as
expelled the city, with his wife and family, on account of the violence
offered by his son Sextus to Lucretia, a noble lady, the wife of
Collatinus.

This revolution was brought about chiefly by means of Lucius Junius
Brutus. The haughtiness and cruelty of Tarquin inspired the Romans with
the greatest aversion to regal government, which they retained ever
after.

In the two hundred and forty-fourth year from the building of the city,
they elected two magistrates, of equal authority, and gave them the name
of consuls. They had the same badges as the kings, except the crown, and
nearly the same power; in time of war they possessed supreme command,
and usually drew lots to determine which should remain in Rome--they
levied soldiers, nominated the greater part of the officers, and
provided what was necessary for their support.

In dangerous conjunctures, they were armed by the senate with absolute
power, by the solemn decree that the consuls should take care the
Republic receives no harm. In any serious tumult or sedition they called
the Roman citizens to arms in these words, "Let those who wish to save
the republic follow me"--by which they easily checked it.

Although their authority was very much impaired, first by the tribunes
of the people, and afterwards upon the establishment of the empire, yet
they were still employed in consulting the senate, administering
justice, managing public games and the like, and had the honor to
characterize the year by their own names.

To be a candidate for the consulship, it was requisite to be forty-three
years of age: to have gone through the inferior offices of _quaestor_,
_aedile_, and _praetor_--and to be present in a private station.

The office of praetor was instituted partly because the consuls being
often wholly taken up with foreign wars, found the want of some person
to administer justice in the city; and partly because the nobility,
having lost their appropriation of the consulship, were ambitious of
obtaining some new honor in its room. He was attended in the city by two
_lictors_, who went before him with the _fasces_, and six _lictors_
without the city; he wore also, like the consuls, the _toga pretexta_,
or white robe fringed with purple.

The power of the praetor, in the administration of justice, was expressed
in three words, _do_, _dico_, _addico_. By the word _do_, he expressed
his power in giving the form of a writ for trying and redressing a
wrong, and