266-323
The sacred functions of Latin kings in general probably the same as
those of the Roman kings; question of the rule of succession to the
Latin kingship; list of Alban kings; list of Roman kings; Latin kingship
apparently transmitted in female line to foreign husbands of princesses;
miraculous births of kings explained on this hypothesis; marriage of
princesses to men of inferior rank in Africa; traces of female descent
of kingship in Greece; and in Scandinavia; reminiscence of such descent
in popular tales; female descent of kingship among the Picts, the
Lydians, the Danes, and the Saxons; traces of female kinship or
mother-kin among the Aryans, the Picts, and the Etruscans; mother-kin
may survive in royal families after it has been superseded by father-kin
among commoners; the Roman kings plebeians, not patricians; the first
consuls at Rome heirs to the throne according to mother-kin; attempt of
Tarquin to change the line of succession from the female to the male
line; the hereditary principle compatible with the elective principle in
succession to the throne; combination of the hereditary with the
elective principle in succession to the kingship in Africa and Assam;
similar combination perhaps in force at Rome; personal qualities
required in kings and chiefs; succession to the throne determined by a
race; custom of racing for a bride; contests for a bride other than a
race; the Flight of the King (_Regifugium_) at Rome perhaps a relic of a
contest for the kingdom and the hand of a princess; confirmation of this
theory from the practice of killing a human representative of Saturn at
the Saturnalia; violent ends of Roman kings; death of Romulus on the
_Nonae Caprotinae_ (7th July), an old licentious festival like the
Saturnalia for the fertilisation of the fig; violent deaths of other
Roman kings; succession to Latin kingship perhaps decided by single
combat; African parallels; Greek and Italian kings may have personated
Cronus and Saturn before they personated Zeus and Jupiter.