Chapter.

CHAPTER V.--_How an Hereditary King may come to lose his Kingdom._

Tarquin the Proud, when he had put Servius Tullius to death, inasmuch as
the latter left no heirs, took secure possession of the kingdom, having
nothing to fear from any of those dangers which had stood in the way of
his predecessors. And although the means whereby he made himself king
were hateful and monstrous, nevertheless, had he adhered to the ancient
ordinances of the earlier kings, he might have been endured, nor would
he have aroused both senate and people to combine against him and
deprive him of his government. It was not, therefore, because his son
Sextus violated Lucretia that Tarquin was driven out, but because he
himself had violated the laws of the kingdom, and governed as a tyrant,
stripping the senate of all authority, and bringing everything under
his own control. For all business which formerly had been transacted in
public, and with the sanction of the senate, he caused to be transacted
in his palace, on his own responsibility, and to the displeasure of
every one else, and so very soon deprived Rome of whatever freedom she
had enjoyed under her other kings.

Nor was it enough for him to have the Fathers his enemies, but he must
needs also kindle the commons against him, wearing them out with mere
mechanic labours, very different from the enterprises in which they had
been employed by his predecessors; so that when Rome overflowed with
instances of his cruelty and pride, he had already disposed the minds
of all the citizens to rebel whenever they found the opportunity.
Wherefore, had not occasion offered in the violence done to Lucretia,
some other had soon been found to bring about the same result. But had
Tarquin lived like the other kings, when Sextus his son committed that
outrage, Brutus and Collatinus would have had recourse to him to punish
the offender, and not to the commons of Rome. And hence let princes
learn that from the hour they first violate those laws, customs, and
usages under which men have lived for a great while, they begin to
weaken the foundations of their authority. And should they, after they
have been stripped of that authority, ever grow wise enough to see how
easily princedoms are preserved by those who are content to follow
prudent counsels, the sense of their loss will grieve them far more, and
condemn them to a worse punishment than any they suffer at the hands of
others. For it is far ea