Our Youths' Department.

THE HISTORY OF ROME.

Chapter IX.

THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD.

FROM THE EXPULSION OF THE TARQUINII TO THE BATTLE OF LAKE REGILLUS. (A.U. 245-258; B.C. 509-496.)

1. Consuls-Changes in the Senate.-2. Ambassadors from Tarquinii-Discontented Young Nobles-Plot-Vindicius-Field of Mars-Insula Tiberina.-3. Punishment of Traitors-Brutus and his Sons-Exile of Collatinus.-4. War with Veii and Tarquinii-Death of Brutus and Aruns Tarquinius-Victory of Arsia.-5. Publius Valerius-His Measures-Colleagues-Consecration of Jupiter's Temple.-6. Lars Porsenna-Horatius Cocles.-7. Siege of Rome-C. Mucius-Peace-Cloelia and the Hostages-Porsenna and the Roman Senate-Etruscan Defeat by the Latins of Aricia.-8. Latin Allies of Tarquinius-Latin and Roman Wives-DictatorMaster of the Horse-Battle of Lake Regillus-Castor and Pollux in the Fight and the Forum.-9. End of the Race of Tarquinius.

1. THE Romans had no sooner driven the royal family from their midst, than they bound themselves by oaths never more to allow the rule of a King at Rome. Yet kingly power and honours were given to the Consuls,* and as there were two of these, the late tyranny seemed likely to be rather doubled than destroyed. To guard against this, and to secure the fruits of the Revolution, the people carefully fenced round their newly-won liberty. Each Consul was meant to be a check on his colleague. These men ruled in turn, month by month, so that one only at a time exercised power, and before him alone the lictors bore their rods and axes. Their authority lasted but a year, which hardly gave them time to grow dangerously powerful, and at the end of the year they might be brought to account for their wrong doings. The King, by his priestly office, used to offer certain sacrifices for the whole nation. This office fell now, not to the Consuls, but to a priest chosen specially to offer those sacrifices. Brutus first bore rule, and as many Senators had been destroyed or driven away in the late reign, he filled up their places with new ones ; chosen from the wealthy equestrian order. These, to distinguish them from the old Senators-the Patres-were called Conscripti, and

* At first called Practors.

the whole assembly, now and for many ages after numbering 300 members, was addressed as Patres Conscripti."*

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2. To get back the throne, Tarquinius engaged in his cause the people of Tarquinii, the Etruscan home of his race. Ambassadors from that State required the Romans to take back the Tyrant, and failing in this, demanded the goods belonging to the royal exile and his friends. Unwilling to provoke hostility by unjustly resisting the demand, and afraid by giving up the property to furnish the enemy with the means of war, the Senate hesitated for several days, but at length resolved to act honourably and comply with the demand. In the City were a number of reckless young men, whose rank, age, and habits had made them companions of the King's sons in their wildest excesses. The Tyrant's harshness had hardly troubled them, and his sons' friendship had assured to them safety and indulgence. For that reason, the authority of law which put them on a level with the mass of the citizens was hateful. They complained that the bestowal of liberty on all had robbed them of their license. In the King, odious as he made himself, they found at least a human being to be moved by pity, persuasion, or force; but the laws were unbending masters, blind to rank, and deaf to the voice of friendship. With these disappointed young nobles, the Ambassadors formed a plot to restore Tarquinius. The delay of the Senate's decision on the property of the exiles, and the time allowed to remove that property, furnished the opportunity for completing the plans to overthrow the new government. Among the conspirators were the Aquilii, nephews of the Consul Collatinus; the Vitellii, whose sister was the wife of Brutus, and Brutus's own sons, Titus and Tiberius. The traitors, eager to restore the royal family, met the Ambassadors at the house of the Aquilii, under pretence of a sacrifice, but really to bind themselves by oaths, and to write letters to the King. Now, indeed, treachery seemed to hold in its villanous grip the young Republic, and was ready to crush out its infant life, but Vindicius, a slave, had noticed the anxiety of the traitors to be alone, and secretly watched their proceedings. As they spoke, he listened, learnt the object of the letters, then hastened to reveal the whole to Publius, Valerius, and the Consuls. Both letters and conspirators were seized, and the plot was broken up. From respect to the law of nations the Ambassadors were dismissed, but the goods of Tarquinius became the plunder of the people, who were thus more strongly bound to prevent

* That is Patres et Conscripti, the conjunction being omitted.

his return. Among the royal estates was a large field consecrated to Mars (Campus Martius) between the City and the Tiber. On this field was a crop of ripe corn. It was judged unlawful to use the crop, and the sheaves were thrown into the river. In a shallow part of the stream they were stopped, increased by the addition of other floating matter, cemented by the mud and formed into an island! (Insula Tiberina) before the City.

3. The conspirators suffered for their crime. Brutus, from the judgment seat in the Forum, tried and condemned his own sons. Their guilt was plain. Their father bade the lictors seize and strip them, and beat them with rods. Behind the angry aspect of the judge was the father's bleeding heart, nor could the father's feelings be wholly smothered; yet Brutus kept his seat, nor turned away his eyes till the lictor's axe had struck off the heads of Titus and Tiberius. The same doom befell their companions in guilt. Liberty, citizenship, and a gift from the public treasury rewarded Vindicius. Public danger made the name of Tarquinius feared and hated, and the Consul Collatinus, Lucretia's husband, who had so nobly helped to rid the State of the family, was now entreated by the Romans to take clear away the name of the Tyrant. Because he was a Tarquinius. Collatinus resigned his consulship, left Rome, and ended his days at Lavinium. In his place, P. Valerius was chosen, and all the Tarquinii, whether of the King's family or not, were banished.

4. By great promises, Tarquinius prevailed on the Etruscans of Veii, and Tarquinii, to attempt by force of arms his restoration to the throne. The King led their armies into the territories of Rome, and his son Aruns commanded the horse. The two Consuls marched to meet them. In front, at the head of the horsemen, was Brutus. dressed in kingly robes, and attended by the lictors. Stung by the sight, Aruns Tarquinius cried out, "There, with the ensigns of our dignity is the villain who has banished us from our native country!" Then giving his horse the spur, and levelling his spear, he rushed on the Consul, who met him with equal fury. Each ran his spear through the other's body, and both fell dead from their horses. When the battle became general, the Romans beat the Veientines, but they themselves were beaten by the people of Tarquinii. Neither could claim the victory, till, as they said, the voice of the wood-god, Silvanus, from the forest of Arsia, close by, proclaimed aloud in the still hour of night, that "one more of the Etruscans had fallen, and that the Romans were victors in the war." The affrighted Etruscans hastened home. At dawn the Romans counted the slain, and found

of their own 11,299, of the enemy 11,300. Valerius bore home the body of his colleague, and at his burial delivered an oration in his praise, but the matrons of Rome mourned a whole year for Brutus, who was the brave avenger of violated chastity.

5. Well as Valerius had served his country, he was charged with the design of making himself King, because he put off the choice of a colleague, and began to build for himself, on the top of the hill Velia, a great stone house, which might easily have been made a strong citadel. Grieved by the people's ingratitude, he called them together; caused the lictors to lower the fasces before them, to show that the assembled citizens were greater than their Consul; complained of their harsh suspicions; stopped the building of his house, and brought the materials to the bottom of the hill, where he built himself a dwelling. To prove beyond a doubt that he had no eye to the throne, he passed a law empowering any one to kill the man who should try to make himself King. Another of his laws gave to the common people charged with crime, the right to appeal from the magistrate to the tribes, and so much delighted were all with these measures, that they declared Valerius was the people's friend, and ever after called him Publicola. For his colleague in the consulate, Lucretia's father-Sp. Lucretius-was then chosen, but being an old man, he died in a few days, and the people chose in his place, M. Horatius Pulvillus. Jupiter's Temple on the Capitol was not yet consecrated. The Consuls cast lots, and the honour of performing the ceremony fell to Horatius. To the friends of Valerius, this was a great grievance, and they were anxious to alter the arrangement. While Horatius was going through the service, holding the door-post of the Temple, and offering the prayer to the gods, a man rushed forward to tell him his son was dead. "Then let them carry him out and bury him," was the Consul's only reply; for words of lamentation were judged unfit to mingle with such a service to the gods, and would have spoiled the whole ceremony.

6. Lars Porsenna,* King of Clusium, the most renowned of the Etruscan princes, was next persuaded to support the claims of Tarquinius (B.c. 508). With a large army he marched against Rome, whose Senate strove to strengthen the State, by measures of justice fitted to satisfy the commons, but alarm distressed the whole City. The Etruscans drove the Romans from the Janiculum, and would have followed them over the Tiber, but for Horatius Cocles, who with

"Lars" a title of honour, thought to be akin to our English word "Lord."

Sp. Lartius, and T. Herminius, bravely defended the wooden bridge (Pons Sublicius) till those over the river had time to cut it down behind him. He had already sent away his companions, and received on his own shield a whole shower of darts. The enemy were about | to rush on him, when, over the river a shout was raised, the bridge fell with a mighty crash, the Etruscans were fixed with wonder, and Horatius, praying, "Father Tiber, receive these arms, and this thy soldier," plunged into the stream, and amid the thickly falling darts of the foe, swam safely to the other side. For this his grateful countrymen gave him as much land as he could drive a plough round in a day, and placed his statue in the Comitium.

7. Then, the City was besieged, and the people were ready to perish of hunger; at length, C. Mucius, a daring young noble, got permission from the Senate to cross the river to the Tuscan camp. As he spoke the Etruscan tongue, he went among the crowd gathered round Porsenna, who with his secretary, dressed like himself, was paying | the soldiers. Fearing to ask which was the King, Mucius drew from beneath his garment a dagger, and slew the secretary, whom he mistook for Porsenna. He was seized with his bloody weapon, and readily told his country, his name, and his object, but when in the presence of the King, he was assured he should be burnt alive if he did not answer the questions put to him, he thrust his right hand into the fire then burning on the altar, and held it there till it was consumed, to show how little he cared for the tortures they threatened. The sight astonished the King, who leaped from his throne, had Mucius taken away from the altar, and sent him home free and unhurt, for his bravery. This generosity gained for Porsenna more than his tortures could have forced; for Mucius told him, that 300 noble youths of Rome were banded together to kill him, that the lot had first fallen to him, but that all were ready to strike the blow as their turn came. Then he bade the Monarch prepare for the peril Mucius returned to the City, where he was rewarded with a gift of land, and both he and his posterity bore the name of Scvæola (Lefthanded.) Porsenna soon sent after him ambassadors, and made peace with the Romans. He gave back to them the Janiculum, but made them restore some lands they had taken from the Veientines, and give him hostages-ten noble youths, and as many maidens-as pledges that they would honestly keep the peace. While the Etruscan camp was still near the Tiber, Cloelia, one of the maidens, persuaded her companions to try with her to make their escape. They were pursued to the river's bank, but they plunged into the stream,