he, in a short time, by paying his court to the king without truckling
and with skilful address, improved so far as to be admitted on a
footing of intimate friendship, so much so that he was present at all
public and private deliberations alike, both foreign and domestic;
and being now proved in every sphere, he was at length, by the king's
will, also appointed guardian to his children.

Ancus reigned twenty-four years, equal to any of the former kings both
in the arts of war and peace, and in renown. His sons were now nigh
the age of puberty; for which reason Tarquin was more urgent that
the assembly for the election of a king should be held as soon as
possible. The assembly having been proclaimed, he sent the boys out
of the way to hunt just before the time of the meeting. He is said to
have been the first who canvassed for the crown, and to have made a
speech expressly worded with the object of gaining the affections of
the people: saying that he did not aim at anything unprecedented, for
that he was not the first foreigner (a thing at which any one might
feel indignation or surprise), but the third who aspired to the
sovereignty of Rome. That Tatius who had not only been an alien, but
even an enemy, had been made king; that Numa, who knew nothing of
the city, and without solicitation on his part, had been voluntarily
invited by them to the throne. That he, from the time he was his own
master, had migrated to Rome with his wife and whole fortune, and
had spent a longer period of that time of life, during which men are
employed in civil offices, at Rome, than he had in his native country;
that he had both 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