Roman History, Books I III - Titus Livius
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Servius, though he had now acquired an indisputable right to the
kingdom by long possession, yet, as he heard that expressions were
sometimes thrown out by young Tarquin, to the effect that he occupied
the throne without the consent of the people, having first secured the
good-will of the people by dividing among them, man by man, the land
taken from their enemies, he ventured to propose the question to
them, whether they chose and ordered that he should be king, and
was declared king with greater unanimity than any other of his
predecessors. And yet even this circumstance did not lessen Tarquin's
hope of obtaining the throne; nay, because he had observed that the
matter of the distribution of land to the people was against the will
of the fathers, he thought that an opportunity was now presented to
him of arraigning Servius before the fathers with greater violence,
and of increasing his own influence in the senate, being himself a
hot-tempered youth, while his wife Tullia roused his restless temper
at home. For the royal house of the Roman kings also exhibited an
example of tragic guilt, so that through their disgust of kings,
liberty came more speedily, and the rule of this king, which was
attained through crime, was the last. This Lucius Tarquinius (whether
he was the son or grandson of Tarquinius Priscus is not clear:
following the greater number of authorities, however, I should feel
inclined to pronounce him his son) had a brother, Arruns Tarquinius, a
youth of a mild disposition. To these two, as has been already stated,
the two Tullias, daughters of the king, had been married, they also
themselves being of widely different characters. It had come to pass,
through the good fortune, I believe, of the Roman people, that two
violent dispositions should not be united in marriage, in order that
the reign of Servius might last longer, and the constitution of
the state be firmly established. The haughty spirit of Tullia was
chagrined, that there was no predisposition in her husband, either to
ambition or daring. Directing all her regard to the other Tarquinius,
him she admired, him she declared to be a man, and sprung from royal
blood; she expressed her contempt for her sister, because, having a
man for her husband, she lacked that spirit of daring that a woman
ought to possess. Similarity of disposition soon drew them together,
as wickedness is in general most congenial to wickedness; but the
beginning of the general confusion originated with the woman.
Accustomed to the secret conversations of the husband of another,
there was no abusive language that she did not use about her husband
to his brother, about her sister to her sister's husband, asserting
that it would have been better for herself to remain unmarried, and he
single, than that she should be united with one who was no fit mate
for her, so that her life had to be passed in utter inactivity by
reason of the cowardice of another. If the gods had granted her the
husband she deserved, she would soon have seen the crown in possession
of her own house, which she now saw in possession of her father. She
soon filled the young man with her own daring. Lucius Tarquinius and
the younger Tullia, when the pair had, by almost simultaneous murders,
made their houses vacant for new nuptials, were united in marriage,
Servius rather offering no opposition than actually approving.
Then indeed the old age of Tullius began to be every day more
endangered, his throne more imperilled. For now the woman from one
crime directed her thoughts to another, and allowed her husband no
rest either by night or by day, that their past crimes might not prove
unprofitable, saying that what she wanted was not one whose wife she
might be only in name, or one with whom she might live an inactive
life of slavery: what she wanted was one who would consider himself
worthy of the throne, who would remember that he was the son of
Tarquinius Priscus, who would rather have a kingdom than hope for it.
"If you, to whom I consider myself married, are such a one, I greet
you both as husband and king; but if not, our condition has been
changed so far for the worse, in that in your crime is associated with
cowardice. Why do you not gird yourself to the task? You need not,
like your father, from Corinth or Tarquinii, struggle for a kingdom in
a foreign land. Your household and country's gods, the statue of your
father, the royal palace and the kingly throne in that palace, and the
Tarquinian name, elect and call you king. Or if you have too little
spirit for this, why do you disappoint the state? Why suffer yourself
to be looked up to as a prince? Get hence to Tarquinii or Corinth.
Sink back again to your original stock, more like your brother than
your father." By chiding him with these and other words, she urged on
the young man: nor could she rest herself, at the thought that though
Tanaquil, a woman of foreign birth, had been able to conceive and
carry out so vast a project, as to bestow two thrones in succession on
her husband, and then on her son-in-law, she, sprung from royal blood,
had no decisive influence in bestowing and taking away a kingdom.
Tarquinius, driven on by the blind passion of the woman, began to go
round and solicit the support of the patricians, especially those of
the younger families:[46] he reminded them of his father's kindness,
and claimed a return for it, enticed the young men by presents,
increased his influence everywhere both by making magnificent promises
on his own part, as well as by accusations against the king. At
length, as soon as the time seemed convenient for carrying out his
purpose, he rushed into the forum, accompanied by a band of armed men;
then, while all were struck with dismay, seating himself on the throne
before the senate-house, he ordered the fathers to be summoned to the
senate-house by the crier to attend King Tarquinius. They assembled
immediately, some having been already prepared for this, others
through fear, lest it should prove dangerous to them not to have come,
astounded at such a strange and unheard-of event, and considering that
the reign of Servius was now at an end. Then Tarquinius began his
invectives with his immediate ancestors: That a slave, the son of a
slave, after the shameful death of his father, without an interregnum
being adopted, as on former occasions, without any election being
held, without the suffrages of the people, or the sanction of the
fathers, he had taken possession of the kingdom by the gift of a
woman; that so born, so created king, a strong supporter of the most
degraded class, to which he himself belonged, through a hatred of the
high station of others, he had deprived the leading men of the state
of their land and divided it among the very lowest; that he had laid
all the burdens, which were formerly shared by all alike, on the chief
members of the community; that he had instituted the census, in order
that the fortune of the wealthier citizens might be conspicuous in
order to excite envy, and ready to hand, that out of it he might
bestow largesses on the most needy, whenever he pleased.
Servius, aroused by the alarming announcement, having come upon the
scene during this harangue, immediately shouted with a loud voice from
the porch of the senate-house: "What means this, Tarquin? By what
audacity hast thou dared to summon the fathers, while I am still
alive, or to sit on my throne?" When the other haughtily replied,
that he, a king's son, was occupying the throne of his father, a much
fitter successor to the throne than a slave; that he had insulted his
masters full long enough by shuffling insolence, a shout arose from
the partisans of both, the people rushed into the senate-house, and it
was evident that whoever came off victor would gain the throne. Then
Tarquin, forced by actual necessity to proceed to extremities, having
a decided advantage both in years and strength, seized Servius by the
waist, and having carried him out of the senate-house, hurled him
down the steps to the bottom. He then returned to the senate house
to assemble the senate. The king's officers and attendants took to
flight. The king himself, almost lifeless (when he was returning home
with his royal retinue frightened to death and had reached the top of
the Cyprian Street), was slain by those who had been sent by Tarquin,
and had overtaken him in his flight. As the act is not inconsistent
with the rest of her atrocious conduct, it is believed to have been
done by Tullia's advice. Anyhow, as is generally admitted, driving
into the forum in her chariot, unabashed by the crowd of men present,
she called her husband out of the senate-house, and was the first to
greet him, king; and when, being bidden by him to withdraw from such a
tumult, she was returning home, and had reached the top of the Cyprian
Street, where Diana's chapel lately stood, as she was turning on the
right to the Urian Hill, in order to ride up to the Esquiline, the
driver stopped terrified, and drew in his reins, and pointed out to
his mistress the body of the murdered Servius lying on the ground.
On this occasion a revolting and inhuman crime is said to have been
committed, and the place bears record of it. They call it the Wicked
Street, where Tullia, frantic and urged on by the avenging furies of
her sister and husband, is said to have driven her chariot over her
father's body, and to have carried a portion of the blood of her
murdered father on her blood-stained chariot, herself also defiled
and sprinkled with it, to her own and her husband's household gods,
through whose vengeance results corresponding with the evil beginning
of the reign were soon destined to follow. Servius Tullius reigned
forty-four years in such a manner that it was no easy task even for a
good and moderate successor to compete with him. However, this also
has proved an additional source of renown to him that together with
him perished all just and legitimate reigns. This same authority, so
mild and so moderate, because it was vested in one man, some say that
he nevertheless had intended to resign, had not the wickedness of his
family interfered with him as he was forming plans for the liberation
of his country.
After this period Lucius Tarquinius began to reign, whose acts
procured him the surname of Proud, for he, the son-in-law, refused his
father-in-law burial, alleging that even Romulus was not buried after
death. He put to death the principal senators, whom he suspected
of having favoured the cause of Servius. Then, conscious that the
precedent of obtaining the crown by evil means might be borrowed from
him and employed against himself, he surrounded his person with a
body-guard of armed men, for he had no claim to the kingdom except
force, as being one who reigned without either the order of the people
or the sanction of the senate. To this was added the fact that, as he
reposed no hope in the affection of his citizens, he had to secure his
kingdom by terror; and in order to inspire a greater number with this,
he carried out the investigation of capital cases solely by himself
without assessors, and under that pretext had it in his power to put
to death, banish, or fine, not only those who were suspected or hated,
but those also from whom he could expect to gain nothing else but
plunder. The number of the fathers more particularly being in this
manner diminished, he determined to elect none into the senate in
their place, that the order might become more contemptible owing
to this very reduction in numbers, and that it might feel the less
resentment at no business being transacted by it. For he was the first
of the kings who violated the custom derived from his predecessors of
consulting the senate on all matters, and administered the business
of the state by taking counsel with his friends alone. War, peace,
treaties, alliances, all these he contracted and dissolved with
whomsoever he pleased, without the sanction of the people and senate,
entirely on his own responsibility. The nation of the Latins he was
particularly anxious to attach to him, so that by foreign influence
also he might be more secure among his own subjects; and he contracted
ties not only of hospitality but also of marriage with their leading
men. On Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, who was by far the most eminent
of those who bore the Latin name, being descended, if we believe
tradition, from Ulysses and the goddess Circe, he bestowed his
daughter in marriage, and by this match attached to himself many of
his kinsmen and friends.
The influence of Tarquin among the chief men of the Latins being
now considerable, he issued an order that they should assemble on a
certain day at the grove of Ferentina,[47] saying that there were
matters of common interest about which he wished to confer with them.
They assembled in great numbers at daybreak. Tarquinius himself kept
the day indeed, but did not arrive until shortly before sunset. Many
matters were there discussed in the meeting throughout the day in
various conversations. Turnus Herdonius of Aricia inveighed violently
against the absent Tarquin, saying that it was no wonder the surname
of Proud was given him at Rome; for so they now called him secretly
and in whispers, but still generally. Could anything show more
haughtiness than this insolent mockery of the entire Latin nation?
After their chiefs had been summoned so great a distance from home,
he who had proclaimed the meeting did not attend; assuredly their
patience was being tried, in order that, if they submitted to the
yoke, he might crush them when at his mercy. For who could fail to see
that he was aiming at sovereignty over the Latins? This sovereignty,
if his own countrymen had done well in having intrusted it to him, or
if it had been intrusted and not seized on by murder, the Latins also
ought to intrust to him (and yet not even so, inasmuch as he was a
foreigner). But if his own subjects were dissatisfied with him (seeing
that they were butchered one after another, driven into exile, and
deprived of their property), what better prospects were held out to
the Latins? If they listened to him, they would depart thence, each to
his own home, and take no more notice of the day of meeting than he
who had proclaimed it. When this man, mutinous and full of daring, and
one who had obtained influence at home by such methods, was pressing
these and other observations to the same effect, Tarquin appeared on
the scene. This put an end to his harangue. All turned away from him
to salute Tarquin, who, on silence being proclaimed, being advised by
those next him to make some excuse for having come so late, said that
he had been chosen arbitrator between a father and a son: that, from
his anxiety to reconcile them, he had delayed: and, because that duty
had taken up that day, that on the morrow he would carry out what he
had determined. They say that he did not make even that observation
unrebuked by Turnus, who declared that no controversy could be more
quickly decided than one between father and son, and that it could be
settled in a few words--unless the son submitted to the father, he
would be punished.
The Arician withdrew from the meeting, uttering these reproaches
against the Roman king. Tarquin, feeling the matter much more sorely
than he seemed to, immediately set about planning the death of Turnus,
in order to inspire the Latins with the same terror as that with which
he had crushed the spirits of his own subjects at home: and because
he could not be put to death openly, by virtue of his authority, he
accomplished the ruin of this innocent man by bringing a false charge
against him. By means of some Aricians of the opposite party, he
bribed a servant of Turnus with gold, to allow a great number
of swords to be secretly brought into his lodging. When these
preparations had been completed in the course of a single night,
Tarquin, having summoned the chief of the Latins to him a little
before day, as if alarmed by some strange occurrence, said that
his delay of yesterday, which had been caused as it were by some
providential care of the gods, had been the means of preservation to
himself and to them; that he had been told that destruction was being
plotted by Turnus for him and the chiefs of the Latin peoples, that he
alone might obtain the government of the Latins. That he would have
attacked them yesterday at the meeting; that the attempt had been
deferred, because the person who summoned the meeting was absent, who
was the chief object of his attack? That that was the reason of the
abuse heaped upon him during his absence, because he had disappointed
his hopes by delaying. That he had no doubt that, if the truth were
told him, he would come attended by a band of conspirators, at break
of day, when the assembly met, ready prepared and armed. That it was
reported that a great number of swords had been conveyed to his house.
Whether that was true or not, could be known immediately. He requested
them to accompany him thence to the house of Turnus. Both the daring
temper of Turnus, and his harangue of the previous day, and the delay
of Tarquin, rendered the matter suspicious, because it seemed possible
that the murder might have been put off in consequence of the latter.
They started with minds inclined indeed to believe, yet determined to
consider everything else false, unless the swords were found. When
they arrived there, Turnus was aroused from sleep, and surrounded
by guards: the slaves, who, from affection to their master, were
preparing to use force, being secured, and the swords, which had been
concealed, drawn out from all corners of the lodging, then indeed
there seemed no doubt about the matter: Turnus was loaded with
chains, and forthwith a meeting of the Latins was summoned amid great
confusion. There, on the swords being exhibited in the midst, such
violent hatred arose against him, that, without being allowed a
defence, he was put to death in an unusual manner; he was thrown into
the basin of the spring of Ferentina, a hurdle was placed over him,
and stones being heaped up in it, he was drowned.
Tarquin then recalled the Latins to the meeting, and having applauded
them for having inflicted well-merited punishment on Turnus, as
one convicted of murder, by his attempt to bring about a change of
government, spoke as follows: That he could indeed proceed by a
long-established right; because, since all the Latins were sprung from
Alba, they were comprehended in that treaty by which, dating from the
time of Tullus, the entire Alban nation, with its colonies, had passed
under the dominion of Rome. However, for the sake of the interest of
all parties, he thought rather that that treaty should be renewed, and
that the Latins should rather share in the enjoyment of the prosperity
of the Roman people, than be constantly either apprehending or
suffering the demolition of their towns and the devastation of their
lands, which they had formerly suffered in the reign of Ancus, and
afterward in the reign of his own father. The Latins were easily
persuaded, though in that treaty the advantage lay on the side of
Rome: however, they both saw that the chiefs of the Latin nation sided
with and supported the king, and Turnus was a warning example, still
fresh in their recollections, of the danger that threatened each
individually, if he should make any opposition. Thus the treaty was
renewed, and notice was given to the young men of the Latins that,
according to the treaty, they should attend in considerable numbers
in arms, on a certain day, at the grove of Ferentina. And when they
assembled from all the states according to the edict of the Roman
king, in order that they should have neither a general of their own,
nor a separate command, nor standards of their own, he formed mixed
companies of Latins and Romans so as out of a pair of companies to
make single companies, and out of single companies to make a pair: and
when the companies had thus been doubled, he appointed centurions over
them.
Nor was Tarquin, though a tyrannical prince in time of peace,
an incompetent general in war; nay, he would have equalled his
predecessors in that art, had not his degeneracy in other ways
likewise detracted from his merit in this respect. He first began the
war against the Volsci, which was to last two hundred years after his
time, and took Suessa Pometia from them by storm; and when by the sale
of the spoils he had realized forty talents of silver, he conceived
the idea of building a temple to Jupiter on such a magnificent scale
that it should be worthy of the king of gods and men, of the Roman
Empire, and of the dignity of the place itself: for the building of
this temple he set apart the money realized by the sale of the spoils.
Soon after a war claimed his attention, which proved more protracted
than he had expected, in which, having in vain attempted to storm
Gabii,[48] a city in the neighbourhood, when, after suffering a
repulse from the walls, he was deprived also of all hope of taking it
by siege, he assailed it by fraud and stratagem, a method by no means
natural to the Romans. For when, as if the war had been abandoned,
he pretended to be busily engaged in laying the foundations of the
temple, and with other works in the city, Sextus, the youngest of his
three sons, according to a preconcerted arrangement, fled to Gabii,
complaining of the unbearable cruelty of his father toward himself:
that his tyranny had now shifted from others against his own family,
and that he was also uneasy at the number of his own children, and
intended to bring about the same desolation in his own house as he had
done in the senate, in order that he might leave behind him no issue,
no heir to his kingdom. That for his own part, as he had escaped from
the midst of the swords and weapons of his father, he was persuaded
he could find no safety anywhere save among the enemies of Lucius
Tarquinius: for--let them make no mistake--the war, which it was now
pretended had been abandoned, still threatened them, and he would
attack them when off their guard on a favourable opportunity. But if
there were no refuge for suppliants among them, he would traverse all
Latium, and would apply next to the Volscians, Aequans, and Hernicans,
until he should come to people who knew how to protect children from
the impious and cruel persecutions of parents. That perhaps he would
even find some eagerness to take up arms and wage war against this
most tyrannical king and his equally savage subjects. As he seemed
likely to go further, enraged as he was, if they paid him no regard,
he was kindly received by the Gabians. They bade him not be surprised,
if one at last behaved in the same manner toward his children as he
had done toward his subjects and allies--that he would ultimately vent
his rage on himself, if other objects failed him--that his own coming
was very acceptable to them, and they believed that in a short time it
would come to pass that by his aid the war would be transferred from
the gates of Gabii up to the very walls of Rome.
Upon this, he was admitted into their public councils, in which,
while, with regard to other matters, he declared himself willing
to submit to the judgment of the elders of Gabii, who were better
acquainted with them, yet he every now and again advised them to renew
the war, claiming for himself superior knowledge in this, on the
ground of being well acquainted with the strength of both nations,
and also because he knew that the king's pride, which even his own
children had been unable to endure, had become decidedly hateful to
his subjects. As he thus by degrees stirred up the nobles of the
Gabians to renew the war, and himself accompanied the most active of
their youth on plundering parties and expeditions, and unreasonable
credit was increasingly given to all his words and actions, framed
as they were with the object of deceiving, he was at last chosen
general-in-chief in the war. In the course of this war when--the
people being still ignorant of what was going on--trifling skirmishes
with the Romans took place, in which the Gabians generally had the
advantage, then all the Gabians, from the highest to the lowest, were
eager to believe that Sextus Tarquinius had been sent to them as their
general, by the favour of the gods. By exposing himself equally
with the soldiers to fatigues and dangers, and by his generosity in
bestowing the plunder, he became so loved by the soldiers, that his
father Tarquin had not greater power at Rome than his son at Gabii.
Accordingly, when he saw he had sufficient strength collected to
support him in any undertaking, he sent one of his confidants to his
father at Rome to inquire what he wished him to do, seeing the gods
had granted him to be all-powerful at Gabii. To this courier no
answer by word of mouth was given, because, I suppose, he appeared of
questionable fidelity. The king went into a garden of the palace, as
if in deep thought, followed by his son's messenger; walking there for
some time without uttering a word, he is said to have struck off
the heads of the tallest poppies with his staff.[49] The messenger,
wearied with asking and waiting for an answer, returned to Gabii
apparently without having accomplished his object, and told what
he had himself said and seen, adding that Tarquin, either through
passion, aversion to him, or his innate pride, had not uttered a
single word. As soon as it was clear to Sextus what his father wished,
and what conduct he enjoined by those intimations without words, he
put to death the most eminent men of the city, some by accusing them
before the people, as well as others, who from their own personal
unpopularity were liable to attack. Many were executed publicly, and
some, in whose case impeachment was likely to prove less plausible,
were secretly assassinated. Some who wished to go into voluntary exile
were allowed to do so, others were banished, and their estates, as
well as the estates of those who were put to death, publicly divided
in their absence. Out of these largesses and plunder were distributed;
and by the sweets of private gain the sense of public calamities
became extinguished, till the state of Gabii, destitute of counsel and
assistance, surrendered itself without a struggle into the power of
the Roman king.