The Story of Rome from the Earliest Times to the End of the RepublicGilman, Arthur
History
The Story of Rome from the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic
Gilman, Arthur
Rome -- History -- Republic, 510-30 B.C.
On the completion of the census (B.C. 566) Servius ordered the members
of all the Centuries to assemble on the Campus Martius, which was
enclosed in a bend of the Tiber outside of the walls that he built.
They came in full armor, according to rank, and the sight must have
been very grand and impressive. Three days were occupied in the
celebration. Three times were the pig, the sheep, and the bull carried
around the great multitude, and then, amid the flaunting of banners,
the burning of incense, and the sounding of trumpets, the libation was
poured forth, and the inoffensive beasts were sacrificed for the
purification of the people. Once every five years the inhabitants were
thus counted, and once in five years were they also purified, and in
this way it came to pass that that period was known as a _lustrum_.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, says the proverb, and it was
true in the case of Servius, for he could never forget that the people
had not voted in his favor. For this reason he divided among them the
lands that he had taken from the enemies he had defeated, and then,
supposing that he had obtained their good-will, he called upon them to
vote whether they chose and ordered that he should be king. When the
votes came to be counted, Servius found that he had been chosen with a
unanimity that had not been manifested before in the selection of a
sovereign. Whatever confidence he may have derived from this vote, his
place was not secure, and his fatal enemy proved to be in his own
household.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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