"Shall we visit the very oldest part of the city to-day?" asked the
Sunbonnet Babies' father one morning.
"Oh, dear! I am tired of old things," said May. "I should much rather
ride in the park and hear the band play, as we did yesterday."
"Don't you like to hear old stories?" asked her father.
"Why, yes! I always like stories, you know."
"Well, wouldn't you like to hear an old story about some twin boys?
And while I tell the story, wouldn't you like to sit near the place
where the boys were supposed to have grown up?"
"Yes, of course we should!" exclaimed Molly. "I like old things,
father. You tell such interesting stories about them."
Half an hour later they were walking slowly about the old Roman Forum
looking at ruins of beautiful buildings and temples which had once
been the center of the busy city. In one of the narrow streets they
saw some large squares and circles made in the pavement, on which the
men and boys used to play their games.
[Illustration]
They saw, too, the great open-air theater, or Colosseum, in which the
old Romans held their famous sports. Sometimes the sports were very
wicked and cruel. The Colosseum was built in the shape of a huge
circle without a roof. It once seated eighty-seven thousand people
around its high sides, leaving a large open space in the center for
the games.
Then they saw beautiful great arches, built in honor of old emperors,
and tall marble columns which were once a part of lovely temples. But
these things were all so broken and ruined the Sunbonnet Babies soon
grew tired of looking at them.
[Illustration: _They saw beautiful arches and tall marble columns_]
"When are you going to tell us the story, father?" asked May at last.
"Well, let us have it now," answered her father. "Let us sit down on
this old stone block right where we can look at the hill over yonder.
The present city of Rome is built on seven hills. Our story tells how
the city was first started on that hill and how the first wall was
built around it."
"Is the story really true, father?" asked May.
"People used to think it was true, but it happened such a long time
ago we cannot be sure about it. Even if it is not true, it is a good
story about twin brothers who were said to have lived nearly three
thousand years ago. The father of the boys was supposed to have been
the young god Mars, and their mother was a beautiful maiden called
Sylvia.
"It was Sylvia's work to care for the sacred fire in the temple of the
goddess Vesta. Such maidens were treated with great honor, but they
were not allowed to marry. So the people were very angry when Sylvia
said the great god Mars was her husband and the two baby boys were her
own little children. As a punishment the young mother was buried
alive, and her helpless babies were put into a wooden trough, which
was set afloat on the river Tiber.
"Now it happened just at that time that the river overflowed its
banks. But very soon the water went down, and the little trough in
which the twin babies lay was left safely on high ground. Of course
the babies became very hungry and probably cried loudly for their
mother to come and feed them. But the poor mother could not come,
though another mother did. She was a mother wolf, and she carried the
hungry babies away to her lair, where she tenderly nursed and cared
for them.
[Illustration: _The little trough in which the babies lay was left
safely on high ground_]
"Some time later a shepherd found the baby boys living in the woods
with their wolf mother. He was a kind man, and he took the children
home to his wife. She named the boys Romulus and Remus, and brought
them up to be shepherds like her husband.
"When the twin brothers grew to be young men, trouble arose between
the shepherds belonging to their mother's father, who should have been
king of the country, and the shepherds of the wrongful ruler. Romulus
and Remus did many brave things of which their grandfather heard, and
one day he asked to have them brought before him. He then discovered
that they were the twin sons of his beautiful daughter Sylvia.
"The proud young men gathered an army together at once and seized the
country in the name of their grandfather, the rightful king. They then
decided to build a city, but they could not agree upon a place for it.
Romulus wished to build it on one of the seven low hills in that
region, while Remus wished to build it on another. Finally they went
to their grandfather for advice, and he told them to watch for a sign
from the gods. So Romulus stood on the hill which he had chosen and
Remus stood on his hill, both watching for some sign to show them the
right spot on which to build their city.
[Illustration: _Remus saw six vultures flying over his head_]
"At last Remus saw six vultures flying over his head, but shortly
afterward Romulus saw twelve vultures. The people took this to be a
sign that the gods preferred the choice of Romulus, so they made him
their king.
"Romulus began at once to build the walls of his new capital. He
harnessed a heifer and a bull to a plow, and between the rising and
going down of the sun he plowed a furrow in the shape of a square
around the top of his hill. On this furrow he built the wall of his
city.
"Remus had seen the birds first and he felt that he should be the
founder of the city. One day, as he stood watching the building of the
new wall, he laughed at it scornfully and leaped over it. Romulus was
deeply hurt, and he killed his brother on the spot, crying, 'So may
all perish who cross this wall!'
"Romulus named his city _Rome_, and he and his shepherds lived in
thatch-roofed mud houses within the protection of its walls.
"The story says this was the real beginning of the wonderful city of
Rome. The hill which Romulus chose was the one right over there. It is
called the Palatine Hill. The old Roman emperors lived on it for many
centuries. The ruins of their walls and great palaces can still be
seen," said the Sunbonnet Babies' father, as he finished his story.
"I wonder if it was there that the mother wolf took care of Romulus
and Remus," said Molly. "If so, I think Romulus was right in wanting
to build his city on the same spot."
"Rome is now so large it covers all of the seven hills, as well as the
land between them," said her father. "Our hotel is on one of the
hills, and the park where we drove yesterday is on another. Who wants
to drive in the park again to-day?"
"I do!" and "I do!" and "I do!" cried Molly and May and their mother.
"Please may we drive first through the Spanish Piazza and buy some
more flowers?" begged May. "Perhaps we may find Maria on the big
steps. If she is there, father, may we ask her to drive in the park
with us?"
"Yes, indeed!" answered her father. "We may meet the king and queen in
the park. They drive there nearly every day."
"Oh! oh!" exclaimed May. "Let's buy the loveliest roses we can find
and toss them into the king's carriage."
[Illustration: Travel Adventures]
[Illustration]