lius was king of the Romans after the death of Romulus._ Sec.
28.--_How there were in Rome seven kings one after the other down to
Tarquin, and how in his time they lost the lordship._
Sec. 29.--_How Rome was ruled for a long time by the government of the
consuls and senators, until Julius Caesar became Emperor._
[Sidenote: Par. vi. 79-81. Convivio iv. 5: 16-29. De Monarchia ii. 9:
99-105; and ii. 12. Epist. vii. (3) 64-73.]
After that the kings had been driven out, and the government of Rome
was left to the consuls and senators, the said King Tarquin and his
son, with the aid of King Porsenna of Tuscany, who reigned in the city
of Chiusi [Clusium], made great war upon the Romans, but in the end
the victory remained with the Romans. And afterwards the Republic of
Rome was ruled and governed for 450 years by consuls and senators, and
at times by dictators, whose authority endured for five years; and
they were, so to speak, emperors, for that which they commanded must
of necessity be done; and other divers offices, such as tribunes of
the people, and praetors, and censors, and chiliarchs. And in this time
there were in Rome many changes, and wars, and battles, not only with
their neighbours, but with all the nations of the world; the which
Romans by force of arms, and virtue and the wisdom of good citizens,
ruled over well-nigh all the provinces and realms and dominions in the
world, and gained sovereignty over them, and made them tributary, with
the greatest battles, and with slaughter of many nations of the world,
and of the Romans themselves, in divers times, well-nigh innumerable
to relate. And also among the citizens themselves, by reason of envy
against the rulers, and strifes between magnates and them of the
people; and on the cessation of foreign wars, there arose much
fighting and slaughter ofttimes among the citizens; and, in addition
to this, from time to time intolerable pestilences arose among the
Romans. And this government endured until the great battles of Julius
Caesar against Pompey, and then against his sons, in which Caesar was
victorious; then the said Caesar did away with the office of consuls
and of dictators, and he first was called Emperor. And after him
Octavianus Augustus, who ruled in peace, after many battles, over the
whole world, at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, 700 years after
the foundation of Rome; and thus it is seen that Rome was governed by
kings for 254 years, and by c
|