Editing Servius Tullius (section)

===Parentage and birth===
Most Roman sources name Servius' mother as Ocrisia, a young noblewoman taken at the Roman siege of [[Corniculum (ancient Latin town)|Corniculum]] and brought to Rome, either pregnant by her husband, who was killed at the siege:<ref>Livy gives her husband's name as Servius Tullius, chief man of Corniculum ("[…] qui princeps in illa urbe fuerat […]"); the son is named after the father. See Livy, ''Ab urbe condita'', [[s:From the Founding of the City/Book 1#39|1.39]]. Dionysius offers a near identical version as "the most likely".</ref> or as a virgin. She was given to [[Tanaquil]], wife of [[Lucius Tarquinius Priscus|king Tarquinius]], and though slave, was treated with the respect due her former status. In one variant, she became wife to a noble [[Patronage in ancient Rome|client]] of Tarquinius. In others, she served the domestic rites of the royal hearth as a [[Vestal Virgin]], and on one such occasion, having damped the hearth flames with a sacrificial offering, she was penetrated and impregnated by a disembodied phallus that rose from the hearth. According to Tanaquil, this was a divine manifestation, either of the household [[Lares|Lar]] or [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]] himself. Thus Servius was divinely fathered and already destined for greatness, despite his mother's servile status; for the time being, Tanaquil and Ocrisia kept this a secret.<ref>Plutarch, ''Moralia'', On the fortune of the Romans, 10, 64: available online (Loeb) at Thayer's website [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Fortuna_Romanorum*.html]</ref>