‘The king is but wounded,’ she told them, ‘he is not dead. He has commanded that you should obey Servius until he is again able to rule.’ But all the while Tarquinius lay in the palace, dead.
But the people, loyal, as they thought, to the wishes of their king, allowed Servius to rule. And the sons of Ancus knew that they had killed the king in vain.
A few days later it was known that the king was really dead; yet, although neither the Senate nor the people had chosen Servius to be king, he continued to sit upon the throne and to rule over Rome. Moreover, he was wise enough to try to win the hearts of the people by promising to give them land and to rule justly.
So well did he perform his royal duties, that when he called together an assembly of the people he was at once elected king.
CHAPTER XVII
THE CRUEL DEED OF TULLIA
Servius Tullius began to reign in 578 B.C. Like Pompilius and Ancus, he loved peace, and fought against none, save only the Etruscans.
With the Latins he made a treaty, after which the two tribes built a temple to Diana on the Aventine hill, and here every year sacrifices were offered for Rome and for Latium.
The city which Romulus had built on the Palatine had long ago become too small for the Romans. Little by little, cities had grown up on the neighbouring hills, and now Servius was able to enclose all the seven hills of Rome within the city, building around her a great wall of stone. This wall was called after the king the ‘Servian Wall,’ and so strongly was it built that it was still standing in the days of Augustus. Beyond the wall a deep moat was then dug, a hundred feet in breadth.
Having thus strengthened the city, Servius divided it into four regions, while the people were arranged in numerous tribes.