NUMA POMPILIUS
Egeria! sweet creature of some heart
Which found no mortal resting-place so fair
As thine ideal breast; whate’er thou art
Or wert,--a young Aurora of the air,
The nympholepsy of some fond despair;
Or, it might be, a beauty of the earth,
Who found a more than common votary there
Too much adoring; whatsoe’er thy birth,
Thou wert a beautiful thought, and softly bodied forth.
--BYRON. _Childe Harold._
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 716-673 B.C.]]
When Romulus was taken from the earth, there was no one found to reign in
his place. The senators would choose no king, but they divided themselves
into tens; and every ten was to have the power of king for five days, one
after the other. So a year passed away, and the people murmured, and said
that there must be a king chosen.
Now the Romans and the Sabines each wished that the king should be one
of them; but at last it was agreed that the king should be a Sabine, but
that the Romans should choose him. So they chose Numa Pompilius; for all
men said that he was a just man, and wise, and holy.
Some said that he had learned his wisdom from Pythagoras, the famous
philosopher of the Greeks; but others would not believe that he owed it
to any foreign teacher. Before he would consent to be king, he consulted
the gods by augury, to know whether it was their pleasure that he should
reign. And as he feared the gods at first, so did he even to the last. He
appointed many to minister in sacred things, such as the pontifices who
were to see that all things relating to the gods were duly observed by
all; and the augurs, who taught men the pleasure of the gods concerning
things to come; and the flamens, who ministered in the temples; and the
virgins of Vesta, who tended the ever burning fire; and the salii, who
honoured the god of arms with solemn songs and dances through the city on
certain days, and who kept the sacred shield which fell down from heaven.
And in all that he did, he knew that he should please the gods; for he
did everything by the direction of the nymph Egeria, who honoured him so
much that she took him to be her husband, and taught him in her sacred
grove, by the spring that welled out from the rock, all that he was to do
towards the gods and towards men. By her counsel he snared the gods Picus
and Faunus in the grove on the hill Aventinus, and made them tell him how
he might learn from Jupiter the knowledge of his will, and might get him
to declare it either by lightning or by the flight of birds. And when men
doubted whether Egeria had really given him her counsel, she gave him a
sign by which he might prove it to them. He called many of the Romans to
supper, and set before them a homely meal in earthen dishes; and then on
a sudden he said that now Egeria was come to visit him; and straightway
the dishes and the cups became of gold or precious stones, and the
couches were covered with rare and costly coverings, and the meats and
drinks were abundant and most delicious. But though Numa took so much
care for the service of the gods, yet he forbade all costly sacrifices;
neither did he suffer blood to be shed on the altars, nor any images
of the gods to be made. But he taught the people to offer in sacrifice
nothing but the fruits of the earth, meal and cakes of flour, and roasted
corn.
For he loved husbandry, and he wished his people to live every man on his
own inheritance in peace and in happiness. So the lands which Romulus had
won in war, he divided out amongst the people, and gave a certain portion
to every man. He then ordered landmarks to be set on every portion; and
Terminus the god of landmarks had them in his keeping, and he who moved a
landmark was accursed. The craftsmen of the city, who had no land, were
divided according to their callings; and there were made of them nine
companies. So all was peaceful and prosperous throughout the reign of
King Numa; the gates of the temple of Janus were never opened, for the
Romans had no wars and no enemies; and Numa built a temple to Faith, and
appointed a solemn worship for her, that men might learn not to lie or to
deceive, but to speak and act in honesty. And when he had lived to the
age of fourscore years, he died at last by a gentle decay, and he was
buried under the hill Janiculum, on the other side of the Tiber; and the
books of his sacred laws and ordinance were buried near him in a separate
tomb.
TULLUS HOSTILIUS
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 673-641 B.C.]]
When Numa was dead, the senators again for a while shared the kingly
power amongst themselves. But they soon chose for their king Tullus
Hostilius, whose father’s father had come from Medullia, a city of the
Latins, to Rome, and had fought with Romulus against the Sabines. Tullus
loved the poor, and he divided the lands which came to him as king
amongst those who had no land. He also bade those who had no houses to
settle themselves on the hill Cælius, and there he dwelt himself in the
midst of them.
[Illustration: THE HORATII]
Tullus was a warlike king, and he soon was called to prove his valour;
for the countrymen of the Alban border and of the Roman border plundered
one another. Now Alba was governed by Caius Cluilius, who was the
dictator; and Cluilius sent to Rome to complain of the wrongs done to his
people, and Tullus sent to Alba for the same purpose. So there was a war
between the two nations, and Cluilius led his people against Rome, and
lay encamped within five miles of the city, and there he died. Mettius
Fuffetius was then chosen dictator in his room; and as the Albans still
lay in their camp, Tullus passed them by, and marched into the land of
Alba. But when Mettius came after him, then, instead of giving battle,
the two leaders agreed that a few in either army should fight in behalf
of the rest, and that the event of this combat should decide the quarrel.
So three twin brothers were chosen out of the Roman army, called the
Horatii, and three twin brothers out of the Alban army, called the
Curiatii.[b]
_The Combat of the Horatii and the Curiatii_
The treaty being concluded, the twin brothers, as had been agreed,
took arms. Whilst their respective friends exhortingly reminded each
party that their country’s gods, their country and parents, all their
countrymen both at home and in the army, had their eyes then fixed
on their arms, on their hands. Naturally brave, and animated by the
exhortations of their friends, they advanced into the midst between the
two lines. The two armies sat down before their respective camps, free
rather from present danger than from anxiety; for the sovereign power was
at stake, depending on the valour and fortune of so few. Accordingly,
therefore, eager and anxious, they have their attention intensely riveted
on a spectacle far from pleasing.
The signal was given; and the three youths on each side, as if in
battle array, rushed to the charge with determined fury, bearing in
their breasts the spirits of mighty armies: nor did the one nor the
other regard their personal danger; the public dominion or slavery is
present to their mind, and the fortune of their country, which was ever
after destined to be such as they should now establish it. As soon as
their arms clashed on the first encounter, and their burnished swords
glittered, great horror struck the spectators; and, hope inclining to
neither side, their voice and breath were suspended. Then having engaged
hand to hand, when not only the movements of their bodies and the rapid
brandishings of their arms and weapons, but wounds also and blood were
seen, two of the Romans fell lifeless, one upon the other, the three
Albans being wounded. And when the Alban army raised a shout of joy
at their fall, hope entirely, anxiety however not yet, deserted the
Roman legions, alarmed for the lot of the one whom the three Curiatii
surrounded. He happened to be unhurt, so that, though alone he was by no
means a match for them all together, yet he was confident against each
singly.
In order therefore to separate their attack, he took to flight presuming
that they would pursue him with such swiftness as the wounded state of
his body would suffer each. He had now fled a considerable distance from
the place where they had fought, when, looking behind, he perceived
them pursuing him at great intervals from each other; and that one of
them was not far from him. On him he turned round with great fury. And
whilst the Alban army shouted out to the Curiatii to succour their
brother, Horatius, victorious in having slain his antagonist, was now
proceeding to a second attack. Then the Romans encouraged their champion
with a shout such as is usually given by persons cheering in consequence
of unexpected success; he also hastened to put an end to the combat.
Wherefore before the other, who was not far off, could come up, he
despatched the second Curiatius also. And now, the combat being brought
to an equality of numbers, one on each side remained, but they were
equal neither in hope nor in strength. The one his body untouched by a
weapon, and by double victory made courageous for a third contest; the
other dragging along his body exhausted from the wound, exhausted from
running, and dispirited by the slaughter of his brethren before his eyes,
presented himself to his victorious antagonist. Nor was that a fight. The
Roman, exulting, said, “Two I have offered to the shades of my brothers:
the third I will offer to the cause of this war, that the Roman may rule
over the Alban.” He thrust his sword down into his throat, whilst faintly
sustaining the weight of his armour, he stripped him as he lay prostrate.
The Romans received Horatius with triumph and congratulation; with so
much the greater joy, as success had followed so close on fear. They
then turned to the burial of their friends with dispositions by no means
alike; for the one side was elated with the acquisition of empire, the
other subjected to foreign jurisdiction: their sepulchres are still
extant in the place where each fell; the two Roman ones in one place
nearer to Alba, the three Alban ones towards Rome; but distant in
situation from each other, and just as they fought.[6][c]
[Illustration: COMBAT BETWEEN THE HORATII AND THE CURIATII
(After a drawing by Mirys)]
Then the Romans went home to Rome in triumph, and Horatius went at the
head of the army, bearing his triple spoils. But as they were drawing
near to the Capenian Gate, his sister came out to meet him. Now she had
been betrothed in marriage to one of the Curiatii, and his cloak, which
she had wrought with her own hands, was borne on the shoulders of her
brother; and she knew it, and cried out, and wept for him whom she had
loved. At the sight of her tears Horatius was so wroth that he drew his
sword, and stabbed his sister to the heart; and he said, “So perish the
Roman maiden who shall weep for her country’s enemy.” But men said that
it was a dreadful deed, and they dragged him before the two judges who
judged when blood had been shed. For thus said the law:
“The two men shall give judgment on the shedder of blood.
If he shall appeal from their judgment, let the appeal be tried.
If their judgment be confirmed, cover his head.
Hang him with a halter on the accursed tree;
Scourge him either within the sacred limit of the city or without.”
So they gave judgment on Horatius, and were going to give him over to
be put to death. But he appealed, and the appeal was tried before all
the Romans, and they would not condemn him because he had conquered for
them their enemies, and because his father spoke for him, and said that
he judged the maiden to have been lawfully slain. Yet as blood had been
shed, which required to be atoned for, the Romans gave a certain sum of
money to offer sacrifices to atone for the pollution of blood. These
sacrifices were duly performed ever afterwards by the members of the
house of the Horatii.
The Albans were now become bound to obey the Romans; and Tullus called
upon them to aid him in a war against the people of Veii and Fidenæ. But
in the battle the Alban leader, Mettius Fuffetius, stood aloof, and gave
no true aid to the Romans. So, when the Romans had won the battle, Tullus
called the Albans together as if he were going to make a speech to them;
and they came to hear him, as was the custom, without their arms; and the
Roman soldiers gathered around them, and they could neither fight nor
escape. Then Tullus took Mettius and bound him between two chariots, and
drove the chariots different ways, and tore him asunder. After this he
sent his people to Alba, and they destroyed the city, and made all the
Albans come and live at Rome; there they had the hill Cælius for their
dwelling-place, and became one people with the Romans.
After this Tullus made war upon the Sabines, and gained a victory over
them. But now, whether it were that Tullus had neglected the worship of
the gods whilst he had been so busy in his wars, the signs of the wrath
of heaven became manifest. A plague broke out among the people, and
Tullus himself was at last stricken with a lingering disease. Then he
bethought him of good and holy Numa, and how, in his time, the gods had
been so gracious to Rome, and had made known their will by signs whenever
Numa inquired of them. So Tullus also tried to inquire of Jupiter, but
the god was angry and would not be inquired of, for Tullus did not
consult him rightly; so he sent his lightnings, and Tullus and all his
house were burned to ashes. This made the Romans know that they wanted a
king who would follow the example of Numa; so they chose his daughter’s
son Ancus Marcius to reign over them in the room of Tullus.
ANCUS MARCIUS
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 642-616 B.C.]]
Ancient history does not tell much of Ancus Marcius. He published the
religious ceremonies which Numa had commanded, and had them written out
upon whited boards, and hung up round the Forum, that all might know
and observe them. He had a war with the Latins and conquered them, and
brought the people to Rome, and gave them the hill Aventinus to dwell on.
He divided the lands of the conquered Latins amongst all the Romans, and
he gave up the forests near the sea which he had taken from the Latins,
to be the public property of the Romans. He founded a colony at Ostia, by
the mouth of the Tiber. He built a fortress on the hill Janiculum, and
joined the hill to the city by a wooden bridge over the river. He secured
the city in the low grounds between the hills by a great dyke, which was
called the dyke of the Quirites. And he built a prison under the hill
Saturnius, towards the Forum, because as the people grew in numbers,
offenders against the laws became more numerous also. At last King Ancus
died, after a reign of three-and-twenty years.
L. TARQUINIUS PRISCUS
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 616-578 B.C.]]
In the days of Ancus Marcius there came to Rome from Tarquinii, a city of
Etruria, a wealthy Etruscan and his wife. The father of this stranger was
a Greek, a citizen of Corinth, who left his native land because it was
oppressed by a tyrant, and found a home at Tarquinii. There he married
a noble Etruscan lady, and by her he had two sons. But his son found
that for his father’s sake he was still looked upon as a stranger; so
he left Tarquinii, and went with his wife Tanaquil to Rome, for there,
it was said, strangers were held in more honour. Now as he came near to
the gates of Rome, as he was sitting in his chariot with Tanaquil his
wife, an eagle came and plucked the cap from his head, and bore it aloft
into the air; and then flew down again and placed it upon his head, as
it had been before. So Tanaquil was glad at this sight, and she told
her husband, for she was skilled in augury, that this was a sign of the
favour of the gods, and she bade him be of good cheer, for that he would
surely rise to greatness.
[Illustration: TARQUINIUS]
Now when the stranger came to Rome, they called him Lucius Tarquinius,
and he was a brave man and wise in council; and his riches won the good
word of the multitude; and he became known to the king. He served the
king well in peace and war, so that Ancus held him in great honour, and
when he died he named him by his will to be the guardian of his children.
But Tarquinius was in great favour with the people; and when he desired
to be king, they resolved to choose him rather than the sons of Ancus.
So he began to reign, and he did great works both in war and peace. He
made war on the Latins, and took from them a great spoil. Then he made
war on the Sabines, and he conquered them in two battles, and took from
them the town of Collatia, and gave it to Egerius, his brother’s son,
who had come with him from Tarquinii. Lastly, there was another war with
the Latins, and Tarquinius went round to their cities, and took them one
after another; for none dared to go out to meet him in open battle. These
were his acts in war.
He also did great works in peace; for he made vast drains to carry off
the water from between the Palatine and the Aventine, and from between
the Palatine and the Capitoline hills. And in the space between the
Palatine and the Aventine, after he had drained it, he formed the Circus,
or great race-course, for chariot and for horse races. Then in the space
between the Palatine and the Capitoline he made a forum or market-place,
and divided out the ground around it for shops or stalls, and made a
covered walk round it. Next he set about building a wall of stone to go
round the city; and he laid the foundations of a great temple on the
Capitoline Hill, which was to be the temple of the gods of Rome. He also
added a hundred new senators to the senate, and doubled the number of
the horsemen in the centuries of the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres, for he
wanted to strengthen his force of horsemen; and when he had done so, his
horse gained him great victories over his enemies.
Now he first had it in his mind to make three new centuries of horsemen,
and to call them after his own name. But Attus Navius, who was greatly
skilled in augury, forbade him. Then the king mocked at his art, and
said, “Come now, thou augur, tell me by thy auguries, whether the thing
which I now have in my mind may be done or not.” And Attus Navius asked
counsel of the gods by augury, and he answered, “It may.” Then the king
said, “It was in my mind that thou shouldst cut in two this whetstone
with this razor. Take them, and do it, and fulfil thy augury if thou
canst.” But Attus took the razor and the whetstone, and he cut, and cut
the whetstone asunder. So the king obeyed his counsels, and made no new
centuries; and in all things afterwards he consulted the gods by augury,
and obeyed their bidding.
Tarquinius reigned long and prospered greatly; and there was a young man
brought up in his household, of whose birth some told wonderful tales,
and said that he was the son of a god; but others said that his mother
was a slave, and his father was one of the king’s clients. But he served
the king well, and was in favour with the people, and the king promised
him his daughter in marriage. The young man was called Servius Tullius.
But when the sons of King Ancus saw that Servius was so loved by King
Tarquinius, they resolved to slay the king, lest he should make this
stranger his heir, and so they should lose the crown forever. So they set
on two shepherds to do the deed, and these went to the king’s palace, and
pretended to be quarrelling with each other, and both called on the king
to do them right. The king sent for them to hear their story; and while
he was hearing one of them speak, the other struck him on the head with
his hatchet, and then both of them fled. But Tanaquil, the king’s wife,
pretended that he was not dead, but only stunned by the blow; and she
said that he had appointed Servius Tullius to rule in his name, till he
should be well again. So Servius went forth in royal state, and judged
causes amidst the people, and acted in all things as if he were king,
till after a while it was known that the king was dead, and Servius was
suffered to reign in his place. Then the sons of Ancus saw that there was
no hope left for them; and they fled from Rome, and lived the rest of
their days in a foreign land.
SERVIUS TULLIUS
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 578-534 B.C.]]
Servius Tullius was a just and good king; he loved the commons, and he
divided among them the lands which had been conquered in war, and he made
many wise and good laws, to maintain the cause of the poor, and to stop
the oppression of the rich. He made war with the Etruscans, and conquered
them. He added the Quirinal and the Viminal hills to the city, and he
brought many new citizens to live on the Esquiline; and there he lived
himself amongst them. He also raised a great mound of earth to join the
Esquiline and the Quirinal and the Viminal hills together, and to cover
them from the attacks of an enemy.
He built a temple of Diana on the Aventine, where the Latins, and the
Sabines, and the Romans, should offer their common sacrifices; and the
Romans were the chief in rank amongst all who worshipped at the temple.
He made a new order of things for the whole people; for he divided the
people of the city into four tribes, and the people of the country into
six-and-twenty. Then he divided all the people into classes, according
to the value of their possessions; and the classes he divided into
centuries; and the centuries of the several classes furnished themselves
with arms, each according to their rank and order: the centuries of the
rich classes had good and full armour, the poorer centuries had but darts
and slings. And when he had done all these works, he called all the
people together in their centuries, and asked if they would have him for
their king; and the people answered that he should be their king. But
the nobles hated him, because he was so loved by the commons; for he had
made a law that there should be no king after him, but two men chosen by
the people to govern them year by year. Some even said that it was in his
mind to give up his own kingly power, that so he might see with his own
eyes the fruit of all the good laws that he had made, and might behold
the people wealthy and free and happy.
Now King Servius had no son, but he had two daughters; and he gave them
in marriage to the two sons of King Tarquinius. These daughters were of
very unlike natures, and so were their husbands: for Aruns Tarquinius was
of a meek and gentle spirit, but his brother Lucius was proud and full of
evil; and the younger Tullia, who was the wife of Aruns, was more full of
evil than his brother Lucius; and the elder Tullia, who was the wife of
Lucius, was as good and gentle as his brother Aruns. So the evil could
not bear the good, but longed to be joined to the evil that was like
itself: and Lucius slew his wife secretly, and the younger Tullia slew
her husband, and then they were married to one another, that they might
work all the wickedness of their hearts, according to the will of fate.
Then Lucius plotted with the nobles, who hated the good king; and he
joined himself to the sworn brotherhoods of the young nobles, in which
they bound themselves to stand by each other in their deeds of violence
and of oppression. When all was ready, he waited for the season of the
harvest, when the commons, who loved the king, were in the fields getting
in their corn. Then he went suddenly to the Forum with a band of armed
men, and seated himself on the king’s throne before the doors of the
senate house, where he was wont to judge the people. And they ran to the
king, and told him that Lucius was sitting on his throne. Upon this the
old man went in haste to the Forum, and when he saw Lucius, he asked him
wherefore he had dared to sit on the king’s seat. And Lucius answered
that it was his father’s throne, and that he had more right in it than
Servius. Then he seized the old man, and threw him down the steps of the
senate house to the ground; and he went into the senate house, and called
together the senators, as if he were already king. Servius meanwhile
arose, and began to make his way home to his house; but when he was come
near to the Esquiline Hill, some whom Lucius had sent after him overtook
him and slew him, and left him in his blood in the middle of the way.
Then the wicked Tullia mounted her chariot, and drove into the Forum,
nothing ashamed to go amidst the multitude of men, and she called
Lucius out from the senate house, and said to him, “Hail to thee, King
Tarquinius!” But Lucius bade her to go home; and as she was going home,
the body of her father was lying in the way. The driver of the chariot
stopped short, and showed to Tullia where her father lay in his blood.
But she bade him drive on, for the furies of her wickedness were upon
her, and the chariot rolled over the body; and she went to her home with
her father’s blood upon the wheels of her chariot. Thus Lucius Tarquinius
and the wicked Tullia reigned in the place of the good king Servius.
LUCIUS TARQUINIUS THE TYRANT
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 534-510 B.C.]]
Lucius Tarquinius gained his power wickedly, and no less wickedly did
he exercise it. He kept a guard of armed men about him, and he ruled
all things at his own will; many were they whom he spoiled of their
goods, many were they whom he banished, and many also whom he slew. He
despised the senate, and made no new senators in the place of those whom
he slew, or who died in the course of nature, wishing that the senators
might become fewer and fewer, till there should be none of them left.
And he made friends of the chief men among the Latins, and gave his
daughter in marriage to Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum; and he became
very powerful amongst the Latins, insomuch that when Turnus Herdonius
of Aricia had dared to speak against him in the great assembly of the
Latins, Tarquinius accused him of plotting his death, and procured false
witnesses to confirm his charge; so that the Latins judged him to be
guilty, and ordered him to be drowned. After this they were so afraid
of Tarquinius, that they made a league with him, and followed him in
his wars wherever he chose to lead them. The Hernicans also joined this
league, and so did Ecetra and Antium, cities of the Volscians.
Then Tarquinius made war upon the rest of the Volscians, and he took
Suessa Pometia, in the lowlands of the Volscians, and the tithe of the
spoil was forty talents of silver. So he set himself to raise mighty
works in Rome; and he finished what his father had begun, the great
drains to drain the low grounds of the city, and the temple on the
Capitoline Hill. Now the ground on which he was going to build his temple
was taken up with many holy places of the gods of the Sabines, which had
been founded in the days of King Tatius. But Tarquinius consulted the
gods by augury whether he might not take away these holy places to make
room for his own new temple. The gods allowed him to take away all the
rest, except only the holy places of the god of youth, and of Terminus
the god of boundaries, which they would not suffer him to move. But
the augurs said that this was a happy omen, for that it showed how the
youth of the city should never pass away, nor its boundaries be moved
by the conquest of an enemy. A human head was also found, as they were
digging the foundations of the temple, and this too was a sign that the
Capitoline Hill should be the head of all the earth.[7] So Tarquinius
built a mighty temple, and consecrated it to Jupiter, and to Juno, and to
Minerva, the greatest of the gods of the Etruscans.
At this time there came a strange woman to the king, and offered him
nine books of the prophecies of the Sibyl for a certain price. When the
king refused them, the woman went and burned three of the books, and
came back and offered the six at the same price which she had asked for
the nine; but they mocked at her and would not take the books. Then she
went away, and burned three more, and came back and asked still the same
price for the remaining three. At this the king was astonished, and
asked of the augurs what he should do. They said that he had done wrong
in refusing the gift of the gods, and bade him by all means to buy the
books that were left. So he bought them; and the woman who sold them was
seen no more from that day forwards. Then the books were put into a chest
of stone, and were kept underground in the Capitol, and two men were
appointed to keep them, and were called the two men of the sacred books.
Now Gabii would not submit to Tarquinius, like the other cities of the
Latins, so he made war against it; and the war was long, and Tarquinius
knew not how to end it. So his son Sextus Tarquinius pretended that his
father hated him, and fled to Gabii; and the people of Gabii believed him
and trusted him, till at last he betrayed them into his father’s power.
A treaty was then made with them, and he gave them the right of becoming
citizens of Rome, and the Romans had the right of becoming citizens of
Gabii, and there was a firm league between the two people.
Thus Tarquinius was a great and mighty king; but he grievously oppressed
the poor, and he took away all the good laws of King Servius, and let the
rich oppress the poor, as they had done before the days of Servius. He
made the people labour at his great works: he made them build his temple
and dig and construct his drains; and he laid such burdens on them, that
many slew themselves for very misery; for in the days of Tarquinius the
tyrant it was happier to die than to live.[b]
FOOTNOTES
[6] The two Roman champions, we have seen, fell in the one place, _super
alium alius_; consequently were buried together; whilst the Curiatii fell
in different places, as Horatius contrived to separate them to avoid
their joint attack.
[7] [“After the work had been carried down to a great depth there
was found the head of a man newly killed, with the face like that of
a living man, and the blood which flowed from the abrasion warm and
fresh.”--DIONYSIUS.[d]]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE EXECUTION OF TITUS AND TIBERIUS
(From a drawing by Mirys)]