in peace and war become thoroughly acquainted with the political and religious institutions of the Romans, under a master by no means to be despised, King Ancus himself; that he had vied with all in duty and loyalty to his king, and with the king himself in his bounty to others.  While he was recounting these undoubted facts, the people with great unanimity elected him king.  The same spirit of ambition which had prompted Tarquin, in other respects an excellent man, to aspire to the crown, attended him also on the throne.  And being no less mindful of strengthening his own power, than of increasing the commonwealth, he elected a hundred new members into the senate, who from that time were called minorum gentium, a party who stanchly supported the king, by whose favour they had been admitted into the senate.  The first war he waged was with the Latins, in whose territory he took the town of Apiolae by storm, and having brought back thence more booty than might have been expected from the reported importance of the war, he celebrated games with more magnificence and display than former kings.  The place for the circus, which is now called Maximus, was then first marked out, and spaces were apportioned to the senators and knights, where they might each erect seats for themselves:  these were called fori (benches).  They viewed the games from scaffolding which supported seats twelve feet in height from the ground.  The show consisted of horses and boxers that were summoned, chiefly from Etruria.  These solemn games, afterward celebrated annually, continued an institution, being afterward variously called the Roman and Great games.  By the same king also spaces round the forum were assigned to private individuals for building on; covered walks and shops were erected.

He was also preparing to surround the city with a stone wall, when a war with the Sabines interrupted his plans.  The whole thing was so sudden, that the enemy passed the Anio before the Roman army could meet and prevent them:  great alarm therefore was felt at Rome.  At first they fought with doubtful success, and with great slaughter on both sides.  After this, the enemy’s forces were led back into camp, and the Romans having thus gained time to make preparations for the war afresh, Tarquin, thinking that the weak point of his army lay specially in the want of cavalry, determined to add other centuries to the Ramnenses, Titienses, and Luceres which Romulus had enrolled, and to leave them distinguished by his own name.  Because Romulus had done this after inquiries by augury, Attus Navius, a celebrated soothsayer of the day, insisted that no alteration or new appointment could be made, unless the birds had approved of it.  The king, enraged at this, and, as they say, mocking at his art, said, “Come, thou diviner, tell me, whether what I have in my mind can be done or not?” When Attus, having tried the matter by divination, affirmed that it certainly could, “Well, then,” said he, “I was thinking that you should cut