The CDPD Public Domain Collection for CDTV 3/CDPDIII.bin/books/plutarch/romulus

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                                      75 AD
                                    ROMULUS
                          Legendary, 8th Century B.C.
                                  by Plutarch
                           translated by John Dryden
ROMULUS

  From whom, and for what reason, the city of Rome, a name so great in
glory, and famous in the mouths of all men, was so first called,
authors do not agree. Some are of opinion that the Pelasgians,
wandering over the greater part of the habitable world, and subduing
numerous nations, fixed themselves here, and, from their own great
strength in war, called the city Rome. Others, that at the taking of
Troy, some few that escaped and met with shipping, put to sea, and
driven by winds, were carried upon the coasts of Tuscany, and came
to anchor off the mouth of the river Tiber, where their women, out
of heart and weary with the sea, on its being proposed by one of the
highest birth and best understanding amongst them, whose name was
Roma, burnt the ships. With which act the men at first were angry, but
afterwards, of necessity, seating themselves near Palatium, where
things in a short while succeeded far better than they could hope,
in that they found the country very good, and the people courteous,
they not only did the lady Roma other honours, but added also this, of
calling after her name the city which she had been the occasion of
their founding. From this, they say, has come down that custom at Rome
for women to salute their kinsmen and husbands with kisses; because
these women, after they had burnt the ships, made use of such
endearments when entreating and pacifying their husbands.
  Some again say that Roma, from whom this city was so called, was
daughter of Italus and Leucaria; or, by another account, of
Telaphus, Hercules's son, and that she was married to Aeneas, or,
according to others again, to Ascanius, Aeneas's son. Some tell us
that Romanus, the son of Ulysses and Circe, built it; some, Romus, the
son of Emathion, Diomede having sent him from Troy; and others, Romus,
king of the Latins, after driving out the Tyrrhenians, who had come
from Thessaly into Lydia, and from thence into Italy. Those very
authors, too, who, in accordance with the safest account, make Romulus
give the name of the city, yet differ concerning his birth and family.
For some say, he was son to Aeneas and Dexithea, daughter of
Phorbas, and was, with his brother Remus, in their infancy, carried
into Italy, and being on the river when the waters came down in a
flood, all the vessels were cast away except only that where the young
children were, which being gently landed on a level bank of the river,
they were both unexpectedly saved, and from them the place was
called Rome. Some say, Roma, daughter of the Trojan lady above
mentioned, was married to Latinus, Telemachus's son, and became mother
to Romulus; others that Aemilia, daughter of Aeneas and Lavinia, had
him by the god Mars; and others give you mere fables of his origin.
For to Tarchetius, they say, king of Alba, who was a most wicked and
cruel man, there appeared in his own house a strange vision, a male
figure that rose out of a hearth, and stayed there for many days.
There was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany which Tarchetius consulted,
and received an answer that a virgin should give herself to the
apparition, and that a son should be born of her, highly renowned,
eminent for valour, good fortune, and strength of body. Tarchetius
told the prophecy to one of his own daughters, and commanded her to do
this thing; which she avoiding as an indignity, sent her handmaid.
Tarchetius, hearing this, in great anger imprisoned them both,
purposing to put them to death, but being deterred from murder by
the goddess Vesta in a dream, enjoined them for their punishment the
working a web of cloth, in their chains as they were, which when
they finished, they should be suffered to marry; but whatever they
worked by day, Tarchetius commanded others to unravel in the night.
  In the meantime, the waiting-woman was delivered of two boys, whom
Tarchetius gave into the hands of one Teratius, with command to
destroy them; he, however, carried and laid them by the river side,
where a wolf came and continued to suckle them, while birds of various
sorts brought little morsels of food, which they put into their
mouths; till a cowherd, spying them, was first strangely surprised,
but, venturing to draw nearer, took the children up in his arms.
Thus they were saved, and when they grew up, set upon Tarchetius and
overcame him. This one Promathion says, who compiled a history of
Italy.
  But the story which is most believed and has the greatest number
of vouchers was first published, in its chief particulars, amongst the
Greeks by Diocles of Peparethus, whom Fabius Pictor also follows in
most points. Here again there are variations, but in general outline
it runs thus: the kings of Alba reigned in lineal descent from Aeneas,
and the succession devolved at length upon two brothers, Numitor and
Amulius. Amulius proposed to divide things into two equal shares,
and set as equivalent to the kingdom the treasure and gold that were
brought from Troy. Numitor chose the kingdom; but Amulius, having
the money, and being able to do more with that than Numitor, took
his kingdom from him with great ease, and, fearing lest his daughter
might have children, made her a Vestal, bound in that condition
forever to live a single and maiden life. This lady some call Ilia,
others Rhea, and others Silvia; however, not long after, she was,
contrary to the established laws of the Vestals, discovered to be with
child, and should have suffered the most cruel punishment, had not
Antho, the king's daughter, mediated with her father for her;
nevertheless, she was confined, and debarred all company, that she
might not be delivered without the king's knowledge. In time she
brought forth two boys, of more than human size and beauty, whom
Amulius, becoming yet more alarmed, commanded a servant to take and
cast away; this man some call Faustulus, others say Faustulus was
the man who brought them up. He put the children, however, in a
small trough, and. went towards the river with a design to cast them
in; but, seeing the waters much swollen and coming violently down, was
afraid to go nearer, and dropping the children near the bank, went
away. The river overflowing, the flood at last bore up the trough,
and, gently wafting it, landed them on a smooth piece of ground, which
they now called Cermanus, formerly Germanus, perhaps from Germani with
signifies brothers.
  Near this place grew a wild fig-tree, which they called Ruminalis,
either from Romulus (as it is vulgarly thought), or from ruminating,
because cattle did usually in the heat of the day seek cover under it,
and there chew the cud; or, better, from the suckling of these
children there, for the ancients called the dug or teat of any
creature ruma; and there is a tutelar goddess of the rearing of
children whom they still call Rumilia, in sacrificing to whom they use
no wine, but make libations of milk. While the infants lay here,
history tells us, a she-wolf nursed them, and a woodpecker
constantly fed and watched them; these creatures are esteemed holy
to the god Mars; the woodpecker the Latins still especially worship
and honour. Which things, as much as any, gave credit to what the
mother of the children said, that their father was the god Mars;
though some say that it was a mistake put upon her by Amulius, who
himself had come to her dressed up in armour.
  Others think that the first rise of this fable came from the
children's nurse, through the ambiguity of her name; for the Latins
not only called wolves lupoe, but also women of loose life; and such
an one was the wife of Faustulus, who nurtured these children, Acca
Larentia by name. To her the Romans offer sacrifices, and in the month
of April the priest of Mars makes libations there; it is called the
Larentian Feast. They honour also another Larentia, for the
following reason: the keeper of Hercules's temple having, it seems,
little else to do, proposed to his deity a game at dice, laying down
that, if he himself won, he would have something valuable of the
god; but if he were beaten, he would spread him a noble table, and
procure him a fair lady's company. Upon these terms, throwing first
for the god and then for himself, he found himself beaten. Wishing
to pay his stakes honourably, and holding himself bound by what he had
said, he both provided the diety a good supper, and giving money to
Larentia, then in her beauty, though not publicly known, gave her a
feast in the temple, where he had also laid a bed, and after supper
locked her in, as if the god were really to come to her. And indeed,
it is said, the deity did truly visit her, and commanded her in the
morning to walk to the marketplace, and, whatever man she met first,
to salute him, and make him her friend. She met one named Tarrutius,
who was a man advanced in years, fairly rich, without children, and
had always lived a single life. He received Larentia, and loved her
well, and at his death left her sole heir of all his large and fair
possessions, most of which she, in her last will and testament,
bequeathed to the people. It was reported of her, being now celebrated
and esteemed the mistress of a god, that she suddenly disappeared near
the place where the first Larentia lay buried; the spot is at this day
called Velabrum, because, the river frequently overflowing, they
went over in ferry-boats somewhere hereabouts to the forum, the
Latin word for ferrying being velatura. Others derive the name from
velum, a sail; because the exhibitors of public shows used to hang the
road that leads from the forum to the Circus Maximus with sails,
beginning at this spot. Upon these accounts the second Larentia is
honoured at Rome.
  Meantime Faustulus, Amulius's swineherd, brought up the children
without any man's knowledge; or, as those say who wish to keep
closer to probabilities, with the knowledge and secret assistance of
Numitor; for it is said, they went to school at Gabii, and were well
instructed in letters, and other accomplishments befitting their
birth. And they were called Romulus and Remus (from ruma, the dug), as
we had before, because they were found sucking the wolf. In their very
infancy, the size and beauty of their bodies intimated their natural
superiority; and when they grew up, they both proved brave and
manly, attempting all enterprises that seemed hazardous, and showing
in them a courage altogether undaunted. But Romulus seemed rather to
act by counsel, and to show the sagacity of a statesman, and in all
his dealings with their neighbours, whether relating to feeding of
flocks or to hunting, gave the idea of being born rather to rule
than to obey. To their comrades and inferiors they were therefore
dear; but the king's servants, his bailiffs and overseers, as being in
nothing better than themselves, they despised and slighted, nor were
the least concerned at their commands and menaces. They used honest
pastimes and liberal studies, not esteeming sloth and idleness
honest and liberal, but rather such exercises as hunting and
running, repelling robbers, taking of thieves, and delivering the
wronged and oppressed from injury. For doing such things they became
famous.
  A quarrel occurring betwixt Numitor's and Amulius's cowherds, the
latter, not enduring the driving away of their cattle by the others,
fell upon them and put them to flight, and rescued the greatest part
of the prey. At which Numitor being highly incensed, they little
regarded it, but collected and took into their company a number of
needy men and runaway slaves,- acts which looked like the first stages
of rebellion. It so happened that when Romulus was attending a
sacrifice, being fond of sacred rites and divination, Numitor's
herdsmen, meeting with Remus on a journey with few companions, fell
upon him, and after some fighting, took him prisoner, carried him
before Numitor, and there accused him. Numitor would not punish him
himself, fearing his brother's anger, but went to Amulius, and desired
justice, as he was Amulius's brother and was affronted by Amulius's
servants. The men of Alba likewise resenting the thing, and thinking
he had been dishonourably used, Amulius was induced to deliver Remus
up into Numitor's hands, to use him as he thought fit. He therefore
took and carried him home, and, being struck with admiration of the
youth's person, in stature aid strength of body exceeding all men, and
perceiving in his very countenance the courage and force of his
mind, which stood unsubdued and unmoved by his present
circumstances, and hearing further that all the enterprises and
actions of his life were answerable to what he saw of but chiefly,
as it seemed, a divine influence aiding and directing the first
steps that were to lead to great results, out of the mere thought of
his mind and casually, as it were, he put his hand upon the fact, and,
in gentle terms and with a kind aspect, to inspire him with confidence
and hope, asked him who he was, and whence he was derived. He,
taking heart, spoke thus: "I will hide nothing from you, for you
seem to be of a more princely temper than Amulius, in that you give
a hearing and examine before you punish, while he condemns before
the cause is heard. Formerly, then, we (for we are twins) thought
ourselves the sons of Faustulus and Larentia, the king's servants; but
since we have been accused and aspersed with calumnies, and brought in
peril of our lives here before you, we hear great things of ourselves,
the truth of which my present danger is likely to bring to the test.
Our birth is said to have been secret, our fostering and nurture in
our infancy still more strange; by birds and beasts, to whom we were
cast out, we were fed, by the milk of a wolf and the morsels of a
woodpecker, as we lay in a little trough by the side of the river. The
trough is still in being, and is preserved, with brass plates round
it, and an inscription in letters almost effaced, which may prove
hereafter unavailing tokens to our parents when we are dead and gone."
Numitor, upon these words, and computing the dates by the young
man's looks, slighted not the hope that flattered him, but
considered how to come at his daughter privately (for she was still
kept under restraint), to talk with her concerning these matters.
  Faustulus, hearing Remus was taken and delivered up, called on
Romulus to assist in his rescue, informing him then plainly of the
particulars of his birth, not but he had before given hints of it, and
told as much as an attentive man might make no small conclusions from;
he himself, full of concern and fear of not coming in time, took the
trough, and ran instantly to Numitor; but giving a suspicion to some
of the king's sentries at his gate, and being gazed upon by them and
perplexed with their questions, he let it be seen that he was hiding
the trough under his cloak. By chance there was one among them who was
at the exposing of the children, and was employed in the office; he,
seeing the trough and knowing it by its make and inscription,
guessed at the business, and, without further delay, telling the
king of it, brought in the man to be examined. Faustulus, hard
beset, did not show himself altogether proof against terror; nor yet
was he wholly forced out of all; confessed indeed the children were
alive, but lived, he said, as shepherds, a great way from Alba; he
himself was going to carry the trough to Ilia, who had often greatly
desired to see and handle it, for a confirmation of her hopes of her
children. As men generally do who are troubled in mind and act
either in fear or passion, it so fell out Amulius now did; for he sent
in haste as a messenger, a man, otherwise honest, and friendly to
Numitor, with commands to learn from Numitor whether any tidings
were come to him of the children being alive. He, coming and seeing
how little Remus wanted of being received into the arms and embraces
of Numitor, both gave him surer confidence in his hope, and advised
them, with all expedition, to proceed to action; himself too joining
and assisting them, and indeed, had they wished it, the time would not
have let them demur. For Romulus was now come very near, and many of
the citizens, out of fear and hatred of Amulius, were running out to
join him; besides, he brought great forces with him, divided into
companies each of an hundred men, every captain carrying a small
bundle of grass and shrubs tied to a pole. The Latins call such
bundles manipuli, and from hence it is that in their armies they still
call their captains manipulares. Remus rousing the citizens within
to revolt, and Romulus making attacks from without, the tyrant, not
knowing either what to do, or what expedient to think of for his
security, in this perplexity and confusion was taken and put to death.
This narrative for the most part given by Fabius and Diocles of
Peparethus, who seem to be the earliest historians of the foundation
of Rome, is suspected by some, because of its dramatic and
fictitious appearance; but it would not wholly be disbelieved, if
men would remember what a poet fortune sometimes shows herself, and
consider that the Roman power would hardly have reached so high a
pitch without a divinely ordered origin, attended with great and
extraordinary circumstances.
  Amulius now being dead and matters quietly disposed, the two
brothers would neither dwell in Alba without governing there, nor take
the government into their own hands during the life of their
grandfather. Having therefore delivered the dominion up into his
hands, and paid their mother befitting honour, they resolved to live
by themselves, and build a city in the same place where they were in
their infancy brought up. This seems the most honourable reason for
their departure; though perhaps it was necessary, having such a body
of slaves and fugitives collected about them, either to come to
nothing by dispersing them, or if not so, then to live with them
elsewhere. For that the inhabitants of Alba did not think fugitives
worthy of being received and incorporated as citizens among them
plainly appears from the matter of the women, an attempt made not
wantonly but of necessity, because they could not get wives by
good-will. For they certainly paid unusual respect and honour to those
whom they thus forcibly seized.
  Not long after the first foundation of the city, they opened a
sanctuary of refuge for all fugitives, which they called the temple of
the god Asylaeus, where they received and protected all, delivering
none back, neither the servant to his master, the debtor to his
creditor, nor the murderer into the hands of the magistrate, saying it
was a privileged place, and they could so maintain it by an order of
the holy oracle; insomuch that the city grew presently very
populous, for they say, it consisted at first of no more than a
thousand houses. But of that hereafter.
  Their minds being full bent upon building, there arose presently a
difference about the place. Romulus chose what was called Roma
Quadrata, or the Square Rome, and would have the city there. Remus
laid out a piece of ground on the Aventine Mount, well fortified by
nature, which was from him called Remonium, but now Rignarium.
Concluding at last to decide the contest by a divination from a flight
of birds, and placing themselves apart at some distance. Remus, they
say, saw six vultures, and Romulus double that number; others say,
Remus did truly see his number, and that Romulus feigned his, but when
Remus came to him, that then he did indeed see twelve. Hence it is
that the Romans, in their divinations from birds, chiefly regard the
vulture, though Herodorus Ponticus relates that Hercules was always
very joyful when a vulture appeared to him upon any action. For it
is a creature the least hurtful of any, pernicious neither to corn,
fruit-tree, nor cattle; it preys only upon carrion, and never kills or
hurts any living thing; and as for birds, it touches not them,
though they are dead, as being of its own species, whereas eagles,
owls, and hawks mangle and kill their own fellow-creatures; yet, as
Aeschylus says,-

        "What bird is clean that preys on fellow bird?"

Besides, all other birds are, so to say, never out of our eyes; they
let themselves be seen of us continually; but a vulture is a very rare
sight, and you can seldom meet with a man that has seen their young;
their rarity and infrequency has raised a strange opinion in some,
that they come to us from some other world; as soothsayers ascribe a
divine origination to all things not produced either of nature or of
themselves.
  When Remus knew the cheat, he was much displeased; and as Romulus
was casting up a ditch, where he designed the foundation of the
city-wall, he turned some pieces of the work to ridicule, and
obstructed others; at last, as he was in contempt leaping over it,
some say Romulus himself struck him, others Celer, one of his
companions; he fell, however, and in the scuffle Faustulus also was
slain, and Plistinus, who, being Faustulus's brother, story tells
us, helped to bring up Romulus. Celer upon this fled instantly into
Tuscany, and from him the Romans call all men that are swift of feet
Celeres; and because Quintus Metellus, at his father's funeral, in a
few days' time gave the people a show of gladiators, admiring his
expedition in getting it ready, they gave him the name of Celer.
  Romulus, having buried his brother Remus, together with his two
foster-fathers, on the mount Remonia, set to building his city; and
sent for men out of Tuscany, who directed him by sacred usages and
written rules in all the ceremonies to be observed, as in a
religious rite. First, they dug a round trench about that which is now
the Comitium, or Court of Assembly, and into it solemnly threw the
first-fruits of all things either good by custom or necessary by
nature; lastly, every man taking a small piece of earth of the country
from whence he came, they all threw in promiscuously together. This
trench they call, as they do the heavens, Mundus; making which their
centre, they described the city in a circle round it. Then the founder
fitted to a plough a brazen ploughshare, and, yoking together a bull
and a cow, drove himself a deep line or furrow round the bounds; while
the business of those that followed after was to see that whatever
earth was thrown up should be turned all inwards towards the city; and
not to let any clod lie outside. With this line they described the
wall, and called it, by a contraction, Pomoerium, that is,
postmurum, after or beside the wall; and where they designed to make a
gate, there they took out the share, carried the plough over, and left
a space; for which reason they consider the whole wall as holy, except
where the gates are; for had they adjudged them also sacred, they
could not, without offence to religion, have given free ingress and
egress for the necessaries of human life, some of which are in
themselves unclean.
  As for the day they began to build the city, it is universally
agreed to have been the twenty-first of April, and that day the Romans
annually keep holy, calling it their country's birthday. At first,
they say, they sacrificed no living creature on this day, thinking
it fit to preserve the feast of their country's birthday pure and
without stain of blood. Yet before ever the city was built, there
was a feast of herdsmen and shepherds kept on this day, which went
by the name of Palilia. The Roman and Greek months have now little
or no agreement; they say, however, the day on which Romulus began
to build was quite certainly the thirtieth of the month, at which time
there was an eclipse of the sun which they conceived to be that seen
by Antimachus, the Teian poet, in the third year of the sixth
Olympiad. In the times of Varro the philosopher, a man deeply read
in Roman history, lived one Tarrutius, his familiar acquaintance, a
good philosopher and mathematician, and one, too, that out of
curiosity had studied the way of drawing schemes and tables, and was
thought to be a proficient in the art; to him Varro propounded to cast
Romulus's nativity, even to the first day and hour, making his
deductions from the several events of the man's life which he should
be informed of, exactly as in working back a geometrical problem;
for it belonged, he said, to the same science both to foretell a man's
life by knowing the time of his birth, and also to find out his
birth by the knowledge of his life. This task Tarrutius undertook, and
first looking into the actions and casualties of the man, together
with the time of his life and manner of his death, and then
comparing all these remarks together, he very confidently and
positively pronounced that Romulus was conceived in his mother's
womb the first year of the second Olympiad, the twenty-third day of
the month the Aegyptians call Choeac, and the third hour after sunset,
at which time there was a total eclipse of the sun; that he was born
the twenty-first day of the month Thoth, about sunrising; and that the
first stone of Rome was laid by him the ninth day of the month
Pharmuthi, between the second and third hour. For the fortunes of
cities as well as of men, they think, have their certain periods of
time prefixed, which may be collected and foreknown from the
position of the stars at their first foundation. But these and the
like relations may perhaps not so much take and delight the reader
with their novelty and curiosity, as offend him by their extravagance.
  The city now being built, Romulus enlisted all that were of age to
bear arms into military companies, each company consisting of three
thousand footmen and three hundred horse. These companies were
called legions, because they were the choicest and most select of
the people for fighting men. The rest of the multitude he called the
people; an hundred of the most eminent he chose for counsellors; these
he styled patricians, and their assembly the senate, which signifies a
council of elders. The patricians, some say, were so called because
they were the fathers of lawful children; others, because they could
give a good account who their own fathers were, which not every one of
the rabble that poured into the city at first could do; others, from
patronage, their word for protection of inferiors, the origin of which
they attribute to Patron, one of those that came over with Evander,
who was a great protector and defender of the weak and needy. But
perhaps the most probable judgment might be, that Romulus, esteeming
it the duty of the chiefest and wealthiest men, with a fatherly care
and concern to look after the meaner, and also encouraging the
commonalty not to dread or be aggrieved at the honours of their
superiors, but to love and respect them, and to think and call them
their fathers, might from hence give them the name of patricians.
For at this very time all foreigners give senators the style of lords;
but the Romans, making use of a more honourable and less invidious
name, call them Patres Conscripti; at first, indeed, simply Patres,
but afterwards, more being added, Patres Conscripti. By this more
imposing title he distinguished the senate from the populace; and in
other ways separated the nobles and the commons, calling them patrons,
and these their clients, by which means he created wonderful love
and amity betwixt them, productive of great justice in their dealings.
For they were always their clients' counsellors in law cases, their
advocates in courts of justice; in fine, their advisers and supporters
in all affairs whatever. These again faithfully served their
patrons, not only paying them all respect and deference, but also,
in case of poverty, helping them to portion their daughters and pay
off their debts; and for a patron to witness against his client, or
a client against his patron, was what no law nor magistrate could
enforce. In aftertimes, all other duties subsisting still between
them, it was thought mean and dishonourable for the better sort to
take money from their inferiors. And so much of these matters.
  In the fourth month, after the city was built, as Fabius writes, the
adventure of stealing the women was attempted and some say Romulus
himself, being naturally a martial man, and predisposed too, perhaps
by certain oracles, to believe the fates had ordained the future
growth and greatness of Rome should depend upon the benefit of war,
upon these accounts first offered violence to the Sabines, since he
took away only thirty virgins, more to give an occasion of war than
out of any want of women. But this is not very probable; it would seem
rather that, observing his city to be filled by a confluence of
foreigners, a few of whom had wives, and that the multitude in
general, consisting of a mixture of mean and obscure men, fell under
contempt, and seemed to be of no long continuance together, and hoping
farther, after the women were appeased, to make this injury in some
measure an occasion of confederacy and mutual commerce with the
Sabines, he took in hand this exploit after this manner. First, he
gave it out as if he had found an altar of a certain god hid under
ground; the god they called Consus, either the god of counsel (for
they still call a consultation consilium, and their chief
magistrates consules, namely, counsellors), or else the equestrian
Neptune, for the altar is kept covered in the Circus Maximus at all
other times, and only at horse-races is exposed to public view; others
merely say that this god had his altar hid under ground because
counsel ought to be secret and concealed. Upon discovery of this
altar, Romulus, by proclamation, appointed a day for a splendid
sacrifice, and for public games and shows, to entertain all sorts of
people: many flocked thither, and he himself sat in front, amidst
his nobles clad in purple. Now the signal for their falling on was
to be whenever he rose and gathered up his robe and threw it over
his body; his men stood all ready armed, with their eyes intent upon
him, and when the sign was given, drawing their swords and falling
on with a great shout they ravished away the daughters of the Sabines,
they themselves flying without any let or hindrance. They say there
were but thirty taken, and from them the Curiae or Fraternities were
named; but Valerius Antias says five hundred and twenty-seven, Juba,
six hundred and eighty-three virgins: which was indeed the greatest
excuse Romulus could allege, namely, that they had taken no married
woman, save one only, Hersilia by name, and her too unknowingly; which
showed that they did not commit this rape wantonly, but with a
design purely of forming alliance with their neighbours by the
greatest and surest bonds. This Hersilia some say Hostilius married, a
most eminent man among the Romans; others, Romulus himself, and that
she bore two children to him,- a daughter, by reason of
primogeniture called Prima, and one only son, whom, from the great
concourse of citizens to him at that time, he called Aollius, but
after ages Abillius. But Zenodotus the Troezenian, in giving this
account, is contradicted by many.
  Among those who committed this rape upon the virgins, there were,
they say, as it so then happened, some of the meaner sort of men,
who were carrying off a damsel, excelling all in beauty and comeliness
and stature, whom when some of superior rank that met them,
attempted to take away, they cried out they were carrying her to
Talasius, a young man, indeed, but brave and worthy; hearing that,
they commended and applauded them loudly, and also some, turning back,
accompanied them with good-will and pleasure, shouting out the name of
Talasus. Hence the Romans to this very time, at their weddings, sing
Talasius for their nuptial word, as the Greeks do Hymenaeus, because
they say Talasius was very happy in his marriage. But Sextius Sylla
the Carthaginian, a man wanting neither learning nor ingenuity, told
me Romulus gave this word as a sign when to begin the onset;
everybody, therefore, who made prize of a maiden, cried out, Talasius;
and for that reason the custom continues so now at marriages. But most
are of opinion (of whom Juba particularly is one) that this word was
used to new-married women by way of incitement to good housewifery and
talasia (spinning), as we say in Greek, Greek words at that time not
being as yet overpowered by Italian. But if this be the case, and if
the Romans did at the time use the word talasia as we do, a man
might fancy a more probable reason of the custom. For when the
Sabines, after the war against the Romans were reconciled,
conditions were made concerning their women, that they should be
obliged to do no other servile offices to their husbands but what
concerned spinning; it was customary, therefore, ever after, at
weddings, for those that gave the bride or escorted her or otherwise
were present, sportingly to say Talasius, intimating that she was
henceforth to serve in spinning and no more. It continues also a
custom at this very day for the bride not of herself to pass her
husband's threshold, but to be lifted over, in memory that the
Sabine virgins were carried in by violence, and did not go in of their
own will. Some say, too, the custom of parting the bride's hair with
the head of a spear was in token their marriages began at first by war
and acts of hostility, of which I have spoken more fully in my book of
Questions.
  This rape was committed on the eighteenth day of the month Sextilis,
now called August, on which the solemnities of the Consualia are kept.
  The Sabines were a numerous and martial people, but lived in
small, unfortified villages, as it befitted, they thought, a colony of
the Lacedaemonians to be bold and fearless; nevertheless, seeing
themselves bound by such hostages to their good behaviour, and being
solicitous for their daughters, they sent ambassadors to Romulus
with fair and equitable requests, that he would return their young
women and recall that act of violence, and afterwards, by persuasion
and lawful means, seek friendly correspondence between both nations.
Romulus would not part with the young women, yet proposed to the
Sabines to enter into an alliance with them; upon which point some
consulted and demurred long, but Acron, king of the Ceninenses, a
man of high spirit and a good warrior, who had all along a jealousy of
Romulus's bold attempts, and considering particularly, from this
exploit upon the women, that he was growing formidable to all
people, and indeed insufferable, were he not chastised, first rose
up in arms, and with a powerful army advanced against him. Romulus
likewise prepared to receive him; but when they came within sight
and viewed each other, they made a challenge to fight a single duel,
the armies standing by under arms, without participation. And Romulus,
making a vow to Jupiter, if he should conquer, to carry himself, and
dedicate his adversary's armour to his honour, overcame him in combat,
and a battle ensuing, routed his army also, and then took his city;
but did those he found in it no injury, only commanded them to
demolish the place and attend him to Rome, there to be admitted to all
the privileges of citizens. And indeed there was nothing did more
advance the greatness of Rome, than that she did always unite and
incorporate those whom she conquered into herself. Romulus, that he
might perform his vow in the most acceptable manner to Jupiter, and
withal make the pomp of it delightful to the eye of the city, cut down
a tall oak which he saw growing in the camp, which he trimmed to the
shape of a trophy, and fastened on it Acron's whole suit of armour
disposed in proper form; then he himself, girding his clothes about
him, and crowning his head with a laurel garland, his hair
gracefully flowing, carried the trophy resting erect upon his right
shoulder, and so marched on, singing songs of triumph, and his whole
army following after, the citizens all receiving him with acclamations
of joy and wonder. The procession of this day was the origin and model
of all after triumphs. This trophy was styled an offering to Jupiter
Feretrius, from ferire, which in Latin is to smite; for Romulus prayed
he might smite and overthrow his enemy; and the spoils were called
opima, or royal spoils, says Varro, from their richness, which the
word opes signifies; though one would more probably conjecture from
opus, an act; for it is only to the general of an army who with his
own hand kills his enemies' general that this honour is granted of
offering the opima spolia. And three only of the Roman captains have
had it conferred on them: first, Romulus, upon killing Acron the
Ceninensian; next, Cornelius Cossus, for slaying Tolumnius the Tuscan;
and lastly, Claudius Marcellus, upon his conquering Viridomarus,
king of the Gauls. The two latter, Cossus and Marcellus, made their
entries in triumphant chariots, bearing their trophies themselves; but
that Romulus made use of a chariot, Dionysius is wrong in asserting.
History says, Tarquinius, Damaratus's son, was the first that
brought triumphs to this great pomp and grandeur; others, that
Publicola was the first that rode in triumph. The statues of Romulus
in triumph are, as may be seen in Rome, all on foot.
  After the overthrow of the Ceninensians, the other Sabines still
protracting the time in preparations, the people of Fidenae,
Crustumerium, and Antemna joined their forces against the Romans; they
in like manner were defeated in battle, and surrendered up to
Romulus their cities to be seized, their lands and territories to be
divided, and themselves to be transplanted to Rome. All the lands
which Romulus acquired, he distributed among the citizens, except only
what the parents of the stolen virgins had; these he suffered to
possess their own. The rest of the Sabines, enraged hereat, choosing
Tatius their captain, marched straight against Rome. The city was
almost inaccessible, having for its fortress that which is now the
Capitol, where a strong guard was placed, and Tarpeius their
captain; not Tarpeia the virgin, as some say who would make Romulus
a fool. But Tarpeia, daughter to the captain, coveting the golden
bracelets she saw them wear, betrayed the fort into the Sabines'
hands, and asked, in reward of her treachery, the things they wore
on their left arms. Tatius conditioning thus with her, in the night
she opened one of the gates, and received the Sabines. And truly
Antigonus, it would seem, was not solitary in saying he loved
betrayers, but hated those who had betrayed; nor Caesar, who told
Rhymitalces the Thracian, that he loved the treason, but hated the
traitor; but it is the general feeling of all who have occasion for
wicked men's service, as people have for the poison of venomous
beasts; they are glad of them while they are of use, and abhor their
baseness when it is over. And so then did Tatius behave towards
Tarpeia, for he commanded the Sabines, in regard to their contract,
not to refuse her the least part of what they wore on their left arms;
and he himself first took his bracelet off his arm, and threw that,
together with his buckler, at her; and all the rest following, she,
being borne down and quite buried with the multitude of gold and their
shields, died under the weight and pressure of them; Tarpeius also
himself, being prosecuted by Romulus, was found guilty of treason,
as Juba says Sulpicius Galba relates. Those who write otherwise
concerning Tarpeia, as that she was the daughter of Tatius, the Sabine
captain, and being forcibly detained by Romulus, acted and suffered
thus by her father's contrivance, speak very absurdly, of whom
Antigonus is one. And Simylus, the poet, who thinks Tarpeia betrayed
the Capitol, not to the Sabines, but the Gauls, having fallen in
love with their king, talks mere folly, saying thus:-

        "Tarpeia 'twas, who, dwelling close thereby,
        Laid open Rome unto the enemy,
        She, for the love of the besieging Gaul,
        Betrayed the city's strength, the Capitol."

  And a little after, speaking of her death:-

        "The numerous nations of the Celtic foe
        Bore her not living to the banks of Po;
        Their heavy shields upon the maid they threw,
        And with their splendid gifts entombed at once and slew."

  Tarpeia afterwards was buried there, and the hill from her was
called Tarpeius, until the reign of King Tarquin, who dedicated the
place to Jupiter, at which time her bones were removed, and so it lost
her name, except only that part of the Capitol which they still called
the Tarpeian Rock, from which they used to cast down malefactors.
  The Sabines being possessed of the hill, Romulus, in great fury,
bade them battle, and Tatius was confident to accept it, perceiving,
if they were overpowered, that they had behind them a secure
retreat. The level in the middle, where they were to join battle,
being surrounded with many little hills seemed to enforce both parties
to a sharp and desperate conflict, by reason of the difficulties of
the place, which had but a few outlets, inconvenient either for refuge
or pursuit. It happened, too, the river having overflowed not many
days before, there was left behind in the plain, where now the forum
stands, a deep blind mud and slime, which, though it did not appear
much to the eye, and was not easily avoided, at bottom was deceitful
and dangerous; upon which the Sabines being unwarily about to enter,
met with a piece of good fortune; for Curtius, a gallant man, eager of
honour, and of aspiring thoughts, being mounted on horseback, was
galloping on before the rest, and mired his horse here, and,
endeavouring for a while, by whip and spur and voice to disentangle
him, but finding it impossible, quitted him and saved himself; the
place from him to this very time is called the Curtian Lake. The
Sabines, having avoided this danger, began the fight very smartly, the
fortune of the day being very dubious, though many were slain; amongst
whom was Hostilius, who, they say, was husband to Hersilia, and
grandfather to that Hostilius who reigned after Numa. There were
many other brief conflicts, we may suppose, but the most memorable was
the last, in which Romulus, having received a wound on his head by a
stone, and being almost felled to the ground by it, and disabled,
the Romans gave way, and, being driven out of the level ground, fled
towards the Palatium. Romulus, by this time recovering from his
wound a little, turned about to renew the battle, and, facing the
fliers, with a loud voice encouraged them to stand and fight. But
being overborne with numbers, and nobody daring to face about,
stretching out his hands to heaven, he prayed to Jupiter to stop the
army, and not to neglect, but maintain the Roman cause, now in extreme
danger. The prayer was no sooner made, than shame and respect for
their king checked many; the fears of the fugitives changed suddenly
into confidence. The place they first stood at was where now is the
temple of Jupiter Stator (which may be translated the Stayer); there
they rallied again into ranks and repulsed the Sabines to the place
called now Regia, and to the temple of Vesta; where both parties,
preparing to begin a second battle, were prevented by a spectacle,
strange to behold, and defying description. For the daughters of the
Sabines, who had been carried off, came running, in great confusion,
some on this side, some on that, with miserable cries and
lamentations, like creatures possessed, in the midst of the army and
among the dead bodies, to come at their husbands and their fathers,
some with their young babes in their arms, others their hair loose
about their ears, but all calling, now upon the Sabines, now upon
the Romans, in the most tender and endearing words. Hereupon both
melted into compassion, and fell back, to make room for them betwixt
the armies. The sight of the women carried sorrow and commiseration
upon both sides into the hearts of all, but still more their words,
which began with expostulation and upbraiding, and ended with entreaty
and supplication.
  "Wherein," say they, "have we injured or offended you, as to deserve
such sufferings past and present? We were ravished away unjustly and
violently by those whose now we are; that being done, we were so
long neglected by our fathers, our brothers and countrymen, that time,
having now by the strictest bonds united us to those we once
mortally hated, has made it impossible for us not to tremble at the
danger and weep at the death of the very men who once used violence to
us. You did not come to vindicate our honour, while we were virgins,
against our assailants; but do come now to force away wives from their
husbands and mothers from their children, a succour more grievous to
its wretched objects than the former betrayal and neglect of them.
Which shall we call the worst, their love-making or your compassion?
If you were making war upon any other occasion, for our sakes you
ought to withhold your hands from those to whom we have made you
fathers-in-law and grandsires. If it be for our own cause, then take
us, and with us your sons-in-law and grandchildren. Restore to us
our parents and kindred, but do not rob us of our children and
husbands. Make us not, we entreat you, twice captives." Hersilia
having spoken many such words as these, and the others earnestly
praying, a truce was made, and the chief officers came to a parley;
the women, in the meantime, brought and presented their husbands and
children to their fathers and brothers; gave those that wanted meat
and drink, and carried the wounded home to be cured, and showed also
how much they governed within doors, and how indulgent their
husbands were to them, in demeaning themselves towards them with all
kindness and respect imaginable. Upon this, conditions were agreed
upon, that what women pleased might stay where they were, exempt, as
aforesaid, from all drudgery and labour but spinning; that the
Romans and Sabines should inhabit the city together; that the city
should be called Rome from Romulus; but the Romans, Quirites, from the
country of Tatius; and that they both should govern and command in
common. The place of the ratification is still called Comitium, from
come to meet.
  The city being thus doubled in number, an hundred of the Sabines
were elected senators, and the legions were increased to six
thousand foot and six hundred horse; then they divided the people into
three tribes: the first, from Romulus, named Ramnenses; the second
from Tatius, Tatienses; the third Luceres, from the lucus, or grove,
where the Asylum stood, whither many fled for sanctuary, and were
received into the city. And that they were just three, the very name
of tribe and tribune seems to show; each tribe contained ten curiae,
or brotherhoods, which, some say, took their names from the Sabine
women; but that seems to be false, because many had their names from
various places. Though it is true, they then constituted many things
in honour to the women; as to give them the way wherever they met
them; to speak no ill word in their presence; not to appear naked
before them, or else be liable to prosecution before the judge, of
homicide; that their children should wear an ornament about their
necks called the bulla (because it was like a bubble), and the
proetexta, a gown edged with purple.
  The princes did not immediately join in council together, but at
first each met with his own hundred; afterwards all assembled
together. Tatius dwelt where now the temple of Moneta stands, and
Romulus, close by the steps, as they call them, of the Fair Shore,
near the descent from the Mount Palatine to the Circus Maximus. There,
they say, grew the holy cornel tree, of which they report, that
Romulus once, to try his strength, threw a dart from the Aventine
Mount, the staff of which was made of cornel, which struck so deep
into the ground, that no one of many that tried could pluck it up, and
the soil being fertile, gave nourishment to the wood, which sent forth
branches, and produced a cornel stock of considerable bigness. This
did posterity preserve and worship as one of the most sacred things;
and therefore walled it about; and if to any one it appeared not green
nor flourishing, but inclining to pine and wither, he immediately made
outcry to all he met, and they, like people hearing of a house on
fire, with one accord would cry for water, and run from all parts with
buckets full to the place. But when Caius Caesar, they say, was
repairing the steps about it, some of the labourers digging too close,
the roots were destroyed, and the tree withered.
  The Sabines adopted the Roman months, of which whatever is
remarkable is mentioned in the Life of Numa. Romulus, on the other
hand, adopted their long shields, and changed his own armour and
that of all the Romans, who before wore round targets of the Argive
pattern. Feasts and sacrifices they partook of in common, not
abolishing any which either nation observed before, and instituting
several new ones; of which one was the Matronalia, instituted in
honour of the women, for their extinction of the war; likewise the
Carmentalia. This Carmenta some think a deity presiding over human
birth; for which reason she is much honoured by mothers. Others say
she was the wife of Evander, the Arcadian, being a prophetess, and
wont to deliver her oracles in verse, and from carmen, a verse, was
called Carmenta; her proper name being Nicostrata. Others more
probably derive Carmenta from carens mente, or insane, in allusion
to her prophetic frenzies. Of the feast of Palilia we have spoken
before. The Lupercalia, by the time of its celebration, may seem to be
a feast of purification, for it is solemnised on the dies nefasti,
or non-court days, of the month February, which name signifies
purification, and the very day of the feast was anciently called
Februata; but its name is equivalent to the Greek Lycaea; and it seems
thus to be of great antiquity, and brought in by the Arcadians who
came with Evander. Yet this is but dubious, for it may come as well
from the wolf that nursed Romulus; and we see the Luperci, the
priests, begin their course from the place where they say Romulus
was exposed. But the ceremonies performed in it render the origin of
the thing more difficult to be guessed at; for there are goats killed,
then, two young noblemen's sons being brought, some are to stain their
foreheads with the bloody knife, others presently to wipe it off
with wool dipped in milk; then the young boys must laugh after their
foreheads are wiped; that done, having cut the goats' skins into
thongs, they run about naked, only with something about their
middle, lashing all they meet; and the young wives do not avoid
their strokes, fancying they will help conception and childbirth.
Another thing peculiar to this feast is for the Luperci to sacrifice a
dog. But, as a certain poet who wrote fabulous explanations of Roman
customs in elegiac verses, says, that Romulus and Remus, after the
conquest of Amulius, ran joyfully to the place where the wolf gave
them suck; and that, in imitation of that, this feast was held, and
two young noblemen ran-

        "Striking at all, as when from Alba town,
        With sword in hand, the twins came hurrying down;"

and that the bloody knife applied to their foreheads was a sign of the
danger and bloodshed of that day; the cleansing of them in milk, a
remembrance of their food and nourishment. Caius Acilius writes, that,
before the city was built, the cattle of Romulus and Remus one day
going astray, they, praying to the god Faunus, ran out to seek them
naked, wishing not to be troubled with sweat, and that this is why the
Luperci run naked. If the sacrifice be by way of purification, a dog
might very well be sacrificed, for the Greeks, in their illustrations,
carry out young dogs, and frequently use this ceremony of
periscylacismus, as they call it. Or if again it is a sacrifice of
gratitude to the wolf that nourished and preserved Romulus, there is
good reason in killing a dog, as being an enemy to wolves. Unless,
indeed, after all, the creature is punished for hindering the
Luperci in their running.
  They say, too, Romulus was the first that consecrated holy fire, and
instituted holy virgins to keep it, called vestals; others ascribe
it to Numa Pompilius; agreeing, however, that Romulus was otherwise
eminently religious, and skilled in divination, and for that reason
carried the lituus, a crooked rod with which soothsayers describe
the quarters of the heavens, when they sit to observe the flights of
birds. This of his, being kept in the Palatium, was lost when the city
was taken by the Gauls; and afterwards, that barbarous people being
driven out, was found in the ruins, under a great heap of ashes,
untouched by the fire, all things about it being consumed and burnt.
He instituted also certain laws, one of which is somewhat severe,
which suffers not a wife to leave her husband, but grants a husband
power to turn off his wife, either upon poisoning her children or
counterfeiting his keys, or for adultery; but if the husband upon
any other occasion put her away, he ordered one moiety of his estate
to be given to the wife, the other to fall to the goddess Ceres; and
whoever cast off his wife, to make an atonement by sacrifice to the
gods of the dead. This, too, is observable as a singular thing in
Romulus, that he appointed no punishment for real parricide, but
called all murder so, thinking the one an accursed thing, but the
other a thing impossible; and, for a long time, his judgment seemed to
have been right; for in almost six hundred years together, nobody
committed the like in Rome; and Lucius Hostius, after the wars of
Hannibal, is recorded to have been the first parricide. Let this
much suffice concerning these matters.
  In the fifth year of the reign of Tatius, some of his friends and
kinsmen, meeting ambassadors coming from Laurentum to Rome,
attempted on the road to take away their money by force, and, upon
their resistance, killed them. So great a villainy having been
committed Romulus thought the malefactors ought at once to be
punished, but Tatius shuffled off and deferred the execution of it;
and this one thing was the beginning of open quarrel betwixt them;
in all other respects they were very careful of their conduct, and
administered affairs together with great unanimity. The relations of
the slain, being debarred of lawful satisfaction by reason of
Tatius, fell upon him as he was sacrificing with Romulus at Lavinium
and slew him; but escorted Romulus home, commending and extolling
him for a just prince. Romulus took the body of Tatius, and buried
it very splendidly in the Aventine Mount, near the place called
Armilustrium, but altogether neglected revenging his murder. Some
authors write, that the city of Laurentum, fearing the consequences,
delivered up the murderers of Tatius; but Romulus dismissed them,
saying one murder was requited with another. This gave occasion of
talk and jealousy, as if he were well pleased at the removal of his
co-partner in the government. Nothing of these things, however, raised
any sort of feud or disturbance among the Sabines; but some out of
love to him, others out of fear of his power, some again reverencing
him as a god, they all continued living peacefully in admiration and
awe of him; many foreign nations, too, showed respect to Romulus;
the Ancient Latins sent and entered into league and confederacy with
him. Fidenae he took, a neighbouring city to Rome, by a party of
horse, as some say, whom he sent before with commands to cut down
the hinges of the gates, himself afterwards unexpectedly coming up.
Others say, they having first made the invasion, plundering and
ravaging the country and suburbs, Romulus lay in ambush for them,
and having killed many of their men, took the city; but, nevertheless,
did not raze or demolish it, but made it a Roman colony, and sent
thither, on the Ides of April, two thousand five hundred inhabitants.
  Soon after a plague broke out, causing sudden death without any
previous sickness; it infected also the corn with unfruitfulness,
and cattle with barrenness; there rained blood, too, in the city; so
that, to their actual sufferings, fear of the wrath of the gods was
added. But when the same mischiefs fell upon Laurentum, then everybody
judged it was divine vengeance that fell upon both cities, for the
neglect of executing justice upon the murder of Tatius and the
ambassadors. But the murderers or, both sides being delivered up and
punished, the pestilence visibly abated; and Romulus purified the
cities with lustrations, which, they say, even now, are performed at
the wood called Ferentina. But before the plague ceased, the
Camertines invaded the Romans and overran the country, thinking
them, by reason of the distemper, unable to resist; but Romulus at
once made head against them, and gained the victory, with the
slaughter of six thousand men, then took their city, and brought
half of those be found there to Rome, sending from Rome to Camerium
double the number he left there. This was done on the first of August.
So many citizens had he to spare, in sixteen years' time from his
first founding Rome. Among other spoils he took a brazen four-horse
chariot from Camerium, which he placed in the temple of Vulcan,
setting on it his own statue, with a figure of victory crowning him.
  The Roman cause thus daily gathering strength, their weaker
neighbours shrunk away, and were thankful to be left untouched; but
the stronger, out of fear or envy, thought they ought not to give
way to Romulus but to curb and put a stop to his growing greatness.
The first were the Veientes, a people of Tuscany, who had large
possessions, and dwelt in a spacious city; they took occasion to
commence a war, by claiming Fidenae as belonging to them; a thing
not only very unreasonable, but very ridiculous, that they, who did
not assist them in the greatest extremities, but permitted them to
be slain, should challenge their lands and houses when in the hands of
others. But being scornfully retorted upon by Romulus in his
answers, they divided themselves into two bodies; with one they
attacked the garrison of Fidenae, the other marched against Romulus;
that which went against Fidenae got the victory, and slew two thousand
Romans; the other was worsted by Romulus, with the loss of eight
thousand men. A fresh battle was fought near Fidenae, and here all men
acknowledge the day's success to have been chiefly the work of Romulus
himself, who showed the highest skill as well as courage, and seemed
to manifest a strength and swiftness more than human. But what some
write, that of fourteen thousand that fell that day, above half were
slain by Romulus's own hand, verges too near to fable, and is, indeed,
simply incredible; since even the Messenians are thought to go too far
in saying that Aristomenes three times offered sacrifice for the death
of a hundred enemies, Lacedaemonians, slain by himself. The army being
thus routed, Romulus, suffering those that were left to make their
escape, led his forces against the city; they, having suffered such
great losses, did not venture to oppose, but, humbly suing to him,
made a league and friendship for an hundred years; surrendering also a
large district of land called Septempagium, that is, the seven
parts, as also their salt-works upon the river, and fifty noblemen for
hostages. He made his triumph for this on the Ides of October,
leading, among the rest of his many captives, the general of the
Veientes, an elderly man, but who had not, it seemed, acted with the
prudence of age; whence even now, in sacrifices for victories, they
lead an old man through the marketplace to the Capitol, apparelled
in purple, with a bulla, or child's toy, tied to it, and the crier
cries, Sardians to be sold; for the Tuscans are said to be a colony of
the Sardians, and the Veientes are a city of Tuscany.
  This was the last battle Romulus ever fought; afterwards he, as
most, nay all men, very few excepted, do, who are raised by great
and miraculous good-haps of fortune to power and greatness, so, I say,
did he; relying upon his own great actions, and growing of an
haughtier mind, he forsook his popular behaviour for kingly arrogance,
odious to the people; to whom in particular the state which he assumed
was hateful. For he dressed in scarlet, with the purple-bordered
robe over it; he gave audience on a couch of state, having always
about him some young men called Celeres, from their swiftness in doing
commissions; there went before him others with staves, to make room,
with leather thongs tied on their bodies, to bind on the moment
whoever he commanded. The Latins formerly used ligare in the same
sense as now alligare, to bind, whence the name lictors, for these
officers, and bacula, or staves, for their rods, because staves were
then used. It is probable, however, they were first called litores,
afterwards, by putting in a c, lictores, or, in Greek, liturgi, or
people's officers, for leitos is still Greek for the commons, and laos
for the people in general.
  But when, after the death of his grandfather Numitor in Alba, the
throne devolving upon Romulus, he, to court the people, put the
government into their own hands, and appointed an annual magistrate
over the Albans, this taught the great men of Rome to seek after a
free and anti-monarchical state, wherein all might in turn be subjects
and rulers. For neither were the patricians any longer admitted to
state affairs, only had the name and title left them, convening in
council rather for fashion's sake than advice, where they heard in
silence the king's commands, and so departed, exceeding the commonalty
only in hearing first what was done. These and the like were matters
of small moment; but when he of his own accord parted among his
soldiers what lands were acquired by war, and restored the Veientes
their hostages, the senate neither consenting nor approving of it,
then, indeed, he seemed to put a great affront upon them; so that,
on his sudden and strange disappearance a short while after, the
senate fell under suspicion and calumny. He disappeared on the Nones
of July, as they now call the month which was then Quintilis,
leaving nothing of certainty to be related of his death; only the
time, as just mentioned, for on that day many ceremonies are sill
performed in representation of what happened. Neither is this
uncertainty to be thought strange, seeing the manner of the death of
Scipio Africanus, who died at his own home after supper, has been
found capable neither of proof or disproof; for some say he died a
natural death, being of a sickly habit; others that he poisoned
himself; others again, that his enemies, breaking in upon him in the
night stifled him. Yet Scipio's dead body lay open to be seen of
all, and any one, from his own observation, might form his
suspicions and conjectures, whereas Romulus, when he vanished, left
neither the least part of his body, nor any remnant of his clothes
to be seen. So that some fancied the senators, having fallen upon
him in the temple of Vulcan, cut his body into pieces, and took each a
part away in his bosom; others think his disappearance was neither
in the temple of Vulcan, nor with the senators only by, but that it
came to pass that, as he was haranguing the people without the city,
near a place called the Goat's Marsh, on a sudden strange and
unaccountable disorders and alterations took place in the air; the
face of the sun was darkened, and the day turned into night, and that,
too, no quiet, peaceable night, but with terrible thunderings, and
boisterous winds from all quarters; during which the common people
dispersed and fled, but the senators kept close together. The
tempest being over and the light breaking out, when the people
gathered again, they missed and inquired for their king; the
senators suffered them not to search, or busy themselves about the
matter, but commanded them to honour and worship Romulus as one
taken up to the gods, and about to be to them, in the place of a
good prince, now a propitious god. The multitude, hearing this, went
away believing and rejoicing in hopes of good things from him; but
there were some, who, canvassing the matter in a hostile temper,
accused and aspersed the patricians, as men that persuaded the
people to believe ridiculous tales, when they themselves were the
murderers of the king.
  Things being in this disorder, one, they say, of the patricians,
of noble family and approved good character, and a faithful and
familiar friend of Romulus himself, having come with him from Alba,
Julius Proculus by name, presented himself in the forum; and, taking a
most sacred oath, protested before them all, that, as he was
travelling on the road, he had seen Romulus coming to meet him,
looking taller and comelier than ever, dressed in shining and
flaming armour; and he, being affrighted at the apparition, said,
"Why, O king, or for what purpose have you abandoned us to unjust
and wicked surmises, and the whole city to bereavement and endless
sorrow?" and that he made answer, "It pleased the gods, O Proculus,
that we, who came from them, should remain so long a time amongst
men as we did; and, having built a city to be the greatest in the
world for empire and glory, should again return to heaven. But
farewell; and tell the Romans, that, by the exercise of temperance and
fortitude, they shall attain the height of human power; we will be
to you the propitious god Quirinus." This seemed credible to the
Romans, upon the honesty and oath of the relater, and indeed, too,
there mingled with it a certain divine passion, some preternatural
influence similar to possession by a divinity; nobody contradicted it,
but, laying aside all jealousies and detractions, they prayed to
Quirinus and saluted him as a god.
  This is like some of the Greek fables of Aristeas the
Proconnesian, and Cleomedes the Astypalaean; for they say Aristeas
died in a fuller's workshop, and his friends coming to look for him,
found his body vanished; and that some presently after, coming from
abroad, said they met him travelling towards Croton. And that
Cleomedes, being an extraordinarily strong and gigantic man, but
also wild and mad, committed many desperate freaks; and at last, in
a school-house, striking a pillar that sustained the roof with his
fist, broke it in the middle, so that the house fell and destroyed the
children in it; and being pursued, he fled into a great chest, and,
shutting to the lid, held it so fast, that many men, with their united
strength, could not force it open; afterwards, breaking the chest to
pieces, they found no man in it alive or dead; in astonishment at
which, they sent to consult the oracle at Delphi; to whom the
prophetess made this answer,-

        "Of all the heroes, Cleomede is last."

  They say, too, the body of Alcmena, as they were carrying her to her
grave, vanished, and a stone was found lying on the bier. And many
such improbabilities do your fabulous writers relate, deifying
creatures naturally mortal; for though altogether to disown a divine
nature in human virtue were impious and base, so again, to mix
heaven with earth is ridiculous. Let us believe with Pindar, that-

        "All human bodies yield to Death's decree,
        The soul survives to all eternity."

For that alone is derived from the gods, thence comes, and thither
returns; not with the body, but when most disengaged and separated
from it, and when most entirely pure and clean and free from the
flesh: for the most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light,
which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud; but that
which is clogged and surfeited with body is like gross and humid
incense, slow to kindle and ascend. We must not, therefore, contrary
to nature, send the bodies, too, of good men to heaven; but we must
really believe that, according to their divine nature and law, their
virtue and their souls are translated out of men into heroes, out of
heroes into demi-gods, out of demi-gods, after passing, as in the rite
of initiation, through a final cleansing and sanctification, and so
freeing themselves from all that pertains to mortality and sense,
are thus, not by human decree, but really and according to right
reason, elevated into gods admitted thus to the greatest and most
blessed perfection.
  Romulus's surname Quirinus, some say, is equivalent to Mars; others,
that he was so called because the citizens were called Quirites;
others, because the ancients called a dart or spear Quiris; thus,
the statue of Juno resting on a spear is called Quiritis, and the dart
in the Regia is addressed as Mars, and those that were distinguished
in war were usually presented with a dart; that, therefore, Romulus
being a martial god, or a god of darts, was called Quirinus. A
temple is certainly built to his honour on the mount called from him
Quirinalis.
  The day he vanished on is called the Flight of the People and the
Nones of the Goats, because they go then out of the city and sacrifice
at the Goat's Marsh, and, as they go, they shout out some of the Roman
names, as Marcus, Lucius, Caius, imitating the way in which they
then fled and called upon one another in that fright and hurry.
Some, however, say this was not in imitation of a flight, but of a
quick and hasty onset, referring it to the following occasion: After
the Gauls who had taken Rome were driven out by Camillus, and the city
was scarcely as yet recovering her strength, many of the Latins, under
the command of Livius Postumius, took this time to march against
her. Postumius, halting not far from Rome, sent a herald, signifying
that the Latins were desirous to renew their former alliance and
affinity (that was now almost decayed) by contracting new marriages
between both nations; if, therefore, they would send forth a good
number of their virgins and widows, they should have peace and
friendship, such as the Sabines had formerly had on the like
conditions. The Romans, hearing this, dreaded a war, yet thought a
surrender of their women little better than mere captivity. Being in
this doubt, a servant-maid called Philotis (or, as some say,
Tutola), advised them to do neither, but, by a stratagem, avoid both
fighting and the giving up of such pledges. The stratagem was this,
that they should send herself, with other welllooking servant-maids,
to the enemy, in the dress of free-born virgins, and she should in the
night light up a fire signal, at which the Romans should come armed
and surprise them asleep. The Latins were thus deceived, and
accordingly Philotis set up a torch in a wild fig-tree, screening it
behind with curtains and coverlets from the sight of the enemy,
while visible to the Romans. They, when they saw it, eagerly ran out
of the gates, calling in their haste to each other as they went out,
and so, falling in unexpectedly upon the enemy, they defeated them,
and upon that made a feast of triumph, called the Nones of the
Goats, because of the wild fig-tree, called by the Romans
Caprificus, or the goat-fig. They feast the women without the city
in arbours made of fig-tree boughs, and the maid-servants gather
together and run about playing; afterwards they fight in sport, and
throw stones one at another, in memory that they then aided and
assisted the Roman men in fight. This only a few authors admit for
true; for the calling upon one another's names by day and the going
out to the Goat's Marsh to do sacrifice seem to agree more with the
former story, unless, indeed, we shall say that both the actions might
have happened on the same day in different years. It was in the
fifty-fourth year of his age and the thirty-eighth of his reign that
Romulus, they tell us, left the world.


                               THE END