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Updated: May 15, 2025
This was the end of Ser'vius Tul'lius, a prince of eminent justice and moderation, after an useful and prosperous reign of forty-four years. Questions for Examination. What effect had the murder of Tarquin on his subjects? By what means was the succession assured to Servius Tullius? Who was Servius? What was the chief object of his reign?
The pontiffs and augurs, however, were in some measure independent of the sovereign, and assumed the uncontrolled direction of the religion of the state. The entire constitution was remodelled by Ser'vius Tul'lius, and a more liberal form of government introduced.
Ser'vius Galba, at that time governor of Spain, was remarkable for his wisdom in peace, and his courage in war; but as a display of talents under corrupt princes is dangerous, he, for some years, had seemed to court obscurity and an inactive life. 2.
Conscious of this, he ordered all such as he suspected to have been attached to Ser'vius, to be put to death; and fearing the natural consequences of his tyranny, he increased the guard round his person. His chief policy seems to have been to keep the people always employed either in wars or public works, by which means he diverted their attention from his unlawful method of coming to the crown.
Ser'vius Tul'lius undoubtedly intended that the comitia centuriata should form the third estate of the realm, and during his reign they probably held that rank; but when, by an aristocratic insurrection he was slain in the senate-house, the power conceded to the people was again usurped by the patricians, and the comitio centuriata did not recover the right of legislation before the laws of the twelve tables were established.
His design also of adopting Ser'vius Tul'lius, his son-in-law, for his successor, might have contributed to inflame their resentment. 10.
Ser'vius was the son of a bondwoman, who had been taken at the sacking of a town belonging to the Latins, and was born whilst his mother was a slave. While yet an infant in his cradle, a lambent flame is said to have played round his head, which Tan'aquil converted into an omen of future greatness.
This scene of dissimulation continued for some days, till he had made his party good among the nobles; when, the death of Tarquin being publicly ascertained, Ser'vius came to the crown, solely at the senate's appointment, and without attempting to gain the suffrages of the people.
Ser'vius divided all the Romans into classes and centuries according to their wealth and the amount of taxes paid to the state. The number of centuries in the first class nearly equalled that of all the others; a great advantage to the plebeians; for the lower classes being chiefly clients of the patricians, were always inclined to vote according to the prejudices or interests of their patrons.
The law which made the debtor a slave to his creditor was repealed by Ser'vius, and re-enacted by his successor; the patricians preserved this abominable custom during several ages, and did not resign it until the state had been brought to the very brink of ruin. During the reign of Ser'vius, Rome was placed at the head of the Latin confederacy, and acknowledged to be the metropolitan city.
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