THE FOUNDING OF ROME.
B.C. 754
The people of Alba Longa called together.--The address of Numitor to
the citizens.--Romulus and Remus come forward.--Plan for building a new
city.--Numitor is to render the necessary aid.--Great numbers flock
together to build the city.--The seven hills.--The Palatine
hill.--Difference of opinion between Romulus and Remus.--Advantages of
the Aventine hill.--Perfect equality of the two brothers.--Both
determined not to yield.--The brothers appeal to Numitor.--His
proposal.--The vultures of the Appenines.--Their function.--Powers of
the vulture.--Auguries.--Romulus and Remus take their
stations.--Result.--New dispute.--An open collision.--Faustulus
killed.--Romulus is victorious.--The building of the city goes
on.--Plowing the pomoerium.--Form of the enclosure.--The death of
Remus.--The institution of the Lemuria.--Description of the
ceremonies.--The black beans.--State of Rome after the death of
Remus.--The story of Celer.--Probable explanation of it.
As soon as the excitement and the agitations which attended the sudden
revolution by which Amulius was dethroned were in some measure calmed,
and tranquillity was restored, the question of the mode in which the
new government should be settled, arose. Numitor considered it best
that he should call an assembly of the people and lay the subject
before them. There was a very large portion of the populace who yet
knew nothing certain in respect to the causes of the extraordinary
events that had occurred. The city was filled with strange rumors, in
all of which truth and falsehood were inextricably mingled, so that
they increased rather than allayed the general curiosity and wonder.
Numitor accordingly convened a general assembly of the inhabitants of
Alba, in a public square. The rude and rustic mountaineers and
peasants whom Romulus had brought to the city came with the rest.
Romulus and Remus themselves did not at first appear. Numitor, when
the audience was assembled, came forward to address them. He gave them
a recital of all the events connected with the usurpation of Amulius.
He told them of the original division which had been made thirty or
forty years before, of the kingdom and the estates of his father,
between Amulius and himself,--of the plans and intrigues by which
Amulius had contrived to possess himself of the kingdom and reduce
him, Numitor, into subjection to his sway,--of his causing Egestus,
Numitor's son, to be slain in the hunting party, and then compelling
his little daughter Rhea to become a vestal virgin in order that she
might never be married. He then went on to describe the birth of
Romulus and Remus, the anger of Amulius when informed of the event,
his cruel treatment of the children and of the mother, and his orders
that the babes should be drowned in the Tiber. He gave an account of
the manner in which the infants had been put into the little wooden
ark, of their floating down the stream, and finally landing on the
bank, and of their being rescued, protected and fed, by the wolf and
the woodpecker. He closed his speech by saying that the young princes
were still alive, and that they were then at hand ready to present
themselves before the assembly.
As he said these words, Romulus and Remus came forward, and the vast
assembly, after gazing for a moment in silent wonder upon their tall
and graceful forms, in which they saw combined athletic strength and
vigor with manly beauty, they burst into long and loud acclamations.
As soon as the applause had in some measure subsided, Romulus and
Remus turned to their grandfather and hailed him king. The people
responded to this announcement with new plaudits, and Numitor was
universally recognized as the rightful sovereign.
It seems that notwithstanding the personal graces and accomplishments
of Romulus and Remus, and their popularity among their fellow
foresters, that they and their followers made a somewhat rude and wild
appearance in the city, and Numitor was very willing, when the state
of things had become somewhat settled, that his rustic auxiliaries
should find some occasion for withdrawing from the capital and
returning again to their own native fastnesses. Romulus and Remus,
however, having now learned that they were entitled to the regal name,
naturally felt desirous of possessing a little regal power, and thus
desired to remain in the city; while still they had too much
consideration for their grandfather to wish to deprive him of the
government. After some deliberation a plan was devised which promised
to gratify the wishes of all.
The plan was this, namely, that Numitor should set apart a place in
his kingdom of Latium where Romulus and Remus might build a city for
themselves,--taking with them to the spot the whole horde of their
retainers. The place which he designated for this purpose was the spot
on the banks of the Tiber where the two children had been landed when
floating down the stream. It was a wild and romantic region, and the
enterprise of building a city upon it was one exactly suited to engage
the attention and occupy the powers of such restless spirits as those
who had collected under the young princes' standard. Many of these
men, it is true, were shepherds and herdsmen, well disposed in mind,
though rude and rough in manners. But then there were many others of
a very turbulent and unmanageable character, outlaws, fugitives, and
adventurers of every description, who had fled to the woods to escape
punishment for former crimes, or seek opportunities for the commission
of new deeds of rapine and robbery; and who had seized upon the
occasion furnished by the insurrection against Amulius to come forth
into the world again. Criminals always flock into armies when armies
are raised; for war presents to the wicked and depraved all the
charms, with but half the danger, of a life of crime. War is in fact
ordinarily only a legal organization of crime.
Romulus and Remus entered into their grandfather's plan with great
readiness. Numitor promised to aid them in their enterprise by every
means in his power. He was to furnish tools and implements, for
excavations and building, and artisans so far as artisans were
required, and was also to provide such temporary supplies of
provisions and stores as might be required at the outset of the
undertaking. He gave permission also to any of his subjects to join
Romulus and Remus in their undertaking, and they, in order to increase
their numbers as much as possible, sent messengers around to the
neighboring country inviting all who were disposed, to come and take
part in the building of the new city. This invitation was accepted by
great numbers of people, from every rank and station in life.
Of course, however, the greater portion of those who came to join the
enterprise, were of a very low grade in respect to moral character.
Men of industry, integrity, and moral worth, who possessed kind hearts
and warm domestic affections, were generally well and prosperously
settled each in his own hamlet or town, and were little inclined to
break away from the ties which bound them to friends and society, in
order to plunge in such a scene of turmoil and confusion as the
building of a new city, under such circumstances, must necessarily be.
It was of course generally the discontented, the idle, and the bad,
that would hope for benefit from such a change as this enterprise
proposed to them. Every restless and desperate spirit, every depraved
victim of vice, every fugitive and outlaw would be ready to embark in
such a scheme, which was to create certainly a new phase in their
relations to society, and thus afford them an opportunity to make a
fresh beginning. The enterprise at the same time seemed to offer them,
through a new organization and new laws, some prospect of release from
responsibility for former crimes. In a word, in preparing to lay the
foundations of their city, Romulus and Remus found themselves at the
head of a very wild and lawless company.
There were seven distinct hills on the ground which was subsequently
included within the limits of Rome. Between and among these hills the
river meandered by sweeping and graceful curves, and at one point,
near the center of what is now the city, the stream passed very near
the foot of one of the elevations called the Palatine Hill. Here was
the spot where the wooden ark in which Romulus and Remus had been set
adrift, had been thrown up upon the shore. The sides of the hill were
steep, and between it and the river there was in one part a deep
morass. Romulus thought, on surveying the ground with Remus his
brother, that this was the best spot for building the city. They could
set apart a sufficient space of level ground around the foot of the
hill for the houses--inclosing the whole with a wall--while the top of
the hill itself might be fortified to form the citadel. The wall and
the steep acclivity of the ground would form a protection on three
sides of the inclosure, while the morass alone would be a sufficient
defense on the part toward the river. Then Romulus was specially
desirous to select this spot as the site, as it was here that he and
his brother had been saved from destruction in so wonderful a manner.
[Illustration: SITUATION OF ROME.]
Remus, however, did not concur in these views. A little farther down
the stream there was another elevation called the Aventine Hill, which
seemed to him more suitable for the site of a town. The sides were
less precipitous, and thus were more convenient for building ground.
Then the land in the immediate vicinity was better adapted to the
purposes which they had in view. In a word, the Aventine Hill was, as
Remus thought, for every substantial reason, much the best locality;
and as for the fact of their having been washed ashore at the foot of
the other hill, it was in his opinion an insignificant circumstance,
wholly unworthy of being taken seriously into the account in laying
the foundation of a city.
The positions in which Remus and Romulus stood in respect to each
other, and the feelings which were naturally awakened in their hearts
by the circumstances in which they found themselves placed, were such
as did not tend to allay any rising asperity which accident might
occasion, but rather to irritate and inflame it. In the first place,
they were both ardent, impulsive, and imperious. Each was conscious of
his strength, and eager to exercise it. Each wished to command, and
was wholly unwilling to obey. While they were in adversity, they clung
together for mutual help and protection; but now, when they had come
into the enjoyment of prosperity and power, the bands of affection
which had bound them together were very much weakened, and were
finally sundered. Then there was nothing whatever to mark any
superiority of one over the other. If they had been of different ages,
the younger could have yielded to the elder, in some degree, without
wounding his pride. If one had been more prominent than the other in
effecting the revolution by which Amulius was dethroned, or if there
had been a native difference of temperament or character to mark a
distinction, or if either had been designated by Numitor, or selected
by popular choice, for the command,--all might have been well. But
there seemed in fact to be between them no grounds of distinction
whatever. They were twins, so that neither could claim any advantage
of birthright. They were equal in size, strength, activity, and
courage. They had been equally bold and efficient in effecting the
revolution; and now they seemed equally powerful in respect to the
influence which they wielded over the minds of their followers. We
have been so long accustomed to consider Romulus the more
distinguished personage, through the associations connected with his
name, that have arisen from his subsequent career, that it is
difficult for us to place him and his brother on that footing of
perfect equality which they occupied in the estimation of all who knew
them in this part of their history. This equality had caused no
difference between them thus far, but now, since the advent of power
and prosperity prevented their continuing longer on a level, there
necessarily came up for decision the terrible question,--terrible when
two such spirits as theirs have it to decide,--which was to yield the
palm.
The brothers, therefore, having each expressed his preference in
respect to the best place for the city, were equally unwilling to
recede from the ground which they had taken. Remus thought that there
was no reason why he should yield to Romulus, and Romulus was equally
unwilling to give way to Remus. Neither could yield, in fact, without
in some sense admitting the superiority of the other. The respective
partisans of the two leaders began to take sides, and the dissension
threatened to become a serious quarrel. Finally, being not yet quite
ready for an open rupture, they concluded to refer the question to
Numitor, and to abide by his decision. They expected that he would
come and view the ground, and so decide where it was best that the
city should be built, and thus terminate the controversy.
But Numitor was too sagacious to hazard the responsibility of deciding
between two such equally matched and powerful opponents. He endeavored
to soothe and quiet the excited feelings of his grandsons, and finally
recommended to them to appeal to _augury_ to decide the question.
Augury was a mode of ascertaining the divine will in respect to
questions of expediency or duty, by means of certain prognostications
and signs. These omens were of various kinds, but perhaps the most
common were the appearances observed in watching the flight of birds
through the air.
It was agreed between Remus and Romulus, in accordance with the advice
of Numitor, that the question at issue between them should be decided
in this way. They were to take their stations on the two hills
respectively--the Palatine and the Aventine, and watch for vultures.
The homes of the vultures of Italy were among the summits of the
Appenines, and their function in the complicated economy of animal
life, was to watch from the lofty peaks of the mountains, or from the
still more aerial and commanding positions which they found in soaring
at vast elevations in the air, for the bodies of the dead,--whether of
men after a battle, or of sheep, or cattle, or wild beasts of the
forests, killed by accident or dying of age,--and when found to remove
and devour them; and thus to hasten the return of the lifeless
elements to other forms of animal and vegetable life. What the earth,
and the rite of burial, effects for man in advanced and cultivated
stages of society, the vultures of the Appenines were commissioned to
perform for all the animal communities of Italy, in Numitor's time.
To enable the vulture to accomplish the work assigned him, he is
endowed with an inconceivable strength of wing, to sustain his flight
over the vast distances which he has to traverse, and up to the vast
elevations to which he must sometimes soar; and also with some
mysterious and extraordinary sense, whether of sight or smell, to
enable him readily to find, at any hour, the spot where his presence
is required, however remote or however hidden it may be. Guided by
this instinct, he flies from time to time with a company of his
fellows, from mountain to mountain, or wheels slowly in vast circles
over the plains--surveying the whole surface of the ground, and
assuredly finding his work;--finding it too equally easily, whether it
lie exposed in the open field, or is hidden, no matter how secretly,
in forest, thicket, grove or glen.
It was, to certain appearances, indicated in the flight of these
birds--such as the number that were seen at a time, the quarter of the
heavens in which they appeared, the direction in which they flew, as
from left to right or from right to left--that the people of Numitor's
day were accustomed to look for omens and auguries. So Romulus and
Remus took their stations on the hills which they had severally
chosen, each surrounded by a company of his own adherents and friends,
and began to watch the skies. It was agreed that the decision of the
question between the two hills should be determined by the omens
which should appear to the respective observers stationed upon them.
But it happened, unfortunately, that the rules for the interpretation
of auguries and omens, were far too indefinite and vague to answer the
purpose for which they were now appealed to. The most unequivocal
distinctness and directness in giving its responses is a very
essential requisite in any tribunal that is called upon as an umpire,
to settle disputes; while the ancient auguries and oracles were always
susceptible of a great variety of interpretations. When Remus and
Romulus commenced their watch no vultures were to be seen from either
hill. They waited till evening, still none appeared. They continued to
watch through the night. In the morning a messenger came over from the
Palatine hill to Remus on the Aventine, informing him that vultures
had appeared to Romulus. Remus did not believe it. At last, however,
the birds really came into view; a flock of six were seen by Remus,
and afterward one of twelve by Romulus. The observations were then
suspended, and the parties came together to confer in respect to the
result; but the dispute instead of being settled, was found to be in a
worse condition than ever. The point now to be determined was whether
six vultures seen first, or twelve seen afterward, were the better
omen, that is whether numbers, or simple priority of appearance,
should decide the question. In contending in respect to this nice
point the brothers became more angry with each other than ever. Their
respective partisans took sides in the contest, which resulted finally
in an open and violent collision. Romulus and Remus themselves seem to
have commenced the affray by attacking one another. Faustulus, their
foster-father, who, from having had the care of them from their
earliest infancy, felt for them an almost parental affection, rushed
between them to prevent them from shedding each other's blood. He was
struck down and killed on the spot, by some unknown hand. A brother of
Faustulus too, named Plistinus, who had lived near to him, and had
known the boys from their infancy, and had often assisted in taking
care of them, was killed in the endeavor to aid his brother to appease
the tumult.
At length the disturbance was quelled. The result of the conflict was,
however, to show that Romulus and his party were the strongest.
Romulus accordingly went on to build the walls of the city at the spot
which he had first chosen. The lines were marked out, and the
excavations were commenced with great ceremony.
In laying out the work, the first thing to be done was to draw the
lines of what was called the _pomoerium_. The pomoerium was a sort
of symbolical wall, and was formed simply by turning a furrow with a
plow all around the city, at a considerable distance from the real
walls, for the purpose, not of establishing lines of defense, but of
marking out what were to be the limits of the corporation, so to
speak, for legal and ceremonial purposes. Of course, the pomoerium
included a much greater space than the real walls, and the people were
allowed to build houses anywhere within this outer inclosure, or even
without it, though not very near to it. Those who built thus were, of
course, not protected in case of an attack, and of course they would,
in such case, be compelled to abandon their houses, and retreat for
safety within the proper walls.
So Romulus proceeded to mark out the pomoerium of the city,
employing in the work the ceremonies customary on such occasions. The
plow used was made of copper, and for a team to draw it a bullock and
a heifer were yoked together. Men appointed for the purpose followed
the plow, and carefully turned over the clods _toward_ the wall of the
city. This seems to have been considered an essential part of the
ceremony. At the places where roads were to pass in toward the gates
of the city, the plow was lifted out of the ground and carried over
the requisite space, so as to leave the turf at those points unbroken.
This was a necessary precaution; for there was a certain consecrating
influence that was exerted by this ceremonial plowing which hallowed
the ground wherever it passed in a manner that would very seriously
interfere with its usefulness as a public road.
The form of the space inclosed by the pomoerium, as Romulus plowed
it, was nearly square, and it included not merely the Palatine hill
itself, but a considerable portion of level land around it.
Though Romulus thus seemed to have conquered, in the strife with
Remus, the difficulty was not yet fully settled. Remus was very little
disposed to acquiesce in his brother's assumed superiority over him.
He was sullen, morose, and ill at ease, and was inclined to take
little part in the proceedings which were going on. Finally an
occasion occurred which produced a crisis, and brought the rivalry and
enmity of the brothers suddenly and forever to an end. Remus was one
day standing by a part of the wall which his brother's workmen were
building, and expressing, in various ways, and with great freedom, his
opinions of his brother's plans; and finally he began to speak
contemptuously of the wall which the workmen were building. Romulus
all the time was standing by. At length, in order to enforce what he
said about the insufficiency of the work, Remus leaped over a portion
of it, saying, "This is the way the enemy will leap over your wall."
Hereupon Romulus seized a mattock from the hands of one of the
laborers, and struck his brother down to the ground with it, saying,
"And this is the way that we will kill them if they do." Remus was
killed by the blow.
As soon as the deed was done, Romulus was at once overwhelmed with
remorse and horror at the atrocity of the crime which he had been so
suddenly led to commit. His anguish was so great for a time that he
refused all food, and he could not sleep. He caused the dead body of
Remus, and also those of Faustulus and of Plistinus, the brother of
Faustulus, to be buried with the most solemn and imposing funeral
ceremonies, so as to render all possible honor to their memory; and
then, not satisfied with this, he instituted and celebrated certain
religions rites, to prevent the ghosts of the deceased from coming
back to haunt him. The ghosts, or specters of the dead that came back
to haunt and terrify the living were called _lemures_. Hence the
celebration which Romulus ordained was called the Lemuria, and it
continued to be annually observed in Rome during the whole period of
its subsequent history.
Precisely what the ceremonies were which Romulus performed to appease
the spirit of his brother can not now be ascertained, as there was no
particular description of them recorded. But the Lemuria, as afterward
performed, were frequently described by Roman writers, and they were
of a very curious and extraordinary character. The time for the
celebration of these rites was in May, the anniversary, as was
supposed, of the days in which Romulus originally celebrated them.
The Lemurial ceremonies extended through three days, or rather
nights, although, for some curious reason or other, they were
alternate and not consecutive nights. They were the nights of the
ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth of May. The ceremonies were performed
in the night, for the reason that it was in the dark hours that ghosts
and goblins were accustomed, as was supposed, to roam about the world
to haunt and terrify men.
The ceremonies performed on these occasions are thus described. They
commenced at midnight. The father of the family would rise at that
hour and go out at the door of the house, making certain
gesticulations and signals with his hands, which were supposed to have
the effect of keeping the specters away. He then washed his hands
three times in pure spring water. Then he filled his mouth with a
certain kind of black beans for which ghosts were supposed to have
some particular fondness. Being thus provided he would walk along,
taking the beans out of his mouth as he walked, and throwing them
behind him. The specters were supposed to gather up these beans as he
threw them down. He must, however, by no means look round to see them.
He then, after speaking certain mysterious and cabalistic words,
washed his hands again, and then making a frightful noise by striking
brass basins together, he shouted out nine times, "Ghosts of this
house begone!" This was supposed effectually to drive the specters
away--an opinion which was always abundantly confirmed by the fact;
for on looking round after this vociferated adjuration, the man always
found that the specters were gone!
When by these ceremonies, or ceremonies such as these, Romulus had
appeased the spirit of his brother, and those of the guardians of his
childhood, his mind became more composed, and he turned his attention
once more toward the building of the city. The party of Remus now, of
course, since it was deprived of its head, no longer maintained
itself, but was gradually broken up and merged in the general mass.
Romulus became the sole leader of the enterprise, and immediately
turned his attention to the measures to be adopted for a more complete
and effectual organization of the community over which he found
himself presiding.
In respect to Remus, it ought perhaps to be added, that after his
death a story was circulated in Rome that it was a man named Celer,
and not Romulus, that killed him. This story has not, however, been
generally believed. It has been thought more probable that Romulus
himself, or some of his partisans and friends, invented and circulated
the story of Celer, in order to screen him in some degree from the
reproach of so unnatural a crime as the killing of a brother so near
and dear to him as Remus had been;--a brother who had shared his
infancy with him, who had slept with him, at the same time, in the
arms of his mother, who had floated with him down the Tiber in the
same ark, been saved from death by the same miraculous intervention,
and through all the years of infancy, childhood, and youth, had been
his constant playmate, companion, and friend. The crime was as much
more atrocious than any ordinary fratricide, as Remus had been nearer
to Romulus than any ordinary brother.