Note 880 — Chapter XVIII · THE SUCCESSION TO THE KINGDOM IN ANCIENT LATIUM

Numa was a Sabine from Cures (Livy, i. 18; Plutarch, Numa, 3; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Ant. Rom. ii. 58); Servius Tullius, according to the common account, was the son of Ocrisia, a slave woman of Corniculum (Livy, i. 39. 5; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Ant. Rom. iv. 1.), but according to another account he was an Etruscan (see above, p. 196 note); and Tarquin the Proud was a son of the elder Tarquin, who was an Etruscan from Tarquinii (Livy, i. 34; Cicero, De re publica, ii. 19 sq., §§ 34 sq.). The foreign birth of their kings naturally struck the Romans themselves. See the speech put by Livy (i. 35. 3), in the mouth of the elder Tarquin: “Se non rem novam petere, quippe qui non primus, quod quisquam indignari mirarive posset, sed tertius Romae peregrinus regnum adfectet; et Tatium non ex peregrino solum sed etiam ex hoste regem factum, et Numam ignarum urbis non petentem in regnum ultro accitum: se, ex quo sui potens fuerit, Romam cum conjuge ac fortunis omnibus commigrasse.” And see a passage in a speech actually spoken by the Emperor Claudius: “Quondam reges hanc tenuere urbem, nec tamen domesticis successoribus eam tradere contigit. Supervenere alieni et quidem externi, ut Numa Romulo successerit ex Sabinis veniens, vicinus quidem sed tunec externus,” etc. The speech is engraved on bronze tablets found at Lyons. See Tacitus, ed. Baiter and Orelli, i. 2nd Ed., p. 342.