, but, calling an assembly of the people,
he ordered the lictors to lower the fasces before them, as an
acknowledgment that their power was superior to his. He likewise brought
forward a law enacting that every citizen who was condemned by a
magistrate should have a right of appeal to the people. Valerius became,
in consequence, so popular that he received the surname of _Publicola_,
or "The People's Friend."

Valerius then summoned an assembly for the election of a successor to
Brutus, and Sp. Lucretius was chosen. Lucretius, however, lived only a
few days, and M. Horatius was elected consul in his place. It was
Horatius who had the honor of consecrating the temple on the Capitol,
which Tarquin had left unfinished when he was driven from the throne.

The second year of the republic (B.C. 508) witnessed the second attempt
of Tarquin to recover the crown. He now applied for help to Lars
Porsena, the powerful ruler of the Etruscan town of Clusium, who marched
against Rome at the head of a vast army. The Romans could not meet him
in the field; and Porsena seized without opposition the Janiculum, a
hill immediately opposite the city, and separated from it only by the
Tiber. Rome was now in the greatest danger, and the Etruscans would have
entered the city by the Sublician bridge had not Horatius Cocles, with
two comrades, kept the whole Etruscan army at bay while the Romans broke
down the bridge behind him. When it was giving way he sent back his two
companions, and withstood alone the attacks of the foe till the cracks
of the falling timbers and the shouts of his countrymen told him that
the bridge had fallen. Then praying, "O Father Tiber, take me into thy
charge and bear me up!" he plunged into the stream and swam across in
safety, amid the arrows of the enemy. The state raised a statue in his
honor, and allowed him as much land as he could plow round in one day.
Few legends are more celebrated in Roman history than this gallant deed
of Horatius, and Roman writers loved to tell

"How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old."

The Etruscans now proceeded to lay siege to the city, which soon began
to suffer from famine. Thereupon a young Roman, named C. Mucius,
resolved to deliver his country by murdering the invading king. He
accordingly went over to the Etruscan camp; but, ignorant of the person
of Porsena, killed the royal secretary instead. Seized and threatened
with torture, he thrust his