§4.6.1βούλομαι δʼ ἐπιστήσας τὸν ἑξῆς λόγον ἀποδοῦναι τὰς αἰτίας, διʼ ἃς οὔτε Φαβίῳ συγκατεθέμην οὔτε τοῖς ἄλλοις ἱστορικοῖς, ὅσοι γράφουσιν υἱοὺς εἶναι τοὺς καταλειφθέντας παῖδας ὑπὸ Ταρκυνίου, ἵνα μή τινες τῶν ἐκείναις ἐντυχόντων ταῖς ἱστορίαις σχεδιάζειν με ὑπολάβωσιν οὐχ υἱοὺς, ἀλλʼ υἱωνοὺς αὐτοῦ γράφοντα τοὺς παῖδας.
But I wish, having interrupted the consecutive narrative, to give the reasons why I agreed neither with Fabius nor with the other historians, as many as write that the children left by Tarquinius were his sons, so that some of those who read those histories may not suppose that I write without foundation in describing the children not as his sons but as his grandsons.
παντάπασι γὰρ ἀπερισκέπτως καὶ ῥᾳθύμως οἱ συγγραφεῖς περὶ αὐτῶν ταύτην ἐξενηνόχασι τὴν ἱστορίαν οὐδὲν ἐξητακότες τῶν ἀναιρούντων αὐτὴν ἀδυνάτων τε καὶ ἀτόπων· ὧν ἕκαστον ἐγὼ πειράσομαι ποιῆσαι φανερὸν διʼ ὀλίγων.
For the historians have published this story about them altogether carelessly and thoughtlessly, having in no way examined the impossibilities and absurdities that refute it; each of which I shall attempt to make clear in a few words.
§4.6.2Ταρκύνιος ἐκ Τυρρηνίας μετανίσταται τὸν οἶκον ὅλον ἀνασκευασάμενος ἐν τῇ κρατίστῃ τοῦ φρονεῖν ὑπάρχων ἡλικίᾳ.
Tarquinius migrated from Tyrrhenia, having packed up his entire household, being at the age when his understanding was most mature.
πολιτεύεσθαι γὰρ ἤδη καὶ ἄρχειν καὶ τὰ κοινὰ πράττειν ἀξιῶν παραδίδοται, καὶ τὴν ἄπαρσιν ἐκεῖθεν πεποιημένος διὰ τὸ μηδεμιᾶς ἐν τῇ πόλει τιμῆς μεταλαμβάνειν.
For he is reported as already deeming himself worthy to engage in politics, to rule, and to manage public affairs, and as having made his departure from there because he had no share in any office in the city.
§4.6.3ἕτερος μὲν οὖν ἄν τις αὐτὸν ὑπέθετο καὶ τριακοστὸν ἔτος ἔχοντα τοὐλάχιστον, ὅτʼ ἀπῆρεν ἐκ Τυρρηνίας· ἀπὸ ταύτης γὰρ οἱ νόμοι τῆς ἡλικίας καλοῦσιν ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ τοὺς ἄρχειν τε καὶ πράττειν βουλομένους τὰ κοινά·
Now anyone else would have assumed him to have been at least in his thirtieth year when he departed from Tyrrhenia; for it is from this age that the laws generally call upon those who wish to rule and to manage public affairs.
ἐγὼ δʼ ἔτι νεώτερον αὐτὸν ὑποτίθεμαι πέντε ὅλοις ἔτεσι, καὶ ποιῶ κατὰ τὸ πέμπτον καὶ εἰκοστὸν ἔτος ἀπανιστάμενον.
But I assume him to have been still younger by five whole years, and make him migrate in his twenty-fifth year.
καὶ μὴν ὅτι γυναῖκα Τυρρηνίδα ἐπηγάγετο, ἣν ζῶντος ἔτι τοῦ πατρὸς ἔγημεν, ἅπαντες ὁμολογοῦσιν οἱ τὰς Ῥωμαϊκὰς συγγράψαντες ἱστορίας.
And indeed, that he brought with him a Tyrrhenian wife, whom he had married while his father was still living, is agreed by all those who have written the Roman histories.
§4.6.4παραγίνεται δʼ εἰς Ῥώμην Ἄγκου Μαρκίου βασιλεύοντος, ὡς μὲν Γέλλιος ἱστορεῖ κατὰ τὸν πρῶτον ἐνιαυτὸν τῆς βασιλείας, ὡς δὲ Λικίννιος γράφει κατὰ τὸν ὄγδοον.
And he arrived in Rome while Ancus Marcius was reigning, as Gellius relates, in the first year of his reign, but as Licinius writes, in the eighth.
ἔστω δὴ κατὰ τοῦτον ἐληλυθὼς τὸν ἐνιαυτόν, καθʼ ὃν γράφει Λικίννιος, καὶ μὴ πρότερον· ἐν ὑστέρῳ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἂν εἴη χρόνῳ παραγεγονώς, εἴγε δὴ κατὰ τὸν ἔνατον ἐνιαυτὸν τῆς Ἄγκου δυναστείας ἱππέων ἡγούμενος ἐπὶ τὸν πρὸς Λατίνους πόλεμον ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως πέμπεται, ὡς ἀμφότεροι λέγουσιν οἱ συγγραφεῖς·
Let it be, then, that he came in this year which Licinius writes, and not earlier; for he could not have arrived at a later time, if indeed in the ninth year of the reign of Ancus he was sent by the king in command of the cavalry to the war against the Latins, as both writers say.
εἰ δὴ παρεγένετο μὲν εἰς Ῥώμην οὐ πλείω τῶν πέντε καὶ εἴκοσι γεγονὼς ἐτῶν, Ἄγκῳ δὲ βασιλεῖ κατὰ τὸν ὄγδοον τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐνιαυτὸν φίλος γενόμενος ἑπτακαίδεκα διέτριψεν ἔτη παρʼ αὐτῷ τὰ λοιπά· τέτταρα γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῖς εἴκοσι βεβασίλευκεν Ἄγκος· ἔτη δʼ ὀκτὼ καὶ τριάκοντα τὴν βασιλείαν κατέσχεν αὐτὸς ὡς ἅπαντες ὁμολογοῦσιν, ὀγδοηκονταέτης ἂν ἦν, ὅτʼ ἐτελεύτα.
If, then, he arrived in Rome when he was not more than twenty-five years of age, and, having become a friend to King Ancus in the eighth year of his reign, spent the remaining seventeen years with him (for Ancus reigned twenty-four years), and he himself held the kingship for thirty-eight years, as everyone agrees, he would have been eighty years old when he died.
ἐκ γὰρ τοῦ συλλογισμοῦ §4.6.5τῶν ἐτῶν τοῦτο συνάγεται τὸ πλῆθος.
For from the calculation of the years, this total is gathered.
ἡ γυνὴ δʼ εἰ πέντε ἔτεσιν ἦν αὐτοῦ νεωτέρα καθάπερ εἰκός, ἑβδομηκοστὸν ἂν δήπου καὶ πέμπτον εἶχεν ἔτος, ὅτʼ ἀπέθνησκε Ταρκύνιος.
And if his wife was five years younger than he, as is probable, she would surely have been in her seventy-fifth year when Tarquinius died.
εἰ δὴ τὸν νεώτερον τῶν υἱῶν ἔσχατον ἐκύησεν ἔτος ἔχουσα πεντηκοστόν· προσωτέρω γὰρ οὐκέτι κυΐσκεται τούτου τοῦ χρόνου γυνή, ἀλλʼ ἔστιν οὗτος αὐτὸς τῶν ὠδίνων ὁ ὅρος, ὡς οἱ ταῦτʼ ἐξητακότες γράφουσιν· οὗτος μὲν οὖν οὐκ ἂν ἐλάττω γεγονὼς ἦν ἐτῶν πέντε καὶ εἴκοσι κατὰ τὸν τοῦ πατρὸς θάνατον, ὁ δὲ Λεύκιος ὁ πρεσβύτερος οὐ μείων ἑπτακαιεικοσαέτους· οὐκ ἄρα νηπίους κατέλιπεν υἱοὺς §4.6.6ὁ Ταρκύνιος ἐκ ταύτης γεγονότας τῆς γυναικός.
If, then, she conceived the younger of the sons last when she was in her fiftieth year (for a woman no longer conceives beyond this age, but this is the very limit of child-bearing, as those who have investigated these matters write), this younger son would have been not less than twenty-five years of age at the death of his father, and Lucius the elder not less than twenty-seven; therefore, Tarquinius did not leave young children born of this wife.
ἀλλὰ μὴν εἴγʼ ἀνδρῶν ἡλικίαν εἶχον οἱ παῖδες, ὅθʼ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτῶν ἀπέθνησκεν, οὔτʼ ἂν ἡ μήτηρ αὐτῶν οὕτως ἦν ἀθλία καὶ θεοβλαβής, ὥστʼ ἀφαιρεῖσθαι μὲν τῶν ἑαυτῆς τέκνων ἣν κατέλιπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ πατὴρ ἀρχήν, τῷ δʼ ἀλλοτρίῳ καὶ ἐκ δούλης γεγονότι χαρίζεσθαι· οὔτʼ ἂν αὐτοὶ τῆς πατρῴας ἀρχῆς ἀποστερούμενοι φαύλως καὶ ῥᾳθύμως τὸ ἀδίκημα ἤνεγκαν καὶ ταῦτʼ ἐν τῇ κρατίστῃ τοῦ λέγειν τε καὶ πράττειν ὄντες ἀκμῇ·
But indeed, if the children were of man's estate when their father died, neither would their mother have been so miserable and infatuated as to deprive her own children of the rule which their father had left to them, and to bestow it upon a stranger born of a slave woman; nor would they themselves, when deprived of their father's rule, have borne the injury tamely and indolently, and that too when they were in the prime of life for speaking and acting.
οὔτε γὰρ εὐγενείᾳ προεῖχεν αὐτῶν ὁ Τύλλιος ἐκ δούλης μητρὸς ὢν οὔθʼ ἡλικίας ἀξιώματι παρὰ πολὺ διήλλαττεν, ἀλλὰ τρισὶ μόνον ἔτεσι θατέρου πρεσβύτερος ἦν· ὥστʼ οὐκ ἄν γε παρεχώρησαν αὐτῷ τῆς βασιλείας ἑκόντες.
For Tullius did not excel them in nobility of birth, being born of a slave mother, nor did he differ much in the dignity of age, but was older than the other by only three years; so they would certainly not have yielded the kingship to him voluntarily.