386 



ROMAN EMPIRE. 



Roman 

 Empire. 



Death of 

 Tullus. 

 B. C. C70. 



Ancus 

 Martius. 

 ]i. C. 638. 



Tarquin 

 assumes 

 the sove- 

 reignty. 

 B. C. 609. 



Death of 

 Tarquin. 



Servius 

 Tullius 

 succeeds to 

 the throne. 

 B- C. 576. 



Tarquin 

 obtains the 

 throne. 

 B. C. 529. 



he was ordered te be torn in pieces by horses, his ac- 

 complices were put to the sword, and the inhabitants 

 of Alba transported to Rome. After reducing the Fi- 

 denates, Tullus sunk into indolence and superstition. 

 Having reigned 33 years, he and his whole family 

 were either killed by lightning, or by the hands of 

 Ancus Martius, the grandson of Numa, who succeeded 

 him on the throne. 



The peaceful pursuits with which Ancus Martius 

 began his reign induced the Latins to invade Rome. 

 This attempt, however, was crushed by the activity of 

 the king ; and defeating the Latins in a pitched bat- 

 tle, he vanquished the Fidenates, Veientes, and Sa- 

 bines. After building the port of Ostia, and adding 

 Mount Janiculum to the city, he died in the 24th year 

 of his reign. 



The two children of Ancus Martius having been put 

 under the care of one Tarquin, an opulent merchant 

 from Corinth, who had risen to the rank of patrician and 

 senator, he ventured to assume the sovereignty. After 

 conquering the Latins and the Hetrurians, he devoted 

 himself to the arts of peace. He built the walls of 

 Rome with hewn stone ; he constructed the cloacae, those 

 immense common sewers which have been the won- 

 der of succeeding ages ; and he erected the circus and 

 the capitol. The sons of Ancus Martius assassinated 

 him in his palace, in the 80th year of his age ; but his 

 wife Tanaquil, having spread the report that the king 

 was only stunned, the sons of Ancus fled, and Ser- 

 vius Tullius, the son-in-law of Tanaquil, pretended 

 to supply the place of the sovereign. When the 

 royal deputy had acquired the respect of the people, 

 the death of Tarquin was promulgated, and Tullius 

 was chosen his successor. After vanquishing the He- 

 trurians, the new sovereign began to enlarge and beau- 

 tify the city. He added to it theEsquiline and Viminal 

 Hills, and built a palace on the former. He divided 

 the Roman state into distinct tribes, with a pagus or 

 village in each. He relieved the poor from public 

 burthens, and increased the power of the rich. He 

 divided the population into six classes. He gave free- 

 dom to the slaves; and finally abridged the regal power. 



The age and services of Tullius did not protect him 

 from the ambitious views of his son-in-law Tarquin, 

 to whom he had given his daughter Tullia in marriage. 

 The younger Tullia, who had married Arunx the brother 

 of Tarquin, formed the scheme of murdering her hus- 

 band and her sister, and of thus acquiring the hand of 

 Tarquin. After paving the way to this incestuous 

 marriage by the help of poison, their union was ef- 

 fected with the consent of the king ; but their ambition 

 did not stop here. Tarquin laid claim to the crown 

 itself, and after several unsuccessful attempts to attain 

 it through the medium of the people, he tried to take it 

 by storm, and appropriate the name and the functions 

 of royalty. He entered the temple and the senate, and 

 seated himself upon the throne. Servius having ar- 

 rived at this conjuncture, ascended the steps, but was 

 immediately precipitated by his son-in-law into the 

 forum. Assassins were sent to complete the murder, 

 and the unnatural Tullia, in her eagerness to salute her 

 husband as king, is said to have driven the wheels of 

 her chariot over the mangled body of her father. 



The means by which Tarquin obtained the throne 

 held out no favourable prospects of his future conduct. 

 He abolished the salutary regulations of Servius. He 

 banished the nobles who were most distinguished bj- 

 their virtues, and he seized the estates of those who 

 were more wealthy. The tyranny which he exercised 

 6 



at home, was equalled only by the treachery and bad 

 faith with which he treated his enemies. He subdued 

 the Volsci and the Gabii by the most dishonourable 

 expedients; and he appointed his son Sextus king of 

 the Gabii. The power thus acquired by oppression 

 and dishonour could not last long. Among the in- 

 jured parties was one Marcus Junius, who had married 

 the daughter of Tarquinius Priscus. His son Lucius 

 Junius Brutus had assumed idiotcy, to evade the cru- 

 elty of the tyrant. Titus and Arunx the sons of Tar- 

 quin, were sent to consult the oracle at Delphos re- 

 specting the plagues which had broken out at Rome; 

 and they took along with them the supposed idiot for 

 the purposes of amusement. 



Sextus Tarquinius, having conceived a passion for 

 Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, the nephe\v of Tar- 

 quin, paid a visit to her house in her husband's ab- 

 sence. In the dead of night he entered her apartment, 

 and demanded her person at the risk of her life . The 

 virtuous Lucretia resisted his entreaties, but when the 

 monster threatened to kill one of her male slaves and 

 lay him naked by her body, he extorted from her 

 dread of shame what she would have prevented at the 

 risk of her own life. Next morning she sent for her 

 husband and her father, and after entreating them to 

 revenge her wrongs, she stabbed herself with a dagger 

 which she had concealed beneath her robes. Brutus, 

 who was present at this tragical event, drew the dag- 

 ger from its wound, and swore by the blood which 

 stained it, that he would be revenged on the tyrant 

 and his hated offspring. The assembly took the same 

 vow. They shut the gates of the city of which Lu- 

 cretius was governor. They exposed the body of Lu- 

 cretia to public view; and Brutus explaining the reason 

 why he had counterfeited mental imbecility, exhorted 

 the people to aid him in expelling the tyrant. The 

 senate decreed his expulsion. Tarquin was deposed, 

 and the government of Rome was vested in two con- 

 suls. 



The establishment of a republic being approved 

 of by all classes of the people, Brutus and Collati- 

 nus were proposed as the first two consuls. Having 

 in vain attempted to enter the city, and finding that the 

 army had been gained over to the new state of things, 

 Tarquin, at the age of 76, was compelled to take 

 refuge along with his wife and three sons, with his son 

 Sextus, king of the Gabii. In the mean time, the con- 

 suls endeavoured to secure the liberties of the republic. 

 They assembled the people by centuries; they con- 

 firmed the expulsion of Tarquin they elected a rex sa- 

 crorum to superintend their religious affairs, and they re- 

 vised many of the salutary laivs of Servius Tullius. 

 The restless spirit of Tarquin, however, succeeded in 

 disturbing the tranquillity which these wise measures 

 seemed so well calculated to secure. After many at- 

 tempts to regain his authority, he contrived, by means 

 of his ambassadors, to organise a conspiracy in his fa- 

 vour, in which were implicated three sons of Colla- 

 tinus's sister, two brothers of the wife of Brutus, along 

 with Titus and Tiberius, Brutus'sown sons. The pro- 

 ceedings of the conspirators having been overheard by 

 Vindicius, a slave, they were immediately apprehend- 

 ed. Brutus sat as the judge of his own sons, and with 

 the feelings of a true patriot, he passed the stern de- 

 cree that they should be beheaded in his presence. 

 When the sentence was executed, he quitted the tri- 

 bunal, and left Collatinus to preside at the other 

 trials. Collatinus, however, allowed his feelings to 

 soften the demands of justice; but the people called 



Roman 

 Empire. 



Story of 

 Lucretia. 



Tarquin 

 deposed. 



Consular 

 state of 

 Rome. 

 508 B. C. 



