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