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In 509 B.C. something happened in Rome. There were two classes of people in Rome, just as there were in Athens: the wealthy people who were called patricians, and the poor people who were called plebeians. We use the same words now and call people who are rich and aristocratic patricians , and the people who are poor and uneducated plebeians . The patricians were allowed to vote, but the plebeians were not allowed to vote.
At last, however, the plebeians had been given the right to vote. But in B.C. Rome had a king named Tarquin. He didn’t think the plebeians should be allowed to vote, and so he said they should not. The plebeians would not stand this, and therefore they got together and drove Tarquin out of the city, as the Athenians had driven out their king. This was in 509 B.C., and Tarquin was the last king Rome ever had.
After King Tarquin had been driven out, the Romans started what is called a republic, something like our own country, but they were afraid to have only one man as president for fear he might make himself king, and they had had enough of kings.
Lictor carrying fasces
So the Romans elected two men each year to be rulers over them, and these two men they called consuls. Each consul had a bodyguard of twelve men. These men were given the name lictors , and each lictor carried an ax tied up in a bundle of sticks. This bundle of sticks with the ax-head sticking out in the middle or at the end was known as fasces and signified that the consuls had power to punish by whipping with the sticks or by chopping off one’s head with the ax. Some modern coins and postage stamps have fasces pictured on them. Perhaps you have seen fasces used as ornaments or decoration around monuments or public buildings.
One of the first two consuls was named Brutus the Elder, and he had two sons. The king, Tarquin, who had been driven out of the city, plotted to get back to Rome and become king once more. He was able to persuade some Romans to help him. Among those whom he persuaded were, strange to say, the two sons of Brutus—the new consul of Rome.
Brutus found out this plot and learned that his own children had helped Tarquin. Then Brutus had his sons tried. They were found guilty, and in spite of the fact that they were his own children, he had the lictors put both of them to death as well as the other traitors to Rome.
Tarquin did not succeed in getting back the rule of Rome in this way. The next year he tried again. This time he got together an army of his neighbors, the Etruscans, and with this army he attacked Rome.
Now, there was a wooden bridge across the Tiber River, which separated the Etruscans from the city of Rome. In order to keep the Etruscans from crossing into the city, a Roman named Horatius, who had already lost one eye in fighting for Rome, gave orders to have this bridge broken down.
While the bridge was being chopped down, Horatius, with two of his friends, stood on the far side of the bridge and fought back the whole Etruscan army. When the bridge was cracking under the blows of the Roman soldiers, Horatius ordered his two friends to run quickly to the other side before the bridge fell.
Then Horatius, all by himself, kept the enemy back until at last the bridge crashed into the river. Horatius then jumped into the water with all his armor on and swam toward the Roman shore. Though arrows the Etruscans shot were falling all around him, and though his armor weighed him down, he reached the other side safely. Even the Etruscans were thrilled at his bravery, and, enemies though they were, they cheered him loudly.
There is a very famous poem called Horatius at the Bridge , which describes this brave deed.
A few years after Horatius, there lived another Roman named Cincinnatus. He was only a simple farmer with a little farm on the bank of the Tiber, but he was very wise and good, and the people of Rome honored and trusted him.
One day when an enemy was about to attack the city—for in those days there always seemed to be enemies everywhere ready to attack Rome on any excuse—the people had to have a leader and a general. They thought of Cincinnatus and went and asked him to be dictator.
Now, a dictator was the name they gave to a man who in a case of sudden danger was called upon to command the army and in fact all the people during the time of the danger. Cincinnatus left his plow, went with the people to the city, got together an army, went out and defeated the enemy, and returned to Rome, all in twenty-four hours!
The people were so much pleased with the quick and decisive way in which Cincinnatus had saved Rome that they wanted him to keep right on being their general in time of peace. Even though they hated kings so much, they would have made him king if he would have accepted.
But Cincinnatus did not want any such thing. His duty done, he wanted to return to his wife and humble home and his little farm. In spite of what many would have thought a wonderful chance, he did go back to his plow, choosing to be just a simple farmer instead of being king.
The city of Cincinnati in Ohio is named after a society which was founded in honor of this old Roman, who lived nearly five hundred years before Christ.