Читать книгу THE HISTORY OF ROME (Complete Edition in 4 Volumes) - Livy - Страница 47

And now Servius began to strengthen his power, not more by public53 than by private measures; and lest the feelings of the children of Tarquin might be the same towards himself as those of the children of Ancus had been towards Tarquin, he unites his two daughters in marriage to the young princes, the Tarquinii, Lucius and Aruns. Nor yet did he break through the inevitable decrees of fate by human measures, so that envy of the sovereign power should not produce general treachery and animosity even among the members of his own family. Very opportunely for maintaining the tranquillity of the present state, a war was commenced with the Veientes (for the truce had now expired54) and with the other Etrurians. In that war, both the valour and good fortune of Tullius were conspicuous, and he returned to Rome, after routing a great army of the enemy, now unquestionably king, whether he tried the dispositions of the fathers or the people. He then sets about a work of peace of the utmost importance; that, as Numa had been the author of religious institutions, so posterity might celebrate Servius as the founder of all distinction among the members of the state, and of those orders by which a limitation is established between the degrees of rank and fortune. For he instituted the census, a most salutary measure for an empire destined to become so great, according to which the services of war and peace were to be performed, not by every person, (indiscriminately,) as formerly, but in proportion to the amount of property. Then he formed, according to the census, the classes and centuries, and the arrangement as it now exists, eminently suited either to peace or war.