According to Livy, Tarquin increased the number of the Senate to 300 by adding one hundred men from the leading minor families. Among these was the family of the Octavii, from whom the first emperor, Augustus, was descended.Suetonius, The Life of Augustus 2. He did so with the hope that those added to the Senate would be grateful for their position and thus loyal to him, strengthening his rule as king.
