Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/334

 328 THE EEVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. jeopardized. In the eyes of the aristocracy, therefore^ the kings were odious enemies, who, to augment theij own power, were planning to overthrow the sacred organization of the family and of the city. The second Tarquin succeeded Servius ; he disap- pointed the hopes of the senators wlio had elected him, and wished to be master — de rer/e dominus exstitit. He weakened the patricians to the extent of his jiower; he struck off the liighest l)cads; reigned without con- sulting the Fathers, and made war and peace without asking their approval. The patricians seemed com- pletely subdued. Finally, an occasion presented itself. Tarquin was far from Rome ; liis army — that is to say, his support — was also away. The city was, for a time, in the handa of the ])atricians. The prefect of the city — that ia to say, the one who held the civil power during the absence of the king — was a patrician, Lucretius. The commander of the cavalry — that is to say, the one whose military authority was next to that of the king — was a patrician, Junius.' These two men prepared the insurrection. They had, as associates, other pa- tricians, Valerius and Tarquinius CoUatinus. The place of meeting was not at Rome, but at the little city of Collatia, which was the property of one of the conspiratois. There they showed the people the body of a woman ; they said this woman bad taken her own life as a punishment for the crime of a son of the king. The people of Collatia revolt and move on to Rome ; there the same scene is renewed. Men are taken by surprise ; the king's partisans are disconcerted, and be- sides, at this very moment, the legal power in Rome belongs to Jtmius and Lucretius. ' The Junian family was patrician. Dionysius, IV. C8