Ancient States and Empires / For Colleges and Schools

by John Lord

The despotism of Tarquin.

Tarquinius Superbus, a usurper and murderer, abrogated the popular laws of Servius Tullius, and set aside even the assembly of the Curiæ, and degraded and decimated the Senate, and appropriated the confiscated estates of those whom he destroyed. He reigned as a despot, making treaties without consulting the Senate, and living for his pleasure alone. But he ornamented the city with magnificent edifices, and completed the Circus Maximus [pg 405] as well as the Capitoline Temple, which stood five hundred years. He was also successful in war, and exalted the glory of the Roman name.

The legend of Lucretia. Death of Lucretia. Banishment of the Tarquins.

An end came to his tyranny by one of those events on which poetry and history have alike exhausted all their fascinations. It was while Tarquin was conducting a war against Ardea, and the army was idly encamped before the town, that the sons of Tarquin, with their kinsmen, were supping in the tent of Sextus, that conversation turned upon the comparative virtue of their wives. By a simultaneous impulse, they took horse to see the manner in which these ladies were at the time employed. The wives of Tarquin's sons at Rome were found in luxurious banquets with other women. Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, was discovered carding wool in the midst of her maidens. The boast of Collatinus that his wife was the most virtuous was confirmed. But her charms or virtues made a deep impression on the heart or passions of Sextus, and he returned to her dwelling in Collatia to propose infamous overtures. They were proudly rejected, but the disappointed lover, by threats and force, accomplished his purpose. Lucretia, stung with shame, made known the crime of Sextus to her husband and father, who hastened to her house, accompanied with Brutus. They found the ravished beauty in agonies of shame and revenge, and after she had revealed the scandalous facts, she plunged a dagger in her own bosom and died, invoking revenge. Her relatives and friends carried her corpse to the market-place, revealed the atrocity of the crime of Sextus, and demanded vengeance. The people rallied in the Forum at Rome, and the assembled Curiæ deprived Tarquin of his throne, and decreed the banishment of his accursed family. On the news of the insurrection, the tyrant started for the city with a band of chosen followers, but Brutus reached the army after the king had left, recounted the wrongs, and marched to Rome, whose gates were already shut against Tarquin. He fled to Etruria, [pg 406] with two of his sons, but Sextus was murdered by the people of Gabii.

The restoration of power to the patricians.

Thus were the kings driven out of Rome, never to return. In the revolution which followed, the patricians recovered their power, and a new form of government was instituted, republican in name, but oligarchal and aristocratic in reality, two hundred and forty-five years after the foundation of the city, B.C. 510. Historical criticism throws doubt on the chronology which assigns two hundred and forty-five years to seven elective kings, and some critics think that a longer period elapsed from the reign of Romulus to that of Tarquin than legend narrates, and that there must have been a great number of kings whose names are unknown. As the city advanced in wealth and numbers, the popular influence increased. The admission of commons favored the establishment of despotism, and its excesses led to its overthrow. It would have been better for the commons had Brutus established a monarchy with more limited powers, for the plebeians were now subjected to the tyranny of a proud and grasping oligarchy, and lost a powerful protector in the king, and the whole internal history of Rome, for nearly two centuries, were the conflicts between the plebeians and their aristocratic masters for the privileges they were said to possess under the reign of Tullius. Under the patricians the growth of the city was slow, and it was not till the voices of the tribunes were heard that Rome advanced in civilization and liberty. Under the kings, the progress in arts and culture had been rapid.

Jurisprudence.

Mommsen, in his learned and profound history of Rome, enumerates the various forms of civilization that existed on the expulsion of the Tarquins, a summary of which I present. Law and justice were already enforced on some of the elemental principles which marked the Roman jurisprudence. The punishment of offenses against order was severe, and compensation for crime, where injuries to person and property were slight, was somewhat similar to the penalties of the Mosaic code. The idea of property was associated [pg 407] with estate in slaves and cattle, and all property passed freely from hand to hand; but it was not in the power of the father arbitrarily to deprive his children of their hereditary rights. Contracts between the State and a citizen were valid without formalities, but those between private persons were difficult to be enforced. A purchase only founded an action in the event of its being a transaction for ready money, and this was attested by witnesses. Protection was afforded to minors and for the estate of persons not capable of bearing arms. After a man's death, his property descended to his nearest heirs. The emancipation of slaves was difficult, and that of a son was attended with even greater difficulties. Burgesses and clients were equally free in their private rights, but foreigners were beyond the pale of the law. The laws indicated a great progress in agriculture and commerce, but the foundation of law was the State. The greatest liberality in the permission of commerce, and the most rigorous procedure in execution, went hand in hand. Women were placed on a legal capacity with men, though restricted in the administration of their property. Personal credit was extravagant and easy, but the creditor could treat the debtor like a thief. A freeman could not, indeed, be tortured, but he could be imprisoned for debt with merciless severity. From the first, the laws of property were stringent and inexorable.

Religion. Objects of worship.

In religion, the ancient Romans, like the Greeks, personified the powers of nature, and also abstractions, like sowing, field labor, war, boundary, youth, health, harmony, fidelity. The profoundest worship was that of the tutelary deities, who presided over the household. Next to the deities of the house and forest, held in the greatest veneration, was Hercules, the god of the inclosed homestead, and, therefore, of property and gain. The souls of departed mortals were supposed to haunt the spot where the bodies reposed, but dwelt in the depths below. The hero worship of the Greeks was uncommon, and even Numa was never worshiped as a god. The central object [pg 408] of worship was Mars, the god of war, and this was conducted by imposing ceremonies and rites. The worship of Vesta was held with peculiar sacredness, and the vestal virgins were the last to yield to Christianity. The worshipers of the gods often consulted priests and augurs, who had great colleges, but little power in the State. The Latin worship was grounded on man's enjoyment of earthly pleasures, and not on his fear of the wild forces of nature, and it gradually sunk into a dreary round of ceremonies. The Italian god was simply an instrument for the attainment of worldly ends, and not an object of profound awe or love, and hence the Latin worship was unfavorable to poetry, as well as philosophical speculation.