With such words did Tullia daily stir up her husband; thinking shame to herself, if so be Tanaquil, who was a foreigner, had been able to make two kings, first her husband and then her son-in-law, she, being the daughter of a king, could not accomplish as much. Then did Lucius begin to seek favour among the nobles, especially such as were of the lesser houses, and so ambitious of higher place in the State. Some he would remind of kindnesses that his father had done them in past time, and would ask for a like return; and to some he would promise gifts; and all he sought to turn against the King. And at the last, when it now seemed time to make his venture, he burst into the market-place, having with him a company of armed men; and all that stood near being so stricken with dismay that they hindered him not, commanded the herald that he should call the Senators to meet King Tarquin. Nor did the Senators, being thus summoned, refuse to come, for some had been won over to the young man beforehand, and others feared that they should suffer harm if they came not, for the matter was altogether beyond their expectation; also they thought that King Servius had already perished. And when they were were assembled, Tarquin sat down upon the throne and spake in some such fashion as this: "The slave that was the son of a slave-woman seized the kingdom when the King my father had been shamefully slain. Neither was there any assembly held for election; nor did the people give their votes for him, nor did the Senate confirm the matter. By none of these things doth he possess this great dignity, but by the bounty of a woman. And now he, being such an one as he is, favours the lowest of the people, to whom he divideth this land, which is of right the possession of the nobles; in like manner the burdens which at one time were borne in common by all, he putteth upon you; and this ordering of the citizens that he hath lately established, for what purpose is it but that he may know who hath aught, that he may make distribution to the needy?"
While he thus spake there came in King Servius, having been fetched by a messenger in hot haste, and cried with a loud voice from the porch of the senate-house, "What doest thou here, Tarquin? How darest thou, while I am yet alive, to call the Senators together and to sit upon my throne?"