The officers and attendants of the king fled. The king himself, half dead from the violence, was put to death by those whom Tarquin had sent in pursuit of him. It is the current belief that this was done at Tullia's suggestion, for it is quite in keeping with the rest of her wickedness.
At all events, it is generally agreed that she drove down to the Forum in a two-wheeled car, and, unabashed by the presence of the crowd, called her husband out of the senate-house and was the first to salute him as king.
He told her to make her way out of the tumult, and when on her return
she had got as far as the top of the Cyprius Vicus, where the temple of
Diana lately stood, and was turning to the right on the Urbius Clivus,
to get to the
Then, the tradition runs, a foul and unnatural crime was committed, the memory of which the place still bears, for they call it the Vicus Sceleratus. It is said that Tullia, goaded to madness by the avenging spirits of her sister and her husband, drove right over her father's body, and carried back some of her father's blood with which the car and she herself were defiled to her own and her husband's house-hold gods, through whose anger a reign which began in wickedness was soon brought to a close by a like cause.
Servius Tullius reigned forty-four years, and even a wise and good
successor would have found it difficult to fill the throne as he had
done. The glory of his reign was all the greater because with him
perished all just and lawful kingship in
Gentle and moderate as his sway had been, he had nevertheless, according to some authorities, formed the intention of laying it down, because it was vested in a single person, but this purpose of giving freedom to the State was cut short by that domestic crime.
Lucius Tarquinius now began his reign. His conduct procured for him the nickname of “Superbus,” for he deprived his father-in-law of burial, on the plea that Romulus was not buried, and he slew the leading nobles whom he suspected of being partisans of Servius.
Conscious that the precedent which he had set, of winning a throne by violence, might be used against himself, he surrounded himself with a guard.
For he had nothing whatever by which to make good his claim to the crown except actual violence; he was reigning without either being elected by the people or confirmed by the senate.
As more over, he had no hope of winning the affections of the citizens, he had to maintain his dominion by fear.
To make himself more dreaded, he conducted the trials in capital cases without any assessors, and under this pretence he was able to put to death, banish, or fine not only those whom he suspected or disliked, but also those from whom his only object was to extort money.
His main object was so to reduce the number of senators, by refusing to fill up any vacancies, that the dignity of the order itself might be lowered through the smallness of its numbers, and less indignation felt at all public business being taken out of its hands.
He was the first of the kings to break through the traditional custom of consulting the senate on all questions, the first to conduct the government on the advice of his palace favourites. War, peace, treaties, alliances were made or broken off by him, just as he thought good, without any authority from either people or senate.
He made a special point of securing the Latin nation, that through his power and influence abroad he might be safer amongst his subjects at home; he not only formed ties of hospitality with their chief men, but established family connections.