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42.
Servius now took steps to assure his1 position by private as well as public measures. In order that the sons of Tarquinius might not show the same animosity towards himself which the sons of Ancus had felt towards Tarquinius, he married his two daughters to the young princes, Lucius and Arruns Tarquinius.
[2]
But he could not break the force of destiny by human wisdom; and jealousy of his power, even among the members of his household, created an atmosphere of treachery and hostility. Most opportune for the tranquil preservation [p. 149]of the existing state of things was a war which was2 undertaken against the people of Veii —for the truce3 had now run out —and the other Etruscans.
[3]
In this war the bravery and good fortune of Tullius were conspicuous; and when he had utterly defeated the vast army of his enemies, he found on returning to Rome that his title to the kingship was no longer questioned, whether he tested the feeling of the Fathers or that of the commons.
[4]
He then addressed himself to what is by far the most important work of peace: as Numa had established religious law, so Servius intended that posterity should celebrate himself as the originator of all distinctions among the citizens, and of the orders which clearly differentiate the various grades of rank and fortune.
[5]
For he instituted the census,4 a most useful thing for a government destined to such wide dominion, since it would enable the burdens of war and peace to be borne not indiscriminately, as heretofore, but in proportion to men's wealth. He then distributed the people into classes and centuries according to the following scale, which was based upon the census and was suitable either for peace or war:
1 B.C. 578-534
2 B.C. 578-534
3 Perhaps a reference to the hundred years' truce with Romulus (xv. 5), for Livy has not mentioned any war with Veii in the interval, though one is implied in the statement (xxxiii. 9) that the Veientes surrendered the Maesian Forest, in the reign of Ancus.
4 The organisation now to be described was primarily designed to increase the fighting strength of Rome. Formerly the right to bear arms had belonged solely to the patricians. Now plebeians were to be given a place in the army, which was to be reclassified according to every man's property, i.e. his ability to provide himself a more or less complete equipment for the field. See Dion. Hal. iv. 16-21; Cic. Rep. ii. 39.
Livy. Books I and II With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
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