BOOK original charter of confederation, engraved on a pillar of sius. I. brass, and preserved in its original state at the time when Dionysius wrote his history, that is, under the reign of Augustus. On a close examination we find that this statement, apparently so well attested, is entirely delusive, and in no way calculated to convert by its authority the tissue of fables with which it is surrounded into real history. Supposed Of all the ancient writers Dionysius alone quotes this testimony alleged document, which, if it had been genuine, and had of Dionyreally existed at the end of the republic, could not have failed, as the oldest written monument of antiquity, to attract general attention. It is clear, however, that Dionysius never saw the actual document himself. It is not even certain, from his expressions, that it was in existence at the time he wrote. If it had existed, the most learned antiquarians would not have been able to read it, as is proved by the fact that a document from the year 348 B.C.,2 more than two hundred years later, was, at the time of Polybius, almost unintelligible on account of its obsolete language. Its value. A treaty of confederation between Rome and the Latin cities would certainly have contained the names of the members of the league, and would have enabled Dionysius to give these names. As he omits to do this, the authenticity of the document to which he refers must be called in question. We must, therefore, consider the statement of Dionysius as one of the downright frauds of which he is frequently guilty, and with which he endeavours to palm off the fables of antiquity as well-authenticated and trustworthy historical records. The story of the violent death of Servius Tullius belongs to the period of the succeeding king, and will there be discussed. 1 Dionysius, iv. 26: στήλην κατασκευάσας χαλκὴν ἔγραψεν ἐν ταύτῃ τά τε δόξαντα τοῖς συνέδροις καὶ τὰς μετασχούσας τῆς συνόδου πόλεις· αὕτη διέμεινεν ἡ στήλη μέχρι τῆς ἐμῆς ἡλικίας ἐν τῷ τῆς ̓Αρτέμιδος ἱερῷ κειμένη γραμμάτων ἔχουσα χαρακτῆρας Ἑλληνικῶν οἷς τὸ παλαιὸν ἡ Ἑλλὰς ἐχρῶτο. 2 On the date of the first treaty with Carthage, see Mommsen, Chronologie, p. 320. CHAPTER VIII. THE LEGEND OF TARQUINIUS SUperbus. SERVIUS TULLIUS had two daughters; one was good and gentle, and the other was haughty, imperious, and heartless. In like manner Aruns and Lucius, the two sons of the elder Tarquinius, were of different character; the one was good-tempered, and the other was vicious and violent. These sons of Tarquin Servius Tullius married to his own daughters, thinking to soften the hearts of the wicked by the gentle sweetness of the good; and so he gave to the wicked Lucius the sweet Tullia to wife, and the proud Tullia he married to the good-natured Aruns. CHAP. of the daughters of King Servius. Tullia became the wife of Lucius But matters turned out differently from what Servius How had expected. The wicked ones longed for each other's company, and they despised their amiable consorts as weak and mean-spirited. Therefore the bad Lucius Tarquimurdered his wife and his brother, and he took to wife nius. the daughter of Servius, who had a like disposition to his own. Now this reckless pair excited one another mutually to new enormities. They desired to possess power, and they practised deceit and cunning, and made for themselves a party among the nobles and those of the people who were the enemies of Servius on account of his innovations. Now when everything was prepared, Lucius Tarquinius entered the market-place clothed in the royal robes, and, surrounded by a band of armed men, summoned the senate to appear before him, and harangued them as king. At the report of this usurpation, Servius was alarmed and hurried to the spot, and there arose a quarrel in the senate How Tarquinius appeared as king in the Forum, and slew Servius. BOOK I. Of the reign of the wicked Tarquin. How Sextus house between him and his son-in-law. Then Tarquinius seized the weak old man, and cast him down the steps of the senate-house, and sent after him men who overtook him on his way to his own house, and slew him in the street, and let him lie in his blood. But the wicked Tullia, the daughter of Servius, full of joy at what had happened, hurried to the market-place in her carriage, and welcomed her husband as king. And as she was driving home through the street where her father was lying dead, she gave orders that the horses should not be turned aside, and she drove on over the corpse of her father, so that the carriage and her dress were spattered with his blood. And from this the street was called for ever after the street of crime.' Thus Tarquinius gained the royal power without the consent of the senate, and without the choice of the people; and as he had acquired it so he exercised it; so that the people called him the Proud, and hated and detested him as long as he lived. For he regarded neither justice nor equity, nor the laws and ordinances of good King Servius, nor did he summon the senate for counsel, but reigned entirely according to his own will, and oppressed all, whether high or low. Moreover, he surrounded himself with a body-guard, after the custom of the Greek tyrants; and those among the citizens who were against him, or whose wealth provoked his avarice, he punished, upon false accusation, either inflicting heavy fines, or driving them into exile, or putting them to death. The poor he compelled to work at his buildings, and made them serve like slaves beyond their strength, so that many killed themselves out of despair. After Tarquinius had established his power in Rome, he Tarquinius turned against the Latins; and those that did not willingly deceived submit he made war upon, and made them subject to himself. But the people of Gabii resisted him manfully, and he could not prevail against them. Then his son Sextus the men of Gabii. 1 Vicus sceleratus. devised a stratagem. He went to Gabii, as if fleeing from his father, and he showed his back covered with bloody stripes, and begged the people of Gabii, with supplications and tears, to protect him from his father and to receive him into their town. Thus the people of Gabii were deceived, and they trusted his words, and befriended him, and made him the commander of a company. But the Romans fled when Sextus led the men of Gabii, because it had thus been agreed upon between Sextus and his father. When Sextus had thus gained the confidence of the Gabine people and possessed great power in Gabii, he sent a messenger to his father to ask what he should do. The king was walking in his pleasure-ground when the messenger came, and, instead of giving him an answer in words, Tarquin struck off with his stick the tallest poppies and sent the man back. But Sextus understood the meaning of his father's reply, and began to bring false charges against the first and noblest of the men of Gabii, and so caused them to be put to death; and when he had done this, he surrendered the helpless town to his father. CHAP. VIII. alliances In order now to strengthen his power, Tarquinius united Of the himself to Octavius Mamilius, who reigned in Tusculum, and wars and gave him his daughter to wife; and he established of Tarquin. the festival of the Latin games, which were solemnised every year on the Alban hill at the temple of Jupiter Latiaris, and in which all the Latin cities took part. After this he waged war on the Volscians, a powerful people who lived in the south of Latium. And he conquered Suessa Pometia, their greatest and richest town; and the spoils he gained in war were very large; and he used them to finish the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, which his father had begun. And he sent for artists from the towns of Etruria to decorate the temple of the with works of art, and for the summit of the temple he ordered a chariot with four horses to be made of clay in the town of Veii. Now when the chariot was in the oven to be baked, it did not shrink as clay always does, but it chariot and horses of the Jupiter. Capitoline BOOK I. Of the Sibylline books. expanded and became so large that it could not be taken out again without breaking down the oven. Then a prophet announced to the Veientines that the chariot was a pledge of fortune and power, and therefore they would not give it up to the Romans. But when a chariot race took place in Veii, and the charioteer who won the race drove away from the course, his horses suddenly took fright and could not be held, and they ran straight to the Roman Capitol and at the Ratumenian gate they overturned the chariot, and the driver was hurled down dead on the ground. Then the Veientines saw that the vengeance of the gods threatened them if they kept the clay chariot against the laws of justice and the will of Fate, and they brought it to Rome, where it was placed on the gable of the temple. After this the large sewers, which the elder Tarquinius had begun, were finished by Tarquinius Superbus, and so strong and firmly were they built that they exist even to the present day, bringing the water from the lower parts of the town into the Tiber. And then Tarquinius completed the Forum, which was used for buying and selling and for the general assemblies of the people; and he improved the large race-course in the valley between the Palatine and the Aventine hills; he also adorned the town with many other buildings, for he loved pomp and splendour, and he thought by his great extravagance and by compulsory labour to make the people poor and helpless, that he might govern them more easily. Now, when he was in full possession of power, there appeared one day before him a strange woman and offered him nine books of divine prophecy, which the inspired Sibyl of Cumæ had written on loose leaves. But, because she asked a high price, Tarquinius laughed at her and let her go. Then the woman burnt three of the books before his eyes, and returned and offered to sell the other six for the same price which she had at first asked for the nine. But Tarquinius laughed at her still more, and thought she was mad. She then burnt three more of the |