The murderers of Tarquinius were arrested and his wife and Tullius learned the plan of the plot; but instead of making Tarquinius’s death known at once, they took him up and tended him (pretending that he was still alive), and meantime exchanged mutual pledges that Tullius should take the sovereignty but surrender it to Tanaquil’s sons when they became men.  And when the multitude ran together and raised an outcry, Tanaquil, leaning out of an upper story, said:  “Be not afraid.  My husband both lives and shall be seen by you shortly.  But in order that he may regain health at leisure and that no hindrance to business may arise from his being incapacitated, he entrusts the management of the public weal for the present to Tullius.”  These were her words and the people not unwillingly accepted Tullius:  for he was thought to be an upright man.

So, having been granted the administration of public affairs, he managed them for the most part according to orders supposed to emanate from Tarquinius. [Sidenote:  FRAG. 9] BUT WHEN HE SAW THE PEOPLE OBEYING HIM IN ALL POINTS, he brought the assassins of Tarquinius before the senate, though, to be sure, only because of their plot; for he was still pretending that the king was still alive.  They were sentenced and put to death, and the sons of Marcius through fear took refuge among the Volsci.  Then did Tullius reveal the death of Tarquinius and openly take possession of the kingdom.  At first he put forward the children of Tarquinius as his excuse and caused it to be understood that he was the guardian of their royal office, but afterward he proceeded to pay court to the people, believing that he could secure control of the multitude very much more easily than of the patricians.  He gave them money, assigned land to each individual, and made preparations to free the slaves and adopt them into tribes.  As the nobles were irritated at this, he gave instructions that those liberated should perform some services, in requital, for the men that had liberated them.  Now since the patricians were disaffected in the matter of his aspirations and circulated among other sayings one to the effect that no one had chosen him to hold the sovereignty, he gathered the people and harangued them.  And by the use of many alluring statements he so disposed them toward himself that they at once voted the kingdom to him outright.  He in return bestowed many gifts upon them and enrolled some of them in the senate.  These originally in most matters were at a disadvantage as compared with the patricians, but as time went on they shared equally with the patricians in everything save the office of interrex and the priesthoods, and were distinguished from them in no respect except by their shoes.  For the shoes of the patricians were made ornate by the addition of straps and the imprint of the letter, which were intended to signify that they were descended from the original hundred men that had been senators.  The letter R, they say, either indicates the number of the hundred men referred to or else is used as the initial of the name of the Romans.