gentium, a party who
stanchly supported the king, by whose favour they had been admitted
into the senate. The first war he waged was with the Latins, in whose
territory he took the town of Apiolae by storm, and having brought
back thence more booty than might have been expected from the reported
importance of the war, he celebrated games with more magnificence and
display than former kings. The place for the circus, which is now
called Maximus, was then first marked out, and spaces were apportioned
to the senators and knights, where they might each erect seats for
themselves: these were called fori (benches). They viewed the games
from scaffolding which supported seats twelve feet in height from the
ground. The show consisted of horses and boxers that were summoned,
chiefly from Etruria. These solemn games, afterward celebrated
annually, continued an institution, being afterward variously called
the Roman and Great games. By the same king also spaces round the
forum were assigned to private individuals for building on; covered
walks and shops were erected.

He was also preparing to surround the city with a stone wall, when a
war with the Sabines interrupted his plans. The whole thing was so
sudden, that the enemy passed the Anio before the Roman army could
meet and prevent them: great alarm therefore was felt at Rome. At
first they fought with doubtful success, and with great slaughter on
both sides. After this, the enemy's forces were led back into camp,
and the Romans having thus gained time to make preparations for the
war afresh, Tarquin, thinking that the weak point of his army lay
specially in the want of cavalry, determined to add other centuries to
the Ramnenses, Titienses, and Luceres which Romulus had enrolled, and
to leave them distinguished by his own name. Because Romulus had done
this after inquiries by augury, Attus Navius, a celebrated soothsayer
of the day, insisted that no alteration or new appointment could be
made, unless the birds had approved of it. The king, enraged at this,
and, as they say, mocking at his art, said, "Come, thou diviner, tell
me, whether what I have in my mind can be done or not?" When Attus,
having tried the matter by divination, affirmed that it certainly
could, "Well, then," said he, "I was thinking that you should cut
asunder this whetstone with a razor. Take it, then, and perform what
thy birds portend can be done." Thereupon they say that he immediately
cut the whetstone