he had been born.
As the Etrurians despised Lucumo, because sprung from a foreign exile,
she could not bear the affront, and regardless of the innate love of her
native country, provided she might see her husband advanced to honours,
she formed the determination to leave Tarquinii. Rome seemed
particularly suited for her purpose. In this state, lately founded,
where all nobility is recent and the result of merit, there would be
room for her husband, a man of courage and activity. Tatius a Sabine had
been king of Rome: Numa had been sent for from Cures to reign there:
Ancus was sprung from a Sabine mother, and rested his nobility on the
single statue of Numa. She easily persuades him, as being ambitious of
honours, and one to whom Tarquinii was his country only on the mother's
side. Accordingly, removing their effects they set out together for
Rome. They happened to have reached the Janiculum; there, as he sat in
the chariot with his wife, an eagle, suspended on her wings, gently
stooping, takes off his cap, and flying round the chariot with loud
screams, as if she had been sent from heaven for the very purpose,
orderly replaced it on his head, and then flew aloft. Tanaquil is said
to have received this omen with great joy, being a woman well skilled,
as the Etrurians generally are, in celestial prodigies, and embracing
her husband, bids him hope for high and elevated fortune: that such bird
had come from such a quarter of the heavens, and the messenger of such a
god: that it had exhibited the omen around the highest part of man: that
it had lifted the ornament placed on the head of man, to restore it to
the same, by direction of the gods. Carrying with them these hopes and
thoughts, they entered the city, and having purchased a house there,
they gave out the name of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. His being a
stranger and very rich, caused him to be taken notice of by the Romans.
He also promoted his own good fortune by his affable address, by the
courteousness of his invitations, and by conciliating those whom he
could by acts of kindness; until a report of him reached even to the
palace; and by paying court to the king with politeness and address, he
in a short time so improved the acquaintance to the footing of intimate
friendship, that he was present at all public and private deliberations,
foreign and domestic; and being now tried in every trust, he was at
length, by the king's will, appointed guardian to his children.