It was indeed an evil omen. ‘The fall of Tarquin is at hand,’ was the sinister answer they received.
‘Which of us shall reign after him?’ demanded the king’s sons with unseemly eagerness.
‘He who shall first kiss his mother,’ responded the oracle.
Then the two princes cast lots to determine which of them should greet their mother first on their return.
But Brutus guessed that the words of the oracle had a deeper meaning.
As he left the Delphic temple, he pretended to slip, and falling to the ground, he secretly kissed the Earth, knowing that she was the mother of all men.
When the princes returned the king was at war, besieging Ardea, a town in Latium. It seemed that he had forgotten his fears, nor does the story tell what he thought of the answer of the oracle.
Meanwhile the siege of Ardea dragged on month after month, so bravely did the inhabitants defend their town.
In the Roman camp, Prince Sextus and a noble named Collatinus one day whiled away the hours by wondering what their wives were doing. Each boasted that his wife was the more diligent and the more modest of the two women.
At length one of their friends idly suggested that Sextus and Collatinus should ride to their homes and find out how their wives were employed.