Page:A history and description of Roman political institutions (IA historyanddescri00abbo).pdf/21

Rh '''11. The Results of Rome's Narrow Policy.' It may have been well for the ultimate development of Rome that the members of the old gentes'' adopted the narrow policy of retaining all political power in their own hands. Had they followed the precedent which Tullus Hostilius seems to have set in the case of Alba Longa, and admitted new gentes on a par with the old ones, the narrow tribal basis of the state might have lasted for an indefinite time. Under the ungenerous policy which was adopted, the right to control the internal and the foreign affairs of the state was the hereditary privilege of a comparatively small body of men. Over against them was a large and rapidly growing element in the community whose intolerable position would force it to break down the opposing barriers, and thus to overthrow the tribal system on which the state was based. In this connection it is significant that the new Servian organization recognized the individual as an individual and not solely as a member of a certain clan, and that the members of the new body were classified on the basis of their property and not of their family connections.

12. Etruscan Supremacy. It is very difficult to understand the foreign relations of Rome during the reigns of the last three kings, which we are now considering. According to tradition, the first of the three, Tarquinius Priscus, during the reign of his predecessor, Ancus Marcius, came to Rome from Tarquinii in Etruria, and on the death of the king succeeded to the throne. It has been suspected that under the guise of the Etruscan ancestry of Tarquin the conquest of Rome by the Etruscans has been concealed, and it is true that many changes attributed to the Tarquins may be urged in support of this hypothesis, but this conclusion is at least open to serious doubt. The favorable location of the city and its rapid growth would