VII.

CHAP. spoke to them of all the tyranny of Tarquinius and his sons, and of the wicked deed of Sextus. And the people in their curiæ took back from Tarquinius the sovereign power, which they had given him, and they banished him and all his family. Then the younger men followed Lucius to Ardea, to win over the army there to join them; and the city was left in the charge of Spurius Lucretius. But the wicked Tullia fled in haste from her house, and all, both men and women, cursed her as she passed, and prayed that the furies of her father's blood might visit her with vengeance.

Of the

driving out of king Tarquinius,

yearly ma

gistrates were ap

his room.

Meanwhile" king Tarquinius set out with speed to Rome to put down the tumult. But Lucius turned and how two aside from the road, that he might not meet him, and came to the camp; and the soldiers joyfully received pointed in him, and they drove out the sons of Tarquinius. King Tarquinius came to Rome, but the gates were shut, and they declared to him, from the walls, the sentence of banishment which had been passed against him and his family. So he yielded to his fortune, and went to live at Cære with his sons Titus and Aruns. His other son, Sextus 2, went to Gabii, and the people there, remembering how he had betrayed them to his father, slew him. Then the army left the camp before Ardea, and went back to Rome. And all men said, "Let us follow the good laws of the good king Servius; and let us meet in our centuries, according as he directed 13, and let us choose two men year by year to govern us, instead of a king." Then the people met in their centuries in the field of Mars, and they chose two men to rule over them, Lucius Junius,

wise a man being called by such a

name.

11 Livy, I. 60.

12 Livy, I. 60. Dionysius makes Sextus live till the battle by the lake Regillus, and describes him as killed there. When the stories differ, I

have generally followed Livy, as the writer of the best taste, and likely to give the oldest and most poetical version of them.

13 Consules inde comitiis centuriatis-ex commentariis Ser. Tullii creati sunt. Livy, I. 60.

whom men called Brutus, and Lucius Tarquinius of CHAP. Collatia.

14

VII.

Tarquinius,

of Lucretia,

out also for

But the people were afraid of Lucius Tarquinius How Lucius for his name's sake, for it seemed as though a Tar- the husband quinius were still king over them. So they prayed was driven him to depart from Rome, and he went and took all his name's his goods with him, and settled himself at Lavinium. sake. Then the senate and the people decreed that all the house of the Tarquinii should be banished, even though they were not of the king's family. And the people met again in their centuries, and chose Publius Valerius to rule over them together with Brutus, in the room of Lucius Tarquinius of Collatia.

15

the good

restored.

Now at this time 5 many of the laws of the good The laws of king Servius were restored, which Tarquinius the king Servius tyrant had overthrown. For the commons again chose their own judges, to try all causes between a man and his neighbour; and they had again their meetings and their sacrifices in the city and in the country, every man in his own tribe and in his own district. And lest there should seem to be two kings instead of one, it was ordered that one only of the two should bear rule at one time, and that the lictors with their rods and axes should walk before him alone. And the two were to bear rule month by month.

16

of the young

king Tar

quinius.

Then king Tarquinius sent to Rome, to ask for How certain all the goods that had belonged to him; and the Romans plotted to senate after a while decreed that the goods should be bring back given back. But those whom he had sent to Rome to ask for his goods, had meetings with many young men of noble birth, and a plot was laid to bring back king Tarquinius. So the young men wrote letters to Tarquinius, pledging to him their faith, and among 16 Livy, II. 3, 4.

14 Livy, II. 2.

15 Dionysius, V. 2.

CHAP. them were Titus and Tiberius, the sons of Brutus. VII. But a slave happened to overhear them talking to

How Lucius

Brutus sat

upon his

own sons.

gether, and when he knew that the letters were to be given to the messengers of Tarquinius, he went and told all that he had heard to Brutus and to Publius Valerius. Then they came and seized the young men and their letters, and so the plot was broken up.

After this there was a strange and piteous sight to in judgment behold. Brutus and Publius" sat on their judgmentseats in the forum, and the young men were brought before them. Then Brutus bade the lictors to bind his own two sons, Titus and Tiberius, together with the others, and to scourge them with rods, according to the law. And after they had been scourged, the lictors struck off their heads with their axes, before the eyes of their father; and Brutus neither stirred from his seat, nor turned away his eyes from the sight, yet men saw as they looked on him that his heart was grieving inwardly is over his children. Then they marvelled at him, because he had loved justice more than his own blood, and had not spared his own. children when they had been false to their country, and had offended against the law.

How the people of Veii and Tarquinii

upon the Romans,

and how Lucius

broken

19

18

When king Tarquinius found that the plot was up, he persuaded the people of Veii and the made war people of Tarquinii, cities of the Etruscans, to try to bring him back to Rome by force of arms. So they assembled their armies, and Tarquinius led them within the Roman border. Brutus and Publius led the Romans out to meet them, and it chanced that Brutus, with the Roman horsemen, and Aruns, the son of king Tarquinius, with the Etruscan horse, met each other in advance of the main battles. Aruns, seeing

Brutus was slain.

Brutus in his kingly robe, and with the lictors of a king around him, levelled his spear, and spurred his horse against him. Brutus met him, and each ran his spear through the body of the other, and they both fell dead. Then the horsemen on both parts fought, and afterwards the main battles, and the Veientians were beaten, but the Tarquinians beat the Romans, and the battle was neither won nor lost; but in the night there came a voice out of the wood that was hard by, and it said, "One man more has fallen on the part of the Etruscans than on the part of the Romans; the Romans are to conquer in the war." At this the Etruscans were afraid, and believing the voice, they immediately marched home to their own country, while the Romans took up Brutus, and carried him home and buried him; and Publius made an oration in his praise, and all the matrons of Rome mourned for him for a whole year, because he had avenged Lucretia well.

CHAP.
VII.

lius Valerius

was sus

pected by

and how he

himself.

When Brutus was dead", Publius ruled over the How Pubpeople himself; and he began to build a great and strong house on the top of the hill Velia, which looks the people, down upon the forum 22. This made the people say, cleared "Publius wants to become a king, and is building a house in a strong place, as if for a citadel where he may live with his guards, and oppress us." But he called the people together, and when he went down to them, the lictors who walked before him lowered the rods and the axes which they bore, to show that he owned the people to be greater than himself. He complained that they had mistrusted him, and he said that he would not build his house on the top of the hill Velia, but at the bottom of it, and his house

20 Uno plus Etruscorum cecidisse in acie; vincere bello Romanum. Livy, II. 7.

21 Livy, II. 7.

22 It is the rising ground just under the Palatine, up which the Via Sacra passes. The arch of Titus is on the Velian Hill.

VII.

CHAP. should be no stronghold. And he called on them to make a law 23, that whoever should try to make himself king should be accursed, and whosoever would might slay him. Also, that if a magistrate were going to scourge or kill any citizen, he might carry his cause before the people, and they should judge him. When these laws were passed, all men said, "Publius is a lover of the people, and seeks their good:" and he was called Poplicola, which means, "the people's friend,” from that day forward.

Of the

on the

Marcus Horatius.

Then Publius called the people together" in their centuries, and they chose Spurius Lucretius, the father of Lucretia, to be their magistrate for the year, in the room of Brutus. But he was an old man, and his strength was so much gone, that after a few days he died. They then chose in his room Marcus Horatius 25. Now Publius and Marcus cast lots which should dedicating of the temple dedicate the temple to Jupiter on the hill of the Capitol by Capitol, which king Tarquinius had built; and the lot fell to Marcus, to the great discontent of the friends of Publius 26 So when Marcus was going to begin the dedication, and had his hand on the door-post of the temple, and was speaking the set words of prayer, there came a man running to tell him that his son was dead. But he said, "Then let them carry him out and bury him;" and he neither wept, nor lamented, for the words of lamentation ought not to be spoken when men are praying to the blessed gods, and dedicating a temple to their honour. So Marcus honoured the gods above his son, and dedicated the temple on the hill of the Capitol; and his name was recorded on the front of the temple.