With them he made war upon the Volscians and took the city of Suessa, wherein was a great booty. Then Tarquinius accused him of high treason, and brought false witnesses against him and so powerful with the Latins was the king that they condemned their countryman to be drowned in the Ferentine water, and obeyed Tarquinius in all things.
But at a general assembly of the Latins at the Ferentine Grove, beneath the Alban Mount, where they had been accustomed to meet of olden time to settle their national affairs, Turnus Herdonius of Aricia rose and spoke against him. He gave his daughter in marriage to Octavius Mamilius, chief of Tusculum, and favored the Latins in all things. The last Tarquin drew those ties still closer. The wisdom of Tarquinius Priscus and Servius had united all the Latin name to Rome, so that Rome had become the sovereign city of Latium. The Etruscans of Tarquinii, and all its associate cities, were his friends and among the Latins also he sought to raise a power which might counterbalance the senate and people of Rome. It was by foreign alliances that he calculated on supporting his despotism at home. The name of Superbus, or the Proud, testifies to the general feeling against the despotic rule of the second Tarquin. He abrogated, it is true, the hated Assembly of the Centuries but neither did he pay any heed to the Curiate Assembly, nor did he allow any new members to be chosen into the senate in place of those who were removed by death or other causes so that even those who had helped him to the throne repented them of their deed. But Tarquin soon kicked away the ladder by which he had risen. The burgesses of the Gentes were indignant at the curtailment of their privileges by the popular reforms of Servius, and were glad to lend themselves to any overthrow of his power. Tarquin had made himself king by the aid of the patricians, and chiefly by means of the third or Lucerian tribe, to which his family belonged. There have been many constitutional struggles in the history of modern times, but nothing like the plebeian tribunate has ever appeared, and it is a question if the institution could have existed for a month, in any country of modern times, with the salutary influences which it exercised in early Rome. Their power was almost absolute, but it never seems to have been abused, and this fact is a proof of the native moderation of the ancient Romans. These new officers were duly appointed, and eventually their number was increased to ten. It was not in vain that the people now demanded that as the two consuls were practically elected to further the interests of the upper class, so they, the plebeians, should have the election of two tribunes to protect them from wrong and oppression. The people had, however, gained a great advantage by their bold defiance of the consular and patrician class, who had practically been supreme in the state, had been oppressive money-lenders, and had controlled the decisions of the law courts. It was here Menenius Agrippa conciliated them by reciting the famous fable of “The Belly and the Members.” After this the people were induced to come to terms with the patricians and to return to the city. What is known as the Secession to the Sacred Hill took place when the plebeians of Rome, in the early days of the Republic, indignant at the oppression and cruelty of the patricians, left the city en masse and gathered with hostile manifestations at a hill, Mons Sacer, some distance from Rome. The first consuls chosen were Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. These consuls were elected annually at the comitia centuriata and they had sovereign power granted them by a vote of the comitia curiata. This was accordingly done and, instead of kings, consuls were appointed to wield the supreme power. The people were assembled by curiæ, or wards, and voted that Tarquinius Superbus should be stripped of the kingly power, and that he and all his family should be banished from Rome. The indignation raised by the rape of Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius, and the suicide of the outraged lady at Collatia, moved her father, in conjunction with Lucius Junius Brutus and Publius Valerius, to start a rebellion. The republic of Rome was the outcome of a sudden revolution caused by the crimes of the House of Tarquin, an Etruscan family who had reached the highest power at Rome.
510-494 HENRY GEORGE LIDDELL Introduction by Charles F. ROME ESTABLISHED AS A REPUBLIC INSTITUTION OF TRIBUNES B.C.
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