The temple on the Tarpeian rock he constructed according to the vow of his father.  And the earth having yawned even to the substructure of the foundations there appeared the head of a man freshly slain, still with blood in it.  Accordingly the Romans sent to a soothsayer of Etruria to ask what was signified by the phenomenon.  And he, desiring to make the portent apply to Etruria, made a diagram upon the ground and in it laid out the plan of Rome and the Tarpeian rock.  He intended to ask the envoys:  “Is this Rome?  Is this the Rock?  Was the head found here?” They would suspect nothing and agree in their assent, and so the efficacy of the portent would be transferred to the place where it had been shown in the diagram.  This was his design, but the envoys learned from his son what his device was, and when the question was put to them, they answered:  “The settlement of Rome is not here, but in Latium, and the hill is in the country of the Romans, and the head was found on that hill.”  Thus the design of the soothsayer was thwarted and they learned the whole truth and reported it to their fellow-citizens, to wit, that they should be very powerful and rule very many people.  So this was another event that imbued them with hope.  Then the hill was renamed by them “Capitolium”:  for capita in the Roman speech means “the head.”

Needing money for the building of the temple Tarquin waged war upon the inhabitants of Ardea; but from it he gained no money, and he was driven out of the kingdom.  Signs also came in his way that indicated his expulsion.  Out of his garden vultures drove the young of eagles, and in the men’s hall, where he was having a banquet with his friends, a huge serpent appeared and caused him and his companions at table to decamp.  In consequence of this he sent his sons Titus and Aruns to Delphi.  But as Apollo declared that he should not be driven from his domain till a dog should use human speech, he was elated with hopes for the best, thinking that the oracle could never be fulfilled.

[Sidenote:  FRAG. 10^5] NOW LUCIUS JUNIUS WAS A SON OF TARQUIN’S SISTER; HIS FATHER AND BROTHER TARQUIN HAD KILLED. SO HE, FEARING FOR HIS OWN PERSON, FEIGNED MADNESS, EMPLOYING THIS MEANS OF SAFETY AS A SCREEN FOR HIS LIFE.  HENCE HE WAS DUBBED BRUTUS, FOR THIS IS THE NAME BY WHICH THE LATINS ARE ACCUSTOMED TO CALL IDIOTS.  WHILE PRETENDING TO BE MAD HE WAS TAKEN ALONG AS A PLAYTHING BY THE CHILDREN OF TARQUIN, WHEN THEY JOURNEYED TO DELPHI.  AND HE SAID THAT HE WAS CARRYING A VOTIVE OFFERING TO THE GOD; THIS WAS A STAFF, APPARENTLY POSSESSING NO POINT OF EXCELLENCE, so that he became a laughing stock for it all the more.  It furnished a kind of image of the affliction that he feigned.  For he had hollowed it out and had secretly poured in gold, indicating thereby that the disesteem which he suffered for his madness served to conceal a sound and estimable intelligence. [Sidenote:  FRAG. 10^7] TO THE QUERY OF THE SONS OF TARQUIN AS TO WHO SHOULD SUCCEED TO THEIR FATHER’S SOVEREIGNTY THE GOD REPLIED THAT THE FIRST WHO KISSED HIS MOTHER SHOULD OBTAIN THE POWER.  AND BRUTUS, COMPREHENDING, FELL DOWN AS IF ACCIDENTALLY AND COVERED THE EARTH WITH KISSES, RIGHTLY DEEMING HER TO BE THE MOTHER OF ALL.