[4.1] This man, therefore, being endowed with a nature adequately equipped for command and also supplied by Fortune with many great opportunities for attaining it, believed, when Tarquinius died by the treachery of the sons of Ancus Marcius, who desired to recover their father’s kingdom, as I have related in the preceding book, that he was called to the kingship by the very course of events and so, being a man of action, he did not let the opportunity slip from his grasp. [2] The person who helped him to seize possession of the supreme power and the author of all his good fortune was the wife of the deceased conflict, who aided him both because he was her son-in-law and also because she knew from many oracles that it was ordained by fate that this man should be king of the Romans. It chanced that her son, a youth, had died shortly before and that two infant sons were left by him. [3] She, therefore, reflecting on the desolation of her house and being under the greatest apprehension lest, if the sons of Marcius possessed themselves of the sovereignty, they should destroy these infants and extirpate all the royal family, first commanded that the gates of the palace should be shut and guards stationed there with orders to allow no one to pass either in or out. Then, ordering all the rest to leave the room in which they had laid Tarquinius when he was at the point of death, she detained Ocrisia, Tullius and her daughter who married to Tullius, and after ordering the children to be brought by their nurses, she spoke to them as follows:
[4] “Our king Tarquinius, in whose home you received your nurture and training, Tullius, and who honoured you above all his friends and relations, has finished his destined course, the victim of an impious crime, without having either made any disposition by will of his private interests or left injunctions concerning the public business of the commonwealth, and without having had it in his power even to embrace any of us and utter his last farewells. And these unhappy children here are left destitute and orphaned and in imminent danger of their lives. For if the power falls into the hands of the Marcii, the murderers of their grandfather, they will be put to death by them in the most piteous manner. Even the lives of you men, to whom Tarquinius gave his daughters in preference to them, will not be safe, should his murderers obtain the sovereignty, any more than the lives of the rest of his friends and relations or of us miserable women; but they will endeavour to destroy us all both openly and secretly. [5] Bearing all this in mind, then, we must not permit the wicked murderers of Tarquinius and the enemies of us all to obtain so great power, but must oppose and prevent them, now by craft and deceit, since these means are necessary at present, but when our first attempt has succeeded, then coming to grips with them openly with all our might and with arms, if those too shall be necessary. But they will not be necessary if we are willing to take the proper measures now. [6] And what are these measures? Let us, in the first place, conceal the king’s death and cause a report to be spread among the people that he has received no mortal wound, and let the physicians state that in a few days they will show him safe and sound. Then I will appear in public and will announce to the people, as if Tarquinius had so enjoined, that he has committed to one of his two sons-in-law (naming you, Tullius) the care and guardianship both of his private interests and of the public business till he is recovered of his wounds; and the Romans, far from being displeased, will be glad to see the state administered by you, who often have administered it already in the past. [7] Then, when we have averted the present danger — for the power of our enemies will be at an end the moment the king is reported to be alive — do you assume the rods and the military power and summon before the people those who formed the plot to assassinate Tarquinius, beginning with the sons of Marcius, and cause them to stand trial. After you have punished all these, with death, if they submit to be tried, or with perpetual banishment and the confiscation of their estates, if they let their case go by default, which I think they will be more apt to do, then at last set about establishing your government. Win the affections of the people by kindly affability, take great care that no injustice be committed, and gain the favour of the poorer citizens by sundry benefactions and gifts. Afterwards, when we see a proper time, let us announce that Tarquinius is dead and hold a public funeral for him. [8] And as for you, Tullius, if you, who have been brought up and educated by us, have partaken of every advantage that sons receive from their mother and father, and are married to our daughter, shall in addition actually become king of the Romans, it is but just, since I helped to win this also for you, that you should show all the kindness of a father to these little children, and when they come to manhood and are capable of handling public affairs, that you should appoint the elder to be leader of the Romans.”
[5.1] With these words she thrust each of the children in turn into the arms of both her son-in-law and her daughter and roused great compassion in them both; then, when it was the proper time, she went out of the room and ordered the servants to get everything ready for dressing the king’s wounds and to call the physicians. And letting that night pass, the next day, when the people flocked in great numbers to the palace, she appeared at the windows that gave upon the narrow street before the gates and first informed them who the persons were who had plotted the murder of the king, and produced in chains those whom they had sent to commit the deed. [2] Then, finding that many lamented the calamity and were angry at the authors of it, she at last told them that these men had gained naught from their wicked designs, since they had not been able to kill Tarquinius. This statement being received with universal joy, she then commended Tullius to them as the person appointed by the king to be the guardian of all his interests, both private and public, till he himself recovered. [3] The people, therefore, went away greatly rejoicing, in the belief that the king had suffered no fatal injury, and continued for a long time in that opinion. Afterwards Tullius, attended by a strong body of men and taking along the king’s lictors, went to the Forum and caused proclamation to be made for the Marcii to appear and stand trial; and upon their failure to obey, he pronounced sentence of perpetual banishment against them, and having confiscated their property, he was now in secure possession of the sovereignty of Tarquinius.
[6.1] I shall interrupt the narration of what follows that I may give the reasons which have induced me to disagree with Fabius and the rest of the historians who affirm that the children left by Tarquinius were his sons, to the end that none who have read those histories may suspect that I am inventing when I call them his grandsons rather than his sons. For it is sheer heedlessness and indolence that has led these historians to publish that account of them without first examining any of the impossibilities and absurdities that are fatal to it. Each of these absurdities I will endeavour to point out in a few words. [2] Tarquinius packed up and removed from Tyrrhenia with all his household at an age the most capable of reflection; for it is reported that he already aspired to take part in public life, to hold magistracies and to handle public affairs, and that he removed from there because he was not allowed to share in any position of honour in the state. [3] Anyone else, then, might have assumed that he was at least in his thirtieth year when he left Tyrrhenia, since it is from this age onwards, as a rule, that the laws call to the magistracies and to the administration of public affairs those who desire such a career; but I will suppose him five whole years younger than this and put him in his twenty-fifth year when he removed. Moreover, all the Roman historians agree that he brought with him a Tyrrhenian wife, whom he had married while his father was yet alive. [4] He came to Rome in the first year of the reign of Ancus Marcius, as Gellius writes, but according to Licinius, in the eighth year. Grant, then, that he came in the year Licinius states and not before; for he could not have come after that time, since in the ninth year of the reign of Ancus he was sent by the king to command the cavalry in the war against the Latins, as both these historians state. Now, if he was not more than twenty-five years old when he came to Rome, and, having been received into the friendship of Ancus, who was then king, in the eighth year of his reign (for Ancus reigned twenty-
four years), and if he himself reigned thirty-eight, as all agree, he must have been fourscore years old when he died; for this is the sum obtained by adding up the years. [5] If his wife was five years younger, as may well be supposed, she was presumably in her seventy-fifth year when Tarquinius died. Accordingly, if she conceived her second and last son when she was in her fiftieth year (for at a more advanced age a woman no longer conceives, but this is itself the limit of her child-bearing, as those authors write who have looked into these things), this son could not have been less than twenty-five years old when his father died, and Lucius, the elder, not less than twenty-seven; hence the sons whom Tarquinius left by this wife could not have been infants. [6] But surely, if her sons had been grown men when their father died, it cannot be imagined either that their mother would have been so miserable a creature or so infatuated as to deprive her own children of the sovereignty their father had left them and bestow it upon an outsider and the son of a slave-woman, or, again, that her sons themselves, when thus deprived of their father’s sovereignty, would have borne the injustice in so abject and supine a manner, and that at an age when they were at the very height of their powers both of speech and of action. For Tullius neither had the advantage of them in birth, being the son of a slave-woman, nor excelled them much in the dignity of age, being only three years older than one of them; so that they would not willingly have yielded the kingship to them.
[7.1] This view involves some other absurdities, too, of which all the Roman historians have been ignorant, with the exception of one whom I shall name presently. For it has been agreed that Tullius, having succeeded to the kingdom after the death of Tarquinius, held it for forty-four years; so that, if the eldest of the Tarquinii was twenty-seven years old when he was deprived of the sovereignty, he must have been above seventy when he killed Tullius. [2] But he was then in the prime of life, according to the tradition handed down by the historians, and they state that he himself lifted up Tullius, and carrying him out of the senate-house, hurled him down the steps. His expulsion from the kingship happened in the twenty-fifth year after this, and in that same year he is represented as making war against the people of Ardea and performing all the duties himself; but it is not reasonable to suppose that a man ninety-six years old should be taking part in wars. [3] And after his expulsion he still makes war against the Romans for no less than fourteen years, being present himself, they say, at all the engagements — which is contrary to all common sense. Thus, according to them, he must have lived above one hundred and ten years; but this length of life is not produced by our climes. [4] Some of the Roman historians, being sensible of these absurdities, have endeavoured to solve them by means of other absurdities, alleging that not Tanaquil but one Gegania, of whom no other account has come down to us, was the mother of the children. But here again, the marriage of Tarquinius is unseasonable, he being then very near fourscore years old, and the begetting of children by men of that age is incredible; nor was he a childless man, who would wish by all means for children, for he had two daughters and these already married. [5] In the light, therefore, of these various impossibilities and absurdities, I state that the children were not the sons, but the grandsons, of Tarquinius, agreeing therein with Lucius Piso Frugi (for he in his Annals is the only historian who has given this account); unless, indeed, the children were the king’s grandsons by birth and his sons by adoption and this circumstance misled all the other Roman historians. Now that these explanations have been made by way of preface, it is time to resume my narrative where it was broken off.
[8.1] When Tullius, after receiving the guardianship of the kingdom and expelling the faction of the Marcii, thought he was now in secure possession of the sovereignty, he honoured King Tarquinius, as if he had but recently died of his wounds, with a very costly funeral, an imposing monument, and the other usual honours. And from that time, as guardian of the royal children, he took under his protection and care both their private fortunes and the public interests of the commonwealth. [2] The patricians, however, were not pleased with these proceedings, but felt indignation and resentment, being unwilling that Tullius should build up a kind of royal power for himself without either a decree of the senate or the other formalities prescribed by law. And the most powerful of them met together frequently and discussed with one another means of putting an end to his illegal rule; and they resolved that in the first time Tullius should assemble them in the senate-house they would compel him to lay aside the rods and the other symbols of royalty, and that after this was done they would appoint the magistrates called interreges and through them choose a man to rule the state in accordance with the laws. [3] While they were making these plans, Tullius, becoming aware of their purpose, applied himself to flattering and courting the poorer citizens, and hopes of retaining the sovereignty through them; and having called an assembly of the people, he brought the children forward to the tribunal and delivered a speech somewhat as follows:
[9.1] “I find myself under great obligation, citizens, to take care of these infant children. For Tarquinius, their grandfather, received me when I was fatherless and without a country, and brought me up, holding me in no respect inferior to his own children. He also gave me one of his two daughters in marriage, and during the whole course of his life continued to honour and love me, as you also know, with the same affection as if I had been his own son. And after that treacherous attack was made upon him he entrusted me with the guardianship of these children in case he should suffer the fate of all mortals. [2] Who, therefore, will think me pious towards the gods or just towards men if I abandon and betray the orphans to with I owe so great a debt of gratitude? But, to the best of my ability, I shall neither betray the trust reposed in me nor yet abandon the children in their forlorn condition. You too ought in justice to remember the benefits their grandfather conferred upon the commonwealth in reducing to your obedience so many cities of the Latins, your rivals for the sovereignty, in making all the Tyrrhenians, the most powerful of your neighbours, your subjects, and in forcing the Sabine nation to submit to you — all of which he effected at the cost of many great dangers. [3] As long, therefore, as he himself was living, it became you to give him thanks for the benefits you had received from him; and now that he is dead, it becomes you to make a grateful return to his posterity, and not to bury the remembrance of their deeds together with the persons of your benefactors. Consider, therefore, that you have all jointly been left guardians of these little children, and confirm to them the sovereignty which their grandfather left them. For they would not receive so great an advantage from my guardianship, which is that of one man only, as from the joint assistance of you all. [4] I have been compelled to say these things because I have perceived that some persons are conspiring against them and desire to hand the sovereignty over the others. I ask you, Romans, also to call to mind the struggles I have undergone in the interest of your supremacy — struggles neither inconsiderable nor few, which I need not relate to you who are familiar with them — and to repay to these little children the gratitude you owe me in return. For it has not been with a view to securing a sovereignty of my own — of which, if that had been my aim, I was as worthy as anyone — but in order to aid the family of Tarquinius, that I have chosen to direct public affairs. [5] And I entreat you as a suppliant not to abandon these orphans, who are now, indeed, only in danger of losing the sovereignty, but, if this first attempt of their enemies succeeds, will also be expelled from the city. But on this subject I need say no more to you, since you both know what is required and will perform your duty.
[6] “Hear from me now the benefits I myself have arranged to confer upon you and the reasons that induced me to summon this assembly. Those among you who already have debts which through poverty they are unable to discharge, I am eager to help, since they are citizens and have undergone many hardships in the service of their country; hence, in order that these men who have securely established the common liberty may not be deprived of their own, I am givi
ng them from my own means enough to pay their debts. [7] And those who shall hereafter borrow I will not permit to be haled to prison on account of their debts, but will make a law that no one shall lend money on the security of the persons of free men; for I hold that it is enough for the lenders to possess the property of those who contracted the debts. And in order to lighten for the future the burden also of the war taxes you pay to the public treasury, by which the poor are oppressed and obliged to borrow, I will order all the citizens to give in a valuation of their property and everyone to pay his share of the taxes according to that valuation, as I learn is done in the greatest and best governed cities; for I regard it as both just and advantageous to the public that those who possess much should pay much in taxes and those who have little should pay little. [8] I also believe that the public lands, which you have obtained by your arms and now enjoy, should not, as at present, be held by those who are the most shameless, whether they got them by favour or acquired them by purchase, but by those among you who have no allotment of land, to the end that you, being free men, may not be serfs to others or cultivate others’ lands instead of your own; for a noble spirit cannot dwell in the breasts of men who are in want of the necessaries of daily life. [9] But, above all these things, I have determined to make the government fair and impartial and justice the same for all and towards all. For some have reached that degree of presumption that they take upon themselves to maltreat the common people and do not look upon the poor among you as being even free men. To the end, therefore, that the more powerful may both receive justice from and do justice to their inferior impartially, I will establish such laws as shall prevent violence and preserve justice, and I myself will never cease to take thought for the equality of all the citizens.”
Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79) Page 31