the plebeians of Rome, in the early days of the Republic, indignant
at the oppression and cruelty of the patricians, left the city en
masse and gathered with hostile manifestations at a hill, Mons
Sacer, some distance from Rome. It was here Menenius Agrippa
conciliated them by reciting the famous fable of "The Belly and the
Members." After this the people were induced to come to terms with
the patricians and to return to the city.
The people had, however, gained a great advantage by their bold
defiance of the consular and patrician class, who had practically
been supreme in the state, had been oppressive money-lenders, and
had controlled the decisions of the law courts. It was not in vain
that the people now demanded that as the two consuls were
practically elected to further the interests of the upper class, so
they, the plebeians, should have the election of two tribunes to
protect them from wrong and oppression. These new officers were
duly appointed, and eventually their number was increased to ten.
Their power was almost absolute, but it never seems to have been
abused, and this fact is a proof of the native moderation of the
ancient Romans. There have been many constitutional struggles in
the history of modern times, but nothing like the plebeian
tribunate has ever appeared, and it is a question if the
institution could have existed for a month, in any country of
modern times, with the salutary influences which it exercised in
early Rome.
Tarquin had made himself king by the aid of the patricians, and chiefly
by means of the third or Lucerian tribe, to which his family belonged.
The burgesses of the Gentes were indignant at the curtailment of their
privileges by the popular reforms of Servius, and were glad to lend
themselves to any overthrow of his power. But Tarquin soon kicked away
the ladder by which he had risen. He abrogated, it is true, the hated
Assembly of the Centuries; but neither did he pay any heed to the
Curiate Assembly, nor did he allow any new members to be chosen into the
senate in place of those who were removed by death or other causes; so
that even those who had helped him to the throne repented them of their
deed. The name of Superbus, or the Proud, testifies to the general
feeling against the despotic rule of the second Tarquin.
It was by foreign alliances that he calculated on supporting his
despotism at home. The Etruscans of Tarquinii, and all its associate
cities, were his friends; and among the Latins also he sought to raise a
power which might counterbalance the senate and people of Rome.
The wisdom of Tarquinius Priscus and Servius had united all the Latin
name to Rome, so that Rome had become the sovereign city of Latium. The
last Tarquin drew those ties still closer. He gave his daughter in
marriage to Octavius Mamilius, chief of Tusculum, and favored the Latins
in all things. But at a general assembly of the Latins at the Ferentine
Grove, beneath the Alban Mount, where they had been accustomed to meet
of olden time to settle their national affairs, Turnus Herdonius of
Aricia rose and spoke against him. Then Tarquinius accused him of high
treason, and brought false witnesses against him; and so powerful with
the Latins was the king that they condemned their countryman to be
drowned in the Ferentine water, and obeyed Tarquinius in all things.
With them he made war upon the Volscians and took the city of Suessa,
wherein was a great booty. This booty he applied to the execution of
great works in the city, in emulation of his father and King Servius.
The elder Tarquin had built up the side of the Tarpeian rock and
levelled the summit, to be the foundation of a temple of Jupiter, but he
had not completed the work. Tarquinius Superbus now removed all the
temples and shrines of the old Sabine gods which had been there since
the time of Titus Tatius; but the goddess of Youth and the god Terminus
kept their place, whereby was signified that the Roman people should
enjoy undecaying vigor, and that the boundaries of their empire should
never be drawn in. And on the Tarpeian height he built a magnificent
temple, to be dedicated jointly to the great gods of the Latins and
Etruscans, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; and this part of the Saturnian
Hill was ever after called the Capitol or the Chief Place, while the
upper part was called the Arx or Citadel.
He brought architects from Etruria to plan the temple, but he forced the
Roman people to work for him without hire.
One day a strange woman appeared before the king and offered him nine
books to buy; and when he refused them she went away and burned, three
of the nine books and brought back the remaining six and offered to sell
them at the same price that she had asked for the nine; and when he
laughed at her and again refused, she went as before and burned three
more books, and came back and asked still the same price for the three
that were left. Then the king was struck by her pertinacity, and he
consulted his augurs what this might be; and they bade him by all means
buy the three, and said he had done wrong not to buy the nine, for these
were the books of the Sibyl and contained great secrets. So the books
were kept underground in the Capitol in a stone chest, and two men
(_duumviri_) were appointed to take charge of them, and consult them
when the state was in danger.
The only Latin town that defied Tarquin's power was Gabii; and Sextus,
the king's youngest son, promised to win this place also for his father.
So he fled from Rome and presented himself at Gabii; and there he made
complaints of his father's tyranny and prayed for protection. The
Gabians believed him, and took him into their city, and they trusted
him, so that in time he was made commander of their army. Now his
father suffered him to conquer in many small battles, and the Gabians
trusted him more and more. Then he sent privately to his father, and
asked what he should do to make the Gabians submit. Then King Tarquin
gave no answer to the messenger, but, as he walked up and down his
garden, he kept cutting off the heads of the tallest poppies with his
staff. At last the messenger was tired, and went back to Sextus and told
him what had passed. But Sextus understood what his father meant, and he
began to accuse falsely all the chief men, and some of them he put to
death and some he banished. So at last the city of Gabii was left
defenceless, and Sextus delivered it up to his father.
While Tarquin was building his temple on the Capitol, a strange portent
offered itself; for a snake came forth and devoured the sacrifices on
the altar. The king, not content with the interpretation of his Etruscan
soothsayers, sent persons to consult the famous oracle of the Greeks at
Delphi, and the persons he sent were his own sons Titus and Aruns, and
his sister's son, L. Junius, a young man who, to avoid his uncle's
jealousy, feigned to be without common sense, wherefore he was called
Brutus or the Dullard. The answer given by the oracle was that the chief
power of Rome should belong to him of the three who should first kiss
his mother; and the two sons of King Tarquin agreed to draw lots which
of them should do this as soon as they returned home. But Brutus
perceived that the oracle had another sense; so as soon as they landed
in Italy he fell down on the ground as if he had stumbled, and kissed
the earth, for she (he thought) was the true mother of all mortal
things.
When the sons of Tarquin returned with their cousin, L. Junius Brutus,
they found the king at war with the Rutulians of Ardea. Being unable to
take the place by storm, he was forced to blockade it; and while the
Roman army was encamped before the town the young men used to amuse
themselves at night with wine and wassail. One night there was a feast,
at which Sextus, the king's third son, was present, as also Collatinus,
the son of Egerius, the king's uncle, who had been made governor of
Collatia. So they soon began to dispute about the worthiness of their
wives; and when each maintained that his own wife was worthiest, "Come,
gentlemen," said Collatinus, "let us take horse and see what our wives
are doing; they expect us not, and so we shall know the truth." All
agreed, and they galloped to Rome, and there they found the wives of all
the others feasting and revelling: but when they came to Collatia they
found Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, not making merry like the rest,
but sitting in the midst of her handmaids carding wool and spinning; so
they all allowed that Lucretia was the worthiest.
Now Lucretia was the daughter of a noble Roman, Spurius Lucretius, who
was at this time prefect of the city; for it was the custom, when the
kings went out to war, that they left a chief man at home to administer
all things in the king's name, and he was called prefect of the city.
But it chanced that Sextus, the king's son, when he saw the fair
Lucretia, was smitten with lustful passion; and a few days after he came
again to Collatia, and Lucretia entertained him hospitably as her
husband's cousin and friend. But at midnight he arose and came with
stealthy steps to her bedside: and holding a sword in his right hand,
and laying his left hand upon her breast, he bade her yield to his
wicked desires; for if not, he would slay her and lay one of her slaves
beside her, and would declare that he had taken them in adultery. So for
shame she consented to that which no fear would have wrung from her: and
Sextus, having wrought this deed of shame, returned to the camp.
Then Lucretia sent to Rome for her father, and to the camp at Ardea for
her husband. They came in haste. Lucretius brought with him P. Valerius,
and Collatinus brought L. Junius Brutus, his cousin, And they came in
and asked if all was well Then she told them what was done: "but," she
said, "my body only has suffered the shame, for my will consented not to
the deed. Therefore," she cried, "avenge me on the wretch Sextus. As for
me, though my heart has not sinned, I can live no longer. No one shall
say that Lucretia set an example of living in unchastity." So she drew
forth a knife and stabbed herself to the heart.
When they saw that, her father and her husband cried aloud; but Brutus
drew the knife from the wound, and holding it up, spoke thus: "By this
pure blood I swear before the gods that I will pursue L. Tarquinius the
Proud and all his bloody house with fire, sword, or in whatsoever way I
may, and that neither they nor any other shall hereafter be king in
Rome." Then he gave the knife to Collatinus and Lucretius and Valerius,
and they all swore likewise, much marvelling to hear such words from L.
Junius the Dullard. And they took up the body of Lucretia, and carried
it into the Forum, and called on the men of Collatia to rise against the
tyrant. So they set a guard at the gates of the town, to prevent any
news of the matter being carried to King Tarquin: and they themselves,
followed by the youth of Collatia, went to Rome. Here Brutus, who was
chief captain of the knights, called the people together, and he told
them what had been done, and called on them by the deed of shame wrought
against Lucretius and Collatinus--by all that they had suffered from the
tyrants--by the abominable murder of good King Servius--to assist them
in taking vengeance on the Tarquins. So it was hastily agreed to banish
Tarquinius and his family. The youth declared themselves ready to follow
Brutus against the king's army, and the seniors put themselves under the
rule of Lucretius, the prefect of the city. In this tumult, the wicked
Tullia fled from her house, pursued by the curses of all men, who prayed
that the avengers of her father's blood might be upon her.
When the king heard what had passed, he set off in all haste for the
city. Brutus also set off for the camp at Ardea; and he turned aside
that he might not meet his uncle the king. So he came to the camp at
Ardea, and the king came to Rome. And all the Romans at Ardea welcomed
Brutus, and joined their arms to his, and thrust out all the king's sons
from the camp. But the people of Rome shut the gates against the king,
so that he could not enter. And King Tarquin, with his sons Titus and
Aruns, went into exile and lived at Cære in Etruria. But Sextus fled to
Gabii, where he had before held rule, and the people of Gabii slew him
in memory of his former cruelty.
So L. Tarquinius Superbus was expelled from Rome, after he had been king
five-and-twenty years. And in memory of this event was instituted a
festival called the "Regifugium" or "Fugalia," which was celebrated
every year on the 24th day of February.
To gratify the plebeians, the patricians consented to restore, in some
measure at least, the popular institutions of King Servius; and it was
resolved to follow his supposed intention with regard to the supreme
government--that is, to have two magistrates elected every year, who
were to have the same power as the king during the time of their rule.
These were in after days known by the name of Consuls; but in ancient
times they were called "Prætors" or Judges. They were elected at the
great Assembly of Centuries; and they had sovereign power conferred upon
them by the assembly of the Curies. They wore a robe edged with violet
color, sat in their chairs of state called curule chairs, and were
attended by twelve lictors each. These lictors carried fasces, or
bundles of rods, out of which arose an axe, in token of the power of
life and death possessed by the consuls as successors of the kings. But
only one of them at a time had a right to this power; and, in token
thereof, his colleague's fasces had no axes in them. Each retained this
mark of sovereign power (_Imperium_) for a month at a time.
The first consuls were L. Junius Brutus and L. Tarquinius Collatinus.
The new consuls filled up the senate to the proper number of three
hundred; and the new senators were called "Conscripti," while the old
members retained their old name of "Patres." So after this the whole
senate was addressed by speakers as "Patres, Conscripti." But in later
times it was forgotten that these names belonged to different sorts of
persons, and the whole senate was addressed as by one name, "Patres
Conscripti."
The name of king was hateful. But certain sacrifices had always been
performed by the king in person; and therefore, to keep up form, a
person was still chosen, with the title of "Rex Sacrorum" or "Rex
Sacrificulus," to perform these offerings. But even he was placed under
the authority of the chief pontifex.
After his expulsion, King Tarquin sent messengers to Rome to ask that
his property should be given up to him, and the senate decreed that his
prayer should be granted. But the king's ambassadors, while they were in
Rome, stirred up the minds of the young men and others who had been
favored by Tarquin, so that a plot was made to bring him back. Among
those who plotted were Titus and Tiberius, the sons of the Consul
Brutus; and they gave letters to the messengers of the king. But it
chanced that a certain slave hid himself in the place where they met,
and overheard them plotting; and he came and told the thing to the
consuls, who seized the messengers of the king with the letters upon
their persons, authenticated by the seals of the young men. The culprits
were immediately arrested; but the ambassadors were let go, because
their persons were regarded as sacred. And the goods of King Tarquin
were given up for plunder to the people.
Then the traitors were brought up before the consuls, and the sight was
such as to move all beholders to pity; for among them were the sons of
L. Junius Brutus himself, the first consul, the liberator of the Roman
people. And now all men saw how Brutus loved his country; for he bade
the lictors put all the traitors to death, and his own sons first; and
men could mark in his face the struggle between his duty as a chief
magistrate of Rome and his feelings as a father. And while they praised
and admired him, they pitied him yet more.
Then a decree of the senate was made that no one of the blood of the
Tarquins should remain in Rome. And since Collatinus, the consul, was by
descent a Tarquin, even he was obliged to give up his office and return
to Collatia. In his room, P. Valerius was chosen consul by the people.
This was the first attempt to restore Tarquin the Proud.
When Tarquin saw that the plot at home had failed, he prevailed on the
people of Tarquinii and Veii to make war with him against the Romans.
But the consuls came out against them; Valerius commanding the main
army, and Brutus the cavalry. And it chanced that Aruns, the king's son,
led the cavalry of the enemy. When he saw Brutus he spurred his horse
against him, and Brutus declined not the combat. So they rode straight
at each other with levelled spears; and so fierce was the shock, that
they pierced each other through from breast to back, and both fell dead.
Then, also, the armies fought, but the battle was neither won nor lost.
But in the night a voice was heard by the Etruscans, saying that the
Romans were the conquerors. So the enemy fled by night; and when the
Romans arose in the morning, there was no man to oppose them. Then they
took up the body of Brutus, and departed home, and buried him in public
with great pomp, and the matrons of Rome mourned him for a whole year,
because he had avenged the injury of Lucretia.
And thus the second attempt to restore King Tarquin was frustrated.
After the death of Brutus, Publius Valerius ruled the people for a while
by himself, and he began to build himself a house upon the ridge called
Velia, which looks down upon the Forum. So the people thought that he
was going to make himself king; but when he heard this, he called an
assembly of the people, and appeared before them with his fasces
lowered, and with no axes in them, whence the custom remained ever
after, that no consular lictors wore axes within the city, and no consul
had power of life and death except when he was in command of his legions
abroad. And he pulled down the beginning of his house upon the Velia,
and built it below that hill. Also he passed laws that every Roman
citizen might appeal to the people against the judgment of the chief
magistrates. Wherefore he was greatly honored among the people, and was
called "Poplicola," or "Friend of the People."
After this Valerius called together the great Assembly of the Centuries,
and they chose Sp. Lucretius, father of Lucretius, to succeed Brutus.
But he was an old man, and in not many days he died. So M. Horatius was
chosen in his stead.
The temple on the Capitol which King Tarquin began had never yet been
consecrated. Then Valerius and Horatius drew lots which should be the
consecrator, and the lot fell on Horatius. But the friends of Valerius
murmured, and they wished to prevent Horatius from having the honor; so
when he was now saying the prayer of consecration, with his hand upon
the doorpost of the temple, there came a messenger, who told him that
his son was just dead, and that one mourning for a son could not rightly
consecrate the temple. But Horatius kept his hand upon the doorpost,
and told them to see to the burial of his son, and finished the rites of
consecration. Thus did he honor the gods even above his own son.
In the next year Valerius was again made consul, with T. Lucretius; and
Tarquinius, despairing now of aid from his friends at Veii and
Tarquinii, went to Lars Porsenna of Clusium, a city on the river Clanis,
which falls into the Tiber. Porsenna was at this time acknowledged as
chief of the twelve Etruscan cities; and he assembled a powerful army
and came to Rome. He came so quickly that he reached the Tiber and was
near the Sublician Bridge before there was time to destroy it; and if he
had crossed it the city would have been lost. Then a noble Roman, called
Horatius Codes, of the Lucerian tribe, with two friends--Sp. Lartius, a
Ramnian, and T. Herminius, a Titian--posted themselves at the far end of
the bridge, and defended the passage against all the Etruscan host,
while the Romans were cutting it off behind them. When it was all but
destroyed, his two friends retreated across the bridge, and Horatius was
left alone to bear the whole attack of the enemy. Well he kept his
ground, standing unmoved amid the darts which were showered upon his
shield, till the last beams of the bridge fell crashing into the river.
Then he prayed, saying, "Father Tiber, receive me and bear me up, I pray
thee." So he plunged in, and reached the other side safely; and the
Romans honored him greatly: they put up his statue in the Comitium, and
gave him as much land as he could plough round in a day, and every man
at Rome subscribed the cost of one day's food to reward him.
Then Porsenna, disappointed in his attempt to surprise the city,
occupied the Hill Janiculum, and besieged the city, so that the people
were greatly distressed by hunger. But C. Mucius, a noble youth,
resolved to deliver his country by the death of the king. So he armed
himself with a dagger, and went to the place where the king was used to
sit in judgment. It chanced that the soldiers were receiving their pay
from the king's secretary, who sat at his right hand splendidly
apparelled; and as this man seemed to be chief in authority, Mucius
thought that this must be the king; so he stabbed him to the heart. Then
the guards seized him and dragged him before the king, who was greatly
enraged, and ordered them to burn him alive if he would not confess the
whole affair. Then Mucius stood before the king and said: "See how
little thy tortures can avail to make a brave man tell the secrets
committed to him"; and so saying, he thrust his right hand into the fire
of the altar, and held it in the flame with unmoved countenance. Then
the king marvelled at his courage, and ordered him to be spared, and
sent away in safety: "for," said he, "thou art a brave man, and hast
done more harm to thyself than to me." Then Mucius replied: "Thy
generosity, O king, prevails more with me than thy threats. Know that
three hundred Roman youths have sworn thy death: my lot came first. But
all the rest remain, prepared to do and suffer like myself." So he was
let go, and returned home, and was called "Scævola," or "The
Left-handed," because his right hand had been burnt off.
King Porsenna was greatly moved by the danger he had escaped, and
perceiving the obstinate determination of the Romans, he offered to make
peace. The Romans gladly gave ear to his words, for they were hard
pressed, and they consented to give back all the land which they had won
from the Etruscans beyond the Tiber. And they gave hostages to the king
in pledge that they would obey him as they had promised, ten youths and
ten maidens. But one of the maidens, named Cloelia, had a man's heart,
and she persuaded all her fellows to escape from the king's camp and
swim across the Tiber. At first King Porsenna was wroth; but then he was
much amazed, even more than at the deeds of Horatius and Mucius. So when
the Romans sent back Cloelia and her fellow-maidens--for they would not
break faith with the king--he bade her return home again, and told her
she might take whom she pleased of the youths who were hostages; and she
chose those who were yet boys, and restored them to their parents.
So the Roman people gave certain lands to young Mucius, and they set up
an equestrian statue to the bold Cloelia at the top of the Sacred Way.
And King Porsenna returned home; and thus the third and most formidable
attempt to bring back Tarquin failed.
When Tarquin now found that he had no hopes of further assistance from
Porsenna and his Etruscan friends, he went and dwelt at Tusculum, where
Mamilius Octavius, his son-in-law, was still chief. Then the thirty
Latin cities combined together and made this Octavius their dictator,
and bound themselves to restore their old friend and ally, King Tarquin,
to the sovereignty of Rome.
P. Valerius, who was called "Poplicola," was now dead, and the Romans
looked about for some chief worthy to lead them against the army of the
Latins. Poplicola had been made consul four times, and his compeers
acknowledged him as their chief, and all men submitted to him as to a
king. But now the two consuls were jealous of each other; nor had they
power of life and death within the city, for Valerius (as we saw) had
taken away the axes from the fasces. Now this was one of the reasons why
Brutus and the rest made two consuls instead of one king: for they said
that neither one would allow the other to become tyrant; and since they
only held office for one year at a time, they might be called on to give
account of their government when their year was at an end.