Beaufort has really struck a new light, by showing that the peace of Porsena was quite a different thing from what the Romans would have us believe. Pliny states explicitly, that by it the Romans were bound to make no use of iron, except for agriculture. That hostages were given is acknowledged even in the common account. Thus we see Rome in a condition of utter subjection, _arma ademta, obsides dati_, an expression which so often occurs with reference to the conquest of states. Pliny has seen that treaty (_nominatim comprehensum invenimus_); where, is uncertain,--a tablet probably did not exist,--perhaps in Etruscan books. Just as positively does Tacitus, in his account of the burning of the Capitol, speak of the Romans having been most deeply humbled by Porsena, _sede Jovis optimi maximi quam non Porsena dedita urbi neque Galli captor, temerare potuissent_; and what _deditionem facere_ means is evident from the form which Livy gives us when mentioning the submission of Collatia to Ancus Martius, from which we see that it was a complete making over of people, state, land and persons, similar to the _mancipatio_, or to the _in manum conventio_ of women in the civil law. To this submission the notice in the _Quæstiones Romanæ_ of Plutarch is to be referred, who was wont to make a very uncritical use of good materials. He says that the Romans had once paid tithes to the Etruscans, and that Hercules had freed them from the obligation. Tithes, however, were paid by those who had the usufruct of a field belonging to the state (_qui publici juris factus erat_). The removal of the burthen by Hercules denotes their having freed themselves by their own might: that they paid the tithes was the consequence of their having given themselves and theirs into the keeping of the Etruscans, which is the excellent German expression for complete submission (_feuda oblata_); a man makes himself, as it were, a minor, and becomes dependent upon another. A further, and much more important proof of the misfortunes of that time, is the loss of about one-third of the Roman territory; which is shown by the number of Servius Tullius’ tribes being reduced from thirty to twenty, to which afterwards, in the year 259, the _tribus Crustumina_ was added as the twenty-first.[88] Among the Romans the custom was quite a common one, when a state fell beneath their sway, _multandi tertiâ parte agri_: it is therefore evident also in this instance, as tribes and districts correspond with each other, and we find besides only twenty tribes out of thirty left, that Rome in consequence of the _deditio_ about the year 260 had lost a third of its territory. There are traces of it in the _septem pagi agri Vejentium_, the surrender of which is already mentioned. In order to conceal the conquest of the city, Porsena was made the protector of the Tarquins; whereby this advantage was gained, that it appeared as if the war had not ended after all so badly, since