BOOK I. The Corinthian descent of the Tar quinii. the three kings resolve themselves into one in this respect also, and it is confirmed on all sides that the alleged story of Tarquinius Priscus is nothing but a version of the same old legend which furnished the materials for the stories of Romulus and of Tullus Hostilius. The alleged descent of the Tarquinii from Corinth deserves no more credit than the intercourse of Numa with Pythagoras, and the landing of Eneas in Latium. The chronology of the Tarquinian dynasty (if we can speak of such a thing) is in utter and hopeless confusion. If we take the story as Livy gives it, nobody will think it possible that the father of the second Tarquin, expelled in 495 B.C., can be the son of a Corinthian citizen expelled by Kypselos about 650 B.C., that is 155 years before. Moreover, the genuine Roman tradition represents the Tarquinii always as Etruscans, and never as Greeks. The story of their Corinthian origin is due, no doubt, to Greek imagination, which has adorned the older history of Rome with a variety of unhistorical facts, intended to show the intimate connection between the mighty Roman people and their humble admirers and subjects beyond the Ionian Sea. 1 See Schwegler, Röm. Gesch., i. 675. CHAPTER VII. THE LEGEND OF SERVIUS TULLIUS. CHAP. birth and youth of In the house of King Tarquinius was a virgin,' called Ocrisia, who watched the holy fire sacred to the household god. Once, as she sat by the hearth, the god appeared of the to her in the flame. And she loved him and bore him a son, who grew up in the house of the king, and they Servius. called him Servius, because he was the son of a slave. One day, when the boy had fallen asleep in a chamber in the king's house, a flame played about the head, till he awoke from his sleep. And Tanaquil, the king's wife, saw from this that Servius was destined for great things. On this account, when he was grown up to manhood, Tarquinius gave him his daughter for his wife, and intrusted to him the most important business, so that Servius was in the highest repute among the elders, as well as among the people. When this became known to the sons of King Ancus, who were wroth with Tarquinius because he had deprived them of their paternal heritage, they were afraid that Tarquinius would name Servius as his successor. For this reason they resolved to have their revenge, and they hired two murderers, who came to the king disguised as shepherds, and said they had a dispute, and that the king should judge between them. Now, as they were wrangling with one another, and Tarquinius was attending to what one of them was saying, the other struck him with an axe, and they both took to flight. As now the king lay in his blood, and a noise and How 1 Plutarch (De Fortun. Rom., 10) calls the mother of Servius a virgin. The more current legend makes her a widow. Servius came to be king. BOOK I. Of the reign of the good King Servius. of the tumult arose, Tanaquil ordered the gates of the royal house to be shut, to keep out the people. And she spoke to the people out of an upper window, and said the king was not dead, but wounded, and he had ordered that Servius should reign in his stead until he had recovered. Therefore Servius filled the king's place, sitting as judge on the royal throne, and he conducted all affairs as the king himself was wont to do. When it became known, however, after some days, that Tarquinius had died, Servius did not resign the royal power, but continued to rule for a time, without being appointed by the people and without the consent of the senate. But after he had won over a large number of the people by all kinds of promises and by grants of land, he held an assembly and persuaded the people to choose him for their king. Thus Servius Tullius became King of Rome, and he ruled with clemency and justice. He loved peace, like his predecessors Numa and Ancus, and waged no wars, except with the Etruscans. These he compelled to be subject to him, as they had been to King Tarquinius before him. But with the Latins he made a treaty, that the Romans and the Latins should live always in friendship with one another. And, as a sign of this union, the Romans and the Latins built a temple to Diana on the Aventine, where they celebrated their common festivals, and offered up sacrifices every year for Rome and for the whole of Latium. The city Then Servius built a strong wall from the Quirinal to seven hills. the Esquiline, and made a deep trench, and added the Esquiline to the town, so that all the seven hills were united and formed one city. This city he divided into four parts, which he called tribes, after the old division of the people, and he divided the land round about the city into twenty-six districts, and ordered common sanctuaries and holy days, and headmen for the inhabitants of the districts which he had made. Of the new division of the people. Now, as Servius was the son of a bondmaid, he was a friend of the poor and of the lower classes, and he established equitable laws and ordinances to protect the common people against the more powerful. Therefore the commons honoured him and called him the good King Servius, and they celebrated the day of his birth as an annual festival. But the greatest work that Servius did was to make a new division of the people, according to the order of the fighting men, as they were to be arranged in the field of battle, and as they should vote in the assembly of citizens when the king consulted them concerning peace or war, or laws, or elections, or other important things. For this purpose Servius divided the whole people of the patricians and the plebeians into five classes, according to their property, without regard to their blood or descent, so that from that time forward the three tribes of Romulus-the Ramnes, the Tities, and the Luceres-and their thirty curies, formed no longer the principal assembly of citizens, but lost their power in most matters that affected the government. The first class Servius made to consist of forty centuries of the younger men, who were under forty-six years of age, and of forty centuries of the elder; the latter for the defence of the town, the former for service in the field. The second, third, and fourth classes he divided each into twenty centuries, ten of the older men and ten of the younger. But he made the fifth class stronger, for he gave it thirty centuries, fifteen of the older men and fifteen of the younger. The arming of the centuries was not the same in all five classes. Only the men of the first class wore complete armour, composed of breast-plate, helmet, shield, and greaves, with javelin, lance, and sword; the second class fought without the breast-plate, and with a lighter shield; the third without the greaves, and so on, so that the men of the fifth class were but lightly armed. Now, as the citizens had to procure their own equipments for war, and as the complete armour was very expensive, Servius chose for the first class only the richest citizens, whose property was estimated at more than a hundred thousand asses, that is, pounds of copper. The assessment for each of the following classes was twenty-five thousand asses less, so that in the fifth class were those citizens who CHAP. VII. Of the five classes and the prole tarians. BOOK I. Of the horsemen, trumpeters, armourers, and carpenters. Of the power of were assessed at less than twenty-five thousand asses. But those who had less than eleven thousand asses Servius arranged in no class at all, but made of them a separate century-the century of the Proletarians-and these he exempted from all military service. Thus Servius arranged the infantry in 170 centuries, and for the horse he took the six double centuries of horsemen which Tarquinius had established, and to them he added twelve new centuries, chosen out of the highest and richest families. And the horsemen consisted all of younger men, as they had to fight only in the field. As it was necessary also to have in the army trumpeters, armourers, and carpenters, Servius made four centuries of them, so that altogether 193 centuries were formed.1 That was the military order of the people. And when the people. they assembled for making laws or for elections, they observed the same order, and each century had a vote, and the chief influence was in the hands of the wealthiest, who formed the eighty centuries of the first class, and the eighteen centuries of knights. But the poorer people, although much more numerous, had but few votes, and their influence in the assembly was small, and the greatest number had not the greatest power. Nor was this arrangement unjust, for the rich provided themselves with heavy armour and fought in the foremost rank, and when a war tax was laid on, they contributed in proportion to 1st Class, 80 centuries (40 of seniors, 40 of juniors), Census 100,000 asses. |