the
legal extent of the city till the time of the emperors, although suburbs
were added to it.

III. An important alliance with the Latins, by which Rome and the cities
of Latium became the members of one great league, was one of the great
events which distinguished the reign of Servius.

[Illustration: Map of Rome, showing the Servian Wall and the Seven
Hills.]

Servius gave his two daughters in marriage to the two sons of Tarquinius
Priscus. Lucius, the elder, was married to a quiet and gentle wife;
Aruns, the younger, to an aspiring and ambitious woman. The character of
the two brothers was the very opposite of the wives who had fallen to
their lot; for Lucius was proud and haughty, but Aruns unambitious and
quiet. The wife of Aruns, enraged at the long life of her father, and
fearing that at his death her husband would tamely resign the
sovereignty to his elder brother, resolved to murder both her father and
husband. Her fiendish spirit put into the heart of Lucius thoughts of
crime which he had never entertained before. Lucius made way with his
wife, and the younger Tullia with her husband; and the survivors,
without even the show of mourning, were straightway joined in
unhallowed wedlock. Tullia now incessantly urged her husband to murder
her father, and thus obtain the kingdom which he so ardently coveted.
Tarquin formed a conspiracy with the Patricians, who were enraged at the
reforms of Servius; and when the plot was ripe he entered the forum
arrayed in the kingly robes, seated himself in the royal chair, in the
senate-house, and ordered the senators to be summoned to him as their
king. At the first news of the commotion Servius hastened to the
senate-house, and, standing at the doorway, bade Tarquin to come down
from the throne; but Tarquin sprang forward, seized the old man, and
flung him down the stone steps. Covered with blood, the king hastened
home; but, before he reached it, he was overtaken by the servants of
Tarquin, and murdered. Tullia drove to the senate-house and greeted her
husband as king; but her transports of joy struck even him with horror.
He bade her go home; and, as she was returning, her charioteer pulled up
and pointed out the corpse of her father lying in his blood across the
road. She commanded him to drive on; the blood of her father spirted
over the carriage and on her dress; and from that day forward the place
bore the name of the Wicked Street. The body lay unburied; for Tarquin