ch. 351.35 [Note] Ancus reigned twenty-four
years, unsurpassed by any of his predecessors in ability and reputation, both in the field
and at home. His sons had now almost reached manhood. Tarquin was all the more
anxious for the election of the new king to be held as soon as possible. At the time fixed for
it he sent the boys out of the way on a hunting expedition. He is said to have
been the first who canvassed for the crown and delivered a set speech to secure the
interest of the plebs. In it he asserted that he was not making an unheard-of request, he was
not the first foreigner who aspired to the Roman throne; were this so, any one might feel
surprise and indignation. But he was the third. Tatius was not only a foreigner, but was
made king after he had been their enemy; Numa, an entire stranger to the City, had been
called to the throne without any seeking it on his part. As to himself, as soon as he was his
own master, he had removed to Rome with his wife and his whole fortune; he had lived at
Rome for a larger part of the period during which men discharge the functions of
citizenship than he had passed in his old country; he had learnt the laws of Rome, the
ceremonial rites of Rome, both civil and military, under Ancus himself, a very sufficient
teacher; he had been second to none in duty and service towards the king; he had not
yielded to the king himself in generous treatment of others. Whilst he was stating these
facts, which were certainly true, the Roman people with enthusiastic unanimity elected him
king. Though in all other respects an excellent man, his ambition, which impelled him to
seek the crown, followed him on to the throne; with the design of strengthening himself
quite as much as of increasing the State, he made a hundred new senators. These were
afterwards called the Lesser Houses and formed a body of uncompromising supporters
of the king, through whose kindness they had entered the senate.
[Note]- The first war he engaged in was with the Latins.
He took the town of Apiolae by storm; and carried off a greater amount of plunder than
could have been expected from the slight interest shown in the war. After this had been
brought in wagons to Rome, he celebrated the Games with greater splendour and on a
larger scale than his predecessors. Then for the first time a space was marked for what is
now the Circus Maximus. Spots were allotted to the patricians and knights where they
could each build for themselves stands-called fori—from which to view the Games.
These stands were raised on wooden props, branching out at the top, twelve feet high. The
contests were horse-racing and boxing, the horses and boxers mostly brought from Etruria.
They were at first celebrated on occasions of especial solemnity; subsequently they became
an annual fixture, and were called indifferently the Roman or the Great Games. This
king
also divided the ground round the Forum into building sites; arcades and shops were
put up.
