9.
By this time the Tarquins had fled to Lars1 Porsena, king of Clusium. There, mixing advice with their entreaties, “They sometimes besought him not to suffer them, who were descended from the Etrurians, and of the same blood and name, to live in exile and poverty; at other times they advised him not to let this commencing practice of expelling [p. 90]kings pass unpunished.
[2]
That liberty has charms enough in itself;
[3]
and unless kings defend their crowns with as much vigour as the people pursue their liberty, that the highest must be reduced to a level with the lowest; there will be nothing exalted, nothing distinguished above the rest; and hence there must be an end of regal government, the most beautiful institution both among gods and men.”
[4]
Porsena, thinking that it would be an honour to the Tuscans both that there should be a king at Rome, and especially one of the Etrurian nation, marched towards Rome with a hostile army.
[5]
Never before on any other occasion did so great terror seize the senate; so powerful was the state of Clusium at the time, and so great the renown of Porsena. Nor did they only dread their enemies, but even their own citizens, lest the common people, through excess of fear, should, by receiving the Tarquins into the city, accept peace even if purchased with slavery.
[6]
Many conciliatory concessions were therefore granted to the people by the senate during that period. Their attention, in the first place, was directed to the markets, and persons were sent, some to the Volscians, others to Cumae, to buy up corn. The privilege2 of selling salt, also, because it was farmed at a high rent, was all taken into the hands of government,3 and withdrawn from private individuals; and the people were freed from port-duties and taxes; that the rich, who were adequate to bearing the burden, should contribute; that the poor paid tax enough if they educated their
[7]
children. This indulgent care of the fathers accordingly kept the whole state in such concord amid the subsequent se- [p. 91]verities in the siege and famine, that the highest abhorred the name of king not more than the
[8]
lowest; nor was any single individual afterwards so popular by intriguing practices, as the whole senate then was by their excellent government.
1 Lar. This is generally understood to have been a title of honour equivalent to our term Lord.
2 Arbitrium signifies not only the “privilege,” but the “rent” paid for such privilege, or right of monopoly.
3 Was all taken into the hands of government. In my version of this passage I have conformed to the emendation of the original first proposed by Gronovius, and admitted by Stroth and Bekker; scil. in publicum omne sumptum. —They did not let these salt-works by auction, but took them into their own management, and carried them on by means of persons employed to work on the public account. These salt-works, first established at Ostia by Ancus, were, like other public property, farmed out to the publicans. As they had a high rent to pay, the price of salt was raised in proportion; but now the patricians, to curry favour with the plebeians, did not let the salt-pits to private tenants, but kept them in the hands of public labourers, to collect all the salt for the public use; and appointed salesmen to retail it to the people at a cheaper rate. See Stocker's ed.
Livy. History of Rome by Titus Livius, the first eight Books. literally translated, with notes and illustrations, by. D. Spillan. York Street, Covent Garden, London. Henry G. Bohn. John Child and son, printers. 1857. 1.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.