius.-39. The THIRD SAMNITE WAR. Fate of Pontius. [Um'bria.]—40. WAR WITH THE TARENTINES AND PYR'RHUS.-41. First encounter of Pyrrhus with the Romans.-42. Pyr' rhus attempts negotiation. His second battle.--43. Story of the generosity of Fabricius, and magnanimity of Pyr' rhus. Pyr' rhus passes over to Sicily-returns, and renews the war-is defeated-and abandons Italy. Roman supremacy over all Italy. [Rubicon. Arnus. Tuscan Sea.]-44. Alliance with Egypt. Sicilian affairs. Widening circle of Roman history. 1. As narrated at the close of the previous section, royalty was abolished at Rome, after an existence of two hundred and forty years. The whole Roman people took an oath that whoever should express a wish to rule as king should be declared an outlaw. The laws of Servius were reëstablished, and, according to the code which he had proposed, the royal power was intrusted to two consuls,a annually elected. The first chosen were Butus and Collatínus. I. CONSULS. 2. From the expulsion of the Tarquins, and the downfall of monarchy, is dated the commencement of what is called the Roman Republic. Yet the government was at this time entirely aristocratical; for all political power was in the hands of the nobility, from whom the consuls were chosen, and there was no third party to hold the balance of power between them and the people. Hence arose a struggle between these two divisions of the body politic; and it was not until the balance was properly adjusted by the increased privileges of the plebeians, and a more equal distribution of power, that the commonwealth attained that strength and influence which preeminently exalted Rome above the surrounding nations. 3. The territory possessed by Rome under the last of the kings is known, from a treaty made with Carthage in the first year of the Republic, to have extended at least seventy miles along the coast south of the Tiber. Yet all this sea-coast was destined to be lost to Rome by civil dissensions and bad government, before her was to be firmly established there. power a. The consuls had at first nearly the same power as the kings; and all other magistrates were subject to them, except the tribunes of the people. They summoned the meetings of the senate and of the assemblies of the people-they had the chief direction of the foreign affairs of the government-they levied soldiers, appointed most of the military officers, and, in time of war, had supreme command of the armies. In dangerous conjunctures they were armed with absolute power by a decree of the senate that "they should take care that the republic receives no harm." Their badges of office were the toga prætexta, or mantle bordered with purple, and an ivory sceptre; and when they appeared in public they were accompanied by twelve officers called lictors, each of whom carried a bundle of rods, (fas' ces,) with an axe (securis) placed in the middle of them ;-the former denoting the power of scourging, or of ordinary punishment,-and the latter, the power of life and death. 4. The efforts of Tarquin to recover the throne gave rise to a conspiracy among some of the younger patricians who had shared in the tyrant's extortions. Among the conspirators were the sons of Brutus; and the duty of pronouncing their fate devolved upon the consul their father, who, laying aside parental affection, and acting the part of the magistrate only, condemned them to death. The II. ETRUS' CAN cause of the Tarquins was also espoused by the Etrus'cans, to whom they had fled for protection, and thus a war was kindled between the two people. WAR. 5. The accounts of the events and results of this war are exceedingly conflicting. The ancient Roman legend relates that when Porsenna, king of Clusium,' the most powerful of the Etrus' can princes, led an overwhelming force against Rome, the Romans were at first repulsed, and fled across a wooden bridge over the Tiber; and that the army was saved by the valor of Horatius Cócles, who alone defended the pass against thousands of the enemy, until the bridge was broken down in the rear, when he plunged into the stream, and, amid a shower of darts, safely regained the opposite shore. 6. It is farther related, that when Porsenna had reduced Rome to extremities by famine, a young man, Mutius Scæv' ola, undertook, with the approbation of the Senate, to assassinate the invading king. Making his way into the Etrus' can camp, he slew one of the king's attendants, whom he mistook for Porsenna. Being disarmed, and threatened with torture, he scornfully thrust his right hand into the flame, where he held it until it was consumed, to show that the rack had no terrors for him. The king, admiring such heroism, gave him his life and liberty, when Scæv' ola warned him, as a token of gratitude, to make peace, for that three hundred young patricians, as brave as himself, had conspired to destroy him, and that he, Scæv' ola, had only been chosen by lot to make the first attempt. 7. The Roman legend asserts that Porsenna, alarmed for his life, offered terms of peace, which were agreed upon. And yet it is known, from other evidence, that the Romans, about this time, surrendered their city, and became tributary to the Etrus' cans; and it is prob able that when, soon after, Porsenna was defeated in a war with the Latins, the Romans embraced the opportunity to regain their independence. 8. It was only while the attempts of the Tarquins to regain the 1. Clusium, now Chiusi, was a town of Etruria, situated on the western bank of the river Clanis, a tributary of the Tiber, about eighty-five miles north-west from Rome. (Map No. VIII.) |