iven to
Horatius.[72] Having endeavoured by every means to prevent that, when
all other attempts had been tried in vain, when the consul was now
holding the door-post during his offering of prayer to the gods, they
suddenly announce to him the shocking intelligence that his son was
dead, and that his family being defiled[73] he could not dedicate the
temple. Whether he did not believe the fact, or possessed such great
firmness of mind, is neither handed down for certain, nor is a
conjecture easy. Diverted from his purpose at this intelligence in no
other way than to order that the body should be buried,[74] he goes
through the prayer, and dedicates the temple. These were the
transactions at home and abroad the first year after the expulsion of
the kings. After this P. Valerius, a second time, and Titus Lucretius,
were elected consuls.

[Footnote 72: The Horatii being of the _minores patres_. Nieb. i. p.
533.]

[Footnote 73: _Funesta familia_, as having in it an unburied corpse.
Thus Misenus, whilst unburied, _incestat funere classem_. Virg. AEn. vi.
150.]

[Footnote 74: He here rejected the omen. Cic. i. 7, 14.; auguria aut
_oblativa_ sunt, quae non poscuntur, aut _impetrativa_, quae optata
veniunt. The latter could not be rejected.]

9. By this time the Tarquins had fled to Lars[75] Porsena, king of
Clusium. There, mixing advice with their entreaties, "They sometimes
besought him not to suffer them, who were descended from the Etrurians,
and of the same blood and name, to live in exile and poverty; at other
times they advised him not to let this commencing practice of expelling
kings pass unpunished. That liberty has charms enough in itself; and
unless kings defend their crowns with as much vigour as the people
pursue their liberty, that the highest must be reduced to a level with
the lowest; there will be nothing exalted, nothing distinguished above
the rest; and hence there must be an end of regal government, the most
beautiful institution both among gods and men." Porsena, thinking that
it would be an honour to the Tuscans both that there should be a king at
Rome, and especially one of the Etrurian nation, marched towards Rome
with a hostile army. Never before on any other occasion did so great
terror seize the senate; so powerful was the state of Clusium at the
time, and so great the renown of Porsena. Nor did they only dread their
enemies, but even their own citizens, lest the common people, through
excess o