Meanwhile ambition and contention for the throne actuated the minds of the fathers; factions had not yet sprung up from individuals, because, among a new people, no one person was eminently distinguished above the rest: the contest was carried on between the different orders.
The descendants of the Sabines wished a king to be elected out of their body, lest, because there had been no king on their side since the death of Tatius, they might lose their claim to the crown[21] according to the compact of equal participation.

The old Romans spurned the idea of a foreign prince.

Amid this diversity of views, however, all were anxious that there should be a king, they not having yet tasted the sweets of liberty.

Fear then seized the senators, lest the minds of the surrounding states being incensed against them, some foreign power should attack the state, now without a government, and the army without a leader.

It was therefore their wish that there should be some head, but no one could bring himself to give way to another.