Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, D. Spillan, A.M., M.D. (Translator), Cyrus Edmonds (Translator), William A. McDevitte (Translator), 1.46

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[1]

Servius, though he had now acquired an indisputable right to the kingdom by long possession, yet as he heard that expressions were sometimes thrown out by young Tarquin, importing,

That he held the crown without the consent of the people,

having first secured their good will by dividing among them, man by man, the lands taken from their enemies, he ventured to propose the question to the people, whether they

chose and ordered that he should be king,

and was declared king with such unanimity, as had not been observed in the election of any of his predecessors.

[2] But this circumstance diminished not Tarquin's hope of obtaining the throne; nay, because he had observed that the question of the distribution of land to the people ¹ was carried against the will of the fathers, he felt so much the more satisfied that an opportunity was now presented to him of arraigning Servius before the fathers, and of increasing his own influence in the senate, he being himself naturally of a fiery temper, and his wife, Tullia, at home stimulating his restless temper.

[3] For the Roman palace also afforded an instance of tragic guilt, so that through their disgust of kings, liberty might come more matured, and the throne, which should be attained through crime, might be the last.

[4] This L. Tarquinius (whether he was the son or grandson of Tarquinius Priscus is not clear; with the greater number of authorities, however, I would say, his son ² ) had a brother, Aruns Tarquinius, a youth of a mild disposition.

[5] To these two, as has been already stated, the two Tulliae, daughters of the king, had been married, they also being of widely different tempers. It had so happened that the two violent dispositions were not united in marriage, through the good fortune, I suspect, of the Roman people, in order that the reign of Servius might be more protracted, and the morals of the state be firmly established.

[6] The haughty Tullia was chagrined, that there was no material in her husband, either for ambition or bold daring. Directing all her regard to the other Tarquinius, him she admired, him she called a man, and one truly descended of royal blood; she expressed her contempt of her sister, because, having got a man, she was deficient in the spirit becoming a woman.

[7] Similarity of mind soon draws them together, as wickedness is in general most congenial to wickedness. But the commencement of producing general confusion originated with the woman. She, accustomed to the secret conversations of the other's husband, refrained not from using the most contumelious language of her husband to his brother, of her sister to (her sister's) husband, and contended, that it were better that she herself were unmarried, and he single, than that they should be matched unsuitably, so that they must languish away through life by reason of the dastardly conduct of others.

[8] If the gods had granted her the husband of whom she was worthy, that she should soon see the crown in her own house, which she now saw at her father's. She soon inspires the young man with her own daring notions.

[9] Aruns Tarquinius and the younger Tullia, when they had, by immediate successive deaths, made their houses vacant for new nuptials, are united in marriage, Servius rather not prohibiting than approving the measure.

Ab urbe condita. Titus Livius (Livy). D. Spillan, A.M., M.D. (Translator), Cyrus Edmonds (Translator), William A. McDevitte (Translator). Medford, MA. .

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

History of Rome (English) (Spillan, D.; Edmonds, Cyrus; McDevitte, William A., translators. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849-1868. (Bohn's Classical Library))

Editions (3)

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Pars I-IV, Libri I-XL. Editio Stereotypica. Weissenborn, Wilhelm; Mueller, Moritz, editors. Leipzig: Teubner, 1884-1911.) — 1.46 focus

[1] Servius quamquam iam usu haud dubie regnum possederat, tamen, quia interdum iactari voces a iuvene Tarquinio audiebat se iniussu populi regnare, conciliata prius voluntate plebis agro capto ex hostibus viritim diviso ausus est ferre ad populum, vellent iuberentne se regnare; tantoque consensu, quanto haud quisquam alius ante, rex est declaratus.

[2] neque ea res Tarquinio spem adfectandi regni minuit; immo eo inpensius, quia de agro plebis adversa patrum voluntate senserat agi, criminandi Servi apud patres crescendique in curia sibi occasionem datam ratus est, et ipse iuvenis ardentis animi et domi uxore Tullia inquietum animum stimulante.

[3] tulit enim et Romana regia sceleris tragici exemplum, ut taedio regum maturior veniret libertas ultimumque regnum esset, quod scelere partum foret. hic L. Tarquinius —

[4] Prisci Tarquini regis filius neposne fuerit, parum liquet; pluribus tamen auctoribus filium ediderim — fratrem habuerat Arruntem Tarquinium, mitis ingenii iuvenem.

[5] his duobus, ut ante dictum est, duae Tulliae, regis filiae, nupserant, et ipsae longe dispares moribus. forte ita inciderat, ne duo violenta ingenia matrimonio iungerentur, fortuna, credo, populi Romani, quo diuturnius Servi regnum esset constituique civitatis mores possent.

[6] angebatur ferox Tullia nihil materiae in viro neque ad cupiditatem neque ad audaciam esse; tota in alterum aversa Tarquinium eum mirari, eum virum dicere ac regio sanguine ortum; spernere sororem, quod virum nacta muliebri cessaret audacia.

[7] contrahit celeriter similitudo eos, ut fere fit: malum malo aptissimum; sed initium turbandi omnia a femina ortum est. ea secretis viri alieni adsuefacta sermonibus nullis verborum contumeliis parcere de viro ad fratrem, de sorore ad virum; et se rectius viduam et ilium illum caelibem futurum fuisse contendere, quam cum inpari iungi, ut elanguescendum aliena ignavia esset.

[8] si sibi eum, quo digna esset, dii dedissent virum, domi se prope diem visuram regnum fuisse, quod apud patrem videat. celeriter adulescentem suae temeritatis implet.

[9] Lucius Tarquinius et Tullia minor, prope continuatis funeribus cum domos vacuas novo matrimonio fecissent, iunguntur nuptiis magis non prohibente Servio quam adprobante.

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Conway, Robert Seymour; Walters, Charles Flamstead; Johnson, Stephen Keymer, editors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1914-1935. (Oxford Classical Texts)) — 1.46 focus

[1]

Seruius quamquam iam usu haud dubie regnum possederat, tamen quia interdum iactari uoces a iuuene Tarquinio audiebat se iniussu populi regnare, conciliata prius uoluntate plebis agro capto ex hostibus uiritim diuiso, ausus est ferre ad populum uellent iuberentne se regnare; tantoque consensu quanto haud quisquam alius ante rex est declaratus.

[2] neque ea res Tarquinio spem adfectandi regni minuit; immo eo impensius quia de agro plebis aduersa patrum uoluntate senserat agi, criminandi Serui apud patres crescendique in curia sibi occasionem datam ratus est, et ipse iuuenis ardentis animi et domi uxore Tullia inquietum animum stimulante.

[3] tulit enim et Romana regia sceleris tragici exemplum, ut taedio regum maturior ueniret libertas ultimumque regnum esset quod scelere partum foret.

[4] hic L. Tarquinius —Prisci Tarquini regis filius neposne fuerit parum liquet; pluribus tamen auctoribus filium ediderim—fratrem habuerat Arruntem Tarquinium mitis ingenii iuuenem.

[5] his duobus, ut ante dictum est, duae Tulliae regis filiae nupserant, et ipsae longe dispares moribus. forte ita inciderat ne duo uiolenta ingenia matrimonio iungerentur fortuna, credo, populi Romani, quo diuturnius Serui regnum esset constituique ciuitatis mores possent.

[6] angebatur ferox Tullia nihil materiae in uiro neque ad cupiditatem neque ad audaciam esse; tota in alterum auersa Tarquinium eum mirari, eum uirum dicere ac regio sanguine ortum: spernere sororem, quod uirum nacta muliebri cessaret audacia.

[7] contrahit celeriter similitudo eos, ut fere fit: malum malo aptissimum; sed initium turbandi omnia a femina ortum est. ea secretis uiri alieni adsuefacta sermonibus nullis uerborum contumeliis parcere de uiro ad fratrem, de sorore ad uirum; et se rectius uiduam et illum caelibem futurum fuisse contendere, quam cum impari iungi ut elanguescendum aliena ignauia esset;

[8] si sibi eum quo digna esset di dedissent uirum, domi se propediem uisuram regnum fuisse quod apud patrem uideat.

[9] celeriter adulescentem suae temeritatis implet; [Arruns Tarquinius et Tullia minor] prope continuatis funeribus cum domos uacuas nouo matrimonio fecissent, iunguntur nuptiis, magis non prohibente Seruio quam adprobante.

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Livy in Fourteen Volumes. Foster, Benjamin Oliver; Moore, Frank Gardener; Schlesinger, Alfred C., editors. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919-1959 (printing).) — 1.46 focus

[1]

Servius quamquam iam usu haud dubie ¹ regnum possederat, tamen quia interdum iactari voces a iuvene Tarquinio audiebat se iniussu populi ² regnare, conciliata prius voluntate plebis agro capto ex hostibus viritim diviso ausus est ferre ad populum, vellent iuberentne se regnare; tantoque consensu quanto haud quisquam alius ante rex est declaratus.

[2] neque ea res Tarquinio spem adfectandi regni minuit; immo eo impensius, quia de agro plebis adversa ³ patrum voluntate ⁴ senserat agi, criminandi Servi apud patres crescendique in curia sibi occasionem datam ratus est, et ipse iuvenis ardentis animi et domi uxore Tullia inquietum animum stimulante.

[3] tulit enim et Romana regia sceleris tragici exemplum, ut taedio regum maturior veniret libertas ultimumque regnum esset quod scelere partum foret.

[4] hic L. Tarquinius—Prisci Tarquini regis filius neposne fuerit parum liquet; pluribus tamen auctoribus filium ediderim—fratrem habuerat Arruntem Tarquinium, mitis ingenii iuvenem.

[5] his duobus, ut ante dictum est, duae Tulliae regis filiae nupserant, et ipsae longe dispares moribus. forte ita inciderat ne duo violenta ingenia matrimonio iungerentur fortuna, credo, populi Romani, quo diuturnius Servi regnum esset constituique civitatis mores possent.

[6] angebatur ferox Tullia nihil materiae in viro neque ⁵ ad cupiditatem neque ad audaciam esse; tota in alterum aversa ⁶ Tarquinium eum mirari, eum virum dicere ac regio sanguine ortum: spernere sororem, quod virum nacta muliebri cessaret audacia.

[7] contrahit celeriter similitudo eos, ut fere fit: malum malo aptissimum; sed initium turbandi omnia a femina ortum est. ea secretis viri alieni adsuefacta sermonibus nullis verborum contumeliis parcere de viro ad fratrem, de sorore ad virum; et se rectius viduam et illum ilium caelibem futurum fuisse contendere, quam cum inpari iungi, ut elanguescendum aliena ignavia esset.

[8] si sibi eum, quo digna esset, di dedissent virum, domi se propediem visuram regnum fuisse, quod apud patrem videat. celeriter adulescentem suae temeritatis implet. ⁷

[9] prope continuatis funeribus cum domos vacuas novo matrimonio fecissent, iunguntur nuptiis magis non prohibente Servio quam adprobante.

Translations (2)

History of Rome Perseus (Foster, Benjamin Oliver; Moore, Frank Gardener; Sage, Evan T.; Schlesinger, Alfred C., translators. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919-1959. (Loeb Classical Library)) — 1.46 focus

[1]

Servius had by this time a definite prescriptive right to the supreme power. Still, hearing that the young Tarquinius now and then threw out ¹ a hint that he was reigning without the consent of the people, he proceeded to gain the goodwill of the commons by dividing among all the citizens the land obtained by conquest from the enemy; after which he made bold to call upon the people to vote whether he should be their ruler, and was declared king with such unanimity as none of his predecessors had experienced.

[2] Yet the circumstance did not lessen Tarquinius's hopes of obtaining the kingship. On the contrary, perceiving that the bestowal of land on the plebeians was in opposition to the wishes of the senate, he felt that he had got the better opportunity of vilifying Servius to the Fathers and of increasing his own influence in the senate-house. He was a hot-headed youth himself, and he had at hand, in the person of Tullia his wife, one who goaded on his restless spirit.

[3] For the royal house of Rome produced an example of tragic guilt, as others had done, ² in order that loathing of kings might hasten the coming of liberty, and that the end of reigning might come in that reign which was the fruit of crime.

[4] This Lucius Tarquinius —whether he was the son or the grandson of King Tarquinius Priscus is uncertain; but, following the majority of historians, I would designate him son —had a brother, Arruns Tarquinius, a youth of a gentle disposition.

[5] These two, as has been said before, had married the two Tullias, daughters of the king, themselves of widely different characters. Chance had so ordered matters that the two violent natures should not be united in wedlock, thanks doubtless to the good fortune of the Roman People, that the reign of Servius might be prolonged and the traditions of the state become established.

[6] It was distressing to ³ the headstrong Tullia that her husband should be destitute of ambition and enterprise. With her whole soul she turned from him to his brother; him she admired, him she called a man and a prince: she despised her sister because, having got a man for a mate, she lacked a woman's daring.

[7] Their similarity soon brought these two together, as is generally the case, for evil is strongly drawn to evil; but it was the woman who took the lead in all the mischief. Having become addicted to clandestine meetings with another's husband, she spared no terms of insult when speaking of her own husband to his brother, or of her sister to that sister's husband. She urged that it would have been juster for her to be unmarried and for him to lack a wife than for them to be united to their inferiors and be compelled to languish through the cowardice of others.

[8] If the gods had given her the man she deserved she would soon have seen in her own house the royal power which she now saw in

[9] her father's. It was not long before she had inspired the young man with her own temerity, and, having made room in their respective houses for a new marriage, by deaths which followed closely upon one another, they were joined together in nuptials which Servius rather tolerated than approved.

History of Rome Perseus (Volumes 1-2. Roberts, Canon, Rev, translator. London, New York: J. M. Dent and Sons; E. P. Dutton and Co., 1912.) — 1.46 focus

[1] Servius was now confirmed on the throne by long possession. It had, however, come to his ears that the young Tarquin was giving out that he was reigning without the assent of the people. He first secured the goodwill of the plebs by assigning to each householder a slice of the land which had been taken from the enemy. Then he was emboldened to put to them the question whether it was their will and resolve that he should reign.

[2] He was acclaimed as king by a unanimous vote such as no king before him had obtained. The Assassination of the King. This action in no degree damped Tarquin's hopes of making his way to the throne, rather the reverse. He was a bold and aspiring youth, and his wife Tullia stimulated his restless ambition. He had seen that the granting of land to the commons was in defiance of the opinion of the senate, and he seized the opportunity it afforded him of traducing Servius and strengthening his own faction in that assembly.

[3] So it came about that the Roman palace afforded an instance of the crime which tragic poets have depicted,¹ with the result that the loathing felt

[4] for kings hastened the advent of liberty, and the crown won by villainy was the last that was worn.

[5] This Lucius Tarquinius-whether he was the son or the grandson of King Priscus Tarquinius is not clear; if I should give him as the son I should have the preponderance of authorities-had a brother, Arruns Tarquinius, a youth of gentle character. The two Tullias, the king's daughters, had, as I have already stated, married these two brothers; and they themselves were of utterly unlike dispositions.

[6] It was, I believe, the good fortune of Rome which intervened to prevent two violent natures from being joined in marriage, in order that the reign of Servius Tullius might last long enough to allow the State to settle into its new constitution. The high-spirited one of the two Tullias was annoyed that there was nothing in her husband for her to work on in the direction of either greed or ambition. All her affections were transferred to the other Tarquin; he was her admiration, he, she said, was a man, he was really of royal blood.

[7] She despised her sister, because having a man for her husband she was not animated by the spirit of a woman. Likeness of character soon drew them together, as evil usually consorts best with evil. But it was the woman who was the originator of all the mischief.

[8] She constantly held clandestine interviews with her sister's husband, to whom she unsparingly vilified alike her husband and her sister, asserting that it would have been better for her to have remained unmarried and he a bachelor, rather than for them each to be thus unequally mated, and fret in idleness through the poltroonery of others. Had heaven given her the husband she deserved, she would soon have seen the sovereignty which her father wielded established in her own house.

[9] She rapidly infected the young man with her own recklessness. Lucius Tarquin and the younger Tullia, by a double murder, cleared from their houses the obstacles to a fresh marriage; their nuptials were solemnised with the tacit acquiescence rather than the approbation of Servius.

Notes on the current edition

History of Rome, books 1-10, 21-45

1. This is noticed as the first trace of the Agrarian division by Niebuhr, i. p. 161.

2. His son. Dionysius will have it that he was the grandson. See Nieb. i. p. 367.

Titus Livius (Livy) Ab urbe condita 1.46

D. Spillan, A.M., M.D. (Translator), Cyrus Edmonds (Translator), William A. McDevitte (Translator)

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