The Story of Greece and Rome for boys and girls
- Автор: Macgregor Mary
- Год: 1914
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Зарубежная литература для детей
Электронная книга - «The Story of Greece and Rome for boys and girls». Краткое содержание книги:
The Story of Greece: Told to Boys and Girls от Mary Macgregor
The Story of Rome, From the Earliest Times to the Death of Augustus, Told to Boys and Girls от Mary Esther Miller MacGregor
King Ancus heard of the wealth and the wisdom of the stranger who had come to Rome, and ere long he sent a messenger to Tarquinius, bidding him attend the king’s councils. So wisely did Tarquinius behave that the king soon treated him as a friend.
When Ancus Marcius was dying, he did not fear the future for his children. They would be safe, he believed, in the care of Tarquinius. But he, alas! betrayed his trust that he might satisfy his own ambition.
After the death of the king, Tarquinius, pretending that he wished to make the sons of Ancus forget their grief, persuaded them to go away from the city to hunt.
In their absence the false friend appealed to the people to make him king, and this they did.
Tarquinius had gained his power by a treacherous deed, but by his courage on the battlefield he won the admiration of his subjects.
He fought against the Latins, and made many of their cities subject to Rome. And when the Sabines took up arms and marched almost to the gates of the city, Tarquinius, vowing that if Jupiter would come to his aid he would build a temple in his honour, rushed against the foe and drove it away.
Flushed with victory, he then went to war with the Etruscans, and forced them to acknowledge him as their king.
As a sign of their subjection the conquered tribe sent to Tarquinius royal gifts—a golden crown, a sceptre, an ivory chair, an embroidered tunic, a purple toga, and twelve axes tied up in bundles of rods.
These gifts the king sent before him to Rome as a proof of his victory over the Etruscans.
Then, when peace was at length proclaimed, Tarquinius remembered the vow he had made to Jupiter, and began to build a temple on the Capitoline hill.
As the workmen were digging, in order to lay a good foundation, they found a human head. This was a sign, so said those who knew, that the spot on which the head had been buried should become the chief place of worship in Rome.
The temple, when it was finished, was named the Capitol, and in days to come it was indeed looked upon as the most sacred building in the city.
Although Tarquinius was but a usurper, yet he did all that he could to improve the kingdom over which he ruled.
He ordered great drains to be built, that the marshy valleys between the hills of Rome might become healthier. He also built a large circus and a racecourse, to encourage the games of the people, and in course of time the Roman games became famous.
In the valley between the Capitoline hill and the Palatine hill the king then began to build the Forum, or market-place. Round the Forum he set up booths, where the trades-folk might carry on their business.
Meanwhile, the subjects of Rome had become so numerous, that the king wished to increase the three tribes into which Romulus had divided his people.
But a skilful augur, named Attius, forbade Tarquinius to alter what Romulus had consecrated with rites sacred to the gods.
The king could ill brook interference, and he mocked at the augur’s words in the Forum, where the people had assembled.
Then, thinking to show that Attius was not really as wise as he was believed to be, he cried: ‘Tell me, O Attius, can the thing of which I am thinking at this moment come to pass?’
The augur, undisturbed by the mockery of the king, consulted the sacred birds. Yes, the omens were good. The thought in the mind of the king could be put into action.
Tarquinius pointed to a whetstone which lay before him, and said: ‘Can you then cut this whetstone in twain with a razor?’
Undismayed, Attius at once seized a razor, and with one stroke the stone was split in two.
Then the king was afraid, and dared not disregard the wisdom of the augur. So the number of tribes ordained by Romulus was left unchanged.
But Tarquinius doubled the nobles in each tribe, and also increased the companies of knights.
CHAPTER XVI
A SLAVE BECOMES A KING
Among the slaves of the king was a young boy named Servius Tullius. One day the lad fell fast asleep in the doorway of the palace.
As he slept, it chanced that Tanaquil, the queen, came out to walk in the palace grounds. When she saw Servius she would have roused him, save that a flame of fire was playing around his head, yet doing him no hurt.
But the attendants of the queen also saw this strange sight, and at once rushed off in search of water with which to put out the flame.
Tanaquil, however, called to them to return, saying: ‘Leave the lad to sleep. The flame will not injure him.’
Then, hastening back to the palace, she told the king what she had seen, adding: ‘The gods have appointed Servius to great honour.’
From that day the boy was no longer treated as a slave, but as the king’s son, and when he was older he was married to the daughter of Tarquinius.
Little by little Servius Tullius was entrusted with the cares of State, while the Senate or elders of the people treated him as a prince.
Now the sons of Ancus, from whom Tarquinius had stolen the crown, were indignant when they saw the former slave treated with more honour than were they, and they grew afraid lest the king should appoint Servius to succeed him. That this might not be, they determined to kill Tarquinius.
Hiring two men, they bade them go kill the king, and they should be well rewarded for their deed.
So the men disguised themselves as shepherds, and begged to be admitted to the presence of Tarquinius, that he might settle their dispute, for, so they pretended, they had quarrelled with one another while they tended their flocks.
When they stood before the king one of the shepherds began to tell a piteous tale. While Tarquinius was listening, the other suddenly raised his axe, and with one great blow killed the king. The false shepherds then fled from the palace.
But the sons of Ancus had forgotten that Tanaquil was left to thwart their plans.
No sooner was the king slain, than she ordered the doors of the palace to be closed. Then, when the people heard it rumoured that the king was dead and rushed to the palace, Tanaquil opened an upper window and spoke to the crowds below.
‘The king is but wounded,’ she told them, ‘he is not dead. He has commanded that you should obey Servius until he is again able to rule.’ But all the while Tarquinius lay in the palace, dead.
But the people, loyal, as they thought, to the wishes of their king, allowed Servius to rule. And the sons of Ancus knew that they had killed the king in vain.
A few days later it was known that the king was really dead; yet, although neither the Senate nor the people had chosen Servius to be king, he continued to sit upon the throne and to rule over Rome. Moreover, he was wise enough to try to win the hearts of the people by promising to give them land and to rule justly.
So well did he perform his royal duties, that when he called together an assembly of the people he was at once elected king.
CHAPTER XVII
THE CRUEL DEED OF TULLIA
Servius Tullius began to reign in 578 B.C. Like Pompilius and Ancus, he loved peace, and fought against none, save only the Etruscans.
With the Latins he made a treaty, after which the two tribes built a temple to Diana on the Aventine hill, and here every year sacrifices were offered for Rome and for Latium.
The city which Romulus had built on the Palatine had long ago become too small for the Romans. Little by little, cities had grown up on the neighbouring hills, and now Servius was able to enclose all the seven hills of Rome within the city, building around her a great wall of stone. This wall was called after the king the ‘Servian Wall,’ and so strongly was it built that it was still standing in the days of Augustus. Beyond the wall a deep moat was then dug, a hundred feet in breadth.