passion, aversion to him, or his innate pride, had not uttered a
single word. As soon as it was clear to Sextus what his father wished,
and what conduct he enjoined by those intimations without words, he
put to death the most eminent men of the city, some by accusing them
before the people, as well as others, who from their own personal
unpopularity were liable to attack. Many were executed publicly, and
some, in whose case impeachment was likely to prove less plausible,
were secretly assassinated. Some who wished to go into voluntary exile
were allowed to do so, others were banished, and their estates, as
well as the estates of those who were put to death, publicly divided
in their absence. Out of these largesses and plunder were distributed;
and by the sweets of private gain the sense of public calamities
became extinguished, till the state of Gabii, destitute of counsel and
assistance, surrendered itself without a struggle into the power of
the Roman king.

Tarquin, having thus gained possession of Gabii, made peace with the
nation of the Aequi, and renewed the treaty with the Etruscans. He
next turned his attention to the affairs of the city. The chief of
these was that of leaving behind him the Temple of Jupiter on the
Tarpeian Mount, as a monument of his name and reign; to remind
posterity that of two Tarquinii, both kings, the father had vowed, the
son completed it.[50] Further, that the open space, to the exclusion
of all other forms of worship, might be entirely appropriated to
Jupiter and his temple, which was to be erected upon it, he resolved
to cancel the inauguration of the small temples and chapels, several
of which had been first vowed by King Tatius, in the crisis of the
battle against Romulus, and afterward consecrated and dedicated by
him. At the very outset of the foundation of this work it is said that
the gods exerted their divinity to declare the future greatness of so