"The birth of Servius Tullius was as marvellous as it was humble. Ocrisia, a handmaid of the queen, and one of the captives taken at Corniculum, when bringing some cakes as an offering to the household genius, saw an apparition of the god in the fire on the hearth: Tanaquil commanded her to array herself as a bride and shut herself up in the chapel. She became pregnant by a god: many Romans called the household genius the father of Servius, others Vulcan (God Of Fire)." HISTORY OF ROME BY B. G. NIEBUHR. TRANSLATED BY J. C. HARE, M.A., AND C. THIRLWALL, M.A., VOLUME I, PAGE 311.
"At that time, a prodigy occurred in the palace, wonderful both in its appearance and in its result. They relate, that the head of a boy, called Servius Tullius, as he lay fast asleep, blazed with fire in the sight of many persons. That by the very great noise made at so miraculous a phenomenon, the royal family