Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/84

 72 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME were elected annually. Rome began its career as a republic in the year 509 B.C., and continued always on the principle of The ReD w double magistracies — two consuls,two praetors, two quaestors, and so on ; so that there was never any one person who could make use of his office to snatch at supreme power. At the outset, all officers had to be elected exclusively from the families of the nobility, who were called Patricians. For some centuries to come there was a protracted struggle between Patricians and the Commons or Plebeians, in the course of which the Commons gradually won for themselves all the rights which had at first been the exclusive privilege of the Patricians. A hundred years after the first foundation of Rome she had become the chief city of the Latin League. Now we can to some extent correct this traditional account of the origin of the Roman republic. The point where Rome Tradition was built was marked by the leaders of the Latin corrected. League as a valuable position to fortify. The city had its origin as a fortress planted by the Latin League as a military colony. But if it was the frontier post of the Latins, it was also the point of attack both for the Etruscans and Sabellians. Now the legend tells us that the first four kings were alternately Latins and Sabines, that is, Sabellians, and that two of the last three were Etruscan. Further, we find that there were three tribes of nobles which were of Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan origin respectively. Further, the expulsion of the kings was the expulsion of an Etruscan dynasty. The conclusion is that the fortress of Rome was a perpetual object of contest between Latins, Sabines and Etruscans ; that its occupants had become a composite of the three races ; that in the last period repre- The Roman sented by the Etruscan kings, Tarquinius Priscus Kings. an( j Tarquinius Superbus, an Etruscan dynasty did actually establish itself; and that the expulsion of the kings was in part, at least, a revolt against the Etruscan supremacy, in which the nobility of Etruscan descent (as shown by their names) were as active as Latins or Sabines. Now there is another point to be noted. The legend makes no suggestion of a hereditary monarchy. It is only when we reach the Etruscan stage that an attempt is made to establish