The stranger had taken the king and people by storm, and when Ancus
died, he left his sons to the guardianship of Tarquinius, and the
Populus Romanus chose him to be their king. Thus Rome came to have at
the head of its affairs a man not a Roman nor a Sabine, but a citizen
of Greek extraction, who was familiar with a much higher state of
civilization than was known on the banks of the Tiber. The result is
seen in the great strides in advance that the city took during his
reign. The architectural grandeur of Rome dates its beginning from this
time. Tarquinius laid out vast drains to draw away the water that stood
in the Lacus Curtius, between the Capitoline and the Palatine hills,
and these remain to this day, as any one who has visited Rome
remembers--the mouth of the Cloaca Maxima (the great sewer) being one
of the remarkable sights there. The king also drained other parts of
the city; vowed to build, and perhaps began, the temple on the
Capitoline; built a wall about the city, and erected the permanent
buildings on the great forum. These works involved vast labor and
expense, and must have been very burdensome to the people. Like other
oppressive monarchs, Tarquinius planned games and festivities to amuse
them. He enlarged the Circus Maximus, and imported boxers and horses
from his native country to perform at games there, which were
afterwards celebrated annually. Besides these victories of peace, this
king conquered the people about him, and greatly added to the number of
his subjects. He for the first time instituted the formal "triumph," as
it was afterwards celebrated, riding into the city after a victory in a
chariot drawn by four white horses, and wearing a robe bespangled with
gold. He brought in also the augural science of his country, which had
been only partially known before.

[Illustration: MOUTH OF CLOACA MAXIMA, AT THE TIBER, AND THE SO-CALLED
TEMPLE OF VESTA.]