![]() The stunned Collatinus said nothing at first. For your fellow citizens are persuaded that the tyranny of the Tarquins will only depart when all the Tarquins are gone.” Free your city from this fear, even though it be an empty one. On my authority, you will be provided with whatever you need. Now, banish their name, the name you yourself bear. Does this not put our liberty in danger? Only you, Collatinus Tarquin, can free us from this fear. I cannot believe that having won your liberty from the Tarquins, you Romans not only let the family remain in the city, but give the imperium to one of their line. He proclaimed, “For the love of the republic, I cannot remain silent. ![]() First, he made them recite the oath promising never to allow a king at Rome nor any man who was a threat to its liberty, to do all in their power to prevent it, and to condemn no action that might avert it. Eventually, Brutus had to call the plebs to a meeting. The murmuring against Collatinus started gradually and then spread throughout the city. Because the Romans knew that the Tarquins did not know how to live as private citizens, they considered Collatinus’ name itself a threat to their liberty. Now that Tarquin had been overthrown, the imperium was in the hands of Collatinus Tarquin. ![]() First there had been Priscus, but the Tarquin claim had not been forgotten during the reign of Servius Tullius, and Tarquin the Proud stole the hereditary kingship back by wickedness and force. The citizens quickly grew jealous of Collatinus himself, who had committed no offense beyond bearing the name Tarquin, for the citizens thought the Tarquins had reigned too long. Indeed, at this point the Romans got a little carried away. To forestall the need for the king in religious matters, he made a ‘little king’ to perform all the sacred rites that the Roman kings had previously done in person, but placed him under the power of the high priest, lest the name ‘king’ threaten Roman liberty. Then he turned his attention to religion. He refilled the ranks of the depleted senate with Roman knights, calling the old senators patres and the new ones conscripti this brought concord to the city, uniting the patricians and the plebs. Though the people supported the new constitution, Brutus compelled them to swear an oath that no Roman would ever let a king reign, lest they later be enticed by Tarquin’s bribery. Collatinus allowed Brutus to have the fasces first, and Brutus was careful to guard the liberty that he had fought so hard to win. The only difference was that they were elected for a year alone, and only one of them was allowed to bear the fasces, so as not to double the people’s terror. For the consuls were as powerful as the kings, they ruled by the same oaths as the kings, and they carried the same insignia as the kings. It nurtured Rome until it was ready for liberty, which at the beginning of the republic consisted mainly in the limited term of the consuls. The rule of kings moderated this and brought tranquility. What would have happened if the hordes of shepherds who made up the plebs would have been given liberty along with their sanctuary? Without the fear of a king, they would have fought with the patres, tearing the city in two before the bonds of kinship and love of the land had united the plebs and patres into one people. In that case, liberty would have come too soon. Though Brutus won true glory by expelling Tarquin, he would have done the public a disservice had he seized power from any of Tarquin’s predecessors. Tarquin’s predecessors had all been praiseworthy rulers who expanded the city and added new homes for the population that they themselves had increased. Indeed, the insolence of the last king made this liberty even sweeter. From this point on, I shall write the history of a free Roman people, recording their deeds in peace and war, their annually elected officials, and the imperium of their laws, which thenceforth were more powerful than any one man.
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