[4,42] Ἐπεὶ δ´ ἐγκρατῶς ἤδη κατέχειν ὑπελάμβανε τὴν ἀρχήν, παρασκευάσας ἐκ τῶν ἑταίρων τοὺς πονηροτάτους δι´ ἐκείνων ἦγεν εἰς ἐγκλήματα καὶ θανάτου δίκας πολλοὺς τῶν ἐπιφανῶν· πρώτους μὲν τοὺς ἐχθρῶς διακειμένους πρὸς αὐτόν, οἷς οὐκ ἦν βουλομένοις Τύλλιον ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐκπεσεῖν· ἔπειτα καὶ τῶν ἄλλων, οὓς ὑπελάμβανε βαρεῖαν ἡγεῖσθαι τὴν μεταβολὴν καὶ οἷς πολὺς πλοῦτος ἦν. οἱ δ´ ὑπάγοντες αὐτοὺς ὑπὸ τὰς δίκας ἄλλους ἐπ´ ἄλλαις ψευδέσιν αἰτίαις, μάλιστα δ´ ἐπιβουλεύειν αἰτιώμενοι τῷ βασιλεῖ, κατηγόρουν ἐπ´ αὐτῷ δικαστῇ. ὁ δὲ τῶν μὲν θάνατον κατεδίκαζε, τῶν δὲ φυγήν, καὶ τὰ χρήματα τούς τ´ ἀναιρουμένους καὶ τοὺς ἐξελαυνομένους ἀφαιρούμενος τοῖς μὲν κατηγόροις μικράν τινα μοῖραν ἀπέθυεν, αὐτὸς δὲ τὰ πλείω κατεῖχεν. ἔμελλον δ´ ἄρα πολλοὶ τῶν δυνατῶν, πρὶν ἁλῶναι τὰς ἐπαγομένας σφίσι δίκας, εἰδότες ὧν ἕνεκεν ἐπεβουλεύοντο, καταλείψειν τῷ τυράννῳ τὴν πόλιν ἑκόντες καὶ πολλῷ πλείονες ἐγένοντο τῶν ἑτέρων. ἦσαν δέ τινες, οἳ καὶ κρύφα διεφθάρησαν ὑπ´ αὐτοῦ κατ´ οἰκίας τε καὶ ἐπ´ ἀγρῶν ἀναρπαζόμενοι, λόγου ἄξιοι ἄνδρες, ὧν οὐδὲ τὰ σώματα ἐφάνη. ἐπεὶ δὲ διέφθειρε τὸ κράτιστον τῆς βουλῆς μέρος θανάτοις τε καὶ ἀειφυγίαις, ἑτέραν βουλὴν αὐτὸς κατεστήσατο παραγαγὼν ἐπὶ τὰς τῶν ἐκλιπόντων τιμὰς τοὺς ἰδίους ἑταίρους. καὶ οὐδὲ τούτοις μέντοι τοῖς ἀνδράσιν οὔτε πράττειν ἐπέτρεπεν οὐδὲν οὔτε λέγειν ὅ τι μὴ κελεύσειεν αὐτός. ὥσθ´ ὁπόσοι κατελείφθησαν ἐν τῷ συνεδρίῳ βουλευταὶ τῶν ἐπὶ Τυλλίου καταλεγέντων, διάφοροι τοῖς δημοτικοῖς τέως ὄντες καὶ τὴν μεταβολὴν τῆς πολιτείας ἐπὶ τῷ σφετέρῳ νομίζοντες ἀγαθῷ γενήσεσθαι· τοιαύτας γὰρ αὐτοῖς ὑπέτεινεν ὁ Ταρκύνιος ὑποσχέσεις ἐξαπατῶν καὶ φενακίζων· τότε μαθόντες, ὅτι τῶν κοινῶν οὐδενὸς ἔτι μετεῖχον, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοὶ τὴν παρρησίαν ἅμα τοῖς δημοτικοῖς ἀφῃρέθησαν, ὠδύροντο μὲν καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα τῶν παρόντων δεινότερα ὑπώπτευον, στέργειν δὲ τὰ παρόντα ἠναγκάζοντο δύναμιν οὐκ ἔχοντες κωλύειν τὰ πραττόμενα.

[4,42] When he thought he was now in secure possession of the sovereignty, he suborned the basest of his friends to bring charges against many of the prominent men and place them on trial for their lives. He began with such as were hostile to him and resented his driving of Tullius from power; and next he accused all those whom he thought to be aggrieved by the change and those who had great riches. When the accusers brought these men to trial, charging them with various fictitious crimes but chiefly with conspiring against the king, it was by Tarquinius himself, sitting as judge, that the charges were heard. Some of the accused he condemned to death and others to banishment, and seizing the property of both the slain and the exiled, he assigned some small part to the accusers but retained the largest part for himself. The result was therefore bound to be that many influential men, knowing the motives underlying the plots against them, voluntarily, before they could be convicted of the charges brought against them, left the city to the tyrant, and the number of these was much greater than of the others. There were some who were even seized in their homes or in the country and secretly murdered by him, men of note, and not even their bodies were seen again. After he had destroyed the best part of the senate by death or by exile for life, he constituted another senate himself by working his own followers into the honours of the (p413) men who had disappeared; nevertheless, not even these men were permitted by him to do or say anything but what he himself commanded. Consequently, when the senators who were left of those who had been enrolled in the senate under Tullius and who had hitherto been at odds with the plebeians and had expected the change in the form of government to turn out to their advantage (for Tarquinius had held out such promises to them with a view of deluding and tricking them) now found that they had no longer any share in the government, but that they too, as well as the plebeians, had been deprived of their freedom of speech, although they lamented their fate and suspected that things would be still more terrible in the future than they were at the moment, yet, having no power to prevent what was going on, they were forced to acquiesce in the existing state of affairs.