the palace. Having thus procured an introduction there, he soon improved it to such a degree, by his politeness and dexterity in paying his court, that he was admitted to the privileges of familiar friendship, and was consulted in all affairs, both public and private, foreign and domestic; and having acquitted himself to satisfaction in all, was at length, by the king's will, appointed guardian to his children. Ancus reigned twenty-four years, equal in renown, and in the arts both of peace and war, to any of the former kings.

35. The sons of Ancus had now nearly reached the age of manhood; for which reason Tarquinius the more earnestly pressed that an assembly might be convened as speedily as possible for the election of a king. The proclamation for this purpose being issued, when the time approached, he sent the youths to a distance on a hunting party He is said to have afforded the first instance of making way to the crown, by paying court to the people; and to have made a speech, composed for the purpose of gaining the affections of the populace; telling them, that "it was no new favour which he solicited: if that were the case, people might indeed be displeased and surprised that he was not the first foreigner, but the third, who aimed at the government of Rome : that Tatius, from being not only a foreigner, but even an enemy, was made king; and Numa, entirely unacquainted with the city, and not proposing himself as a candidate, had been, from their own choice, invited to accept the crown that he, as soon as he became his own master, had removed to Rome, with his wife and all his substance: that he had spent the most active part of his life at Rome: that both in civil and military employments he had learned the Roman laws and Roman customs, under such a master as ought to be wished for, King Ancus himself: that in duty and obedience to the king, he had vied with all men; in kindness toward others, with the king himself." As these assertions were no more than the truth, the people unanimously consented that he should be elected king. [A. U. C. 138, B. C. 614.] And this was the reason that this man, of extraordinary merit in other respects, retained, through the whole course of his reign, the same affectation of popularity which he had used in suing for the crown. For the purpose of strengthening his own authority, as well as of increasing the power of the commonwealth, he added a hundred to the number of the senate, who afterward were entitled "minorum gentium," i. e., of the younger families; and necessarily constituted a party in favour of the king, by whose kindness they had been brought into the senate. His first war was with the Latines, from whom he took the city Appiola by storm; and having brought from thence a greater quantity of booty than

had been expected, from a war of so little consequence, he exhibited games in a more expensive and splendid manner than any of the former kings. On that occasion the ground was first marked out for the circus, which is now called "maximus." (the principal,) in which certain divisons were set apart for the senators and knights, where each were to build seats for themselves, which were called fori (benches). They remained, during the exhibition, on these seats, supported by pieces of timber, twelve feet high from the ground; the games consisted of horseraces and the performances of wrestlers, collected mostly from Etruria; and from that time continued to be celebrated annually, being termed the Roman, and, sometimes, the great games. By the same king, lots for building were assigned to private persons, round the forum, where porticoes and shops were erected.

36. He intended also to have surrounded the city with a stone wall, but a war with the Sabines interrupted his designs :and so suddenly did this break out, that the enemy passed the Anio before the Roman troops could march out to meet them and stop their progress. This produced a great alarm at Rome; and, in the first engagement, the victory remained undecided, after great slaughter on both sides. The enemy afterward having retired to their camp, and allowed the Romans time to prepare for the war anew, Tarquinius, observing that the principal defect of his army was the want of cavalry, resolved to add other centuries to the Ramnenses, Titienses, and Luceres, instituted by Romulus, and to leave them distinguished by his own name. As Romulus, when he first formed this institution, had made use of augury, Accius Nævius, a celebrated augur at tha. time, insisted that no alteration or addition could be made to it, without the sanction of the birds. The king was highly displeased at this; and, in ridicule of the art, said, as we are told, "Come, you diviner, discover, by your augury, whether what I am now thinking of can be accomplished." The other, having tried the matter according to the rules of augury, and declared that it could be accomplished, "Well," said he, "what I was thinking of was, whether you could cut a whetstone in two with a razor. Take these, then, and perform what your birds portend to be practicable." On which, as the story goes, he, without any difficulty, cut the whetstone. There was a statue of Accius, with a fillet on his head, in the place where the transaction happened, in the comitium* or place of assembly, just on the steps, at the left hand side of the senate-house. It is also said, that the whetstone was fixed in the same place, there to re

• The comitium was a part of the Roman forum, where, in early times, assemblies of the people were held; and the assemblies of the curia always.

main, as a monument of this miracle, to posterity. This is certain, that the respect paid to auguries, and the office of augurs, rose so high, that, from that time forth, no business, either of war or peace, was undertaken without consulting the birds: meetings of the people, imbodying of armies, the most important concerns of the state, were postponed when the birds did not allow them. Nor did Tarquinius then make any change in the number of the centuries of the knights, but doubled the number in each; so that there were one thousand eight hundred men in the three centuries. The additional men were only distinguished by the appellation of the younger prefixed to the original names of their centuries; and these, at present, for they have been since doubled, are called the six centuries.

37. Having augmented this part of his army, he came to a second engagement with the Sabines. And here, besides that the Roman army had an addition of strength, a stratagem also was made use of, which the enemy, with all their vigilance, could not elude. A number of men were sent to throw a great quantity of timber, which lay on the bank of the Anio, into the river, after setting it on fire; and the wind being favourable, the blazing timber, most of which was placed on rafts, being driven against the piers, where it stuck fast, burned down the bridge. This event not only struck terror into the Sabines during the fight, but prevented their retreating when they betook themselves to flight, so that great numbers who had escaped the enemy, perished in the river; and their arms being known at the city, as they floated in the Tiber, gave certain assurance of the victory, sooner almost than any messenger could arrive. In that battle the cavalry gained extraordinary honour. We are told, that being posted on both wings, when the line of their infantry which formed the centre was obliged to give ground, they made so furious a charge on the flanks of the enemy, that they not only checked the Sabine legions, who were vigorously pressing the troops which gave way, but quickly put them to the route. The Sabines fled precipitately toward the mountains, which but few of them reached. The greatest part, as has been mentioned, were driven by the cavalry into the river. Tarquinius, judging it proper to pursue the enemy closely, before they should recover from their dismay, as soon as he had sent off the booty and prisoners to Rome, and burned the spoils, collected together in a great heap, according to a vow which he had made to Vulcan, proceeded to lead his army forward into the Sabine territories. On the other hand, the Sabines, though they had met with a defeat, and had no reason to hope that they should be able to retrieve it, yet, their circumstances not allow ing time for deliberation, advanced to meet him, with such

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troops as they had hastily levied; and being routed a second time, and reduced almost to ruin, they sued for peace.

38. Collatia, and all the land around that city, was taken from the Sabines, and Egerius, son to the king's brother, was left there with a garrison. This was the manner, as I understand, in which the people of Collatia came under the dominion of the Romans, and this was the form of the surrender. The king asked, "Are ye ambassadors and deputies on behalf of the people of Collatia, to surrender yourselves, and the people of Collatia?""We are,"—" Are the people of Collatia in their own disposal?"—" They are."-" Do ye surrender yourselves and the people of Collatia, together with your city, lands, waters, boundaries, temples, utensils, all property both sacred and common, under my dominion, and that of the Roman people ?"— "We do surrender them."-" Well, I receive them." The Sabine war being thus concluded, Tarquinius returned in triumph to Rome. Soon after this, he made war on the ancient Latines, during which there happened no general engagement. By leading about his army to the several towns, he reduced the whole Latine race to subjection. Corniculum, old Ficulnea, Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia, Nomentum, all these, which either belonged to the ancient Latines, or had revolted to them, were taken, and soon after peace was re-established. He then applied himself to works of peace, with a degree of spirit, which even exceeded the efforts that he had made in war: so that the people enjoyed little more rest at home than they had during the campaigns: for he set about surrounding with a wall of stone those parts of the city which he had not already fortified; which work had been interrupted, at the beginning, by the war of the Sabines. The lower parts of the city about the forum, and the other hollows that lay between the hills, from whence it was difficult to discharge the water, by reason of their situation, he drained, by means of sewers drawn on a slope down to the Tiber. He also marked out, and laid the foundations for enclosing a court round the temple of Jupiter, in the capitol, which he had vowed during the Sabine war, his mind already presaging the future magnificence of the place.

39. About that time a prodigy was seen in the palace, wonderful, both in the appearance and in the event. They relate that, whilst a boy, whose name was Servius Tullius, lay asleep, his head blazed with fire, in the sight of many people; that, by the loud cries of astonishment, occasioned by such a miraculous appearance, the king and queen were alarmed; and that when some of the servants brought water to extinguish it, the queen prevented them; and having quieted the uproar, forbade the boy to be disturbed until he awoke of his own accord. In a

short time, on his awakening the flame disappeared. Then 'Tanaquil, calling her husband aside to a private place, said to him, "Do you see this boy, whom we educate in such an humble style? Be assured that he will hereafter prove a light to dispel a gloom which will lie heavy on our affairs, and will be the support of our palace in distress. Let us, therefore, with every degree of attention that we can bestow, nourish this plant, which is, hereafter, to become the greatest ornament to our family, and our state." From that time they treated the boy as if he were their own child and had him instructed in all those liberal arts by which the mind is qualified to support high rank with dignity. That is easily brought to pass which is pleasing to the gods. The youth proved to be of a disposition truly royal, so that when Tarquinius came to look for a son-in-law, there was not one among the Roman youth who could be set in competition with him, in any kind of merit; and to him Tarquinius betrothed his daughter. This extraordinary honour conferred on him, whatever might be the reason for it, will not let us believe that he was born of a slave, and had himself been a slave in his childhood: I am rather inclined to be of their opinion, who say that, when Corniculum was taken, the wife of Servius Tullius, the principal man in that city, being pregnant when her husband was slain, and being known among the rest of the prisoners, and, on account of her high rank, exempted from servitude by the Roman queen, was delivered of a son at Rome, in the house of Tarquinius Priscus : that, in consequence of such kind treatment, an intimacy grew between the ladies, and that the boy also, being brought up in the house from his infancy, was highly beloved and respected; and that the circumstance of his mother having fallen into the enemy's hands, on the taking of her native city, gave rise to the opinion of his being born of a slave.

40. About the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Tarquinius, Servius Tullus stood in the highest degree of estimation, not only with the king, but with the senate and commons. At this time, the two sons of Ancus, although they had before this al ways considered it as the highest indignity that they should be expelled from the throne of their father, by the perfidy of their guardian, and that the sovereignty of Rome should be enjoyed by a stranger, whose family, so far from being natives of the city, were not even natives of Italy, yet now felt their indignation rise to a higher pitch of violence, at the probability that the crown was not to revert to them even after Tarquinius. but was to continue to sink one step after another, until it fell on the head of a slave: so that, within the space of little more than a hundred years from the time when Romulus, descended from