Curiosities & wonders > Titus Livius' Roman history

TITUS LIVIUS’
ROMAN HISTORY.
BOOK II.
CONTAINING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR GO¬
VERNMENT, AND OF THE TRIBUN1T1AN POWER; THEIR
CONTESTS AT ROME, AND WARS ABROAD, TILL THE YEAR
OF ROME, 286.
CHAP. I.
Brutus binds the people by oath, never to suffer a King at
Rome.
IN the subsequent part of this work, I am to write the
history of the Romans, considered as a free people, and
to give an account of their annual magistrates, and their
government, under the jurisdiction of the laws, superior
to that of rnen. The insolent behaviour of the late king
gave them now a greater relish for the sweets of liberty :
for with so much moderation had their former princes
ruled, that they may be justly stiled, the founders of those
parts of the city, which each of them successively had
added, for the accommodation of the people, whose num¬
bers were increased by their care.
But, it is an absolute certainty, that had this very
Brutus, who distinguished himself so gloriously in the
expulsion of the Tarquins, through an unseasonable zeal
for liberty, wrested the sovereign power from any of
their former princes, he would have done an irreparable