[3,36] Μετὰ δὲ τὴν Ὁστιλίου Τύλλου τελευτὴν ἡ μεσοβασίλειος ὑπὸ τῆς βουλῆς ἀποδειχθεῖσα ἀρχὴ κατὰ τοὺς πατρίους ἐθισμοὺς αἱρεῖται βασιλέα τῆς πόλεως Μάρκιον ἐπίκλησιν Ἄγκον· ἐπικυρώσαντος δὲ τοῦ δήμου τὰ δόξαντα τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῶν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ καλῶν γενομένων συντελέσας τὰ κατὰ νόμον ἅπαντα παραλαμβάνει τὴν ἀρχὴν ὁ Μάρκιος ἐνιαυτῷ δευτέρῳ τῆς τριακοστῆς καὶ πέμπτης ὀλυμπιάδος, ἣν ἐνίκα στάδιον Σφαῖρος ὁ Λακεδαιμόνιος, καθ´ ὃν χρόνον Ἀθήνησι τὴν ἐνιαύσιον ἀρχὴν εἶχε Δαμασίας. οὗτος ὁ βασιλεὺς πολλὰς τῶν ἱερουργιῶν ἀμελουμένας καταμαθών, ἃς ὁ μητροπάτωρ αὐτοῦ Πομπίλιος Νόμας κατεστήσατο, πολεμιστάς τε καὶ πλεονέκτας τοὺς πλείστους Ῥωμαίων γεγονότας ὁρῶν καὶ οὐκέτι τὴν γῆν ὡς πρότερον ἐργαζομένους, συναγαγὼν εἰς ἐκκλησίαν τὸ πλῆθος τά τε θεῖα σέβειν αὐτοὺς ἠξίου πάλιν, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ Νόμα διετέλουν σέβοντες, διεξιὼν ὅτι παρὰ τὴν τῶν θεῶν ὀλιγωρίαν νόσοι τε λοιμικαὶ πολλαὶ κατέσκηψαν εἰς τὴν πόλιν, ὑφ´ ὧν ἐφθάρη μοῖρα τοῦ πλήθους οὐκ ὀλίγη, καὶ βασιλεὺς Ὁστίλιος ὁ μὴ ποιούμενος αὐτῶν ἣν ἔδει φυλακὴν κάμνων ἐπὶ πολλοὺς χρόνους τὸ σῶμα πάθεσι παντοδαποῖς καὶ οὐδὲ τῆς γνώμης ἔτι τῆς αὑτοῦ καρτερὸς διαμένων, ἀλλὰ συνδιαφθαρεὶς τῷ σώματι τὰς φρένας, οἰκτρᾶς καταστροφῆς ἔτυχεν αὐτός τε καὶ γένος τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ· πολιτείας τε ἀγωγὴν τὴν ὑπὸ Νόμα κατασταθεῖσαν Ῥωμαίοις ἐπαινῶν ὡς καλὴν καὶ σώφρονα καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν δικαιοτάτων ἔργων τὰς καθ´ ἡμέραν ἑκάστῳ παρέχουσαν εὐπορίας, ἀνανεώσασθαι πάλιν αὐτὴν παρεκάλει γεωργίαις τε καὶ κτηνοτροφίαις καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις ἐργασίαις, ὅσαις μηθὲν ἀδίκημα προσῆν, ἁρπαγῆς δὲ καὶ βίας καὶ τῶν ἐκ τοῦ πολέμου γινομένων ὠφελειῶν ὑπεριδεῖν. ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια διαλεγόμενος καὶ εἰς πολλὴν ἐπιθυμίαν καθιστὰς ἅπαντας ἡσυχίας ἀπολέμου καὶ φιλεργίας σώφρονος καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο συγκαλέσας τοὺς ἱεροφάντας καὶ τὰς περὶ τῶν ἱερῶν συγγραφάς, ἃς Πομπίλιος συνεστήσατο, παρ´ αὐτῶν λαβὼν ἀνέγραψεν εἰς δέλτους καὶ προὔθηκεν ἐν ἀγορᾷ πᾶσι τοῖς βουλομένοις σκοπεῖν, ἃς ἀφανισθῆναι συνέβη τῷ χρόνῳ· χαλκαῖ γὰρ οὔπω στῆλαι τότε ἦσαν, ἀλλ´ ἐν δρυΐναις ἐχαράττοντο σανίσιν οἵ τε νόμοι καὶ αἱ περὶ τῶν ἱερῶν διαγραφαί· μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐκβολὴν τῶν βασιλέων εἰς ἀναγραφὴν δημοσίαν αὖθις ἤχθησαν ὑπ´ ἀνδρὸς ἱεροφάντου Γαίου Παπιρίου, τὴν ἁπάντων τῶν ἱερέων ἡγεμονίαν ἔχοντος. ἀνακτησάμενος δὲ τὰ κατερρᾳθυμημένα τῶν ἱερῶν καὶ τὸν ἀργὸν ὄχλον ἐπὶ τὰς ἰδίας ἐργασίας ἀποστείλας ἐπῄνει μὲν τοὺς ἐπιμελεῖς γεωργούς, ἐμέμφετο δὲ τοὺς κακῶς προισταμένους τῶν ἰδίων {κτημάτων}, ὡς οὐ βεβαίους πολίτας.

[3,36] After the death of Tullus Hostilius, the interreges appointed by the senate according to ancestral usage chose Marcius, surnamed Ancus, king of the state; and when the people had confirmed the decision of the senate and the signs from Heaven were favourable, Marcius, after fulfilling all the customary requirements, entered upon the government in the second year of the thirty-fifth Olympiad44 (the one in which Sphaerus, a Lacedaemonian, gained the prize), at the time when Damasias held the annual archonship at Athens. This king, finding that many of the religious ceremonies instituted by Numa Pompilius, his maternal grandfather, were (p157) being neglected, and seeing the greatest part of the Romans devoted to the pursuit of war and gain and no longer cultivating the land as aforetime, assembled the people and exhorted them to worship the gods once more as they had done in Numa's reign. He pointed out to them that it was owing to their neglect of the gods that not only many pestilences had fallen upon the city, by which no small part of the population had been destroyed, but also that King Hostilius, who had not shown the proper regard for the gods, had suffered for a long time from a complication of bodily ailments and at last, no longer sound even in his understanding but weakened in mind as well as in body, had come to a pitiable end, both he and his family. He then commended the system of government established by Numa for the Romans as excellent and wise and one which supplied every citizen with daily plenty from the most lawful employments; and he advised them to restore this system once more by applying themselves to agriculture and cattle-breeding and to those occupations that were free from all injustice, and to scorn rapine and violence and the profits accruing from war. By these and similar appeals he inspired in all a great desire both for peaceful tranquillity and for sober industry. After this, he called together the pontiffs, and receiving from them the commentaries on religious rites which Pompilius had composed, he caused them to be transcribed on tablets and exposed in the Forum for everyone to examine. These have since been destroyed by time, for, brazen pillars being not yet in use at that time, the laws and the ordinances (p159) concerning religious rites were engraved on oaken boards; but after the expulsion of the kings they were again copied off for the use of the public by Gaius Papirius, a pontiff, who had the superintendence of all religious matters. After Marcius had re-established the religious rites which had fallen into abeyance and turned the idle people to their proper employments, he commended the careful husbandmen and reprimanded those who managed their lands ill as citizens not to be depended on.