Tanaquil seemed pleased with the strange behaviour of the eagle, and assured her husband that it was an augury or sign from the gods that he would rise to honour in the city to which they were going.
King Ancus heard of the wealth and the wisdom of the stranger who had come to Rome, and ere long he sent a messenger to Tarquinius, bidding him attend the king’s councils. So wisely did Tarquinius behave that the king soon treated him as a friend.
When Ancus Marcius was dying, he did not fear the future for his children. They would be safe, he believed, in the care of Tarquinius. But he, alas! betrayed his trust that he might satisfy his own ambition.
After the death of the king, Tarquinius, pretending that he wished to make the sons of Ancus forget their grief, persuaded them to go away from the city to hunt.
In their absence the false friend appealed to the people to make him king, and this they did.
Tarquinius had gained his power by a treacherous deed, but by his courage on the battlefield he won the admiration of his subjects.
He fought against the Latins, and made many of their cities subject to Rome. And when the Sabines took up arms and marched almost to the gates of the city, Tarquinius, vowing that if Jupiter would come to his aid he would build a temple in his honour, rushed against the foe and drove it away.
Flushed with victory, he then went to war with the Etruscans, and forced them to acknowledge him as their king.
As a sign of their subjection the conquered tribe sent to Tarquinius royal gifts—a golden crown, a sceptre, an ivory chair, an embroidered tunic, a purple toga, and twelve axes tied up in bundles of rods.
These gifts the king sent before him to Rome as a proof of his victory over the Etruscans.