ROMULUS

From whom, and for what reason, the city of Rome, a name so great in

glory, and famous in the mouths of all men, was so first called, authors

do not agree. Some are of opinion that the Pelasgians, wandering over

the greater part of the habitable world, and subduing numerous nations,

fixed themselves here, and, from their own great strength in war,

called the city Rome. Others, that at the taking of Troy, some few that

escaped and met with shipping, put to sea, and, driven by winds, were

carried upon the coasts of Tuscany, and came to anchor off the mouth of

the river Tiber, where their women, out of heart and weary with the sea,

on its being proposed by one of the highest birth and best understanding

amongst them, whose name was Roma, burnt the ships. With which act the

men at first were angry, but afterwards, of necessity, seating

themselves near Palatium, where things in a short while succeeded far

better than they could hope, in that they found the country very good,

and the people courteous, they not only did the lady Roma other honors,

but added also this, of calling after her name the city which she had

been the occasion of their founding. From this, they say, has come down

that custom at Rome for women to salute their kinsmen and husbands with

kisses; because these women, after they had burnt the ships, made use of

such endearments when entreating and pacifying their husbands.

Some again say that Roma, from whom this city was so called, was

daughter of Italus and Leucaria; or, by another account, of Telephus,

Hercules's son, and that she was married to Aeneas, or, according to

others again, to Ascanius, Aeneas's son. Some tell us that Romanus, the

son of Ulysses and Circe, built it; some, Romus the son of Emathion,

Diomede having sent him from Troy; and others, Romus, king of the

Latins, after driving out the Tyrrhenians, who had come from Thessaly

into Lydia, and from thence into Italy. Those very authors, too, who,

in accordance with the safest account, make Romulus give the name to the

city, yet differ concerning his birth and family. For some say, he was

son to Aeneas and Dexithea, daughter of Phorbas, and was, with his

brother Remus, in their infancy, carried into Italy, and being on the

river when the waters came down in a flood, all the vessels were cast

away except only that where the young children were, which being gently

landed on a level bank of the river, they were both unexpectedly saved,

and from them the place was called Rome. Some say, Roma, daughter of

the Trojan lady above mentioned, was married to Latinus, Telemachus's

son, and became mother to Romulus; others, that Aemilia, daughter of

Aeneas and Lavinia, had him by the god Mars; and others give you mere

fables of his origin. For to Tarchetius, they say, king of Alba, who

was a most wicked and cruel man, there appeared in his own house a

strange vision, a male figure that rose out of a hearth, and stayed

there for many days. There was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany which

Tarchetius consulted, and received an answer that a virgin should give

herself to the apparition, and that a son should be born of her, highly

renowned, eminent for valor, good fortune, and strength of body.

Tarchetius told the prophecy to one of his own daughters, and commanded

her to do this thing; which she avoiding as an indignity, sent her

handmaid. Tarchetius, hearing this, in great anger imprisoned them

both, purposing to put them to death; but being deterred from murder by

the goddess Vesta in a dream, enjoined them for their punishment the

working a web of cloth, in their chains as they were, which when they

finished, they should be suffered to marry; but whatever they worked by

day, Tarchetius commanded others to unravel in the night. In the

meantime, the waiting-woman was delivered of two boys, whom Tarchetius

gave into the hands of one Teratius, with command to destroy them; he,

however, carried and laid them by the river side, where a wolf came and

continued to suckle them, while birds of various sorts brought little

morsels of food, which they put into their mouths; till a cow-herd,

spying them, was first strangely surprised, but, venturing to draw

nearer, took the children up in his arms. Thus they were saved, and,

when they grew up, set upon Tarchetius and overcame him. This one

Promathion says, who compiled a history of Italy.

But the story which is most believed and has the greatest number of

vouchers was first published, in its chief particulars, amongst the

Greeks by Diocles of Peparethus, whom Fabius Pictor also follows in most

points. Here again there are variations, but in general outline it runs

thus: the kings of Alba reigned in lineal descent from Aeneas and the

succession devolved at length upon two brothers, Numitor and Amulius.

Amulius proposed to divide things into two equal shares, and set as

equivalent to the kingdom the treasure and gold that were brought from

Troy. Numitor chose the kingdom; but Amulius, having the money, and

being able to do more with that than Numitor, took his kingdom from him

with great ease, and, fearing lest his daughter might have children,

made her a Vestal, bound in that condition forever to live a single and

maiden life. This lady some call Ilia, others Rhea, and others Silvia;

however, not long after, she was, contrary to the established laws of

the Vestals, discovered to be with child, and should have suffered the

most cruel punishment, had not Antho, the king's daughter, mediated with

her father for her; nevertheless, she was confined, and debarred all

company, that she might not be delivered without the king's knowledge.

In time she brought forth two boys, of more than human size and beauty,

whom Amulius, becoming yet more alarmed, commanded a servant to take and

cast away; this man some call Faustulus, others say Faustulus was the

man who brought them up. He put the children, however, in a small

trough, and went towards the river with a design to cast them in; but,

seeing the waters much swollen and coming violently down, was afraid to

go nearer, and, dropping the children near the bank, went away. The

river overflowing, the flood at last bore up the trough, and, gently

wafting it, landed them on a smooth piece of ground, which they now call

Cermanes, formerly Germanus, perhaps from Germani,

which signifies brothers.

Near this place grew a wild fig-tree, which they called Ruminalis,

either from Romulus (as it is vulgarly thought), or from ruminating,

because cattle did usually in the heat of the day seek cover under it,

and there chew the cud; or, better, from the suckling of these children

there, for the ancients called the dug or teat of any creature ruma, and

there is a tutelar goddess of the rearing of children whom they still

call Rumilia, in sacrificing to whom they use no wine, but make

libations of milk. While the infants lay here, history tells us, a she-

wolf nursed them, and a woodpecker constantly fed and watched them;

these creatures are esteemed holy to the god Mars, the woodpecker the

Latins still especially worship and honor. Which things, as much as

any, gave credit to what the mother of the children said, that their

father was the god Mars: though some say that it was a mistake put upon

her by Amulius, who himself had come to her dressed up in armor.

Others think that the first rise of this fable came from the children's

nurse, through the ambiguity of her name; for the Latins not only called

wolves lupae, but also women of loose life; and such an one was the wife

of Faustulus, who nurtured these children, Acca Larentia by name. To

her the Romans offer sacrifices, and in the month of April the priest of

Mars makes libations there; it is called the Larentian Feast. They

honor also another Larentia, for the following reason: the keeper of

Hercules's temple having, it seems, little else to do, proposed to his

deity a game at dice, laying down that, if he himself won, he would have

something valuable of the god; but if he were beaten, he would spread

him a noble table, and procure him a fair lady's company. Upon these

terms, throwing first for the god and then for himself, he found himself

beaten. Wishing to pay his stakes honorably, and holding himself bound

by what he had said, he both provided the deity a good supper, and,

giving money to Larentia, then in her beauty, though not publicly known,

gave her a feast in the temple, where he had also laid a bed, and after

supper locked her in, as if the god were really to come to her. And

indeed, it is said, the deity did truly visit her, and commanded her in

the morning to walk to the market-place, and, whatever man see met

first, to salute him, and make him her friend. She met one named

Tarrutius, who was a man advanced in years, fairly rich without

children, and had always lived a single life. He received Larentia, and

loved her well, and at his death left her sole heir of all his large and

fair possessions, most of which she, in her last will and testament,

bequeathed to the people. It was reported of her, being now celebrated

and esteemed the mistress of a god, that she suddenly disappeared near

the place where the first Larentia lay buried; the spot is at this day

called Velabrum, because, the river frequently overflowing, they went

over in ferry-boats somewhere hereabouts to the forum, the Latin word

for ferrying being velatura. Others derive the name from velum, a sail;

because the exhibitors of public shows used to hang the road that leads

from the forum to the Circus Maximus with sails, beginning at this spot.

Upon these accounts the second Larentia is honored at Rome.

Meantime Faustulus, Amulius's swineherd, brought up the children without

any man's knowledge; or, as those say who wish to keep closer to

probabilities, with the knowledge and secret assistance of Numitor; for

it is said, they went to school at Gabii, and were well instructed in

letters, and other accomplishments befitting their birth. And they were

called Romulus and Remus, (from ruma, the dug,) as we had before,

because they were found sucking the wolf. In their very infancy, the size

and beauty of their bodies intimated their natural superiority; and when

they grew up, they both proved brave and manly, attempting all

enterprises that seemed hazardous, and showing in them a courage

altogether undaunted. But Romulus seemed rather to act by counsel, and

to show the sagacity of a statesman, and in all his dealings with their

neighbors, whether relating to feeding of flocks or to hunting, gave the

idea of being born rather to rule than to obey. To their comrades and

inferiors they were therefore dear; but the king's servants, his

bailiffs and overseers, as being in nothing better men than themselves,

they despised and slighted, nor were the least concerned at their

commands and menaces. They used honest pastimes and liberal studies,

not esteeming sloth and idleness honest and liberal, but rather such

exercises as hunting and running, repelling robbers, taking of thieves,

and delivering the wronged and oppressed from injury. For doing such

things they became famous.

A quarrel occurring between Numitor's and Amulius's cowherds, the

latter, not enduring the driving away of their cattle by the others,

fell upon them and put them to flight, and rescued the greatest part of

the prey. At which Numitor being highly incensed, they little regarded

it, but collected and took into their company a number of needy men and

runaway slaves,--acts which looked like the first stages of rebellion.

It so happened, that when Romulus was attending a sacrifice, being fond

of sacred rites and divination, Numitor's herdsmen, meeting with Remus

on a journey with few companions, fell upon him, and, after some

fighting, took him prisoner, carried him before Numitor, and there

accused him. Numitor would not punish him himself, fearing his

brother's anger, but went to Amulius, and desired justice, as he was

Amulius's brother and was affronted by Amulius's servants. The men of

Alba likewise resenting the thing, and thinking he had been dishonorably

used, Amulius was induced to deliver Remus up into Numitor's hands, to

use him as he thought fit. He therefore took and carried him home, and,

being struck with admiration of the youth's person, in stature and

strength of body exceeding all men, and perceiving in his very

countenance the courage and force of his mind, which stood unsubdued and

unmoved by his present circumstances, and hearing further that all the

enterprises and actions of his life were answerable to what he saw of

him, but chiefly, as it seemed, a divine influence aiding and directing

the first steps that were to lead to great results, out of the mere

thought of his mind, and casually, as it were, he put his hand upon the

fact, and, in gentle terms and with a kind aspect, to inspire him with

confidence and hope, asked him who he was, and whence he was derived.

He, taking heart, spoke thus: " I will hide nothing from you, for you

seem to be of a more princely temper than Amulius, in that you give a

hearing and examine before you punish, while he condemns before the

cause is heard. Formerly, then, we (for we are twins) thought ourselves

the sons of Faustulus and Larentia, the king's servants; but since we

have been accused and aspersed with calumnies, and brought in peril of

our lives here before you, we hear great things of ourselves, the truth

of which my present danger is likely to bring to the test. Our birth is

said to have been secret, our fostering and nurture in our infancy still

more strange; by birds and beasts, to whom we were cast out, we were

fed, by the milk of a wolf, and the morsels of a woodpecker, as we lay

in a little trough by the side of the river. The trough is still in

being, and is preserved, with brass plates round it, and an inscription

in letters almost effaced; which may prove hereafter unavailing tokens

to our parents when we are dead and gone." Numitor, upon these words,

and computing the dates by the young man's looks, slighted not the hope

that flattered him, but considered how to come at his daughter privately

(for she was still kept under restraint), to talk with her concerning

these matters.

Faustulus, hearing Remus was taken and delivered up, called on Romulus

to assist in his rescue, informing him then plainly of the particulars

of his birth, not but he had before given hints of it, and told as much

as an attentive man might make no small conclusions from; he himself,

full of concern and fear of not coming in time, took the trough, and ran

instantly to Numitor; but giving a suspicion to some of the king's

sentry at his gate, and being gazed upon by them and perplexed with

their questions, he let it be seen that he was hiding the trough under

his cloak. By chance there was one among them who was at the exposing

of the children, and was one employed in the office; he, seeing the

trough and knowing it by its make and inscription, guessed at the

business, and, without further delay, telling the king of it, brought in

the man to be examined. Faustulus, hard beset, did not show himself

altogether proof against terror; nor yet was he wholly forced out of

all; confessed indeed the children were alive, but lived, he said, as

shepherds, a great way from Alba; he himself was going to carry the

trough to Ilia, who had often greatly desired to see and handle it, for

a confirmation of her hopes of her children. As men generally do who

are troubled in mind and act either in fear or passion, it so fell out

Amulius now did; for he sent in haste as a messenger, a man, otherwise

honest, and friendly to Numitor, with commands to learn from Numitor

whether any tidings were come to him of the children's being alive. He,

coming and seeing how little Remus wanted of being received into the

arms and embraces of Numitor, both gave him surer confidence in his

hope, and advised them, with all expedition, to proceed to action;

himself too joining and assisting them, and indeed, had they wished it,

the time would not have let them demur. For Romulus was now come very

near, and many of the citizens, out of fear and hatred of Amulius, were

running out to join him; besides, he brought great forces with him,

divided into companies, each of an hundred men, every captain carrying a

small bundle of grass and shrubs tied to a pole. The Latins call such

bundles manipuli and from hence it is that in their armies still they

call their captains manipulares. Remus rousing the citizens within to

revolt, and Romulus making attacks from without, the tyrant, not knowing

either what to do, or what expedient to think of for his security, in

this perplexity and confusion was taken and put to death. This

narrative, for the most part given by Fabius and Diocles of Peparethus,

who seem to be the earliest historians of the foundation of Rome, is

suspected by some, because of its dramatic and fictitious appearance;

but it would not wholly be disbelieved, if men would remember what a

poet fortune sometimes shows herself, and consider that the Roman power

would hardly have reached so high a pitch without a divinely ordered

origin, attended with great and extraordinary circumstances.

Amulius now being dead and matters quietly disposed, the two brothers

would neither dwell in Alba without governing there, nor take the

government into their own hands during the life of their grandfather.

Having therefore delivered the dominion up into his hands, and paid

their mother befitting honor, they resolved to live by themselves, and

build a city in the same place where they were in their infancy brought

up. This seems the most honorable reason for their departure; though

perhaps it was necessary, having such a body of slaves and fugitives

collected about them, either to come to nothing by dispersing them, or

if not so, then to live with them elsewhere. For that the inhabitants

of Alba did not think fugitives worthy of being received and

incorporated as citizens among them plainly appears from the matter of

the women, an attempt made not wantonly but of necessity, because they

could not get wives by good-will. For they certainly paid unusual

respect and honor to those whom they thus forcibly seized.

Not long after the first foundation of the city, they opened a sanctuary

of refuge for all fugitives, which they called the temple of the god

Asylaeus, where they received and protected all, delivering none back,

neither the servant to his master, the debtor to his creditor, nor the

murderer into the hands of the magistrate, saying it was a privileged

place, and they could so maintain it by an order of the holy oracle;

insomuch that the city grew presently very populous, for, they say, it

consisted at first of no more than a thousand houses.

But of that hereafter.

Their minds being fully bent upon building, there arose presently a

difference about the place where. Romulus chose what was called Roma

Quadrata, or the Square Rome, and would have the city there. Remus laid

out a piece of ground on the Aventine Mount, well fortified by nature,

which was from him called Remonium, but now Rignarium. Concluding at

last to decide the contest by a divination from a flight of birds, and

placing themselves apart at some distance, Remus, they say, saw six

vultures, and Romulus double the number; others say Remus did truly see

his number, and that Romulus feigned his, but, when Remus came to him,

that then he did, indeed, see twelve. Hence it is that the Romans, in

their divinations from birds, chiefly regard the vulture, though

Herodorus Ponticus relates that Hercules was always very joyful when a

vulture appeared to him upon any action. For it is a creature the least

hurtful of any, pernicious neither to corn, fruit-tree, nor cattle; it

preys only upon carrion, and never kills or hurts any living thing; and

as for birds, it touches not them, though they are dead, as being of its

own species, whereas eagles, owls, and hawks mangle and kill their own

fellow-creatures; yet, as Aeschylus says,--

What bird is clean that preys on fellow bird ?

Besides all other birds are, so to say, never out of our eyes; they let

themselves be seen of us continually; but a vulture is a very rare

sight, and you can seldom meet with a man that has seen their young;

their rarity and infrequency has raised a strange opinion in some, that

they come to us from some other world; as soothsayers ascribe a divine

origination to all things not produced either of nature

or of themselves.

When Remus knew the cheat, he was much displeased; and as Romulus was

casting up a ditch, where he designed the foundation of the citywall, he

turned some pieces of the work to ridicule, and obstructed others: at

last, as he was in contempt leaping over it, some say Romulus himself

struck him, others Celer, one of his companions; he fell, however, and

in the scuffle Faustulus also was slain, and Plistinus, who, being

Faustulus's brother, story tells us, helped to bring up Romulus. Celer

upon this fled instantly into Tuscany, and from him the Romans call all

men that are swift of foot Celeres; and because Quintus Metellus, at his

father's funeral, in a few days' time gave the people a show of

gladiators, admiring his expedition in getting it ready, they gave him

the name of Celer.

Romulus, having buried his brother Remus, together with his two foster-

fathers, on the mount Remonia, set to building his city; and sent for

men out of Tuscany, who directed him by sacred usages and written rules

in all the ceremonies to be observed, as in a religious rite. First,

they dug a round trench about that which is now the Comitium, or Court

of Assembly, and into it solemnly threw the first-fruits of all things

either good by custom or necessary by nature; lastly, every man taking a

small piece of earth of the country from whence he came, they all threw

them in promiscuously together. This trench they call, as they do the

heavens, Mundus; making which their center, they described the city in a

circle round it. Then the founder fitted to a plow a brazen plowshare,

and, yoking together a bull and a cow, drove himself a deep line or

furrow round the bounds; while the business of those that followed after

was to see that whatever earth was thrown up should be turned all

inwards towards the city, and not to let any clod lie outside. With

this line they described the wall, and called it, by a contraction,

Pomoerium, that is, post murum, after or beside the wall; and where they

designed to make a gate, there they took out the share, carried the plow

over, and left a space; for which reason they consider the whole wall as

holy, except where the gates are; for had they adjudged them also

sacred, they could not, without offense to religion, have given free

ingress and egress for the necessaries of human life, some of which are

in themselves unclean.

As for the day they began to build the city, it is universally agreed to

have been the twenty-first of April, and that day the Romans annually

keep holy, calling it their country's birthday. At first, they say,

they sacrificed no living creature on this day, thinking it fit to

preserve the feast of their country's birthday pure and without stain

of blood. Yet before ever the city was built, there was a feast of

herdsmen and shepherds kept on this day, which went by the name of

Palilia. The Roman and Greek months have now little or no agreement;

they say, however, the day on which Romulus began to build was quite

certainly the thirtieth of the month, at which time there was an eclipse

of the sun which they conceive to be that seen by Antimachus, the Teian

poet, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad. In the times of Varro

the philosopher, a man deeply read in Roman history, lived one

Tarrutius, his familiar acquaintance, a good philosopher and

mathematician, and one, too, that out of curiosity had studied the way

of drawing schemes and tables, and was thought to be a proficient in the

art; to him Varro propounded to cast Romulus's nativity, even to the

first day and hour, making his deductions from the several events of the

man's life which he should be informed of, exactly as in working back a

geometrical problem; for it belonged, he said, to the same science both

to foretell a man's life by knowing the time of his birth, and also to

find out his birth by the knowledge of his life. This task Tarrutius

undertook, and first looking into the actions and casualties of the man,

together with the time of his life and manner of his death, and then

comparing all these remarks together, he very confidently and positively

pronounced that Romulus was conceived in his mother's womb the first

year of the second Olympiad, the twenty-third day of the month the

Egyptians call Choeac, and the third hour after sunset, at which time

there was a total eclipse of the sun; that he was born the twenty-first

day of the month Thoth, about sun-rising; and that the first stone of

Rome was laid by him the ninth day of the month Pharmuthi, between the

second and third hour. For the fortunes of cities as well as of men,

they think, have their certain periods of time prefixed, which may be

collected and foreknown from the position of the stars at their first

foundation. But these and the like relations may perhaps not so much

take and delight the reader with their novelty and curiosity, as offend

him by their extravagance.

The city now being built, Romulus enlisted all that were of age to bear

arms into military companies, each company consisting of three thousand

footmen and three hundred horse. These companies were called legions,

because they were the choicest and most select of the people for

fighting men. The rest of the multitude he called the people; one

hundred of the most eminent he chose for counselors; these he styled

patricians, and their assembly the senate, which signifies a council of

elders. The patricians, some say, were so called because they were the

fathers of lawful children; others, because they could give a good

account who their own fathers were, which not every one of the rabble

that poured into the city at first could do; others, from patronage,

their word for protection of inferiors, the origin of which they

attribute to Patron, one of those that came over with Evander, who was a

great protector and defender of the weak and needy. But perhaps the

most probable judgment might be, that Romulus, esteeming it the duty of

the chiefest and wealthiest men, with a fatherly care and concern to

look after the meaner, and also encouraging the commonalty not to dread

or be aggrieved at the honors of their superiors, but to love and

respect them, and to think and call them their fathers, might from hence

give them the name of patricians. For at this very time all foreigners

give senators the style of lords; but the Romans, making use of a more

honorable and less invidious name, call them Patres Conscripti; at first

indeed simply Patres, but afterwards, more being added, Patres

Conscripti. By this more imposing title he distinguished the senate

from the populace; and in other ways also separated the nobles and the

commons,--calling them patrons, and these their clients,--by which means

he created wonderful love and amity between them, productive of great

justice in their dealings. For they were always their clients'

counselors in law cases, their advocates in courts of justice, in fine

their advisers and supporters in all affairs whatever. These again

faithfully served their patrons, not only paying them all respect and

deference, but also, in case of poverty, helping them to portion their

daughters and pay off their debts; and for a patron to witness against

his client, or a client against his patron, was what no law nor

magistrate could enforce. In after times all other duties subsisting

still between them, it was thought mean and dishonorable for the better

sort to take money from their inferiors. And so much of these matters.

In the fourth month, after the city was built, as Fabius writes, the

adventure of stealing the women was attempted; and some say Romulus

himself, being naturally a martial man, and predisposed too, perhaps, by

certain oracles, to believe the fates had ordained the future growth and

greatness of Rome should depend upon the benefit of war, upon these

accounts first offered violence to the Sabines, since he took away only

thirty virgins, more to give an occasion of war than out of any want of

women. But this is not very probable; it would seem rather that,

observing his city to be filled by a confluence of foreigners, few of

whom had wives, and that the multitude in general, consisting of a

mixture of mean and obscure men, fell under contempt, and seemed to be

of no long continuance together, and hoping farther, after the women

were appeased, to make this injury in some measure an occasion of

confederacy and mutual commerce with the Sabines, he took in hand this

exploit after this manner. First, he gave it out as if he had found an

altar of a certain god hid under ground; the god they called Consus,

either the god of counsel (for they still call a consultation consilium

and their chief magistrates consules, namely, counselors), or else the

equestrian Neptune, for the altar is kept covered in the circus maximus

at all other times, and only at horse-races is exposed to public view;

others merely say that this god had his altar hid under ground because

counsel ought to be secret and concealed. Upon discovery of this altar,

Romulus, by proclamation, appointed a day for a splendid sacrifice, and

for public games and shows, to entertain all sorts of people; many

flocked thither, and he himself sat in front, amidst his nobles, clad

in purple. Now the signal for their falling on was to be whenever he

rose and gathered up his robe and threw it over his body; his men stood

all ready armed, with their eyes intent upon him, and when the sign was

given, drawing their swords and falling on with a great shout, they

ravished away the daughters of the Sabines, they themselves flying

without any let or hindrance. They say there were but thirty taken, and

from them the Curiae or Fraternities were named; but Valerius Antias

says five hundred and twenty-seven, Juba, six hundred and eighty-three

virgins; which was indeed the greatest excuse Romulus could allege,

namely, that they had taken no married woman, save one only, Hersilia by

name, and her too unknowingly; which showed they did not commit this

rape wantonly, but with a design purely of forming alliance with their

neighbors by the greatest and surest bonds. This Hersilia some say

Hostilius married, a most eminent man among the Romans; others, Romulus

himself, and that she bore two children to him, a daughter, by reason of

primogeniture called Prima, and one only son, whom, from the great

concourse of citizens to him at that time, he called Aollius, but after

ages Abillius. But Zenodotus the Troezenian, in giving this account, is

contradicted by many.

Among those who committed this rape upon the virgins, there were, they

say, as it so then happened, some of the meaner sort of men, who were

carrying off a damsel, excelling all in beauty and comeliness of

stature, whom when some of superior rank that met them attempted to take

away, they cried out they were carrying her to Talasius, a young man,

indeed, but brave and worthy; hearing that, they commended and applauded

them loudly, and also some, turning back, accompanied them with good-

will and pleasure, shouting out the name of Talasius. Hence the Romans

to this very time, at their weddings, sing Talasius for their nuptial

word, as the Greeks do Hymenaeus, because, they say, Talasius was very

happy in his marriage. But Sextius Sylla the Carthaginian, a man

wanting neither learning nor ingenuity, told me Romulus gave this word

as a sign when to begin the onset; everybody, therefore, who made prize

of a maiden, cried out, Talasius; and for that reason the custom

continues so now at marriages. But most are of opinion (of whom Juba

particularly is one) that this word was used to new-married women by way

of incitement to good housewifery and talasia (spinning), as we say in

Greek, Greek words at that time not being as yet overpowered by Italian.

But if this be the case, and if the Romans did at that time use the word

talasia as we do, a man might fancy a more probable reason of the

custom. For when the Sabines, after the war against the Romans, were

reconciled, conditions were made concerning their women, that they

should be obliged to do no other servile offices to their husbands but

what concerned spinning; it was customary, therefore, ever after, at

weddings, for those that gave the bride or escorted her or otherwise

were present, sportingly to say Talasius, intimating that she was

henceforth to serve in spinning and no more. It continues also a custom

at this very day for the bride not of herself to pass her husband's

threshold, but to be lifted over, in memory that the Sabine virgins were

carried in by violence, and did not go in of their own will. Some say,

too, the custom of parting the bride's hair with the head of a spear was

in token their marriages began at first by war and acts of hostility, of

which I have spoken more fully in my book of Questions.

This rape was committed on the eighteenth day of the month Sextilis, now

called August, on which the solemnities of the Consualia are kept.

The Sabines were a numerous and martial people, but lived in small,

unfortified villages, as it befitted, they thought, a colony of the

Lacedaemonians to be bold and fearless; nevertheless, seeing themselves

bound by such hostages to their good behavior, and being solicitous for

their daughters, they sent ambassadors to Romulus with fair and

equitable requests, that he would return their young women and recall

that act of violence, and afterwards, by persuasion and lawful means,

seek friendly correspondence between both nations. Romulus would not

part with the young women, yet proposed to the Sabines to enter into an

alliance with them; upon which point some consulted and demurred long,

but Acron, king of the Ceninenses, a man of high spirit and a good

warrior, who had all along a jealousy of Romulus's bold attempts, and

considering particularly from this exploit upon the women that he was

growing formidable to all people, and indeed insufferable, were he not

chastised, first rose up in arms, and with a powerful army advanced

against him. Romulus likewise prepared to receive him; but when they

came within sight and viewed each other, they made a challenge to fight

a single duel, the armies standing by under arms, without participation.

And Romulus, making a vow to Jupiter, if he should conquer, to carry,

himself, and dedicate his adversary's armor to his honor, overcame him

in combat, and, a battle ensuing, routed his army also, and then took

his city; but did those he found in it no injury, only commanded them to

demolish the place and attend him to Rome, there to be admitted to all

the privileges of citizens. And indeed there was nothing did more

advance the greatness of Rome, than that she did always unite and

incorporate those whom she conquered into herself. Romulus, that he

might perform his vow in the most acceptable manner to Jupiter, and

withal make the pomp of it delightful to the eye of the city, cut down a

tall oak which he saw growing in the camp, which he trimmed to the shape

of a trophy, and fastened on it Acron's whole suit of armor disposed in

proper form; then he himself, girding his clothes about him, and

crowning his head with a laurel-garland, his hair gracefully flowing,

carried the trophy resting erect upon his right shoulder, and so marched

on, singing songs of triumph, and his whole army following after, the

citizens all receiving him with acclamations of joy and wonder. The

procession of this day was the origin and model of all after triumphs.

This trophy was styled an offering to Jupiter Feretrius, from ferire,

which in Latin is to smite; for Romulus prayed he might smite and

overthrow his enemy; and the spoils were called opima, or royal spoils,

says Varro, from their richness, which the word opes signifies; though

one would more probably conjecture from opus, an act; for it is only to

the general of an army who with his own hand kills his enemies' general

that this honor is granted of offering the opima spolia. And three only

of the Roman captains have had it conferred on them: first, Romulus,

upon killing Acron the Ceninensian; next, Cornelius Cossus, for slaying

Tolumnius the Tuscan; and lastly, Claudius Marcellus, upon his

conquering Viridomarus, king of the Gauls. The two latter, Cossus and

Marcellus, made their entries in triumphant chariots, bearing their

trophies themselves; but that Romulus made use of a chariot, Dionysius

is wrong in asserting. History says, Tarquinius, Damaratus's son, was

the first that brought triumphs to this great pomp and grandeur; others,

that Publicola was the first that rode in triumph. The statues of

Romulus in triumph are, as may be seen in Rome, all on foot.

After the overthrow of the Ceninensians, the other Sabines still

protracting the time in preparations, the people of Fidenae,

Crustumerium, and Antemna, joined their forces against the Romans; they

in like manner were defeated in battle, and surrendered up to Romulus

their cities to be seized, their lands and territories to be divided,

and themselves to be transplanted to Rome. All the lands which Romulus

acquired, he distributed among the citizens, except only what the

parents of the stolen virgins had; these he suffered to possess their

own. The rest of the Sabines, enraged hereat, choosing Tatius their

captain, marched straight against Rome. The city was almost

inaccessible, having for its fortress that which is now the Capitol,

where a strong guard was placed, and Tarpeius their captain; not Tarpeia

the virgin, as some say who would make Romulus a fool. But Tarpeia,

daughter to the captain, coveting the golden bracelets she saw them

wear, betrayed the fort into the Sabines' hands, and asked, in reward of

her treachery, the things they wore on their left arms. Tatius

conditioning thus with her, in the night she opened one of the gates,

and received the Sabines in. And truly Antigonus, it would seem, was

not solitary in saying, he loved betrayers, but hated those who had

betrayed; nor Caesar, who told Rhymitalces the Thracian, that he loved

the treason, but hated the traitor; but it is the general feeling of all

who have occasion for wicked men's service, as people have for the

poison of venomous beasts; they are glad of them while they are of use,

and abhor their baseness when it is over. And so then did Tatius behave

towards Tarpeia, for he commanded the Sabines, in regard to their

contract, not to refuse her the least part of what they wore on their

left arms; and he himself first took his bracelet of his arm, and threw

that, together with his buckler, at her; and all the rest following,

she, being borne down and quite buried with the multitude of gold and

their shields, died under the weight and pressure of them; Tarpeius also

himself, being prosecuted by Romulus, was found guilty of treason, as

Juba says Sulpicius Galba relates. Those who write otherwise concerning

Tarpeia, as that she was the daughter of Tatius, the Sabine captain,

and, being forcibly detained by Romulus, acted and suffered thus by her

father's contrivance, speak very absurdly, of whom Antigonus is one.

And Simylus, the poet, who thinks Tarpeia betrayed the Capitol, not to

the Sabines, but the Gauls, having fallen in love with their king, talks

mere folly, saying thus:--

Tarpeia 'twas, who, dwelling close thereby,

Laid open Rome unto the enemy.

She, for the love of the besieging Gaul,

Betrayed the city's strength, the Capitol.