Ab urbe condita

From that time the old age of Tullius became more embittered, his reign more unhappy. The woman began to look forward from one crime to another; she allowed her husband no rest day or night, for fear lest the past murders should prove fruitless.

What she wanted, she said, was not a man who was only her husband in name, or with whom she was to live in uncomplaining servitude; the man she needed was one who deemed himself worthy of a throne, who remembered that he was the son of Priscus Tarquinius, who preferred to wear a crown rather than live in hopes of it.[*](The behavior of the yonger Tullia to the mild and gentle Arruns contrasted with that towards Lucius has been well compared to Goneril's attitude towards Albany and towards Edmund. Compare especially her outburst —“O the difference between man and man! to thee a woman's services are due: My fool usurps my body.” King Lear, Act IV, Scene ii.)

“If you are the man to whom I thought I was married, then I call you my husband and my king; but if not, I have changed my condition for the worse, since you are not only a coward but a criminal to boot. Why do you not prepare yourself for