s on
the altar. The king, not content with the interpretation of his Etruscan
soothsayers, sent persons to consult the famous oracle of the Greeks at
Delphi, and the persons he sent were his own sons Titus and Aruns, and
his sister's son, L. Junius, a young man who, to avoid his uncle's
jealousy, feigned to be without common sense, wherefore he was called
Brutus or the Dullard. The answer given by the oracle was that the chief
power of Rome should belong to him of the three who should first kiss
his mother; and the two sons of King Tarquin agreed to draw lots which
of them should do this as soon as they returned home. But Brutus
perceived that the oracle had another sense; so as soon as they landed
in Italy he fell down on the ground as if he had stumbled, and kissed
the earth, for she (he thought) was the true mother of all mortal
things.

When the sons of Tarquin returned with their cousin, L. Junius Brutus,
they found the king at war with the Rutulians of Ardea. Being unable to
take the place by storm, he was forced to blockade it; and while the
Roman army was encamped before the town the young men used to amuse
themselves at night with wine and wassail. One night there was a feast,
at which Sextus, the king's third son, was present, as also Collatinus,
the son of Egerius, the king's uncle, who had been made governor of
Collatia. So they soon began to dispute about the worthiness of their
wives; and when each maintained that his own wife was worthiest, "Come,
gentlemen," said Collatinus, "let us take horse and see what our wives
are doing; they expect us not, and so we shall know the truth." All
agreed, and they galloped to Rome, and there they found the wives of all
the others feasting and revelling: but when they came to Collatia they
found Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, not making merry like the rest,
but sitting in the midst of her handmaids carding wool and spinning; so
they all allowed that Lucretia was the worthiest.

Now Lucretia was the daughter of a noble Roman, Spurius Lucretius, who
was at this time prefect of the city; for it was the custom, when the
kings went out to war, that they left a chief man at home to administer
all things in the king's name, and he was called prefect of the city.

But it chanced that Sextus, the king's son, when he saw the fair
Lucretia, was smitten with lustful passion; and a few days after he came
again to Collatia, and Lucretia entertained him hospitably as her
husband