Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/333

 CHAP. III. ViESl EEVOLUTION. 327 event restored the supremacy to the senate, which set up a king of its own choice. Ancus scrupulously ob- served all the religious rites, made war as seldom as possible, and passed his life in the temples. Dear to the patricians, he died in his bed. The fifth king was Tarquin, who obtained the throne in spite of the senate, and by the help of the lower classes. He was troubled little with religious scruples ; indeed, he was very incredulous; nothing less than a miracle could convince him of the science of the augurs. He was an enemy of the ancient families; he created patricians, and changed the old religious constitution of the city as much as possible. Tarquin was assassi- nated. The sixth king gained possession of the throne by stratagem : it should seem, indeed, that the senate never recognized him as a legitimate king. He flat- tered the lower classes, distributed lands among them without regard to the rights of property, and even con- ferred political riglits upon them. Servius was mur- dered on the steps of the senate house. The quarrel between the kings and the aristocracy assumed the character of a social struggle. The kings sided with the people, and depended for support upon the clients and the plebs. To the patrician order, so powerfully organized, they opposed the lower classes, so numerous at Rome. The aristocracy then found itself threatened by a double peril, the worst of which was not the necessity of giving way before royalty. It saw rising in its rear the classes that it despised. It saw the plebs organizing, a class without religion and without a sacred fire. It saw itself in danger of being attacked by its clients, within the family itselfj whose tonstitution, rights, and religion were discussed and