to whom Archemorus, his son by a former wife, offered violence.
After this incestuous attempt, ♦Archemorus fled to Turnus king of
the Rutuli. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 388.――――A Rutulian killed
by Euryalus in the night. _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 344.――――An Æthiopian
killed by Perseus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, li. 38.
♦ ‘Archemorous’ replaced with ‘Archemorus’
=Rhosaces=, a Persian killed by Clitus as he was going to stab
Alexander at the battle of the Granicus. _Curtius_, bk. 8, ch. 1.
=Rhosus=, a town of Syria, on the gulf of Issus, celebrated for its
earthen wares. _Cicero_, bk. 6, _Letters to Atticus_, ltr. 1.
=Rhoxalāni=, a people at the north of the Palus Mæotis. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 1, ch. 79.
=Rhoxāna=, or =Roxāna=, a mistress of Alexander, daughter of a Persian
satrap. _See:_, Roxana.
=Rhoxāni=, a nation against whom Mithridates made war.
=Rhutēni= and =Rhuthēni=, a people of Gaul.
=Rhyndăcus=, a large river of Mysia, in Asia Minor. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 32.
=Rhynthon=, a dramatic writer of Syracuse, who flourished at Tarentum,
where he wrote 38 plays. Authors are divided with respect to the
merit of his compositions, and the abilities of the writer. _See:_
Rhinthon.
=Rhypæ=, a town of Achaia, at the west of Helice.
=Rigodulum=, a village of Germany, now _Rigol_, near Cologne. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 71.
=Riphæi.= _See:_ Rhiphæi.
=Ripheus=, a Trojan who joined Æneas the night that Troy was reduced
to ashes, and was at last killed after making a great carnage of the
Greeks. He is commended for his love of justice and equity. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 2, lis. 339 & 426.――――One of the Centaurs killed by
Theseus at the nuptials of Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 352.
=Rixamăræ=, a people of Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Robīgo=, or =Rubīgo=, a goddess at Rome, particularly worshipped
by husbandmen, as she presided over corn. Her festivals, called
_Robigalia_, were celebrated on the 25th of April, and incense was
offered to her, as also the entrails of a sheep and of a dog. She was
intreated to preserve the corn from blights. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 4,
li. 911.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 151.――_Varro_, _de Lingua
Latina_, bk. 5; _de Re Rustica_, bk. 1, ch. 1.
=Rodumna=, now _Roanne_, a town of the Ædui, on the Loire.
=Roma=, a city of Italy, the capital of the Roman empire, situate on
the banks of the river Tiber, at the distance of about 16 miles from
the sea. The name of its founder, and the manner of its foundation,
are not precisely known. Romulus, however, is universally supposed
to have laid the foundations of that celebrated city, on the 20th
of April, according to Varro, in the year 3961 of the Julian period,
3251 years after the creation of the world, 753 before the birth of
Christ, and 431 years after the Trojan war, and in the fourth year
of the sixth Olympiad. In its original state, Rome was but a small
castle on the summit of mount Palatine; and the founder, to give
his followers the appearance of a nation or a barbarian horde, was
obliged to erect a standard as a common asylum, for every criminal,
debtor, or murderer, who fled from their native country to avoid the
punishment which attended them. From such an assemblage a numerous
body was soon collected, and before the death of the founder, the
Romans had covered with their habitations the Palatine, Capitoline,
Aventine, Esquiline hills, with mount Cœlius and Quirinalis. After
many successful wars against the neighbouring states, the views of
Romulus were directed to regulate a nation naturally fierce, warlike,
and uncivilized. The people were divided into classes, the interests
of the whole were linked in a common chain, and the labours of the
subject, as well as those of his patron, tended to the same end,
the aggrandizement of the state. Under the successors of Romulus,
the power of Rome was increased, and the boundaries of her dominions
extended; while one was employed in regulating the forms of worship,
and inculcating in the minds of his subjects a reverence for the
deity, the other was engaged in enforcing discipline among the army,
and raising the consequence of the soldiers in the government of the
state; and a third made the object of his administration consist in
adorning his capital, in beautifying its edifices, and in fortifying
it with towers and walls. During 244 years the Romans were governed
by kings, but the tyranny, the oppression, and the violence of the
last of these monarchs and of his family, became so atrocious, that a
revolution was effected in the state, and the democratical government
was established. The monarchical government existed under seven
princes, who began to reign in the following order: Romulus, B.C. 753;
and after one year’s interregnum, Numa, 715; Tullus Hostilius, 672;
Ancus Martius, 640; Tarquin Priscus, 616; Servius Tullius, 578; and
Tarquin the Proud, 534, expelled 25 years after, B.C. 509; and this
regal administration has been properly denominated the infancy of the
Roman empire. After the expulsion of the Tarquins from the throne,
the Romans became more sensible of their consequence: with their
liberty they acquired a spirit of faction, and they became so jealous
of their independence, that the first of their consuls who had been
the most zealous and animated in the assertion of their freedom,
was banished from the city because he bore the name, and was of the
family, of the tyrants; and another, to stop their suspicions, was
obliged to pull down his house, whose stateliness and magnificence
above the rest seemed incompatible with the duties and the rank of a
private citizen. They knew more effectually their power when they had
fought with success against Porsenna the king of Etruria, and some of
the neighbouring states, who supported the claim of the tyrant, and
attempted to replace him on his throne by force of arms. A government
which is entrusted into the hands of two of the most distinguished
of its members, for the limited space of one year, cannot but give
rise to great men, glorious exploits, and tremendous seditions. The
general who is placed at the head of an army during a campaign, must
be active and diligent, when he knows that his power is terminated
with the year, and if he has a becoming ambition, he will distinguish
his consulship by some uncommon act of valour, before he descends
from the dignity of an absolute magistrate to the dependence of a
fellow-citizen. Yet these attempts for the attainment of glory often
failed of success; and though the Romans could once boast that every
individual in their armies could discharge with fidelity and honour
the superior offices of magistrate and consul, there are to be found
in their annals many years marked by overthrows, or disgraced by the
ill conduct, the oppression, and the wantonness of their generals.
_See:_ Consul. To the fame which their conquests and daily successes
had gained abroad, the Romans were not a little indebted for their
gradual rise to superiority; and to this may be added the policy of
the census, which every fifth year told them their actual strength,
and how many citizens were able to bear arms. And indeed it was no
small satisfaction to a people who were continually making war, to
see that, in spite of all the losses which they might sustain in the
field, the increase of the inhabitants of the city was prodigious,
and almost incredible; and had Romulus lived after the battle of
Actium, he would have been persuaded with difficulty that above
4,000,000 of inhabitants were contained within those walls, which in
the most flourishing period of his reign could scarce muster an army
of 3000 infantry and 300 horse. But when Rome had flourished under
the consular government for about 120 years, and had beheld with
pleasure the conquests of her citizens over the neighbouring states
and cities, which, according to a Roman historian, she was ashamed to
recollect in the summit of her power, an irruption of the barbarians
of Gaul rendered her very existence precarious, ♦and her name was
nearly extinguished. The valour of an injured individual [_See:_
Camillus] saved it from destruction, yet not before its buildings and
temples were reduced to ashes. This celebrated event, which gave the
appellation of another founder of Rome to Camillus, has been looked
upon as a glorious era to the Romans. The huts and cottages which
Romulus had erected, and all his successors repaired, were totally
consumed, and when the city arose again from its ruins, the streets
were enlarged, convenience as well as order was observed, taste and
regularity were consulted, and the poverty, ignorance, and rusticity
of the Romans seemed to be extinguished with their old habitations.
But no sooner were they freed from the fears of their barbarian
invaders, than they turned their arms against those states which
refused to acknowledge their superiority, or yield their independence.
Their wars with Pyrrhus and the Tarentines displayed their character
in a different view; if they before had fought for freedom and
independence, they now drew their sword for glory; and here we may
see them conquered in the field, and yet refusing to grant that
peace for which their conqueror himself had sued. The advantages
they gained from their battles with Pyrrhus were many. The Roman name
became known in Greece, Sicily, and Africa, and in losing or gaining
a victory, the Romans were enabled to examine the manœuvres, observe
the discipline, and contemplate the order and the encampments of
those soldiers whose friends and ancestors had accompanied Alexander
the Great in the conquest of Asia. Italy became subjected to the
Romans at the end of the war with the Tarentines, and that period of
time has been called the second age, or the adolescence of the Roman
empire. After this memorable era they tried their strength not only
with distant nations, but also upon a new element; and in the long
wars which they waged against Carthage, they acquired territory,
and obtained the sovereignty of the sea; and though Annibal for
16 years kept them in continual alarms, hovered round their gates,
and destroyed their armies almost before their walls, yet they
were doomed to conquer [_See:_ Punicum bellum], and soon to add the
kingdom of Macedonia [_See:_ Macedonicum bellum] and the provinces
of Asia [_See:_ Mithridaticum bellum] to their empire. But while we
consider the Romans as a nation subduing their neighbours by war,
their manners, their counsels, and their pursuits at home are not to
be forgotten. To be warriors was their profession; their assemblies
in the Campus Martius were a meeting of armed men, and very properly
denominated an army. Yet while their conquests were so extensive
abroad, we find them torn by factions at home; and so far was the
resentment of the poorer citizens carried, that we see the enemy at
the gates of the city, while all are unwilling to take up arms and to
unite in the defence of their common liberty. The senators and nobles
were ambitious of power, and endeavoured to retain in their hands
that influence which had been exercised with so much success, and
such cruelty, by their monarchs. This was the continual occasion of
tumults and sedition. The people were jealous of their liberty. The
oppression of the nobles irritated them, and the stripes to which
they were too often exposed without mercy, was often productive of
revolutions. The plebeians, though originally the poorest and most
contemptible citizens of an indigent nation, whose food in the first
ages of the empire was only bread and salt, and whose drink was
water, soon gained rights and privileges by their opposition. Though
really slaves, they became powerful in the state; one concession
from the patricians produced another, and when their independence
was boldly asserted by their tribunes, they were admitted to share
in the highest offices of the state, and the laws which forbade the
intermarriage of plebeian and patrician families were repealed, and
the meanest peasant could by valour and fortitude be raised to the
dignity of dictator and consul. It was not till these privileges
were obtained by the people from the senate, that Rome began to enjoy
internal peace and tranquillity; her battles were then fought with
more vigour, her soldiers were more animated, and her sovereignty was
more universally established. But supreme power lodged in the hands
of a factious and ambitious citizen, becomes too often dangerous.
The greatest oppression and tyranny took place of subordination and
obedience; and from those causes proceeded the unparalleled slaughter
and effusion of blood under a Sylla and a Marius. It has been
justly observed, that the first Romans conquered their enemies by
valour, temperance, and fortitude; their moderation also and their
justice were well known among their neighbours, and not only private
possessions, but even mighty kingdoms and empires, were left in their
power, to be distributed among a family or to be ensured in the hands
of a successor. They were also chosen umpires to decide quarrels,
but in this honourable office they consulted their own interest;
they artfully supported the weaker side, that the more powerful might
be reduced, and gradually become their prey. Under Julius Cæsar and
Pompey, the rage of civil war was carried to unprecedented excess: it
was not merely to avenge a private injury, but it was a contest for
the sovereignty; and though each of the adversaries wore the mask
of pretended sincerity, and professed himself to be the supporter of
the republic, no less than the abolition of freedom and the public
liberty was the aim. What Julius began, his adopted son achieved:
the ancient spirit of national independence was extinguished at Rome;
and after the battle of Actium, the Romans seemed unable to govern
themselves without the assistance of a chief, who, under the title
of _imperator_, an appellation given to every commander by his army
after some signal victory, reigned with as much power and as much
sovereignty as another Tarquin. Under their emperors, the Romans
lived a luxurious and indolent life; they had long forgot to appear
in the field, and their wars were left to be waged by mercenary
troops, who fought without spirit or animosity, and who were ever
ready to yield to him who bought their allegiance and fidelity with
the greatest sums of money. Their leaders themselves were not the
most prudent or the most humane; the power which they had acquired
by bribery was indeed precarious, and among a people where not
only the highest offices of the state, but even the imperial purple
itself, are exposed to sale, there cannot be expected much happiness
or tranquillity in the palace of the emperor. The reigns of the
successors of Augustus were distinguished by variety; one was
the most abandoned and profligate of men, whom his own vices and
extravagance hurried out of the world, while his successor, perhaps
the most clement, just, and popular of princes, was sacrificed in
the midst of his guards and attendants by the dagger of some offended
favourite or disappointed eunuch. Few indeed were the emperors of
Rome whose days were not shortened by poison, or the sword of an
assassin. If one for some time had the imprudence to trust himself
in the midst of a multitude, at last to perish by his own credulity,
the other consulted his safety, but with no better success, in the
innumerable chambers of his palace, and changed every day, to elude
discovery, the place of his retirement. After they had been governed
by a race of princes, remarkable for the variety of their characters,
the Roman possessions were divided into two distinct empires, by the
enterprising Constantine, A.D. 328. Constantinople became the seat
of the eastern empire, and Rome remained in the possession of the
western emperors, and continued to be the capital of their dominions.
In the year 800 of the christian era, Rome with Italy was delivered
by Charlemagne, the then emperor of the west, into the hands of the
Pope, who still continues to hold the sovereignty, and to maintain
his independence under the name of the Ecclesiastical States. The
original poverty of the Romans has often been disguised by their
poets and historians, who wished it to appear that a nation who were
masters of the world, had had better beginning than to be a race
of shepherds and robbers. Yet it was to this simplicity they were
indebted for their successes. Their houses were originally destitute
of every ornament, they were made with unequal boards, and covered
with mud, and these served them rather as a shelter against the
inclemency of the seasons than for relaxation and ease. Till the age
of Pyrrhus, they despised riches, and many salutary laws were enacted
to restrain luxury and to punish indolence. They observed great
temperance in their meals; young men were not permitted to drink
wine till they had attained their 30th year, and it was totally
forbidden to women. Their national spirit was supported by policy;
the triumphal procession of a conqueror along the streets amidst the
applause of thousands, was well calculated to promote emulation, and
the number of gladiators who were regularly introduced not only in
public games and spectacles, but also at private meetings, served
to cherish their fondness for war, whilst it steeled their hearts
against the calls of compassion; and when they could gaze with
pleasure upon wretches whom they forcibly obliged to murder one
another, they were not inactive in the destruction of those whom they
considered as inveterate foes or formidable rivals in the field. In
their punishments, civil as well as military, the Romans were strict
and rigorous; a deserter was severely whipped and sold as a slave,
and the degradation from the rank of a soldier and dignity of a
citizen was the most ignominious stigma which could be affixed upon a
seditious mutineer. The transmarine victories of the Romans proved at
last the ruin of their innocence and bravery. They grew fond of the
luxury of the Asiatics; and, conquered by the vices and indolence of
those nations whom they had subdued, they became as effeminate and as
dissolute as their captives. Marcellus was the first who introduced
a taste for the fine arts among his countrymen. The spoils and
treasures that were obtained in the plunder of Syracuse and Corinth,
rendered the Romans partial to elegant refinement and ornamental
equipage. Though Cato had despised philosophy [_See:_ Carneades],
and declared that war was the only profession of his countrymen, the
Romans, by their intercourse with the Greeks, soon became fond of
literature; and though they had once banished the sophists of Athens
from their city, yet they beheld with rapture their settlement among
them in the principal towns of Italy, after the conquest of Achaia.
They soon after began to imitate their polished captives, and to
cultivate poetry with success. From the valour of their heroes and
conquerors, indeed, the sublimest subjects were offered to the genius
of their poets; but of the little that remains to celebrate the early
victories of Rome, nothing can be compared to the nobler effusions
of the Augustan age. Virgil has done so much for the Latin name that
the splendour and the triumphs of his country are forgotten for a
while, when we are transported in the admiration of the majesty of
his numbers, the elegant delicacy of his expressions, and the fire
of his muse; and the applauses given to the lyric powers of Horace,
the softness of Tibullus, the vivacity of Ovid, and to the ♠superior
compositions of other respectable poets, shall be unceasing so long
as the name of Rome excites our reverence and our praises, and so
long as genius, virtue, and abilities are honoured amongst mankind.
Though they originally rejected with horror a law which proposed the
building of a public theatre, and the exhibition of plays, like the
Greeks, yet the Romans soon proved favourable to the compositions of
their countrymen. Livius was the first dramatic writer of consequence
at Rome, whose plays began to be exhibited A.U.C. 514. After him
Nævius and Ennius wrote for the stage; and in a more polished period
Plautus, Terence, Cæcilius, and Afranius claimed the public attention
and gained the most unbounded applause. Satire did not make its
appearance at Rome till 100 years after the introduction of comedy,
and so celebrated was Lucilius in this kind of writing, that he was
called the inventor of it. In historical writing the progress of the
Romans was slow and inconsiderable, and for many years they employed
the pen of foreigners to compile their annals, till the superior
abilities of a Livy were made known. In their worship and sacrifices
the Romans were uncommonly superstitious; the will of the gods was
consulted on every occasion, and no general marched to an expedition
without the previous assurance from the augurs that the omens were
propitious, and his success almost indubitable. Their sanctuaries
were numerous; they raised altars not only to the gods, who, as
they supposed, presided over their city, but also to the deities of
conquered nations, as well as to the different passions and virtues.
There were no less than 420 temples at Rome, crowded with statues;
the priests were numerous, and each divinity had a particular college
of sacerdotal servants. Their wars were declared in the most awful
and solemn manner, and prayers were always offered in the temples for
the prosperity of Rome, when a defeat had been sustained or a victory
won. The power of fathers over their children was very extensive,
and indeed unlimited; they could sell them or put them to death at
pleasure, without the forms of a trial, or the interference of the
civil magistrate. Many of their ancient families were celebrated for
the great men whom they had produced, but the vigorous and interested
part they took in the government of the republic exposed them often
to danger; and some have observed that the Romans sunk into indolence
and luxury when the Cornelii, the Fabii, the Æmylii, the Marcelli,
&c., who had so often supported their spirit and led them to victory,
had been extinguished in the bloody wars of Marius and of the two
triumvirates. When Rome was become powerful, she was distinguished
from other cities by the flattery of her neighbours and citizens; a
form of worship was established to her as a deity, and temples were
raised in her honour, not only in the city but in the provinces. The
goddess Roma was represented like Minerva, all armed and sitting on a
rock, holding a pike in her hand, with her head covered with a helmet,
and a trophy at her feet. _Livy_, bk. 1, &c.――_Cato_, _de Re Rustica_.
――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, _Georgics_, & _Æneid_.――_Horace_, bk. 2,
satire 6, &c.――_Florus_, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.――_Paterculus._――_Tacitus_,
_Annals_ & _Histories_.――_Tibullus_, bk. 4.――_Lucan._――_Plutarch_,
_Romulus_, _Numa_, &c.――_Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Pliny_, bk. 7, &c.――_Justin_, bk. 43.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_,
bk. 5.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 1, &c.――_Martial_, bk. 12, ltr. 8.
――――A daughter of Evander.――――A Trojan woman who came to Italy with
Æneas.――――A daughter of Italus and Luceria. It was after one of these
females, according to some authors, that the capital of Italy was
called Roma.
♦ ‘aud’ replaced with ‘and’
♠ ‘superor’ replaced with ‘superior’
=Romāni=, the inhabitants of Rome. _See:_ Roma.
=Romānus=, an officer under Theodosius.――――Another, poisoned by Nero.
――――A son of Constans, &c.
=Romilius Marcellus=, a Roman centurion in Galba’s reign, &c. _Tacitus_,
bk. 1, _Histories_.
=Romŭla=, a name given to the fig tree under which Romulus and Remus
were found. _Ovid._, bk. 2, _Fasti_, li. 412.
=Romulea=, a town of the Samnites. _Livy_, bk. 10, ch. 17.
=Rōmŭlĭdæ=, a patronymic given to the Roman people from Romulus their
first king, and the founder of their city. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8,
li. 638.