A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1186 TULLIUS. TULLIUS.
-and from that day forward the street bore the this point we are entirely in the dark. Niebuhr,
name of the Vicus Sceleratuss, or Wicked Street. in the first edition of his history, inclined strongly
The body lay unburied, for Tarquinius said scof- to the opinion that Rome was of Etruscan origin,
fingly, " Romulus too went without burial;" and and in his lectures, delivered in the year 1826, he
this impious mockery is said to have given rise to adopted the Etruscan tradition respecting the origin
his surname of Superbus (Liv. i. 46 —48; Ov. of Servius Tullius, on the ground " that Etruscan
Fast. vi. 581, foll.). Servius had reigned forty- literature is so decidedly more ancient than that of
four years. His memory was long cherished by the Romans, that he did not hesitate to give prethe plebeians, and his birth-day was celebrated on ference to the traditions of the former." (Lectures,
the nones of every month, for it was remembered p. 84.) In the second edition of his history, howthat he was born on the nones of some month, but ever, Niebuhr so completely abandoned his former
the month itself had become a matter of uncer- idea of the Etruscan origin of Rome, that he would
tainty. At a later time, when the oppressions of not even admit the Etruscan origin of the Luceres, a
the patricians became more and more intolerable, point in which most subsequent scholars dissent
the senate found it necessary to forbid the markets from him; and in his Lectures of the year 1828,
to be holden on the nones, lest the people should he strongly maintains the Latin origin of Servius
attempt an insurrection to restore the laws of Tullius, and asserts his belief that "Etruscan litetheir martyred monarch. (Macrob. Sat. i. 13.) rature is mostly assigned to too early a period, and
The Roman traditions, as we have seen, were that to the time from the Hannibalian war down to
unanimous in making Servius Tullius of Latin the time of Sulla, a period of somewhat more than a
origin. He is universally stated to have been the century, most of the literary productions of the Etrusson of a native of Corniculum, which was a Latin cans must be referred." (Lectures, p. 125.) But the
town; and Niebuhr, in his Lectures, supposes that fact is that whether we are to follow the Etruscan
he may have been the offspring of a marriage be- or the Roman tradition about Servius is one of
tween one of the Luceres and a woman of Corni- those points on which no certainty can be by any
culum, previously to the establishment of the con- possibility obtained. So much seems clear, that
nubium, and that this may be the foundation of Servius usurped the throne: he seized the royalty
the story of his descent. His name Tullius also upon the murder of the former king, without being
indicates a Latin origin, since the Tullii are ex- elected by the senate and the comitia, and he inpressly mentioned as one of the Alban gentes troduced great constitutional changes, apparently
which were received into the Latin state in the to strengthen his power against a powerful faction
reign of Tullus Hostilius. (Liv. i. 30.) His in- in the state. It is equally clear that his reign
stitutions, likewise, bear all the traces of a Latin came to a violent end: he was dethroned and
character. But the Etruscan tradition about this murdered by the descendants of the previous king,
king was entirely different, and made him a native in league with his enemies in the state, who sought
of Etruria. This Etruscan tradition was related to recover the power of which they had been disby the emperor Claudius, in a speech which he possessed. Now if we are right in our supposition
made upon the admission of some Lugdunensian that Tarquinius Priscus and Tarquinius Superbus
GauIs into the senate; and the fragments of which were both of Etruscan origin, and represent an
are still preserved on two tables discovered at Etruscan sovereignty at Rome [TARQUINIUS], it
Lyons in the sixteenth century, and since the time seems to follow that the reign of Servius Tullius
of Lipsius have been printed in most editions of represents a successful attempt of the Latins to
Tacitus. In this speech Claudius says " that, ac- recover their independence, or in any case the socording to the Tuscans, Servius was the faithful corm- vereignty of an Etruscan people different from the
panion of Caeles Vibenna, and shared all his for- one to which the Tarquins belonged. Further than
tunes: that at last being overpowered by a variety of this we cannot go; and it seems to us impossible
disasters, he quitted Etruria with the remains of to determine which supposition has the greatest prethe army which had served under Caeles, went to ponderance of evidence in its favour. K. O. Miller
Rome, and occupied the Caelian Hill, calling it so adopted the latter supposition. He believed that
after his former commander: that lie exchanged the Etruscan town of Tarquinii was at the head of
his Tuscan name Mastarna for the Roman one of the twelve cities of Etruria at this time, that it
Servius Tullius, obtained the kingly power, and conquered Rome, and that the reign of Tarquinins
wielded it to the great good of the state." This Priscus represents the supremacy of the state of
Caeles Vibenna was well known to the Roman Tarquinii at Rome. He further supposed that fhe
writers, according to whom he came himself to supremacy of Tarquinii may not have been uniRome, though the statements in whose reign he versally acknowledged throughout Etruria, and
came differed greatly. All accounts, however, re- that the army of Caeles and of his lieutenant Maspresent him as a leader of an army raised by him- tarna perhaps belonged to the town of Volsinii,
self, and not belonging to any state, and as coming which wished to maintain its independence against
to Rome by the invitation of the Roman kings, to Tarquinii; that it was with the remains of this
assist them. [CAELES.] There can be no question army that }Mastarna eventually conquered Rome,
that the emperor Claudius drew his account from and thus destroyed the dominion of Tarquinii in
Etruscan annals; and there is no reason for dis- that city. (MUller, Etrusker, vol. i. p. 121.)
believing that Caeles Vibenna and Mastarna are
historical personages, for, as Niebuhr observes, CONSTITUTION OF SRRVIUS TULLIUS.
Caeleo is too frequently and too distinctly men- The most important event connected with the
tioned to be fabulous, and his Etruscan name can- reign of Servius Tullius is the new constitution
nat have been invented by the Romans. The value which he gave to the Roman state. The details of
of the tradition about Mastarna would very much this constitution are stated in different articles in
depend upon the date of the Etruscan authorities, the Dictionasy of Antiquities., and it is therefore only
from whom Claudius derived his account; but on necessary to give here a general outline, which the