§ 1.9.1  This city, mistress of the whole earth and sea, which the Romans now inhabit, is said to have had as its earliest occupants the barbarian Sicels, a native race. As to the condition of the place before their time, whether it was occupied by others or uninhabited, none can certainly say. But some time later the Aborigines gained possession of it, having taken it from the occupants after a long war.

§ 1.9.2  These people had previously lived on the mountains in unwalled villages and scattered groups; but when the Pelasgians, with whom some other Greeks had united, assisted them in the war against their neighbours, they drove the Sicels out of this place, walled in many towns, and contrived to subjugate all the country that lies between the two rivers, the Liris and the Tiber. These rivers spring from the foot of the Apennine mountains, the range by which all Italy is divided into two parts throughout its length, and at points about eight hundred stades from one another discharge themselves into the Tyrrhenian sea, the Tiber to the north, near the city of Ostia, and the Liris to the south, as it flows by Minturnae, both these cities being Roman colonies.

§ 1.9.3  And these people remained in this same place of abode, both never afterwards driven out by any others; but, although they continued to be one and the same people, their name was twice changed. Till the time of the Trojan War they preserved their ancient name of Aborigines; but under Latinus, their king, who reigned at the time of that war, they began to be called Latins,

§ 1.9.4  and when Romulus founded the city named after himself sixteen generations after the taking of Troy, they took the name which they now bear. And in the course of time they contrived to raise themselves from the smallest nation to the greatest and from the most obscure to the most illustrious, not only by their humane reception of those who sought a home among them, but also by sharing the rights of citizenship with all who had been conquered by them in war after a brave resistance, by permitting all the slaves, too, who were manumitted among them to become citizens, and by disdaining no condition of men from whom the commonwealth might reap an advantage, but above everything else by their form of government, which they fashioned out of their many experiences, always extracting something useful from every occasion.

§ 1.10.1  There are some who affirm that the Aborigines, from whom the Romans are originally descended, were natives of Italy, a stock which came into being spontaneously (I call Italy all that peninsula which is bounded by the Ionian Sea and the Tyrrhenian sea and, thirdly, by the Alps on the landward side); and these authors say that they were first called Aborigines because they were the founders of the families of their descendants, or, as we should call them, genearchai or protogonoi.

§ 1.10.2  Others claim that certain vagabonds without house or home, coming together out of many places, met one another there by chance and took up their abode in the fastnesses, living by robbery and grazing their herds. And these writers change their name, also, to one more suitable to their condition, calling them Aberrigenes, to show that they were wanderers; indeed, according to these, the race of the Aborigines would seem to be no different from those the ancients called Leleges; for this is the name they generally gave to the homeless and mixed peoples who had no fixed abode which they could call their country.

§ 1.10.3  Still others have a story to the effect that they were colonists sent out by those Ligurians who are neighbours of the Umbrians. For the Ligurians inhabit not only many parts of Italy but some parts of Gaul as well, but which of these lands is their native country is not known, since nothing certain is said of them further.

§ 1.11.1  But the most learned of the Roman historians, among whom is Porcius Cato, who compiled with the greatest care the "origins" of the Italian cities, Gaius Sempronius and a great many others, say that they were Greeks, part of those who once dwelt in Achaia, and that they migrated many generations before the Trojan War. But they do not go on to indicate either the Greek tribe to which they belonged or the city from which they removed, or the date or the leader of the colony, or as the result of what turns of fortune they left their mother country; and although they are following a Greek legend, they have cited no Greek historian as their authority. It is uncertain, therefore, what the truth of the matter is. But if what they say is true, the Aborigines can be a colony of no other people but of those who are now called Arcadians;

§ 1.11.2  for these were the first of all the Greeks to cross the Ionian Sea, under the leadership of Oinotrus, the son of Lycaon, and to settle in Italy. This Oinotrus was the fifth from Aezeius and Phoroneus, who were the first kings in the Peloponnesus. For Niobe was the daughter of Phoroneus, and Pelasgus was the son of Niobe and Zeus, it is said; Lycaon was the son of Aezeius and Deianira was the daughter of Lycaon; Deianira and Pelasgus were the parents of another Lycaon, whose son Oinotrus was born seventeen generations before the Trojan expedition. This, then, was the time when the Greeks sent the colony into Italy.

§ 1.11.3  Oinotrus left Greece because he was dissatisfied with his portion of his father's land; for, as Lycaon had twenty-two sons, it was necessary to divide Arcadia into as many shares. For this reason Oinotrus left the Peloponnesus, prepared a fleet, and crossed the Ionian Sea with Peucetius, one of his brothers. They were accompanied by many of their own people — for this nation is said to have been very populous in early times — and by as many other Greeks as had less land than was sufficient for them.

§ 1.11.4  Peucetius landed his people above the Iapygian Promontory, which was the first part of Italy they made, and settled there; and from him the inhabitants of this region were called Peucetians. But Oinotrus with the greater part of the expedition came into the other sea that washes the western regions along the coast of Italy; it was then called the Ausonian Sea, from the Ausonians who dwelt beside it, but after the Tyrrhenians became masters at sea its name was changed to that which it now bears.

§ 1.12.1  And finding there much land suitable for pasturage and much for tillage, but for the most part unoccupied, and even that which was inhabited not thickly populated, he cleared some of it of the barbarians and built small towns contiguous to one another on the mountains, which was the customary manner of habitation in use among the ancients. And all the land he occupied, which was very extensive, was called Oinotria, and all the people under his command Oinotrians, which was the third name they had borne. For in the reign of Aezeius they were called Aezeians, when Lycaon succeeded to the rule, Lycaonians, and after Oinotrus led them into Italy they were for a while called Oinotrians.

§ 1.12.2  What I say is supported by the testimony of Sophocles, the tragic poet, in his drama entitled Triptolemus; for he there represents Demeter as informing Triptolemus how large a tract of land he would have to travel over while sowing it with the seeds she had given him. For, after first referring to the eastern part of Italy, which reaches from the Iapygian Promontory to the Sicilian Strait, and then touching upon Sicily on the opposite side, she returns again to the western part of Italy and enumerates the most important nations that inhabit this coast, beginning with the settlement of the Oinotrians. But it is enough to quote merely the iambics in which he says: "And after this, — first, then, upon the right, Oinotria wide-outstretched and Tyrrhene Gulf, And next the Ligurian land shall welcome thee."

§ 1.12.3  And Antiochus of Syracuse, a very early historian, in his account of the settlement of Italy, when enumerating the most ancient inhabitants in the order in which each of them held possession of any part of it, says that the first who are reported to have inhabited that country are the Oinotrians. His words are these: "Antiochus, the son of Xenophanes, wrote this account of Italy, which comprises all that is most credible and certain out of the ancient tales; this country, which is now called Italy, was formerly possessed by the Oinotrians." Then he relates in what manner they were governed and says that in the course of time Italus came to be their king, after whom they were named Italians; that this man was succeeded by Morges, after whom they were called Morgetes, and that Sicelus, being received as a guest by Morges and setting up a kingdom for himself, divided the nation. After which he adds these words: "Thus those who had been Oinotrians became Sicels, Morgetes and Italians."

§ 1.13.1  Now let me also show the origin of the Oinotrian race, offering as my witness another of the early historians, Pherecydes of Athens, who was a genealogist inferior to none. He thus expresses himself concerning the kings of Arcadia: "Of Pelasgus and Deianira was born Lycaon; this man married Cyllene, a Naiad nymph, after whom Mount Cyllene is named." Then, having given an account of their children and of the places each of them inhabited, he mentions Oinotrus and Peucetius, in these words: "And Oinotrus, after whom are named the Oinotrians who live in Italy, and Peucetius, after whom are named the Peucetians who live on the Ionian Sea."

§ 1.13.2  Such, then, are the accounts given by the ancient poets and writers of legends concerning the places of abode and the origin of the Oinotrians; and on their authority I assume that if the Aborigines were in reality a Greek nation, according to the opinion of Cato, Sempronius and many others, they were descendants of these Oinotrians. For I find that the Pelasgians and Cretans and the other nations that lived in Italy came thither afterwards; nor can I discover that any other expedition more ancient than this came from Greece to the western parts of Europe.

§ 1.13.3  I am of the opinion that the Oinotrians, besides making themselves masters of many other regions in Italy, some of which they found unoccupied and others but thinly inhabited, also seized a portion of the country of the Umbrians, and that they were called Aborigines from their dwelling on the mountains (for it is characteristic of the Arcadians to be fond of the mountains), in the same manner as at Athens some are called Hyperakriori, and others Paralioi.

§ 1.13.4  But if any are naturally slow in giving credit to accounts of ancient matters without due examination, let them be slow also in believing the Aborigines to be Ligurians, Umbrians, or any other barbarians, and let them suspend their judgment till they have heard what remains to be told and then determine which opinion out of all is the most probable.

§ 1.14.1  Of the cities first inhabited by the Aborigines few remained in my day; the greatest part of them, having been laid waste both by wars and other calamities, are abandoned. These cities were in the Reatine territory, not far from the Apennine mountains, as Terentius Varro writes in his Antiquities, the nearest being one day's journey distant from Rome. I shall enumerate the most celebrated of them, following his account.

§ 1.14.2  Palatium, twenty-five stades distant from Reate (a city that was still inhabited by Romans down to my time), near the Quintian Way. Tribula, about sixty stades from Reate and standing upon a low hill. Suesbula, at the same distance from Tribula, near the Ceraunian Mountains. Suna, a famous city forty stades from Suesbula; in it there is a very ancient temple of Mars.

§ 1.14.3  Mefula, about thirty stades from Suna; its ruins and traces of its walls are pointed out. Orvinium, forty stades from Mefula, a city as famous and large as any in that region; for the foundations of its walls are still to be seen and some tombs of venerable antiquity, as well as the circuits of burying-places extending over lofty mounds; and there is also an ancient temple of Minerva built on the summit.

§ 1.14.4  At the distance of eighty stades from Reate, as one goes along the Curian Way past Mount Coretus, stood Corsula, a town but recently destroyed. There is also pointed out an island, called Issa, surrounded by a lake; the Aborigines are said to have lived on this island without any artificial fortification, relying on the marshy waters of the lake instead of walls. Near Issa is Maruvium, situated on an arm of the same lake and distant forty stades from what they call the Septem Aquae.

§ 1.14.5  Again, as one goes from Reate by the road towards the Listine district, there is Batia, thirty stades distant; then Tiora, called Matiene, at a distance of three hundred stades. In this city, they say, there was a very ancient oracle of Mars, the nature of which was similar to that of the oracle which legend says once existed at Dodona; only there a pigeon was said to prophesy, sitting on a sacred oak, whereas among the Aborigines a heaven-sent bird, which they call picus and the Greeks dryokolaptes, appearing on a pillar of wood, did the same.

§ 1.14.6  Twenty-four stades from the afore-mentioned city stood Lista, the mother-city of the Aborigines, which at a still earlier time the Sabines had captured by a surprise attack, having set out against it from Amiternum by night. Those who survived the taking of the place, after being received by the Reatines, made many attempts to retake their former home, but being unable to do so, they consecrated the country to the gods, as if it were still their own, invoking curses against those who should enjoy the fruits of it.

§ 1.15.1  Seventy stades from Reate stood Cutilia, a famous city, beside a mountain. Not far from it there is a lake, four hundred feet in diameter, filled by everflowing natural springs and, it is said, bottomless. This lake, as having something divine about it, the inhabitants of the country look upon as sacred to Victory; and surrounding it with a palisade, so that no one may approach the water, they keep it inviolate; except that at certain times each year those whose sacred office it is go to the little island in the lake and perform the sacrifices required by custom.

§ 1.15.2  This island is about fifty feet in diameter and rises not more than a foot above the water; it is not fixed, and floats about in any direction, according to as the wind gently wafts it from one place to another. An herb grows on the island like the flowering rush and also certain small shrubs, a phenomenon which to those who are unacquainted with the works of Nature seems unaccountable and a marvel second to none.

§ 1.16.1  The Aborigines are said to have settled first in these places after they had driven out the Umbrians. And making excursions from there, they warred not only upon the barbarians in general but particularly upon the Sicels, their neighbours, in order to dispossess them of their lands. First, a sacred band of young men went forth, consisting of a few who were sent out by their parents to seek a livelihood, according to a custom which I know many barbarians and Greeks have followed.

§ 1.16.2  For whenever the population of any of their cities increased to such a degree that the produce of their lands no longer sufficed for them all, or the earth, injured by unseasonable changes of the weather, brought forth her fruits in less abundance than usual, or any other occurrence of like nature, either good or bad, introduced a necessity of lessening their numbers, they would dedicate to some god or other all the men born within a certain year, and providing them with arms, would send them out of their country. If, indeed, this was done by way of thanksgiving for populousness or for victory in war, they would first offer the usual sacrifices and then send forth their colonies under happy auspices; but if, having incurred the wrath of Heaven, they were seeking deliverance from the evils that beset them, they would perform much the same ceremony, but sorrowfully and begging forgiveness of the youths they were sending away.

§ 1.16.3  And those who departed, feeling that henceforth they would have no share in the land of their fathers but must acquire another, looked upon any land that received them in friendship or that they conquered in war as their country. And the god to whom they had been dedicated when they were sent out seemed generally to assist them and to prosper the colonies beyond all human expectation.

§ 1.16.4  In pursuance, therefore, of this custom some of the Aborigines also at that time, as their places were growing very populous (for they would not put any of their children to death, looking on this as one of the greatest of crimes), dedicated to some god or other the offspring of a certain year and when these children were grown to be men they sent them out of their country as colonists; and they, after leaving their own land, were continually plundering the Sicels.

§ 1.16.5  And as soon as they became masters of any places in the enemy's country the rest of the Aborigines, also, who needed lands now attacked each of them their neighbours with greater security and built various cities, some of which are inhabited to this day — Antemnae, Tellenae, Ficulea, which is near the Corniculan mountains, as they are called, and Tibur, where a quarter of the city is even to this day called the Sicel quarter; and of all their neighbours they harassed the Sicels most. From these quarrels there arose a general war between the nations more important than any that had occurred previously in Italy, and it went on extending over a long period of time.

§ 1.17.1  Afterwards some of the Pelasgians who inhabited Thessaly, as it is now called, being obliged to leave their country, settled among the Aborigines and jointly with them made war upon the Sicels. It is possible that the Aborigines received them partly in the hope of gaining their assistance, but I believe it was chiefly on account of their kinship;

§ 1.17.2  for the Pelasgians, too, were a Greek nation originally from the Peloponnesus. They were unfortunate in many ways but particularly in wandering much and in having no fixed abode. For they first lived in the neighbourhood of the Achaean Argos, as it is now called, being natives of the country, according to most accounts. They received their name originally from Pelasgus, their king.

§ 1.17.3  Pelasgus was the son of Zeus, it is said, and of Niobe the daughter of Phoroneus, who, as the legend goes, was the first mortal woman Zeus had knowledge of. In the sixth generation afterwards, leaving the Peloponnesus, they removed to the country which was then called Haemonia and now Thessaly. The leaders of the colony were Achaeus, Phthius and Pelasgus, the sons of Larisa and Poseidon. When they arrived in Haemonia they drove out the barbarian inhabitants and divided the country into three parts, calling them, after the names of their leaders, Phthiotis, Achaia and Pelasgiotis. After they had remained there five generations, during which they attained to the greatest prosperity while enjoying the produce of the most fertile plains in Thessaly, about the sixth generation they were driven out of it by the Curetes and Leleges, who are now called Aitolians and Locrians, and by many others who lived near Parnassus, their enemies being commanded by Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Clymene, the daughter of Oceanus.

§ 1.18.1  And dispersing themselves in their flight, some went to Crete, others occupied some of the islands called the Cyclades, some settled in the region called Hestiaeotis near Olympus and Ossa, others crossed into Boeotia, Phocis and Euboea; and some, passing over into Asia, occupied many places on the coast along the Hellespont and many of the adjacent islands, particularly the one now called Lesbos, uniting with those who composed the first colony that was sent thither from Greece under Macar, the son of Crinacus.

§ 1.18.2  But the greater part of them, turning inland, took refuge among the inhabitants of Dodona, their kinsmen, against whom, as a sacred people, none would make war; and there they remained for a reasonable time. But when they perceived they were growing burdensome to their hosts, since the land could not support them all, they left it in obedience to an oracle that commanded them to sail to Italy, which was then called Saturnia.

§ 1.18.3  And having prepared a great many ships they set out to cross the Ionian Sea, endeavouring to reach the nearest parts of Italy. But as the wind was in the south and they were unacquainted with those regions, they were carried too far out to sea and landed at one of the mouths of the Po called the Spinetic mouth. In that very place they left their ships and such of their people as were least able to bear hardships, placing a guard over the ships, to the end that, if their affairs did not prosper, they might be sure of a retreat.

§ 1.18.4  Those who were left behind there surrounded their camp with a wall and brought in plenty of provisions in their ships; and when their affairs seemed to prosper satisfactorily, they built a city and called it by the same name as the mouth of the river. These people attained to a greater degree of prosperity than any others who dwelt on the Ionian Sea; for they had the mastery at sea for a long time, and out of their revenues from the sea they used to send tithes to the god at Delphi, which were among the most magnificent sent by any people.

§ 1.18.5  But later, when the barbarians in the neighbourhood made war upon them in great numbers, they deserted the city; and these barbarians in the course of time were driven out by the Romans. So perished that part of the Pelasgians that was left at Spina.

§ 1.19.1  Those, however, who had turned inland crossed the mountainous part of Italy and came to the territory of the Umbrians who were neighbours to the Aborigines. (The Umbrians inhabited a great many other part of Italy also and were an exceeding great and ancient people.) At first the Pelasgians made themselves masters of the lands where they first settled and took some of the small towns belonging to the Umbrians. But when a great army came together against them, they were terrified at the number of their enemies and betook themselves to the country of the Aborigines.

§ 1.19.2  And these, seeing fit to treat them as enemies, made haste to assemble out of the places nearest at hand, in order to drive them out of the country. But the Pelasgians luckily chanced to be encamped at that time near Cutilia, a city of the Aborigines hard by the sacred lake, and observing the little island circling round in it and learning from the captives they had taken in the fields the name of the inhabitants, they concluded that their oracle was now fulfilled. For this oracle, which had been delivered to them in Dodona and which Lucius Mallius, no obscure man, says he himself saw engraved in ancient characters upon one of the tripods standing in the precinct of Zeus, was as follows:"Fare forth the Sicels' Saturnian land to seek, Aborigines' Cotyle, too, where floats an isle; With these men mingling, to Phoebus send a tithe, And heads to Cronus' son, and send to the sire a man."

§ 1.20.1  When, therefore, the Aborigines advanced with a numerous army, the Pelasgians approached unarmed with olive branches in their hands, and telling them of their own fortunes, begged that they would receive them in a friendly manner to dwell with them, assuring them that they would not be troublesome, since Heaven itself was guiding them into this one particular country according to the oracle, which they explained to them.

§ 1.20.2  When the Aborigines heard this, they resolved to obey the oracle and to gain these Greeks as allies against their barbarian enemies, for they were hard pressed by their war with the Sicels. They accordingly made a treaty with the Pelasgians and assigned to them some of their own lands that lay near the sacred lake; the greater part of these were marshy and are still called Velia, in accordance with the ancient form of their language.

§ 1.20.3  For it was the custom of the ancient Greeks generally to place before those words that began with a vowel the syllable ου, written with one letter (this was like a gamma, formed by two oblique lines joined to one upright line), as ϝελένη, ϝάναξ, ϝοῖκος, ϝέαρ and many such words.

§ 1.20.4  Afterwards, a considerable part of the Pelasgians, as the land was not sufficient to support them all, prevailed on the Aborigines to join them in an expedition against the Umbrians, and marching forth, they suddenly fell upon and captured Croton, a rich and large city of theirs. And using this place as a stronghold and fortress against the Umbrians, since it was sufficiently fortified as a place of defence in time of war and had fertile pastures lying round it, they made themselves masters also of a great many other places and with great zeal assisted the Aborigines in the war they were still engaged in against the Sicels, till they drove them out of their country.

§ 1.20.5  And the Pelasgians in common with the Aborigines settled many cities, some of which had been previously inhabited by the Sicels and others which they built themselves; among these are Caere, then called Agylla, and Pisae, Saturnia, Alsium and some others, of which they were in the course of time dispossessed by the Tyrrhenians.

§ 1.21.1  But Falerii and Fescennium were even down to my day inhabited by Romans and preserved some small remains of the Pelasgian nation, though they had earlier belonged to the Sicels. In these cities there survived for a very long time many of the ancient customs formerly in use among the Greeks, such as the fashion of their arms of war, like Argolic bucklers and spears; and whenever they sent out an army beyond their borders, either to begin a war or to resist an invasion, certain holy men, unarmed, went ahead of the rest bearing the terms of peace; similar, also, were the structure of their temples, the images of their gods, their purifications and sacrifices and many other things of that nature.

§ 1.21.2  But the most conspicuous monument which shows that those people who drove out the Sicels once lived at Argos in the temple of Juno at Falerii, built in the same fashion as the one at Argos; here, too, the manner of the sacrificial ceremonies was similar, holy women served the sacred precinct, and an unmarried girl, called the canephorus or "basket-bearer," performed the initial rites of the sacrifices, and there were choruses of virgins who praised the goddess in the songs of their country.

§ 1.21.3  These people also possessed themselves of no inconsiderable part of the Campanian plains, as they are called, which afford not only very fertile pasturage but most pleasing prospects as well, having driven the Auronissi, a barbarous nation, out of part of them. There they built various other cities and also Larisa, a camp they named after their mother-city in the Peloponnesus.

§ 1.21.4  Some of these cities were standing even to my day, having often changed their inhabitants. But Larisa has been long deserted and shows to the people of today no other sign of its ever having been inhabited but its name, and even this is not generally known. It was not far from the place called Forum Popilii. They also occupied a great many other places, both on the coast and in the interior, which they had taken from the Sicels.

§ 1.22.1  The Sicels, being warred upon by both the Pelasgians and the Aborigines, found themselves incapable of making resistance any longer, and so, taking with them their wives and children and such of their possessions as were any other gold or silver, they abandoned all their country to these foes. Then, turning their course southward through the mountains, they proceeded through all the lower part of Italy, and being driven away from every place, they at last prepared rafts at the Strait and, watching for a downward current, passed over from Italy to the adjacent island.

§ 1.22.2  It was then occupied by the Sicanians, an Iberian nation, who, fleeing from the Ligurians, had but lately settled there and had caused the island, previously named Trinacria, from its triangular shape, to be called Sicania, after themselves. There were very few inhabitants in it for so large an island, and the greater part of it was as yet unoccupied. Accordingly, when the Sicels landed there they first settled in the western parts and afterwards in several others; and from these people the island began to be called Sicily.

§ 1.22.3  In this manner the Sicel nation left Italy, according to Hellanicus of Lesbos, in the third generation before the Trojan War, and in the twenty-sixth year of the priesthood of Alcyone at Argos. But he says that two Italian expeditions passed over into Sicily, the first consisting of the Elymians, who had been driven out of their country by the Oinotrians, and the second, five years later, of the Ausonians, who fled from the Iapygians. As king of the latter group he names Sicelus, from whom both the people and the island got their name.

§ 1.22.4  But according to Philistus of Syracuse the date of the crossing was the eightieth year before the Trojan War and the people who passed over from Italy were neither Ausonians nor Elymians, but Ligurians, whose leader was Sicelus; this Sicelus, he says, was the son of Italus and in his reign the people were called Sicels,

§ 1.22.5  and he adds that these Ligurians had been driven out of their country by the Umbrians and Pelasgians. Antiochus of Syracuse does not give the date of the crossing, but says the people who migrated were the Sicels, who had been forced to leave by the Oinotrians and Opicans, and that they chose Straton as leader of the colony. But Thucydides writes that the people who left Italy were the Sicels and those who drove them out the Opicans, and that the date was many years after the Trojan War. Such, then, are the reports given by credible authorities concerning the Sicels who changed their abode from Italy to Sicily.

§ 1.23.1  The Pelasgians, after conquering a large and fertile region, taking over many towns and building others, made great and rapid progress, becoming populous, rich and in every way prosperous. Nevertheless, they did not long enjoy their prosperity, but at the moment when they seemed to all the world to be in the most flourishing condition they were visited by divine wrath, and some of them were destroyed by calamities inflicted by the hand of Heaven, others by their barbarian neighbours; but the greatest part of them were again dispersed through Greece and the country of the barbarians (concerning whom, if I attempted to give a particular account, it would make a very long story), though some few of them remained in Italy through the care of the Aborigines.

§ 1.23.2  The first cause of the desolation of their cities seemed to be a drought which laid waste the land, when neither any fruit remained on the trees till it was ripe, but dropped while still green, nor did such of the seed corn as sent up shoots and flowered stand for the usual period till the ear was ripe, nor did sufficient grass grow for the cattle; and of the waters some were no longer fit to drink, others shrank during the summer, and others were totally dried up.

§ 1.23.3  And like misfortunes attended the offspring both of cattle and of women. For they were either abortive or died at birth, some by their death destroying also those that bore them; and if any got safely past the danger of the delivery, they were either maimed or defective or, being injured by some other accident, were not fit to be reared. The rest of the people, also, particularly those in the prime of life, were afflicted with many unusual diseases and uncommon deaths.

§ 1.23.4  But when they asked the oracle what god or divinity they had offended to be thus afflicted and by what means they might hope for relief, the god replied that, although they had obtained what they desired, they had neglected to pay what they had promised, and that the things of greatest value were still due from them.

§ 1.23.5  For the Pelasgians in a time of general scarcity in the land had vowed to offer to Jupiter, Apollo and the Cabeiri tithes of all their future increase; but when their prayer had been answered, they set apart and offered to the gods the promised portion of all their fruits and cattle only, as if their vow had related to them alone. This is the account related by Myrsilus of Lesbos, who uses almost the same words as I do now, except that he does not call the people Pelasgians, but Tyrrhenians, of which I shall give the reason a little later.

§ 1.24.1  When they heard the oracle which was brought to them, they were at a loss to guess the meaning of the message. While they were in this perplexity, one of the elders, conjecturing the sense of the saying, told them they had quite missed its meaning it they thought the gods complained of them without reason. Of material things they had indeed rendered to the gods all the first-fruits in the right and proper manner, but of human offspring, a thing of all others the most precious in the sight of the gods, the promised portion still remained due; if, however, the gods received their just share of this also, the oracle would be satisfied.

§ 1.24.2  There were, indeed, some who thought that he spoke aright, but others felt that there was treachery behind his words. And when some one proposed to ask the god whether it was acceptable to him to receive tithes of human beings, they sent their messengers a second time, and the god ordered them so to do. Thereupon strife arose among them concerning the manner of choosing the tithes, and those who had the government of the cities first quarrelled among themselves

§ 1.24.3  and afterwards the rest of the people held their magistrates in suspicion. And there began to be disorderly emigrations, such as might well be expected from a people driven forth by a frenzy and madness inflicted by the hand of Heaven. Many households disappeared entirely when part of their members left; for the relations of those who departed were unwilling to be separated from their dearest friends and remain among their worst enemies.

§ 1.24.4  These, therefore, were the first to migrate from Italy and wander about Greece and many parts of the barbarian world; but after them others had the same experience, and this continued every year. For the rulers in these cities ceased not to select the first-fruits of the youth as soon as they arrived at manhood, both because they desired to render what was due to the gods and also because they feared uprisings on the part of lurking enemies. Many, also, under specious pretences were being driven away by their enemies through hatred; so that there were many emigrations and the Pelasgian nation was scattered over most of the earth.

§ 1.25.1  Not only were the Pelasgians superior to many in warfare, as the result of their training in the midst of dangers while they lived among warlike nations, but they also rose to the highest proficiency in seamanship, by reason of their living with the Tyrrhenians; and Necessity, which is quite sufficient to give daring to those in want of a livelihood, was their leader and director in every dangerous enterprise, so that wherever they went they conquered without difficulty.

§ 1.25.2  And the same people were called by the rest of the world both Tyrrhenians and Pelasgians, the former name being from the country out of which they had been driven and the latter in memory of their ancient origin. I mention this so that no one, when he hears poets or historians call the Pelasgians Tyrrhenians also, may wonder how the same people got both these names.

§ 1.25.3  Thus, with regard to them, Thucydides has a clear account of the Thracian Acte and of the cities situated in it, which are inhabited by men who speak two languages. Concerning the Pelasgian nation these are his words: "There is also a Chalcidian element among them, but the largest element is Pelasgian, belonging to the Tyrrhenians who once inhabited Lemnos and Athens."

§ 1.25.4  And Sophocles makes the chorus in his drama Inachus speak the following anapaestic verses: "O fair-flowing Inachus, of ocean begot, That sire of all waters, thou rulest with might O'er the Argive fields and Hera's hills And Tyrrhene Pelasgians also."

§ 1.25.5  For the name of Tyrrhenia was then known throughout Greece, and all the western part of Italy was called by that name, the several nations of which it was composed having lost their distinctive appellations. The same thing happened to many parts of Greece also, and particularly to that part of it which is now called the Peloponnesus; for it was after one of the nations that inhabited it, namely the Achaean, that the whole peninsula also, in which are comprised the Arcadian, the Ionian and many other nations, was called Achaia.

§ 1.26.1  The time when the calamities of the Pelasgians began was about the second generation before the Trojan War; and they continued to occur even after that war, till the nation was reduced to very inconsiderable numbers. For, with the exception of Croton, the important city in Umbria, and any others that they had founded in the land of the Aborigines, all the rest of the Pelasgian towns were destroyed. But Croton long preserved its ancient form, having only recently changed both its name and in heights; it is now a Roman colony, called Corthonia.

§ 1.26.2  After the Pelasgians left the country their cities were seized by the various peoples which happened to live nearest them in each case, but chiefly by the Tyrrhenians, who made themselves masters of the greatest part and the best of them. As regards these Tyrrhenians, some declare them to be natives of Italy, but others call them foreigners. Those who make them a native race say that their name was given them from the forts, which they were the first of the inhabitants of this country to build; for covered buildings enclosed by walls are called by the Tyrrhenian as well as by the Greeks tyrseis or "towers." So they will have it that they received their name from this circumstance in like manner as did the Mossynoeci in Asia; for these also live in high wooden palisades resembling towers, which they call mossynes.

§ 1.27.1  But those who relate a legendary tale about their having come from a foreign land say that Tyrrhenus, who was the leader of the colony, gave his name to the nation, and that he was a Lydian by birth, from the district formerly called Maeonia, and migrated in ancient times. They add that he was the fifth in descent from Zeus; for they say that the son of Zeus and Ge was Manes, the first king of that country, and his son by Callirrhoe, the daughter of Oceanus, was Cotys, who by Halie, the daughter of earth-born Tyllus, had two sons, Asies and Atys,

§ 1.27.2  from the latter of whom by Callithea, the daughter of Choraeus, came Lydus and Tyrrhenus. Lydus, they continue, remaining there, inherited his father's kingdom, and from him the country was called Lydia; but Tyrrhenus, who was the leader of the colony, conquered a large portion of Italy and gave his name to those who had taken part in the expedition.

§ 1.27.3  Herodotus, however, says that Tyrrhenus and his brother were the sons of Atys, the son of Manes, and that the migration of the Maeonians to Italy was not voluntary. For they say that in the reign of Atys there was a dearth in the country of the Maeonians and that the inhabitants, inspired by love of their native land, for a time contrived a great many methods to resist this calamity, one day permitting themselves but a moderate allowance of food and the next day fasting. But, as the mischief continued, they divided the people into two groups and cast lots to determine which should go out of the country and which should stay in it; of the sons of Atys one was assigned to the one group the other to the other.

§ 1.27.4  And when the lot fell to that part of the people which was with Lydus to remain in the country, the other group departed after receiving their share of the common possessions; and landing in the western parts of Italy where the Umbrians dwelt, they remained there and built the cities that still existed even in his time.

§ 1.28.1  I am aware that many other authors also have given this account of the Tyrrhenian race, some in the same terms, and others changing the character of the colony and the date. For some have said that Tyrrhenus was the son of Heracles by Omphale, the Lydian, and that he, coming into Italy, dispossessed the Pelasgians of their cities, though not of all, but of those only that lay beyond the Tiber toward the north. Others declare that Tyrrhenus was the son of Telephus and that after the taking of Troy he came into Italy.

§ 1.28.2  But Xanthus of Lydia, who was as well acquainted with ancient history as any man and who may be regarded as an authority second to none on the history of his own country, neither names Tyrrhenus in any part of his history as a ruler of the Lydians nor knows anything of the landing of a colony of Maeonians in Italy; nor does he make the least mention of Tyrrhenia as a Lydian colony, though he takes notice of several things of less importance. He says that Lydus and Torebus were the sons of Atys; that they, having divided the kingdom they had inherited from their father, both remained in Asia, and from them the nations over which they reigned received their names. His words are these: "From Lydus are sprung the Lydians, and from Torebus the Torebians. There is little difference in their language and even now each nation scoffs at many words used by the other, even as do the Ionians and Dorians."

§ 1.28.3  Hellanicus of Lesbos says that the Tyrrhenians, who were previously called Pelasgians, received their present name after they had settled in Italy. These are his words in the Phoronis: "Phrastor was the son of Pelasgus, their king, and Menippe, the daughter of Peneus; his son was Amyntor, Amyntor's son was Teutamides, and the latter's son was Nanas. In his reign the Pelasgians were driven out of their country by the Greeks, and after leaving their ships on the river Spines in the Ionian Sea, they took Croton, an inland city; and proceeding from there, they colonized the country now called Tyrrhenia."

§ 1.28.4  But the account Myrsilus gives is the reverse of that given by Hellanicus. The Tyrrhenians, he says, after they had left their own country, were in the course of their wanderings called Pelargoi or "Storks," from their resemblance to the birds of that name, since they swarmed in flocks both into Greece and into the barbarian lands; and they built the wall round the citadel of Athens which is called the Pelargic wall.

§ 1.29.1  But in my opinion all though take the Tyrrhenians and the Pelasgians to be one and the same nation are mistaken. It is no wonder they were sometimes called by one another's names, since the same thing has happened to certain other nations also, both Greeks and barbarians, — for example, to the Trojans and Phrygians, who lived near each other (indeed, many have thought that those two nations were but one, differing in name only, not in fact). And the nations in Italy have been confused under a common name quite as often as any nations anywhere.

§ 1.29.2  For there was a time when the Latins, the Umbrians, the Ausonians and many others were all called Tyrrhenians by the Greeks, the remoteness of the countries inhabited by these nations making their exact distinctions obscure to those who lived at a distance. And many of the historians have taken Rome itself for a Tyrrhenian city. I am persuaded, therefore, that these nations changed their name along with their place of abode, but can not believe that they both had a common origin, for this reason, among many others, that their languages are different and preserve not the least resemblance to one another.

§ 1.29.3  "For neither the Crotoniats," says Herodotus, "nor the Placians agree in language with any of their present neighbours, although they agree with each other; and it is clear that they preserve the fashion of speech which they brought with them into those regions." However, one may well marvel that, although the Crotoniats had a speech similar to that of the Placians, who lived near the Hellespont, since both were originally Pelasgians, it was not at all similar to that of the Tyrrhenians, their nearest neighbours. For if kinship is to be regarded as the reason why two nations speak the same language, the contrary must, of course, be the reason for their speaking a different one,

§ 1.29.4  since surely it is not possible to believe that both these conditions arise from the same cause. For, although it might reasonably happen, on the one hand, that men of the same nation who have settled at a distance from one another would, as the result of associating with their neighbours, no longer preserve the same fashion of speech, yet it is not at all reasonable that men sprung from the same race and living in the same country should not in the least agree with one another in their language.

§ 1.30.1  For this reason, therefore, I am persuaded that the Pelasgians are a different people from the Tyrrhenians. And I do not believe, either, that the Tyrrhenians were a colony of the Lydians; for they do not use the same language as the latter, nor can it be alleged that, though they no longer speak a similar tongue, they still retain some other indications of their mother country. For they neither worship the same gods as the Lydians nor make use of similar laws or institutions, but in these very respects they differ more from the Lydians than from the Pelasgians.

§ 1.30.2  Indeed, those probably come nearest to the truth who declare that the nation migrated from nowhere else, but was native to the country, since it is found to be a very ancient nation and to agree with no other either in its language or in its manner of living. And there is no reason why the Greeks should not have called them by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers.

§ 1.30.3  The Romans, however, give them other names: from the country they once inhabited, named Etruria, they call them Etruscans, and from their knowledge of the ceremonies relating to divine worship, in which they excel others, they now call them, rather inaccurately, Tusci, but formerly, with the same accuracy as the Greeks, they called them Thyoscoi. Their own name for themselves, however, is the same as that of one of their leaders, Rasenna.

§ 1.30.4  In another book I shall show what cities the Tyrrhenians founded, what forms of government they established, how great power they acquired, what memorable achievements they performed, and what fortunes attended them.

§ 1.30.5  As for the Pelasgian nation, however, those who were not destroyed or dispersed among the various colonies (for a small number remained out of a great many) were left behind as fellow citizens of the Aborigines in these parts, where in the course of time their posterity, together with others, built the city of Rome. Such are the legends told about the Pelasgian race.

§ 1.31.1  Soon after, another Greek expedition landed in this part of Italy, having migrated from Pallantium, a town of Arcadia, about the sixtieth year before the Trojan War, as the Romans themselves say. This colony had for its leader Evander, who is said to have been the son of Hermes and a local nymph of the Arcadians. The Greeks call her Themis and say that she was inspired, but the writers of the early history of Rome call her, in the native language, Carmenta. The nymph's name would be in Greek Thespiodos or "prophetic singer"; for the Romans call songs carmina, and they agree that this woman, possessed by divine inspiration, foretold to the people in song the things that would come to pass.

§ 1.31.2  This expedition was not sent out by the common consent of the nation, but, a sedition having arisen among the people, the faction which was defeated left the country of their own accord. It chanced that the kingdom of the Aborigines had been inherited at that time by Faunus, a descendant of Mars, it is said, a man of prudence as well as energy, whom the Romans in their sacrifices and songs honour as one of the gods of their country. This man received the Arcadians, who were but few in number, with great friendship and gave them as much of his own land as they desired.

§ 1.31.3  And the Arcadians, as Themis by inspiration kept advising them, chose a hill, not far from the Tiber, which is now near the middle of the city of Rome, and by this hill built a small village sufficient for the complement of the two ships in which they had come from Greece. Yet this village was ordained by fate to excel in the course of time all other cities, whether Greek or barbarian, not only in its size, but also in the majesty of its empire and in every other form of prosperity, and to be celebrated above them all as long as mortality shall endure.

§ 1.31.4  They named the town Pallantium after their mother-city in Arcadia; now, however, the Romans call it Palatium, time having obscured the correct form, and this name has given occasion of the many to suggest absurd etymologies.

§ 1.32.1  But some writers, among them Polybius of Megalopolis, related that the town was named after Pallas, a lad who died there; they say that he was the son of Hercules and Lavinia, the daughter of Evander, and that his maternal grandfather raised a tomb to him on the hill and called the place Pallantium, after the lad.

§ 1.32.2  But I have never seen any tomb of Pallas at Rome nor have I heard of any drink-offerings being made in his honour nor been able to discover anything else of that nature, although this family has not been left unremembered or without those honours with which divine beings are worshipped by men. For I have learned that public sacrifices are performed yearly by the Romans to Evander and to Carmenta in the same manner as to the other heroes and minor deities; and I have seen two altars that were erected, one to Carmenta under the Capitoline hill near the Porta Carmentalis, and the other to Evander by another hill, called the Aventine, not far from the Porta Trigemina; but I know of nothing of this kind that is done in honour of Pallas.

§ 1.32.3  As for the Arcadians, when they had joined in a single settlement at the foot of the hill, they proceeded to adorn their town with all the buildings to which they had been accustomed at home and to erect temples. And first they built a temple to the Lycaean Pan by the direction of Themis (for to the Arcadians Pan is the most ancient and the most honoured of all the gods), when they had found a suitable site for the purpose. This place the Romans call the Lupercal, but we should call it Lykaion or "Lycaion."

§ 1.32.4  Now, it is true, since the district about the sacred precinct has been united with the city, it has become difficult to make out by conjecture the ancient nature of the place. Nevertheless, at first, we are told, there was a large cave under the hill overarched by a dense wood; deep springs issued from beneath the rocks, and the glen adjoining the cliffs was shaded by thick and lofty trees.

§ 1.32.5  In this place they raised an altar to the god and performed their traditional sacrifice, which the Romans have continued to offer up to this day in the month of February, after the winter solstice, without altering anything in the rites then performed. The manner of this sacrifice will be related later. Upon the summit of the hill they set apart the precinct of Victory and instituted sacrifices to her also, lasting throughout the year, which the Romans performed even in my time.

§ 1.33.1  The Arcadians have a legend that this goddess was the daughter of Pallas, the son of Lycaon, and that she received those honours from mankind which she now enjoys at the desire of Athena, with whom she had been reared. For they say that Athena, as soon as she was born, was handed over to Pallas by Zeus and that she was reared by him till she grew up. They built also a temple to Ceres, to whom by the ministry of women they offered sacrifices without wine, according to the custom of the Greeks, none of which rites our time has changed.

§ 1.33.2  Moreover, they assigned a precinct to the Equestrian Neptune and instituted the festival called by the Arcadians Hippocrateia and by the Romans Consualia, during which it is customary among the latter for the horses and mules to rest from work and to have their heads crowned with flowers.

§ 1.33.3  They also consecrated many other precincts, altars and images of the gods and instituted purifications and sacrifices according to the customs of their own country, which continued to be performed down to my day in the same manner. Yet I should not be surprised if some of the ceremonies by reason of their great antiquity have been forgotten by their posterity and neglected; however, those that are still practised are sufficient proofs that they are derived from the customs formerly in use among the Arcadians, of which I shall speak more at length elsewhere.

§ 1.33.4  The Arcadians are said also to have been the first to introduce into Italy the use of Greek letters, which had lately appeared among them, and also music performed on such instruments as lyres, trigons and flutes; for their predecessors had used no musical invention except shepherd's pipes. They are said all to have established laws, to have transformed men's mode of life from the prevailing bestiality to a state of civilization, and likewise to have introduced arts and professions and many other things conducive to the public good, and for these reasons to have been treated with great consideration by those who had received them.

§ 1.33.5  This was the next Greek nation after the Pelasgians to come into Italy and to take up a common residence with the Aborigines, establishing itself in the best part of Rome.

§ 1.34.1  A few years after the Arcadians another Greek expedition came into Italy under the command of Hercules, who had just returned from the conquest of Spain and of all the region that extends to the setting of the sun. It was some of his followers who, begging Hercules to dismiss them from the expedition, remained in this region and built a town on a suitable hill, which they found at a distance of about three stades from Pallantium. This is now called the Capitoline hill, but by the men of that time the Saturnian hill, or, in Greek, the hill of Cronus.

§ 1.34.2  The greater part of those who stayed behind were Peloponnesians — people of Pheneus and Epeans of Elis, who no longer had any desire to return home, since their country had been laid waste in the war against Hercules. There was also a small Trojan element mingled with these, consisting of prisoners taken from Ilium in the reign of Laomedon, at the time when Hercules conquered the city. And I am of the opinion that all the rest of the army, also, who were either wearied by their labours or irked by their wanderings, obtained their dismissal from the expedition and remained there.

§ 1.34.3  As for the name of the hill, some think it was an ancient name, as I have said, and that consequently the Epeans were especially pleased with the hill through memory of the hill of Cronus in Elis. This is in the territory of Pisa, near the river Alpheus, and the Eleans, regarding it as sacred to Cronus, assemble together at stated times to honour it with sacrifices and other marks of reverence.

§ 1.34.4  But Euxenus, an ancient poet, and some others of the Italian mythographers think that the name was given to the place by the men from Pisa themselves, from its likeness to their hill of Cronus, that the Epeans together with Hercules erected the altar to Saturn which remains to this day at the foot of the hill near the ascent that leads from the Forum to the Capitol, and that it was they who instituted the sacrifice which the Romans still performed even in my time, observing the Greek ritual.

§ 1.34.5  But from the best conjectures I have been able to make, I find that even before the arrival of Hercules in Italy this place was sacred to Saturn and was called by the people of the country the Saturnian hill, and all the rest of the peninsula which is now called Italy was consecrated to this god, being called Saturnia by the inhabitants, as may be found stated in some Sibylline prophecies and other oracles delivered by the gods. And in many parts of the country there are temples dedicated to this god; certain cities bear the same name by which the whole peninsula was known at that time, and many places are called by the name of the god, particularly headlands and eminences.

§ 1.35.1  But in the course of time the land came to be called Italy, after a ruler named Italus. This man, according to Antiochus of Syracuse, was both a wise and good prince, and persuading some of his neighbours by arguments and subduing the rest by force, he made himself master of all the land which lies between the Napetine and Scylacian bays, which was the first land, he says, to be called Italy, after Italus. And when he had possessed himself of this district and had many subjects, he immediately coveted the neighbouring peoples and brought many cities under his rule. He says further that Italus was an Oinotrian by birth.

§ 1.35.2  But Hellanicus of Lesbos says that when Hercules was driving Geryon's cattle to Argos and was come to Italy, a calf escaped from the herd and in its flight wandered the whole length of the coast and then, swimming across the intervening strait of the sea, came into Sicily. Hercules, following the calf, inquired of the inhabitants wherever he came if anyone had seen it anywhere, and when the people of the island, who understood but little Greek and used their own speech when indicating the animal, called it vitulus (the name by which it is still known), he, in memory of the calf, called all the country it had wandered over Vitulia.

§ 1.35.3  And it is no wonder that the name has been changed in the course of time to its present form, since many Greek names, too, have met with a similar fate. But whether, as Antiochus says, the country took this name from a ruler, which perhaps is more probable, or, as Hellanicus believes, from the bull, yet this at least is evident from both their accounts, that in Hercules' time, or a little earlier, it received this name. Before that it had been called Hesperia and Ausonia by the Greeks and Saturnia by the natives, as I have already stated.

§ 1.36.1  There is another legend related by the inhabitants, to the effect that before the reign of Jupiter Saturn was lord in this land and that the celebrated manner of life in his reign, abounding in the produce of every season, was enjoyed by none more than them.

§ 1.36.2  And, indeed, if anyone, setting aside the fabulous part of this account, will examine the merit of any country from which mankind received the greatest enjoyments immediately after their birth, whether they sprang from the earth, according to the ancient tradition, or came into being in some other manner, he will find none more beneficent to them than this. For, to compare one country with another of the same extent, Italy is, in my opinion, the best country, not only of Europe, but even of all the rest of the world.

§ 1.36.3  And yet I am not unaware that I shall not be believed by many when they reflect on Egypt, Libya, Babylonia and any other fertile countries there may be. But I, for my part, do not limit the wealth derived from the soil to one sort of produce, nor do I feel any eagerness to live where there are only rich arable lands and little or nothing else that is useful; but I account that country the best which is the most self-sufficient and generally stands least in need of imported commodities. And I am persuaded that Italy enjoys this universal fertility and diversity of advantages beyond any other land.

§ 1.37.1  For Italy does not, while possessing a great deal of good arable land, lack trees, as does a grain-bearing country; nor, on the other hand, while suitable for growing all manner of trees, does it, when sown to grain, produce scanty crops, as does a timbered country; nor yet, while yielding both grain and trees in abundance, is it unsuitable for the grazing of cattle; nor can anyone say that, while it bears rich produce of crops and timber and herds, it is nevertheless disagreeable for men to live in. Nay, on the contrary, it abounds in practically everything that affords either pleasure or profit.

§ 1.37.2  To what grain-bearing country, indeed, watered, not with rivers, but with rains from heaven, do the plains of Campania yield, in which I have seen fields that produce even three crops in a year, summer's harvest following upon that of when and autumn's upon that of summer? To what olive orchards are those of the Messapians, the Daunians, the Sabines and many others inferior? To what vineyards those of Tyrrhenia and the Alban and the Falernian districts, where the soil is wonderfully kind to vines and with the least labour produces the finest grapes in the greatest abundance?

§ 1.37.3  And besides the land that is cultivated one will find much that is left untilled as pasturage for sheep and goats, and still more extensive and more wonderful is the land suitable for grazing horses and cattle; for not only the marsh and meadow grass, which is very plentiful, but the dewy and well-watered grass of the glades, infinite in its abundance, furnish grazing for them in summer as well as in winter and keep them always in good condition.

§ 1.37.4  But most wonderful of all are the forests growing upon the rocky heights, in the glens and on the uncultivated hills, from which the inhabitants are abundantly supplied with fine timber suitable for the building of ships as well as for all other purposes. Nor are any of these materials hard to come at or at a distance from human need, but they are easy to handle and readily available, owing to the multitude of rivers that flow through the whole peninsula and make the transportation and exchange of everything the land produces inexpensive.

§ 1.37.5  Springs also of hot water have been discovered in many places, affording most pleasant baths and sovereign cures for chronic ailments. There are also mines of all sorts, plenty of wild beasts for hunting, and a great variety of sea fish, besides innumerable other things, some useful and others of a nature to excite wonder. But the finest thing of all is the climate, admirably tempered by the seasons, so that less than elsewhere is harm done by excessive cold or inordinate heat either to the growing fruits and grains or to the bodies of animals.

§ 1.38.1  It is no wonder, therefore, that the ancients looked upon this country as sacred to Saturn, since they esteemed this god to be the giver and accomplisher of all happiness to mankind, — whether he ought to be called Cronus, as the Greeks deem fitting, or Saturn, as do the Romans, — and regarded him as embracing the whole universe, by whichever name he is called, and since they saw this country abounding in universal plenty and every charm mankind craves, and judged those places to be most agreeable both to divine and to human beings that are suited to them — for example, the mountains and woods to Pan, the meadows and verdant places to the nymphs, the shores and islands to the sea-gods, and all there places to the god or genius to whom each is appropriate.

§ 1.38.2  It is said also that the ancients sacrificed human victims to Saturn, as was done at Carthage while that city stood and as is there is done to this day among the Gauls and certain other western nations, and that Hercules, desiring to abolish the custom of this sacrifice, erected the altar upon the Saturnian hill and performed the initial rites of sacrifice with unblemished victims burning on a pure fire. And lest the people should feel any scruple at having neglected their traditional sacrifices, he taught them to appease the anger of the god by making effigies resembling the men they had been wont to bind hand and foot and throw into the stream of the Tiber, and dressing these in the same manner, to throw them into the river instead of the men, his purpose being that any superstitious dread remaining in the minds of all might be removed, since the semblance of the ancient rite would still be preserved.

§ 1.38.3  This the Romans continued to do every year even down to my day a little after the vernal equinox, in the month of May, on what they call the Ides (the day they mean to be the middle of the month); on this day, after offering the preliminary sacrifices according to the laws, the pontifices, as the most important of the priests are called, and with them the virgins who guard the perpetual fire, the praetors, and such of the other citizens as may lawfully be present at the rites, throw from the sacred bridge into the stream of the Tiber thirty effigies made in the likeness of men, which they call Argei.

§ 1.38.4  But concerning the sacrifices and the other rites which the Roman people perform according to the manner both of the Greeks and of their own country I shall speak in another book. At present, it seems requisite to give a more particular account of the arrival of Hercules in Italy and to omit nothing worthy of notice that he did there.

§ 1.39.1  Of the stories told concerning this god some are largely legend and some are nearer the truth. The legendary account of his arrival is as follows: Hercules, being commanded by Eurystheus, among other labours, to drive Geryon's cattle from Erytheia to Argos, performed the task and having passed through many parts of Italy on his way home, came also to the neighbourhood of Pallantium in the country of the Aborigines;

§ 1.39.2  and there, finding much excellent grass for his cattle, he let them graze, and being overcome with weariness, lay down and gave himself over to sleep. Thereupon a robber of that region, named Cacus, chanced to come upon the cattle feeding with none to guard them and longed to possess them. But seeing Hercules lying there asleep, he imagined he could not drive them all away without being discovered and at the same time he perceived that the task was no easy one, either. So he secreted a few of them in the cave hard by, in which he lived, dragging each of them thither by the tail backwards. This might have destroyed all evidence of his theft, as the direction in which the oxen had gone would be at variance with their tracks.

§ 1.39.3  Hercules, then, arising from sleep soon afterwards, and having counted the cattle and found some were missing, was for some time at a loss to guess where they had gone, and supposing them to have strayed from their pasture, he sought them up and down the region; then, when he failed to find them, he came to the cave, and though he was deceived by the tracks, he felt, nevertheless, that he ought to search the place. But Cacus stood before the door, and when Hercules inquired after the cattle, denied that he had seen them, and when the other desired to search his cave, would not suffer him to do so, to be called upon his neighbours for assistance, complaining of the violence offered to him by the stranger. And while Hercules was puzzled to know how he should act in the matter, he hit upon the expedient of driving the rest of the cattle to the cave. And thus, when those inside heard the lowing and perceived the smell of their companions outside, they bellowed to them in turn and thus their lowing betrayed the theft.

§ 1.39.4  Cacus, therefore, when his thievery was thus brought to light, put himself upon his defence and began to call out to his fellow herdsmen. But Hercules killed him by smiting him with his club and drove out the cattle; and when he saw that the place was well adapted to the harbouring of evil-doers, he demolished the cave, burying the robber under its ruins. Then, having purified himself in the river from the murder, he erected an altar near the place to Jupiter the Discoverer, which is now in Rome near the Porta Trigemina, and sacrificed a calf to the god as a thank-offering for the finding of his cattle. This sacrifice the city of Rome continued to celebrate even down to my day, observing in it all the ceremonies of the Greeks just as he instituted them.

§ 1.40.1  When the Aborigines and the Arcadians who lived at Pallantium learned of the death of Cacus and saw Hercules, they thought themselves very fortunate in being rid of the former, whom they detested for his robberies, and were struck with awe at the appearance of the latter, in whom they seemed to see something divine. The poorer among them, plucking branches of laurel which grew there in great plenty, crowned both him and themselves with it; and their kings also came to invite Hercules to be their guest. But when they heard from him his name, his lineage and his achievements, they recommended both their country and themselves to his friendship.

§ 1.40.2  And Evander, who had even before this heard Themis relate that it was ordained by fate that Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, changing his mortal nature, should become immortal by reason of his virtue, as soon as he learned who the stranger was, resolved to forestall all mankind by being the first to propitiate Hercules with divine honours, and he hastily erected an improvised altar and sacrificed upon it a calf that had not known the yoke, having first communicated the oracle to Hercules and asked him to perform the initial rites.

§ 1.40.3  And Hercules, admiring the hospitality of these men, entertained the common people with a feast, after sacrificing some of the cattle and setting apart the tithes of the rest of his booty; and to their kings he gave a large district belonging to the Ligurians and to some others of their neighbours, the rule of which they very much desired, after he had first expelled some lawless people from it. It is furthermore reported that he asked the inhabitants, since they were the first who had regarded him as a god, to perpetuate the honours they had paid him by offering up every year a calf that had not known the yoke and performing the sacrifice with Greek rites; and that he himself taught the sacrificial rites to two of the distinguished families, in order that their offerings might always be acceptable to him.

§ 1.40.4  Those who were then instructed in the Greek ceremony, they say, were the Potitii and the Pinarii, whose descendants continued for a long time to have the superintendence of these sacrifices, in the manner he had appointed, the Potitii presiding at the sacrifice and taking the first part of the burnt-offerings, while the Pinarii were excluded from tasting the inwards and held second rank in those ceremonies which had to be performed by both of them together. It is said that this disgrace was fixed upon them for having been late in arriving; for though they had been ordered to be present early in the morning, they did not come till the entrails had been eaten.

§ 1.40.5  Today, however, the superintendence of the sacrifices no longer devolves on these families, but slaves purchased with the public money perform them. For what reasons this custom was changed and how the god manifested himself concerning the change in his ministers, I shall relate when I come to that part of the history.

§ 1.40.6  The altar on which Hercules offered up the tithes is called by the Romans the Greatest Altar. It stands near the place they call the Cattle Market and no other is held in greater veneration by the inhabitants; for upon this altar oaths are taken and agreements made by those who wish to transact any business unalterably and the tithes of things are frequently offered there pursuant to vows. However, in its construction it is much inferior to its reputation. In many other places also in Italy precincts are dedicated to this god and altars erected to him, both in cities and along highways; and one could scarcely find any place in Italy in which the god is not honoured. Such, then, is the legendary account that has been handed down concerning him.

§ 1.41.1  But the story which comes nearer to the truth and which has been adopted by many who have narrated his deeds in the form of history is as follows: Hercules, who was the greatest commander of his age, marched at the head of a large force through all the country that lies on this side of the Ocean, destroying any despotisms that were grievous and oppressive to their subjects, or commonwealths that outraged and injured the neighbouring states, or organized bands of men who lived in the manner of savages and lawlessly put strangers to death, and in their room establishing lawful monarchies, well-ordered governments and humane and sociable modes of life. Furthermore, he mingled barbarians with Greeks, and inhabitants of the inland with dwellers on the sea coast, groups which hitherto had been distrustful and unsocial in their dealings with each other; he also built cities in desert places, turned the course of rivers that overflowed the fields, cut roads through inaccessible mountains, and contrived other means by which every land and sea might lie open to the use of all mankind.

§ 1.41.2  And he came into Italy not alone nor yet bringing a herd of cattle (for neither does this country lies on the road of those returning from Spain to Argos nor would he have been deemed worthy of so great an honour merely for passing through it), but at the head of a great army, after he had already conquered Spain, in order to subjugate and rule the people in this region; and he was obliged to tarry there a considerable time both because of the absence of his fleet, due to stormy weather that detained it, and because not all the nations of Italy willingly submitted to him.

§ 1.41.3  For, besides the other barbarians, the Ligurians, a numerous and warlike people seated in the passes of the Alps, endeavoured to prevent his entrance into Italy by force of arms, and in that place so great a battle was fought by the Greeks that all their missiles gave out in the course of the fighting. This war is mentioned by Aeschylus, among the ancient poets, in his Prometheus Unbound; for there Prometheus is represented as foretelling to Hercules in detail how everything else was to befall him on his expedition against Geryon and in particular recounting to him the difficult struggle he was to have in the war with the Ligurians. The verses are these: "And thou shalt come to Liguria's dauntless host, Where no fault shalt thou find, bold though thou art, With the fray: 'tis fated thy missiles all shall fail."

§ 1.42.1  After Hercules had defeated this people and gained the passes, some delivered up their cities to him of their own accord, particularly those who were any other Greek extraction or who had no considerable forces; but the greatest part of them were reduced by war and siege.

§ 1.42.2  Among those who were conquered in battle, they say, was Cacus, who is celebrated in the Roman legend, an exceedingly barbarous chieftain reigning over a savage people, who had set himself to oppose Hercules; he was established in the fastnesses and on that account was a pest to his neighbours. He, when he heard that Hercules lay encamped in the plain hard by, equipped his followers like brigands and making a sudden raid while the army lay sleeping, he surrounded and drove off as much of their booty as he found unguarded.

§ 1.42.3  Afterwards, being besieged by the Greeks, he not only saw his forts taken by storm, but was himself slain amid his fastnesses. And when his forts had been demolished, those who had accompanied Hercules on the expedition (these were some Arcadians with Evander, and Faunus, king of the Aborigines) took over the districts round about, each group for itself. And it may be conjectured that those of the Greeks who remained there, that is, the Epeans and the Arcadians from Pheneus, as well as the Trojans, were left to guard the country.

§ 1.42.4  For among the various measures of Hercules that bespoke the true general none was more worthy of admiration than his practice of carrying along with him for a time on his expeditions the prisoners taken from the captured cities, and then, after they had cheerfully assisted him in his wars, settling them in the conquered regions and bestowing on them the riches he had gained from others. It was because of these deeds that Hercules gained the greatest name and renown in Italy, and not because of his passage through it, which was attended by nothing worthy of veneration.

§ 1.43.1  Some say that he also left sons by two women in the region now inhabited by the Romans. One of these sons was Pallas, whom he had by the daughter of Evander, whose name, they say, was Lavinia; the other, Latinus, whose mother was a certain Hyperborean girl whom he brought with him as a hostage given to him by her father and preserved for some time untouched; but while he was on his voyage to Italy, he fell in love with her and got her with child. And when he was preparing to leave for Argos, he married her to Faunus, king of the Aborigines; for which reason Latinus is generally looked upon as the son of Faunus, not of Hercules.

§ 1.43.2  Pallas, they say, died before he arrived at puberty; but Latinus, upon reaching man's estate, succeeded to the kingdom of the Aborigines, and when he was killed in the battle against the neighbouring Rutulians, without leaving any male issue, the kingdom devolved on Aeneas, the son of Anchises, his son-in law. But these things happened at other times.

§ 1.44.1  After Hercules had settled everything in Italy according to his desire and his naval force had arrived in safety from Spain, he sacrificed to the gods the tithes of his booty and built a small town named after himself in the place where his fleet lay at anchor (it is now occupied by the Romans, and lying as it does between Neapolis and Pompeii, has safe harbors for every weather); and having gained fame and glory and received divine honours from all the inhabitants of Italy, he set sail for Sicily.

§ 1.44.2  Those who were left behind by him as a garrison to dwell in Italy and were settled around the Saturnian hill lived for some time under an independent government; but not long afterwards they adapted their manner of life, their laws and their religious ceremonies to those of the Aborigines, even as the Arcadians and, still earlier, the Pelasgians had done, and they shared in the same government with them, so that in time they came to be looked upon as of the same nation with them. But let this suffice concerning the expedition of Hercules and concerning the Peloponnesians who remained behind in Italy.

§ 1.44.1  In the second generation after the departure of Hercules, and about the fifty-fifth year, according to the Romans' own account, the king of the Aborigines was Latinus, who passed for the son of Faunus, but was actually the son of Hercules; he was now in the thirty-fifth year of his reign.

§ 1.45.1  At that time the Trojans who had fled with Aeneas from Troy after its capture landed at Laurentum, which is on the coast of the Aborigines facing the Tyrrhenian sea, not far from the mouth of the Tiber. And having received from the Aborigines some land for their habitation and everything else they desired, they built a town on a hill not far from the sea and called it Lavinium.

§ 1.45.2  Soon after this they changed their ancient name and, together with the Aborigines, were called Latins, after the king of that country. And leaving Lavinium, they joined with the inhabitants of those parts in building a larger city, surrounded by a wall, which they called Alba; and setting out thence, they built many other cities, the cities of the so-called Prisci Latini, of which the greatest part were inhabited even to my day.

§ 1.45.3  Then, sixteen generations after the taking of Troy, sending out a colony to Pallantium and Saturnia, where the Peloponnesians and the Arcadians had made their first settlement and where there were still left some remains of the ancient race, they settled these places and surrounded Pallantium with a wall, so that it then first received the form of a city. This settlement they called Rome, after Romulus, who was the leader of the colony and the seventeenth in descent from Aeneas.

§ 1.45.4  But also concerning the arrival of Aeneas in Italy, since some historians have been ignorant of it and others have related it in a different manner, I wish to give more than a cursory account, having compared the histories of those writers, both Greek and Roman, who are the best accredited. The stories concerning him are as follows:

§ 1.46.1  When Troy had been taken by the Achaeans, either by the stratagem of the Wooden Horse, as Homer represents, or by the treachery of the Antenoridae, or by some other means, the greatest part of the Trojans and of their allies then in the city were surprised and slain in their beds; for it seems that this calamity came upon them in the night, when they were not upon their guard. But Aeneas and his Trojan forces which he had brought from the cities of Dardanus and Ophrynium to the assistance of the people of Ilium, and as many others as had early notice of the calamity, while the Greeks were taking the lower town, fled together to the stronghold of Pergamus, and occupied the citadel, which was fortified with its own wall; here were deposited the holy things of the Trojans inherited from their fathers and their great wealth in valuables, as was to be expected in a stronghold, and here also the flower of their army was stationed.

§ 1.46.2  Here they awaited and repulsed the enemy who were endeavouring to gain a foothold on the acropolis, and by making secret sallies they were able, through their familiarity with the narrow streets, to rescue the multitude which was seeking to escape at the taking of the city; and thus a larger number escaped than were taken prisoner. But with respect to the future he reasoned very properly that it would be impossible to save a city the greater part of which was already in possession of the enemy, and he therefore decided to abandon the wall, bare of defenders, to the enemy

§ 1.46.3  and to save the inhabitants themselves as well as the holy objects inherited from their fathers and all the valuables he could carry away. Having thus resolved, he first sent out from the city the women and children together with the aged and all others whose condition required much time to make their escape, with orders to take the roads leading to Mount Ida, while the Achaeans, intent on capturing the citadel, were giving no thought to the pursuit of the multitude who were escaping from the city. Of the army, he assigned one part to escort the inhabitants who were departing, in order that their flight might be as safe and free from hardships as the circumstances would permit; and they were ordered to take possession of the strongest parts of Mount Ida. With the rest of the troops, who were the most valiant, he remained upon the wall of the citadel and, by keeping the enemy occupied in assaulting it, he rendered less difficult the flight of those who had gone on ahead.

§ 1.46.4  But when Neoptolemus and his men gained a foothold on part of the acropolis and all the Achaeans rallied to their support, Aeneas abandoned the place; and opening the gates, he marched away with the rest of the fugitives in good order, carrying with him in the best chariots his father and the gods of his country, together with his wife and children and whatever else, either person or thing, was most precious.

§ 1.47.1  In the meantime the Achaeans had taken the city by storm, and being intent on plunder, gave those who fled abundant opportunity of making their escape. Aeneas and his band overtook their people while still on the road, and being united now in one body, they seized the strongest parts of Mount Ida.

§ 1.47.2  Here they were joined not only by the inhabitants of Dardanus, who, upon seeing a great and unusual fire rising from Ilium, had in the night left their city undefended, — all except the men with Elymus and Aegestus, who had got ready some ships and had departed even earlier, — but also by the whole populace of Ophrynium and by those of the other Trojan cities who clung to their liberty; and in a very short time this force of the Trojans became a very large one.

§ 1.47.3  Accordingly, the fugitives who had escaped with Aeneas from the taking of the city and were tarrying on Mount Ida were in hopes of returning home soon, when the enemy should have sailed away; but the Achaeans, having reduced to slavery the people who were left in the city and in the places near by and having demolished the forts, were preparing to subdue those also who were in the mountains.

§ 1.47.4  When, however, the Trojans sent heralds to treat for peace and begged them not to reduce them to the necessity of making war, the Achaeans held an assembly and made peace with them upon the following terms: Aeneas and his people were to depart from the Troad with all the valuables they had saved in their flight within a certain fixed time, after first delivering up the forts to the Achaeans; and the Achaeans were to allow them a safe-conduct by land and sea throughout all their dominions when they departed in pursuance of these terms.

§ 1.47.5  Aeneas, having accepted these conditions, which he looked upon as the best possible in the circumstances, sent away Ascanius, his eldest son, with some of the allies, chiefly Phrygians, to the country of Dascylitis, as it is called, in which lies the Ascanian lake, since he had been invited by the inhabitants to reign over them. But Ascanius did not tarry there for any great length of time; for when Scamandrius and the other descendants of Hector who had been permitted by Neoptolemus to return home from Greece, came to him, he went to Troy, in order to restore them to their ancestral kingdom.

§ 1.47.6  Regarding Ascanius, then, this is all that is told. As for Aeneas, after his fleet was ready, he embarked with the rest of his sons and his father, taking with him the images of the gods, and crossing the Hellespont, sailed to the nearest peninsula, which lies in front of Europe and is called Pallene. This country was occupied by a Thracian people called Crusaeans, who were allies of the Trojans and had assisted them during the war with greater zeal than any of the others.

§ 1.48.1  This, then, is the most credible account concerning the flight of Aeneas and is the one which Hellanicus, among the ancient historians, adopts in his Troica. There are different accounts given of the same events by some others, which I look upon as less probable than this. But let every reader judge as he thinks proper.

§ 1.48.2  Sophocles, the tragic poet, in his drama Laocoon represents Aeneas, just before the taking of the city, as removing his household to Mount Ida in obedience to the orders of his father Anchises, who recalled the injunctions of Aphrodite and from the omens that had lately happened in the case of Laocoon's family conjectured the approaching destruction of the city. His iambics, which are spoken by a messenger, are as follows:
"Now at the gates arrives the goddess' son,
Aeneas, his sire upon his shoulders borne
Aloft, while down that back by thunderbolt
Of Zeus once smit the linen mantle streams;
Surrounding them the crowd of household slaves.
There follows a multitude beyond belief
Who long to join this Phrygian colony."

§ 1.48.3  But Menecrates of Xanthus says that Aeneas betrayed the city to the Achaeans out of hatred for Alexander and that because of this service he was permitted by them to save his household. His account, which begins with the funeral of Achilles, runs on this wise: "The Achaeans were oppressed with grief and felt that the army had had its head lopped off. However, they celebrated his funeral feast and made war with all their might till Ilium was taken by the aid of Aeneas, who delivered it up to them. For Aeneas, being scorned by Alexander and excluded from his prerogatives, overthrew Priam; and having accomplished this, he became one of the Achaeans."

§ 1.48.4  Others say that he chanced to be tarrying at that time at the station where the Trojan ships lay; and others that he had been sent with a force into Phrygia by Priam upon some military expedition. Some give a more fabulous account of his departure. But let the case stand according to each man's convictions.

§ 1.49.1  What happened after his departure creates still greater difficulty for most historians. For some, after they have brought him as far as Thrace, say he died there; of this number are Cephalon of Gergis and Hegesippus, who wrote concerning Pallene, both of them ancient and reputable men. Others make him leave Thrace and take him to Arcadia, and say that he lived in the Arcadian Orchomenus, in a place which, though situated inland, yet by reason of marshes and a river, is called Nesos or "Island"; and they add that the town called Capyae was built by Aeneas and the Trojans and took its name from Capys the Trojan.

§ 1.49.2  This is the account given by various other writers and by Ariaethus, the author of Arcadica. And there are some who have the story that he came, indeed, to Arcadia and yet that his death did not occur there, but in Italy; this is stated by many others and especially by Agathyllus of Arcadia, the poet, who writes thus in an elegy:
"Then to Arcadia came and in Nesos left his two daughters,
Fruit of his love for Anthemone fair and for lovely Codone;
Thence made haste to Hesperia's land and begat there male offspring,
Romulus named."

§ 1.49.3  The arrival of Aeneas and the Trojans in Italy is attested by all the Romans and evidences of it are to be seen in the ceremonies observed by them both in their sacrifices and festivals, as well as in the Sibyl's utterances, in the Pythian oracles, and in many other things, which none ought to disdain as invented for the sake of embellishment. Among the Greeks, also, many distinct monuments remain to this day on the coasts where they landed and among the people with whom they tarried when detained by unfavourable weather. In mentioning these, though they are numerous, I shall be as brief as possible.

§ 1.49.4  They first went to Thrace and landed on the peninsula called Pallene. It was inhabited, as I have said, by barbarians called Crusaeans, who offered them a safe refuge. There they stayed the winter season and built a temple to Aphrodite on one of the promontories, and also a city called Aeneia, where they left all those who from fatigue were unable to continue the voyage and all who chose to remain there as in a country they were henceforth to look upon as their own. This city existed down to that period of the Macedonian rule which came into being under the successors of Alexander, but it was destroyed in the reign of Cassander, when Thessalonica was being founded; and the inhabitants of Aeneia with many others removed to the newly-built city.

§ 1.50.1  Setting sail from Pallene, the Trojans came to Delos, of which Anius was king. Here there were many evidences of the presence of Aeneas and the Trojans as long as the island was inhabited and flourished. Then, coming to Cythera, another island, lying off the Peloponnesus, they built a temple there to Aphrodite.

§ 1.50.2  And while they were on their voyage from Cythera and not far from the Peloponnesus, one of Aeneas' companions, named Cinaethus, died and they buried him upon one of the promontories, which is now called Cinaethion after him. And having renewed their kinship with the Arcadians, concerning which I shall speak in a later chapter, and having stayed a short time in those parts, they left some of their number there and came to Zacynthus.

§ 1.50.3  The Zacynthians, also, received them in a friendly manner on account of their kinship; for Dardanus, the son of Zeus and Electra, the daughter of Atlas, had, as they say, by Bateia two sons, Zacynthus and Erichthonius of whom the latter was the ancestor of Aeneas, and Zacynthus was the first settler of the island. In memory, therefore, of this kinship and by reason of the kindness of the inhabitants they stayed there some time, being also detained by unfavourable weather; and they offered to Aphrodite at the temple they had built to her a sacrifice which the entire population of Zacynthus performs to this day, and instituted games for young men, consisting among other events of a foot-race in which the one who comes first to the temple gains the prize. This is called the course of Aeneas and Aphrodite, and xoana of both are erected there.

§ 1.50.4  From there, after a voyage through the open sea, they landed at Leucas, which was still in the possession of the Acarnanians. Here again they built a sanctuary of Aphrodite, which stands today on the little island between Dioryctus and the city; it is called of Aphrodite Aeneias. And departing thence, they sailed to Actium and anchored off the promontory of the Ambracian Gulf; and from there they came to the city of Ambracia, which was then ruled by Ambrax, the son of Dexamenus, the son of Heracles. Monuments of their coming are left in both places: at Actium, the sanctuary of Aphrodite Aeneias, and near to it that of the Great Gods, both of which existed even to my time; and in Ambracia, a sanctuary of the same goddess and a hero-shrine of Aeneas near the little theatre. In this shrine there was a small archaic xoanon, said to be of Aeneas, that was honoured with sacrifices by the priestesses they called amphipoloi or "handmaidens."

§ 1.51.1  From Ambracia Anchises, sailing with the fleet along the coast, came to Buthrotum, a seaport of Epirus. But Aeneas with the most vigorous men of his army made a march of two days and came to Dodona, in order to consult the oracle; and there they found the Trojans who had come thither with Helenus. Then, after receiving responses concerning their colony and after dedicating to the god various Trojan offerings, including bronze mixing bowls, — some of which are still in existence and by their inscriptions, which are very ancient, show by whom they were given, — they rejoined the fleet after a march of about four days. The presence of the Trojans at Buthrotum is proved by a hill called Troy, where they encamped at that time.

§ 1.51.2  From Buthrotum they sailed along the coast and came to a place which was then called the Harbour of Anchises but now has a less significant name [note: Onchesmus?]; there also they built a temple to Aphrodite, and then crossed the Ionian Gulf, having for guides on the voyage Patron the Thyrian and his men, who accompanied them of their own accord. The greater part of these, after the army had arrived safely in Italy, returned home; but Patron with some of his friends, being prevailed on by Aeneas to join the colony, stayed with the expedition. These, according to some, settled at Aluntium in Sicily. In memory of this service the Romans in the course of time bestowed Leucas and Anactorium, which they had taken from the Corinthians, upon the Acarnanians; when the latter desired to restore the Oeniadae to their old home, they gave them leave to do so, and also to enjoy the produce of the Echinades jointly with the Aetolians.

§ 1.51.3  As for Aeneas and his companions, they did not all go ashore at the same place in Italy, but most of the ships came to anchor at the Promontory of Iapygia, which was then called the Salentine Promontory, and the others at a place named after Minerva, where Aeneas himself chanced to set foot first in Italy. This place is a promontory that offers a harbour in the summer, which from that time has been called the Harbour of Venus. After this they sailed along the coast until they reached the strait, having Italy on the right hand, and left in these places also some traces of their arrival, among others a bronze patera in the temple of Juno, on which there is an ancient inscription showing the name of Aeneas as the one who dedicated it to the goddess.

§ 1.52.1  When they were off Sicily, whether they had any design of landing there or were forced from their course by tempests, which are common around this sea, they landed in that part of the island which is called Drepana. Here they found the Trojans who with Elymus and Aegestus had left Troy before them and who, being favoured by both fortune and the wind, and at the same time being not overburdened with baggage, had made a quick passage to Sicily and were settled near the river Crimisus in the country of the Sicanians. For the latter had bestowed the land upon them out of friendship because of their kinship to Aegestus, who had been born and reared in Sicily owing to the following circumstance.

§ 1.52.2  One of his ancestors, a distinguished man of Trojan birth, became at odds with Laomedon and the king seized him on some charge or other and put him to death, together with all his male children, lest he should suffer some mischief at their hands. But thinking it unseemly to put the man's daughters to death, as they were still maidens, and at the same time unsafe to permit them to live among the Trojans, he delivered them to some merchants, with orders to carry them as far away as possible.

§ 1.52.3  They were accompanied on the voyage by a youth of distinguished family, who was in love with one of them; and he married the girl when she arrived in Sicily. And during their stay among the Sicels they had a son, named Aegestus, who learned the manners and language of the inhabitants; but after the death of his parents, Priam being then king of Troy, he obtained leave to return home. And having assisted Priam in the war against the Achaeans, he then, when the city was about to be taken, sailed back again to Sicily, being accompanied in his flight by Elymus with the three ships which Achilles had had with him when he plunder the Trojan cities and had lost when they struck on some hidden rocks.

§ 1.52.4  Aeneas, meeting with the men just named, showed them great kindness and built cities for them, Aegesta and Elyma, and even left some part of his army in these towns. It is my own surmise that he did this by deliberate choice, to the end that those who were worn out by hardships or otherwise irked by the sea might enjoy rest and a safe retreat. But some writers say that the loss of part of his fleet, which was set on fire by some of the women, who were dissatisfied with their wandering, obliged him to leave behind the people who belonged to the burned ships and for that reason could sail no longer with their companions.

§ 1.52.1  There are many proofs of the coming of Aeneas and the Trojans to Sicily, but the most notable are the altar of Aphrodite Aeneias erected on the summit of Elymus and a temple erected to Aeneas in Aegesta; the former was built by Aeneas himself in his mother's honour, but the temple was an offering made by those of the expedition who remained behind to the memory of their deliverer. The Trojans with Elymus and Aegestus, then, remained in these parts and continued to be called Elymians; for Elymus was the first in dignity, as being of the royal family, and from him they all took their name.

§ 1.52.2  But Aeneas and his companions, leaving Sicily, crossed the Tyrrhenian sea and first came to anchor in Italy in the harbour of Palinurus, which is said to have got this name from one of the pilots of Aeneas who died there. After that they put in at an island which they called Leucosia, from a woman cousin of Aeneas who died at that place.

§ 1.52.3  From there they came into a deep and excellent harbour of the Opicans, and when here also one of their number died, a prominent man named Misenus, they called the harbour after him. Then, putting in by chance at the island of Prochyta and at the promontory of Caieta, they named these places in the same manner, desiring that they should serve as memorials of women who died there, one of whom is said to have been a cousin of Aeneas and the other his nurse. At last they arrived at Laurentum in Italy, where, coming to the end of their wandering, they made an entrenched camp, and the place where they encamped has from that time been called Troy. It is distant from the sea about four stades.

§ 1.52.4  It was necessary for me to relate these things and to make this digression, since some historians affirm that Aeneas did not even come into Italy with the Trojans, and some that it was another Aeneas, not the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, while yet others say that it was Ascanius, Aeneas' son, and others name still other persons. And there are those who claim that Aeneas, the son of Aphrodite after he had settled his company in Italy, returned home, reigned over Troy, and dying, left his kingdom to Ascanius, his son, whose posterity possessed it for a long time. According to my conjecture these writers are deceived by mistaking the sense of Homer's verses.

§ 1.52.5  For in the Iliad he represents Poseidon as foretelling the future splendour of Aeneas and his posterity on this wise:
"On great Aeneas shall devolve the reign,
And sons succeeding sons the lasting line sustain."

§ 1.53.1  Thus, as they supposed that Homer knew these men reigned in Phrygia, they invented the return of Aeneas, as if it were not possible for them to reign over Trojans while living in Italy. But it was not impossible for Aeneas to reign over the Trojans he had taken with him, even though they were settled in another country. However, other reasons also might be given for this error.

§ 1.54.1  But if it creates a difficulty for any that tombs of Aeneas are both said to exist, and are actually shown, in many places, whereas it is impossible for the same person to be buried in more than one place, let them consider that this difficulty arises in the case of many other men, too, particularly men who have had remarkable fortunes and led wandering lives; and let them know that, though only one place received their bodies, yet their monuments were erected among many peoples through the gratitude of those who had received some benefits from them, particularly if any of their race still survived or if any city had been built by them or if their residence among any people had been long and distinguished by great humanity — just such things, in fact, as we know are related of this hero.

§ 1.54.2  For he preserved Ilium from utter destruction at the time of its capture and sent away weight Trojan allies safe to Bebrycia, he left his son Ascanius as king in Phrygia, built a city named after himself in Pallene, married off his daughters in Arcadia, left part of his army in Sicily, and during his residence in many other places had the reputation of conducting himself with great humanity; thus he gained the voluntary affection of those people and accordingly after he left this mortal life he was honoured with hero-shrines and monuments erected to him in many places.

§ 1.54.3  What reasons, pray, could anyone assign for his monuments in Italy if he never reigned in these parts or resided in them or if he was entirely unknown to the inhabitants? But this point shall be again discussed, according as my narrative shall from time to time require it to be made clear.

§ 1.55.1  The failure of the Trojan fleet to sail any farther into Europe was due to the oracles which reached their fulfilment in those parts and to the divine power which revealed its will in many ways. For while their fleet lay at anchor off Laurentum and they had set up their tents near the shore, in the first place, when the men were oppressed with thirst and there was no water in the place (what I say I had from the inhabitants), springs of the sweetest water were seen rising out of the earth spontaneously, of which all the army drank and the place was flooded as the stream ran down to the sea from the springs.

§ 1.55.2  Today, however, the springs are no longer so full as to overflow, but there is just a little water collected in a hollow place, and the inhabitants say it is sacred to the Sun; and near it two altars are pointed out, one facing to the east, the other to the west, both of them Trojan structures, upon which, the story goes, Aeneas offered up his first sacrifice to the god as a thank-offering for the water.

§ 1.55.3  After that, while they were taking their repast upon the ground, many of them strewed parsley under their food to serve as a table; but others say that they thus used wheaten cakes, in order to keep their victuals clean. When all the victuals that were laid before them were consumed, first one of them ate of the parsley, or cakes, that were placed underneath, and then another. Thereupon one of Aeneas' sons, as the story goes, or some other of his messmates, happened to exclaim, "Look you, at last we have eaten even the table." As soon as they heard this, they all cried out with joy that the first part of the oracle was now fulfilled.

§ 1.55.4  For a certain oracle had been delivered to them, as some say, in Dodona, but, according to others, in Erythrae, a place on Mount Ida, where lived a Sibyl of that country, a prophetic nymph, who ordered them to sail westward till they came to a place where they should eat their tables; and that, when they found this had happened, they should follow a four-footed beast as their guide, and wherever the animal grew wearied, there they should build a city.

§ 1.55.5  Calling to mind, then, this prophecy, some at the command of Aeneas brought the images of the gods out of the ship to the place appointed by him, others prepared pedestals and altars for them, and the women with shouts and dancing accompanied the images. And Aeneas with his companions, when a sacrifice had been made ready, stood round the altar with the customary garlands on their heads.

§ 1.56.1  While these were offering up their prayers, the sow which was the destined victim, being big with young and near her time, shook herself free as the priests were performing the initial rites, and fleeing from those who held her, ran back into the country. And Aeneas, understanding that this, then, was the four-footed beast the oracle intended as their guide, followed the sow with a few of his people at a small distance, fearing lest, disturbed by her pursuers, she might be frightened from the course fate had appointed for her.

§ 1.56.2  And the sow, after going about twenty-four stades from the sea, ran up a hill and there, spent with weariness, she lay down. But Aeneas, — for the oracles seemed now to be fulfilled, — observing that the place was not only in a poor part of the land, but also at a distance from the sea, and that even the latter did not afford a safe anchorage, found himself in great perplexity whether they ought in obedience to the oracle to settle there, where they would lead a life of perpetual misery without enjoying any advantage, or ought to go farther in search of better land.

§ 1.56.3  While he was pondering thus and blaming the gods, on a sudden, they say, a voice came to him from the wood, — though the speaker was not to be see, — commanding him to stay there and build a city immediately, and not, by giving way to the difficulty occasioned by his present opinion, just because he would be establishing his abode in a barren country, to reject his future good fortune, that was indeed all but actually present.

§ 1.56.4  For it was fated that, beginning with this sorry and, at first, small habitation, he should in the course of time acquire a spacious and fertile country, and that his children and posterity should possess a vast empire which should be prolonger for many ages. For the present, therefore, this settlement should be a refuge for the Trojans, but, after as many years as the sow should bring forth young ones, another city, large and flourishing, should be built by his posterity. It is said that Aeneas, hearing this and looking upon the voice as something divine, did as the god commanded.

§ 1.56.5  But others say that while he was dismayed and had neglected himself in his grief, to such a degree that he neither came into the camp nor took any food, but spent that night just as he was, a great and wonderful vision of a dream appeared to him in the likeness of one of his country's gods and gave him the advice just before mentioned. Which of these accounts is the true one the gods only know. The next day, it is said, the sow brought forth thirty young ones, and just that many years later, in accordance with the oracle, another city was built by the Trojans, concerning which I shall speak in the proper place.

§ 1.57.1  Aeneas sacrificed the sow with her young to his household gods in the place where now stands the chapel, which the Lavinians looking as sacred and preserve inaccessible to all but themselves. Then, having ordered the Trojans to remove their camp to the hill, he placed the images of the gods in the best part of it and immediately addressed himself to the building of the town with the greatest zeal. And making descents into the country round about, he took from there such things as were of use to him in building and the loss of which was likely to be the most grievous to the owners, such as iron, timber and agricultural implements.

§ 1.57.2  But Latinus, the king of the country at that time, who was at war with a neighbouring people called the Rutulians and had fought some battles with ill success, received an account of what had passed in the most alarming form, to the effect that all his coast was being laid waste by a foreign army and that, if he did not immediately put a stop to their depredations, the war with his neighbours would seem to him a joy in comparison. Latinus was struck with fear at this news, and immediately abandoning the war in which he was then engaged, he marched against the Trojans with a great army.

§ 1.57.3  But seeing them armed like Greeks, drawn up in good order and resolutely awaiting the conflict, he gave up the idea of hazarding an immediate engagement, since he saw no probability now of defeating them at the first onset, as he had expected when he set out from home against them. And encamping on a hill, he thought he ought first to let his troops recover from their present fatigue, which from the length of the march and the eagerness of the pursuit was very great;

§ 1.57.4  and passing the night there, he was resolving to engage the enemy at break of day. But when he had reached this decision, a certain divinity of the place appeared to him in his sleep and bade him receive the Greeks into his land to dwell with his own subjects, adding that their coming was a great advantage to him and admonished him to persuade Latinus to grant them of his own accord a settlement in the part of the country they desired and to treat the Greek forces rather as allies than as enemies. Thus the dream hindered both of them from beginning an engagement. And as soon as it was day and the armies were drawn up in order of battle, heralds came to each of the commanders from the other with the same request, that they should meet for a parley; and so it came to pass.

§ 1.58.1  And first Latinus complained of the sudden war which they had made upon his subjects without any previous declaration and demanded that Aeneas tell him who he was and what he meant by plundering the country without any provocation, since he could not be ignorant that every one who is attacked in war defends himself against the aggressor; and he complained that when Aeneas might have obtained amicably and with the consent of the inhabitants whatever he could reasonably desire, he had chosen to take it by force, contrary to the universal sense of justice and with greater dishonour than credit to himself.

§ 1.58.2  After he had spoken thus Aeneas answered: "We are natives of Troy, not the least famous city among the Greeks; but since this has been captured and taken from us by the Achaeans after a ten-years' war, we have been wanderers, roving about for want both of a city and a country where we may henceforth live, and are come hither in obedience to the commands of the gods; and this land alone, as the oracles tell us, is left for us as the haven of our wandering. We are indeed taking from the country the things we need, with greater regard to our unfortunate situation than to propriety, — a course which until recently we by no means wished to pursue.

§ 1.58.3  But we will make compensation for them with many good services in return, offering you our bodies and our minds, well disciplined against dangers, to employ as you think proper in keeping your country free from the ravages of enemies and in heartily assisting you to conquer their lands. We humbly entreat you not to resent what we have done, realizing, as you must, that we did it, not out of wantonness, but constrained by necessity; and everything that is involuntary deserves forgiveness.

§ 1.58.4  And you ought not to take any hostile resolution concerning us as we stretch forth our hands to you; but if you do so, we will first beg the gods and divinities who possess this land to forgive us even for what we do under the constraint of necessity and will then endeavour to defend ourselves against you who are the aggressors in the war; for this will not be the first nor the greatest war that we have experienced."

§ 1.58.5  When Latinus heard this he answered him: "Nay, but I cherish a kindly feeling towards the whole Greek race and am greatly grieved by the inevitable calamities of mankind. And I should be very solicitous for your safety if it were clear to me that you have come here in search of a habitation and that, contented with a suitable share of the land and enjoying in a spirit of friendship what shall be given you, you will not endeavour to deprive me of the sovereignty by force; and if the assurances you give me are real, I desire to give and receive pledges which will preserve our compact inviolate."

§ 1.59.1  Aeneas having accepted this proposal, a treaty was made between the two nations and confirmed by oaths to this effect: the Aborigines were to grant to the Trojans as much land as they desired, that is, the space of about forty stades in every direction from the hill; the Trojans, on their part, were to assist the Aborigines in the war they were then engaged in and also to join them with their forces upon every other occasion when summoned; and, mutually, both nations were to aid each other to the utmost of their power, both with their arms and with their counsel.

§ 1.59.2  After they had concluded this treaty and had given pledges by handing over children as hostages, they marched with joint forces against the cities of the Rutulians; and having soon subdued all opposition there, they came to the town of the Trojans, which was still but half-finished, and all working with a common zeal, they fortified the town with a wall.

§ 1.59.3  This town Aeneas called Lavinium, after the daughter of Latinus, according to the Romans' own account; for her name, they say, was Lavinia. But according to some of the Greek mythographers he named it after the daughter of Anius, the king of the Delians, who was also called Lavinia; for as she was the first to die of illness at the time of the building of the city and was buried in the place where she died, the city was made her memorial.

§ 1.59.4  She is said to have embarked with the Trojans after having been given by her father to Aeneas at his desire as a prophetess and a wise woman. While Lavinium was building, the following omens are said to have appeared to the Trojans. When a fire broke out spontaneously in the forest, a wolf, they say, brought some dry wood in his mouth and threw it upon the fire, and an eagle, flying thither, fanned the flame with the motion of his wings. But working in opposition to these, a fox, after wetting his tail in the river, endeavoured to beat out the flames; and now those that were kindling it would prevail, and now the fox that was trying to put it out. But at last the two former got the upper hand, and the other went away, unable to do anything further.

§ 1.59.5  Aeneas, on observing this, said that the colony would become illustrious and an object of wonder and would gain the greatest renown, but that as it increased it would be envied by its neighbours and prove grievous to them; nevertheless, it would overcome its adversaries, the good fortune that it had received from Heaven being more powerful than the envy of men that would oppose it. These very clear indications are said to have been given of what was to happen to the city; of which there are monuments now standing in the forum of the Lavinians, in the form of bronze images of the animals, which have been preserved for a very long time.

§ 1.60.1  After the Trojans' city was built all were extremely desirous of enjoying the mutual benefit of their new alliance. And their kings setting the example, united the excellence of the two races, the native and the foreign, by ties of marriage, Latinus giving his daughter Lavinia to Aeneas.

§ 1.60.2  Thereupon the rest also conceived the same desire as their kings; and combining in a very brief time their customs, laws and religious ceremonies, forming ties through intermarriages and becoming mingled together in the wars they jointly waged, and all calling themselves by the common name of Latins, after the king of the Aborigines, they adhered so firmly to their pact that no lapse of time has yet severed them from one another.

§ 1.60.3  The nations, therefore, which came together and shared in a common life and from which the Roman people derived their origin before the city they now inhabit was built, are these: first, the Aborigines, who drove the Sicels out of these parts and were originally Greeks from the Peloponnesus, the same who with Oenotrus removed from the country now called Arcadia, according to my opinion; then, the Pelasgians, who came from Haemonia, as it was then called, but now Thessaly; third, those who came into Italy with Evander from the city of Pallantium; after them the Epeans and Pheneats, who were part of the Peloponnesian army commanded by Hercules, with whom a Trojan element also was commingled; and, last of all, the Trojans who had escaped with Aeneas from Ilium, Dardanus and the other Trojan cities.

§ 1.61.1  That the Trojans, too, were a nation as truly Greek as any and formerly came from the Peloponnesus has long been asserted by some authors and shall be briefly related by me also. The account concerning them is as follows. Atlas was the first king of the country now called Arcadia, and he lived near the mountain called Thaumasius. He had seven daughters, who are said to be numbered now among the constellations under the name of the Pleiades; Zeus married one of these, Electra, and had by her two sons, Iasus and Dardanus.

§ 1.61.2  Iasus remained unmarried, but Dardanus married Chryse, the daughter of Pallas, by whom he had two sons, Idaeus and Deimas; and these, succeeding Atlas in the kingdom, reign for some time in Arcadia. Afterwards, a great deluge occurring throughout Arcadia, the plains were overflowed and for a long time could not be tilled; and the inhabitants, living upon the mountains and eking out a sorry livelihood, decided that the land remaining would not be sufficient for the support of them all, and so divided themselves into two groups, one of which remained in Arcadia, after making Deimas, the son of Dardanus, their king, while the other left the Peloponnesus on board a large fleet.

§ 1.61.3  And sailing along the coast of Europe, they came to a gulf called Melas and chanced to land on a certain island of Thrace, as to which I am unable to say whether it was previously inhabited or not. They called the island Samothrace, a name compounded of the name of a man and the name of a place. For it belongs to Thrace and its first settler was Samon, the son of Hermes and a nymph of Cyllene, named Rhene.

§ 1.61.4  Here they remained but a short time, since the life proved to be no easy one for them, forced to contend, as they were, with both a poor soil and a boisterous sea; but leaving some few of their people in the island, the greater part of them removed once more and went to Asia under Dardanus as leader of their colony (for Iasus had died in the island, being struck with a thunderbolt for desiring to have intercourse with Demeter), and disembarking in the strait now called the Hellespont, they settled in the region which was afterwards called Phrygia. Idaeus, the son of Dardanus, with part of the company occupied the mountains which are now called after him the Idaean mountains, and there built a temple to the Mother of the Gods and instituted mysteries and ceremonies which are observed to this day throughout all Phrygia. And Dardanus built a city named after himself in the region now called the Troad; the land was given to him by Teucer, the king, after whom the country was anciently called Teucris.

§ 1.61.5  Many authors, and particularly Phanodemus, who wrote about the ancient lore of Attica, say that Teucer had come into Asia from Attica, where he had been chief of the deme called Xypete, and of this tale they offer many proofs. They add that, having possessed himself of a large and fertile country with but a small native population, he was glad to see Dardanus and the Greeks who came with him, both because he hoped for their assistance in his wars against the barbarians and because he desired that the land should not remain unoccupied.

§ 1.62.1  But the subject requires that I relate also how Aeneas was descended: this, too, I shall do briefly. Dardanus, after the death of Chryse, the daughter of Pallas, by whom he had his first sons, married Bateia, the daughter of Teucer, and by her had Erichthonius, who is said to have been the most fortunate of all men, since he inherited both the kingdom of his father and that of his maternal grandfather.

§ 1.62.2  Of Erichthonius and Callirrhoe, the daughter of Scamander, was born Tros, from whom the nation has received its name; of Tros and Acallaris, the daughter of Eumedes, Assaracus; of Assaracus and Clytodora, the daughter of Laomedon, Capys; of Capys and the Naiad nymph Hieromneme, Anchises; of Anchises and Aphrodite, Aeneas. Thus I have shown that the Trojan race, too, was originally Greek.

§ 1.63.1  Concerning the time when Lavinium was built there are various reports, but to me the most probable seems to be that which places it in the second year after the departure of the Trojans from Troy. For Ilium was taken at the end of the spring, seventeen days before the summer solstice, and the eighth from the end of the month Thargelion, according to the calendar of the Athenians; and there still remained twenty days after the solstice to complete that year. During the thirty-seven days that followed the taking of the city I imagine the Achaeans were employed in regulating the affairs of the city, in receiving embassies from those who had withdrawn themselves, and in concluding a treaty with them.

§ 1.63.2  In the following year, which was the first after the taking of the city, the Trojans set sail about the autumnal equinox, crossed the Hellespont, and landing in Thrace, passed the winter season there, during which they received the fugitives who kept flocking to them and made the necessary preparations for their voyage. And leaving Thrace in the beginning of spring, they sailed as far as Sicily; when they had landed there that year came to an end, and they passed the second winter in assisting the Elymians to found their cities in Sicily.

§ 1.63.3  But as soon as conditions were favourable for navigation they set sail from the island, and crossing the Tyrrhenian sea, arrived at last at Laurentum on the coast of the Aborigines in the middle of the summer. And having received the ground from them, they founded Lavinium, thus bringing to an end the second year from the taking of Troy. With regard to these matters, then, I have thus shown my opinion.

§ 1.64.1  But when Aeneas had sufficiently adorned the city with temples and other public buildings, of which the greatest part remained even to my day, the next year, which was the third after his departure from Troy, he reigned over the Trojans only. But in the fourth year, Latinus having died, he succeeded to his kingdom also, not only in consideration of his relationship to him by marriage, Lavinia being the heiress after the death of Latinus, but also because of his being commander in the war against the neighbouring tribes.

§ 1.64.2  For the Rutulians had again revolted from Latinus, choosing for their leader one of the deserters, named Tyrrhenus, who was a nephew of Amata, the wife of Latinus. This man, blaming Latinus in the matter of Lavinia's marriage, because he had ignored his kinsmen and allied his family with outsiders, and being goaded on by Amata and encouraged by others, had gone over to the Rutulians with the forces he commanded.

§ 1.64.3  War arose out of these complaints and in a sharp battle that ensued Latinus, Tyrrhenus and many others were slain; nevertheless, Aeneas and his people gained the victory. Thereupon Aeneas succeeded to the kingdom of his father-in-law; but when he had reigned three years after the death of Latinus, in the fourth he lost his life in battle.

§ 1.64.4  For the Rutulians marched out in full force from their cities against him, and with them Mezentius, king of the Tyrrhenians, who thought his own country in danger; for he was troubled at seeing the Greek power already making rapid headway. A severe battle took place not far from Lavinium and many were slain on both sides, but when night came on the armies separated; and when the body of Aeneas was nowhere to be seen, some concluded that it had been translated to the gods and others that it had perished in the river beside which the battle was fought.

§ 1.64.5  And the Latins built a hero-shrine to him with this inscription: "To the father and god of this place, who presides over the waters of the river Numicius." But there are some who say the shrine was erected by Aeneas in honour of Anchises, who died in the year before this war. It is a small mound, round which have been set out in regular rows trees that are well worth seeing.

§ 1.65.1  Aeneas having departed this life about the seventh year after the taking of Troy, Euryleon, who in the flight had been renamed Ascanius, succeeded to the rule over the Latins. At this time the Trojans were undergoing a siege; the forces of the enemy were increasing daily, and the Latins were unable to assist those who were shut up in Lavinium.

§ 1.65.2  Ascanius and his men, therefore, first invited the enemy to a friendly and reasonable accommodation, but when no heed was paid to them, they were forced to allow their enemies to put an end to the war upon their own terms. When, however, the gate of the Tyrrhenians, among other intolerable conditions that he imposed upon them, as upon a people already become his slaves, commanded them to bring to the Tyrrhenians every year all the wine the country of the Latins produced, they looked upon this as a thing beyond all endurance, and following the advice of Ascanius, voted that the fruit of the vine should be sacred to Jupiter. Then, exhorting one another to prove their zeal and valour and praying the gods to assist them in their dangerous enterprise, they fixed upon a moonless night and sallied out of the city.

§ 1.65.3  And they immediately attacked that part of the enemy's rampart which lay nearest to the city and which, being designed as an advanced post to cover the rest of their forces, had been constructed in a strong position and was defended by the choicest youth of the Tyrrhenians, under the command of Lausus, the son of Mezentius; and their attack being unforeseen, they easily made themselves masters of the stronghold. While they were employed in taking this post, those of the enemy who were encamped on the plains, seeing an unusual light and hearing the cries of the men who were perishing, left the level country and were fleeing to the mountains.

§ 1.65.4  During this time there was great confusion and tumult, as was but natural with an army moving at night; for they expected the enemy would every moment fall upon them while they were withdrawing in disorder and with ranks broken. The Latins, after they had taken the fort by storm and learned that the rest of the army was in disorder, pressed after them, killing and pursuing. And not only did none of the enemy attempt to turn and resist, but it was not even possible for them to know in what evil plight they were, and in their confusion and helplessness some were falling over precipices and perishing, while others were becoming entangled in blind ravines and were being taken prisoner; but most of them, failing to recognize their comrades in the dark, treated them as enemies, and the greatest part of their loss was due to their slaying of one another.

§ 1.65.5  Mezentius with a few of his men seized a hill, but when he learned of the fate of his son and of the numbers he had lost and discovered the nature of the place in which he had shut himself up, realizing that he was packing in everything needful, he sent heralds to Lavinium to treat for peace. And since Ascanius advised the Latins to husband their good fortune, Mezentius obtained permission to retire under a truce with the forces he had left; and from that time, laying aside all his enmity with the Latins, he was their consulate friend.

§ 1.66.1  In the thirtieth year after the founding of Lavinium Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, in pursuance of the oracle given to his father, built another city and transferred both the inhabitants of Lavinium and the other Latins who were desirous of a better habitation to this newly-built city, which he called Alba. Alba means in the Greek tongue Leuke or "White"; but for the sake of clearness it is distinguished from another city of the same name by the addition of an epithet descriptive of its shape, and its name is now, as it were, a compound, made up of the two terms, Alba Longa, that is Leuke Makra or "Long White (town)."

§ 1.66.2  This city is now uninhabited, since in the time of Tullus Hostilius, king of the Romans, Alba seemed to be contending with her colony for the sovereignty and hence was destroyed; but Rome, though she razed her mother-city to the ground, nevertheless welcomed its citizens into her midst. But these events belong to a later time. To return to its founding, Alba was built near a mountain and a lake, occupying the space between the two, which served the city in place of walls and rendered it difficult to be taken. For the mountain is extremely strong and high and the lake is deep and large; and its waters are received by the plain when the sluices are opened, the inhabitants having it in their power to husband the supply as much as they wish.

§ 1.66.3  Lying below the city are plains marvellous to behold and rich in producing wines and fruits of all sorts in no degree inferior to the rest of Italy, and particularly what they call the Alban wine, which is sweet and excellent and, with the exception of the Falernian, certainly superior to all others.

§ 1.67.1  While the city was building, a most remarkable prodigy is said to have occurred. A temple with an inner sanctuary had been built for the images of the gods which Aeneas had brought with him from the Troad and set up in Lavinium, and the statues had been removed from Lavinium to this sanctuary; but during the following night, although the doors were most carefully closed and the walls of the enclosure and the roof of the temple suffered no injury, the statues changed their position and were found upon their old pedestals.

§ 1.67.2  And after being brought back again from Lavinium with supplications and propitiatory sacrifices they returned in like manner to the same place. Upon this the people were for someone time in doubt what they should do, being unwilling either to live apart from their ancestral gods or to return again to their deserted habitation. But at last they hit upon an expedient which promised to meet satisfactorily both these difficulties. This was to let the images remain where they were and to conduct men back from Alba to Lavinium to live there and take care of them. Those who were sent to Lavinium to have charge of their rites were six hundred in number; they removed thither with their entire households, and Aegestus was appointed their chief.

§ 1.67.3  As for these gods, the Romans call them Penates. Some who translate the name into the Greek language render it Patrooi, others Genethlioi, some Ktesiori, others Mychioi, and still others Herkeioi. Each of these seems to be giving them their name from some one of their attributes, and it is probable that they are all expressing more or less the same idea.

§ 1.67.4  Concerning their figure and appearance, Timaeus, the historian, makes the statement that the holy objects preserved in the sanctuary at Lavinium are iron and bronze caducei or "heralds' wands," and a Trojan earthenware vessel; this, he says, he himself learned from the inhabitants. For my part, I believe that in the case of those things which it is not lawful for all to see I ought neither to hear about them from those who do see them nor to describe them; and I am indignant with every one else, too, who presumes to inquire into or to know more than what is permitted by law.

§ 1.68.1  But the things which I myself know by having seen them and concerning which no scruple forbids me to write are as follows. They show you in Rome a temple built not far from the Forum in the short street that leads to the Carinae; it is a small shrine, and is darkened by the height of the adjacent buildings. The place is called in the native speech Velia. In this temple there are images of the Trojan gods which it is lawful for all to see, with an inscription showing them to be the Penates. They are two seated youths holding spears, and are pieces of ancient workmanship. We have seen many other statues also of these gods in ancient temples and in all of them are represented two youths in military garb. These it is permitted to see, and it is also permitted to hear and to write about them what Callistratus, the author of the history of Samothrace, relates, and also Satyrus, who collected the ancient legends, and many others, too, among whom the poet Arctinus is the earliest we know of.

§ 1.68.3  At any rate, the following is the account they give. Chryse, the daughter of Pallas, when she was married to Dardanus, brought for her dowry the gifts of Athena, that is, the Palladia and the sacred symbols of the Great Gods, in whose mysteries she had been instructed. When the Arcadians, fleeing from the deluge, left the Peloponnesus and established their abode in the Thracian island, Dardanus built there a temple to these gods, whose particular names he kept secret from all any others, and performed the mysteries in their honour which are observed to this day by the Samothracians.

§ 1.68.4  Then, when he was conducting the greater part of the people into Asia, he left the sacred rites and mysteries of the gods with those who remained in the island, but packed up and carried with him the Palladia and the images of the gods. And upon consulting the oracle concerning the place where he should settle, among other things that he learned he received this answer relating to the custody of the holy objects:
"In the town thou buildest worship undying found
To gods ancestral; guard them, sacrifice,
Adore with choirs. For whilst these holy things
In thy land remain, Zeus' daughter's gifts of old
Bestowed upon thy souse, secure from harm
Thy city shall abide forevermore."

§ 1.69.1  Dardanus, accordingly, left the statues in the city which he founded and named after himself, but when Ilium was settled later, they were removed thither by his descendants; and the people of Ilium built a temple and a sanctuary for them upon the citadel and preserved them with all possible care, looking upon them as sent from Heaven and as pledges of the city's safety.

§ 1.69.2  And while the lower town was being captured, Aeneas, possessing himself of the citadel, took out of the sanctuary the images of the Great Gods and the Palladium which still remained (for Odysseus and Diomed, they say, when they came into Ilium by night, had stolen the other away), and carrying them with him out of the city, brought them into Italy.

§ 1.69.3  Arctinus, however, says that only one Palladium was given by Zeus to Dardanus and that this remained in Ilium, hidden in the sanctuary, till the city was being taken; but that from this a copy was made, differing in no respect from the original, and exposed to public view, on purpose to deceive those who might be planning to steal it, and that the Achaeans, having formed such a plan, took the copy away.

§ 1.69.4  I say, therefore, upon the authority of the men above-mentioned, that the holy objects brought into Italy by Aeneas were the images of the Great Gods, to whom the Samothracians, of all the Greeks, pay the greatest worship, and the Palladium, famous in legend, which they say is kept by the holy virgins in the temple of Vesta, where the perpetual fire is also preserved; but concerning these matters I shall speak hereafter. And there may also be other objects besides these which are kept secret from us who are not initiated. But let this suffice concerning the holy objects of the Trojans.

§ 1.70.1  Upon the death of the Ascanius in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, Silvius, his brother, succeeded to the rule. He was born of Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus, after the death of Aeneas, and they say that he was brought up on the mountains by the herdsmen.

§ 1.70.2  For when Ascanius took over the rule, Lavinia, becoming alarmed lest her relationship as step-mother might draw upon her some severity from him, and being then with child, entrusted herself to a certain Tyrrhenus, who had charge of the royal herds of swine and whom she knew to have been on very intimate terms with Latinus. He, carrying her into the lonely woods as if she were an ordinary woman, and taking care that she was not seen by anyone who knew her, supported her in a house he built in the forest, which was known to but few. And when the child was born, he took it up and reared it, naming it, from the wood, Silvius, or, as one might say in Greek, Hylaios.

§ 1.70.3  But in the course of time, finding that the Latins made great search for the woman and that the people accused Ascanius of having put her to death, he acquainted them with the whole matter and brought the woman and her son out of the forest. From this experience Silvius got his name, as I have related, and so did all his posterity. And he became king after the death of his brother, though not without a contest with one of the sons of Ascanius, — Iulus, the eldest, — who claimed the succession to his father's rule;

§ 1.70.4  the issue was decided by vote of the people, who were influenced chiefly by this consideration, among others, that Silvius' mother was heiress to the kingdom. Upon Iulus was conferred, instead of the sovereignty, a certain sacred authority and honour preferable to the royal dignity both for security and ease of life, and this prerogative was enjoyed even to my day by his posterity, who were called Julii after him. This house became the greatest and at the same time the most illustrious of any we know of, and produced the most distinguished commanders, whose virtues were so many proofs of their nobility. But concerning them I shall say what is requisite in another place.

§ 1.71.1  Silvius, after holding the sovereignty twenty-nine years, was succeeded by Aeneas, his son, who reigned thirty-one years. After him, Latinus reigned fifty-one, then Alba, thirty-nine; after Alba, Capetus reigned twenty-six, then Capys twenty-eight, and after Capys, Capetus held the rule for thirteen years.

§ 1.71.2  Then Tiberinus reigned for a period of eight years. This king, it is said, was slain in a battle that was fought near a river, and being carried away by the stream, gave his name to the river, which had previously been called the Albula. Tiberinus' successor, Agrippa, reigned forty-one years.

§ 1.71.3  After Agrippa, Allocius, a tyrannical creature and odious to the gods, reigned nineteen years. Contemptuous of the divine powers, he had contrived imitations of lightning and sounds resembling thunder-claps, with which he proposed to terrify people as if he were a god. But rain and lightning descended upon his house, and the lake beside which it stood rose to an unusual height, so that he was overwhelmed and destroyed with his whole household. And even now when the lake is clear in a certain part, which happens whenever the flow of water subsides and the depths are undisturbed, the ruins of porticoes and other traces of a dwelling appear.

§ 1.71.4  Aventinus, after whom was named one of the seven hills that are joined to make the city of Rome, succeeded him in the sovereignty and reigned thirty-seven years, and after him Proca twenty-three years. Then Amulius, having unjustly possessed himself of the kingdom which belonged to Numitor, his elder brother, reigned forty-two years.

§ 1.71.5  But when Amulius had been slain by Romulus and Remus, the sons of the holy maiden, as shall presently be related, Numitor, the maternal grandfather of the youths, after his brother's death resumed the sovereignty which by law belonged to him. In the next year of Numitor's reign, which was the four hundred and thirty-second after the taking of Troy, the Albans sent out a colony, under the leadership of Romulus and Remus, and founded Rome, in the beginning of the first year of the seventh Olympiad, when Daicles of Messene was victor in the foot race, and at Athens Charops was in the first year of his ten-year term as archon.

§ 1.72.1  But as there is great dispute concerning both the time of the building of the city and the founders of it, I have thought it incumbent on me also not to give merely a cursory account of these things, as if they were universally agreed on. For Cephalon of Gergis, a very ancient writer, says that the city was built in the second generation after the Trojan War by those who had escaped from Troy with Aeneas, and he names as the founder of it Romus, who was the leader of the colony and one of Aeneas' sons; he adds that Aeneas had four sons, Ascanius, Euryleon, Romulus and Remus. And Demagoras, Agathyllus and many others agree with him as regards both the time and the leader of the colony.

§ 1.72.2  But the author of the history of the priestesses at Argos and of what happened in the days of each of them says that Aeneas came into Italy from the land of the Molossians with Odysseus and became the founder of the city, which he named after Rome, one of the Trojan women. He says that this woman, growing weary with wandering, stirred up the other Trojan women and together with them set fire to the ships. And Damastes of Sigeum and some others agree with him.

§ 1.72.3  But Aristotle, the philosopher, relates that some of the Achaeans, while they were doubling Cape Malea on their return from Troy, were overtaken by a violent storm, and being for some time driven out of their course by the winds, wandered over many parts of the sea, till at last they came to this place in the land of the Opicans which is called Latinium, lying on the Tyrrhenian sea.

§ 1.72.4  And being pleased with the sight of land, they hauled up their ships, stayed there the winter season, and were preparing to sail at the beginning of spring; but when their ships were set on fire in the night and they were unable to sail away, they were compelled against their will to fix their abode in the place where they had landed. This fate, he says, was brought upon them by the captive women they were carrying with them from Troy, who burned the ships, fearing that the Achaeans in returning home would carry them into slavery.

§ 1.72.5  Callias, who wrote of the deeds of Agathocles, says that Rome, one of the Trojan women who came into Italy with the other Trojans, married Latinus, the king of the Aborigines, by whom she had three son, Romus, Romulus and Telegonus, . . . and having built a city, gave it the name of their mother. Xenagoras, the historian, writes that Odysseus and Circe had three sons, Romus, Anteias and Ardeias, who built three cities and called them after their own names.

§ 1.72.6  Dionysius of Chalcis names Romus as the founder of the city, but says that according to some this man was the son of Ascanius, and according to others the son of Emathion. There are others who declare that Rome was built by Romus, the son of Italus and Leucaria, the daughter of Latinus.

§ 1.73.1  I could cite many other Greek historians who assign different founders to the city, but, not to appear prolix, I shall come to the Roman historians. The Romans, to be sure, have not so much as one single historian or chronicler who is ancient; however, each of their historians has taken something out of ancient accounts that are preserved on sacred tablets.

§ 1.73.2  Some of these say that Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were the sons of Aeneas, others say that they were the sons of a daughter of Aeneas, without going on to determine who was their father; that they were delivered as hostages by Aeneas to Latinus, the king of the Aborigines, when the treaty was made between the inhabitants and the new-comers, and that Latinus, after giving them a kindly welcome, not only did them might good offices, but, upon dying without male issue, left them his successors to some part of his kingdom.

§ 1.73.3  Others say that after the death of Aeneas Ascanius, having succeeded to the entire sovereignty of the Latins, divided both the country and the forces of the Latins into three parts, two of which he gave to his brothers, Romulus and Remus. He himself, they say, built Alba and some other towns; Remus built cities which he named Capuas, after Capys, his great-grandfather, Anchisa, after his grandfather Anchises, Aeneia (which was afterwards called Janiculum), after his father, and Rome, after himself. This last city was for some time deserted, but upon the arrival of another colony, which the Albans sent out under the leadership of Romulus and Remus, it received again its ancient name. So that, according to this account, there were two settlements of Rome, one a little after the Trojan War, and the other fifteen generations after the first.

§ 1.73.4  And if anyone desires to look into the remoter past, even a third Rome will be found, more ancient than these, one that was founded before Aeneas and the Trojans came into Italy. This is related by no ordinary or modern historian, but by Antiochus of Syracuse, whom I have mentioned before. He says that when Morges reigned in Italy (which at that time comprehended all the seacoast from Tarentum to Posidonia), a man came to him who had been banished from Rome. His words are these: "When Italus was growing old, Morges reigned. In his reign there came a man who had been banished from Rome; his name was Seicelus."

§ 1.73.5  According to the Syracusan historian, therefore, an ancient Rome is found even earlier than the Trojan War. However, as he has left it doubtful whether it was situated in the same region where the present city stands or whether some other place happened to be called by this name, I, too, can form no conjecture. But as regards the ancient settlements of Rome, I think that what has already been said is sufficient.

§ 1.74.1  As to the last settlement or founding of the city, or whatever we ought to call it, Timaeus of Sicily, following what principle I do not know, places it at the same time as the founding of Carthage, that is, in the thirty-eighth year before the first Olympiad; Lucius Cincius, a member of the senate, places it about the fourth year of the twelfth Olympiad, and Quintus Fabius in the first year of the eighth Olympiad.

§ 1.74.2  Porcius Cato does not give the time according to Greek reckoning, but being as careful as any writer in gathering the date of ancient history, he places its founding four hundred and thirty-two years after the Trojan War; and this time, being compared with the Chronicles of Eratosthenes, corresponds to the first year of the seventh Olympiad. That the canons of Eratosthenes are sound I have shown in another treatise, where I have also shown how the Roman chronology is to be synchronized with that of the Greeks.

§ 1.74.3  For I did not think it sufficient, like Polybius of Megalopolis, to say merely that I believe Rome was built in the second year of the seventh Olympiad, nor to let my belief rest without further examination upon the single tablet preserved by the high priests, the only one of its kind, but I determined to set forth the reasons that had appealed to me, so that all might examine them who so desired.

§ 1.74.4  In that treatise, therefore, the detailed exposition is given; but in the course of the present work also the most essential of the conclusions there reached will be mentioned. The matter stands thus: It is generally agreed that the invasion of the Gauls, during which the city of Rome was taken, happened during the archonship of Pyrgion at Athens [388 BCE], in the first year of the ninety-eighth Olympiad. Now if the time before the taking of the city is reckoned back to Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, the first consuls at Rome after the overthrow of the kings [509 BCE], it comprehends one hundred and twenty years.

§ 1.74.5  This is proved in many other ways, but particularly by the records of the censors, which receives in succession from the father and takes great care to transmit to posterity, like family rites; and there are many illustrious men of censorian families who preserve these records. In them I find that in the second year before the taking of the city there was a census of the Roman people, to which, as to the rest of them, there is affixed the date, as follows: "In the consulship of Lucius Valerius Potitus and Titus Manlius Capitolinus, in the one hundred and nineteenth year after the expulsion of the kings."

§ 1.74.6  So that the Gallic invasion, which we find to have occurred in the second year after the census, happened when the hundred and twenty years were completed. If, now, this interval of time is found to consist of thirty Olympiads, it must be allowed that the first consuls to be chosen entered upon their magistracy in the first year of the sixty-eighth Olympiad, the same year that Isagoras was archon at Athens [508 BCE].

§ 1.75.1  And, again, if from the expulsion of the kings the time is reckoned back to Romulus, the first ruler of the city, it amounts to two hundred and forty-four years. This is known from the order in which the kings succeeded one another and the number of years each of them ruled. For Romulus, the founder of Rome, reigned thirty-seven years, it is said, and after his death the city was a year without a king.

§ 1.75.2  Then Numa Pompilius, who was chosen by the people, reigned forty-three years; after Numa, Tullus Hostilius thirty-two; and his successor, Ancus Marcius, twenty-four; after Marcius, Lucius Tarquinius, called Priscus, thirty-eight; Servius Tullius, who succeeded him, forty-four. And the slayer of Servius, Lucius Tarquinius, the tyrannical prince who, from his contempt of justice, was called Superbus, extended his reign to the twenty-fifth year.

§ 1.75.3  As the reigns, therefore, of the kings amount to two hundred and forty-four years or sixty-one Olympiads, it follows necessarily that Romulus, the first ruler of the city, began his reign in the first year of the seventh Olympiad, when Charops at Athens was in the first year of his ten-year term as archon. For the count of the years requires this; and that each king reigned the number of years is shown in that treatise of mine to which I have referred.

§ 1.75.4  This, therefore, is the account given by those who lived before me and adopted by me concerning the time of the settlement of the city which now rules supreme. As to its founders, who they were and by what turns of fortune they were induced to lead out the colony, and any other details told concerning its settlement, all this has been related by many, and the greatest part of it in a different manner by some; and I, also, shall relate the most probable of these stories. They are as follows:

§ 1.76.1  When Amulius succeeded to the kingdom of the Albans, after forcibly excluding his elder brother Numitor from the dignity that was his by inheritance, he not only showed great contempt for justice in everything else that he did, but he finally plotted to deprive Numitor's family of issue, both from fear of suffer punishment for his usurpation and also because of his desire never to be dispossessed of the sovereignty.

§ 1.76.2  Having long resolved upon this course, he first observed the neighbourhood where Aegestus, Numitor's son, who was just coming to man's estate, was wont to follow the chase, and having placed an ambush in the most hidden part of it, he caused him to be slain when he had come out to hunt; and after the deed was committed he contrived to have it reported that the youth had been killed by robbers. Nevertheless, the rumour thus concocted could not prevail over the truth which he was trying to keep concealed, but many, though it was unsafe to do so, ventured to tell what had been done. Numitor was aware of the crime, but his judgment being superior to his grief, he affected ignorance, resolving to defer his resentment to a less dangerous time. And Amulius, supposing that the truth about the youth had been kept secret, set a second plan on foot, as follows: he appointed Numitor's daughter, Ilia, — or, as some state, Rhea, surnamed Silvia, — who was then ripe for marriage, to be a priestess of Vesta, lest, if she first entered a husband's house, she might bring forth avengers for her family. These holy maidens who were intrusted with the custody of the perpetual fire and with the carrying out of any other rites that it was customary for virgins to perform in behalf of the commonwealth were required to remain undefiled by marriage for a period of not less than five years. 4 Amulius was carrying out his plan under specious pretences, as if he were conferring honour and dignity on his brother's family; for he was not the author of this law, which was a general one, nor, again, was his brother the first person of consideration whom he had obliged to yield obedience to it, but it was both customary and honourable among the Albans for maidens of the highest birth to be appointed to the service of Vesta. But Numitor, perceiving that these measures of his brother proceeded from no good intention, dissembled his resentment, lest he should incur the ill-will of the people, and stifled his complaints upon this occasion also.

§ 1.77.1  The fourth year after this, Ilia, upon going to a grove consecrated to Mars to fetch pure water for use in the sacrifices, was ravished by somebody or other in the sacred precinct. Some say that the author of the deed was one of the maiden's suitors, who was carried away by his passion for the girl; others say that it was Amulius himself, and that, since his purpose was to destroy her quite as much as to satisfy his passion, he had arrayed himself in such armour as would render him most terrible to behold and that he also kept his features disguised as effectively as possible.

§ 1.77.2  But most writers relate a fabulous story to the effect that it was a spectre of the divinity to whom the place was consecrated; and they add that the advantageous was attended by many supernatural signs, including a sudden disappearance of the sun and a darkness that spread over the sky, and that the appearance of the spectre was far more marvellous than that of a man both in stature and in beauty. And they say that the ravisher, to comfort the maiden (by which it became clear that it was a god), commanded her not to grieve at all at what had happened, since she had been united in marriage to the divinity of the place and as a result of her violation should bear two sons who would far excel all men in valour and warlike achievements. And having said this, he was wrapped in a cloud and, being lifted from the earth, was borne upwards through the air.

§ 1.77.3  This is not a proper place to consider what opinion we ought to entertain of such tales, whether we should scorn them as instances of human frailty attributed to the gods, — since God is incapable of any action that is unworthy of his incorruptible and blessed nature, — or whether we should admit even these stories, upon the supposition that all the substance of the universe is mixed, and that between the race of gods and that of men some third order of being exists which is that of the daemons, who, uniting sometimes with human beings and sometimes with the gods, beget, it is said, the fabled race of heroes. This, I say, is not a proper place to consider these things, and, moreover, what the philosophers have said concerning them is sufficient.

§ 1.77.4  But, be that as it may, the maid after her violation feigned illness (for this her mother advised out of regard both for her own safety and for the sacred services of the gods) and no longer attended the sacrifices, but her duties were performed by the other virgins who were joined with her in the same ministry.

§ 1.78.1  But Amulius, moved either by his own knowledge of what had happened or by a natural suspicion of the truth, began to inquire into her long absence from the sacrifices, in order to discover the real reason. To this end he kept sending in to her some physicians in whom he had the greatest confidence; and then, since the women alleged that her ailment was one that must be kept secret from others, he left his wife to watch her.

§ 1.78.2  She, having by a woman's marking of the signs discovered what was a secret to the others, informed him of it, and he, lest the girl should be delivered in secret, for she was now near her time, caused her to be guarded by armed men. And summoning his brother to the council, he not only announced the deflowering of the girl, of which the rest knew naught, but even accused her parents of being her accomplices; and he ordered Numitor not to hide the guilty man, but to expose him.

§ 1.78.3  Numitor said he was amazed at what he heard, and protesting his innocence of everything that was alleged, desired time to test the truth of it. Having with difficulty obtained this delay, and being informed by his wife of the affair as his daughter had related it in the beginning, he acquainted the council with the rape committed by the god and also related what the god had said concerning the twins, and asked that his story should be believed only if the fruit of her travail should prove to be such as the god had foretold; for the time of her delivery was near at hand, so that it would not be long, if he were playing the rogue, before the fact would come to light. Moreover, he offered to put at their disposal for examination the women who were watching his daughter, and he was ready to submit to any and every test.

§ 1.78.4  As he spoke thus the majority of the councilors were persuaded, but Amulius declared that his demands were altogether insincere, and was bent on destroying the girl by every means. While this was taking place, those who had been appointed to keep guard over Ilia at the time of her delivery came to announce that she had given birth to male twins. And at once Numitor began to urge at length the same arguments, showing the deed to be the work of the god and demanding that they take no unlawful action against his daughter, who was innocent of her condition. On the other hand, Amulius thought that even in connexion with her delivery there had been some human trickery and that the women had provided another child, either unknown to the guards or with their connivance, and he said much more to the same purport.

§ 1.78.5  When the councilors found that the king's decision was inspired by implacable anger, they, too, voted, as he demanded, that the law should be carried out which provided that a Vestal who suffered herself to be defiled should be scourged with rods and put to death and her offspring thrown into the current of the river. Today, however, the sacred law ordains that such offenders shall be buried alive.

§ 1.79.1  Up to this point the greater part of the historians give the same account or differ but slightly, some in the direction of what is legendary, others of what is more probable; but they disagree in what follows.

§ 1.79.2  Some say that the girl was put to death immediately; others that she remained in a secret prison under a guard, which caused the people to believe that she had been put to death secretly. The latter authors say that Amulius was moved to do this when his daughter begged him to grant her the life of her cousin; for, having been brought up together and being of the same age, they loved each other like sisters. Amulius, accordingly, to please her, — for she was his only daughter, — saved Ilia from death, but kept her confined in a secret prison; and she was at length set at liberty after the death of Amulius.

§ 1.79.3  Thus do the accounts of the ancient authors vary concerning Ilia, and yet both opinions carry with them an appearance of truth; for this reason I, also, have mentioned them both, but each of my readers will decide for himself which to believe.

§ 1.79.4  But concerning the babes born of Ilia, Quintus Fabius, called Pictor, whom Lucius Cincius, Porcius Cato, Calpurnius Piso and most of the other historians have followed, writes thus: By the order of Amulius some of his servants took the babes in an ark and carried them to the river, distant about a hundred and twenty stades from the city, with the intention of throwing them into it.

§ 1.79.5  But when they drew near and perceived that the Tiber, swollen by continual rains, had left its natural bed and overflowed the plains, they came down from the top of the Palatine hill to that part of the water that lay nearest (for they could no longer advance any farther) and set down the ark upon the flood where it washed the foot of the hill. The ark floated for some time, and then, as the waters retired by degrees from their extreme limits, it struck against a stone and, overturning, threw out the babes, who lay whimpering and wallowing in the mud.

§ 1.79.6  Upon this, a she-wolf that had just whelped appeared and, her udder being distended with milk, gave them her paps to suck and with her tongue licked off the mud with which they were besmeared. In the meantime the herdsmen happened to be driving their flocks forth to pasture (for the place was now become passable) and one of them, seeing the wolf thus fondling the babes, was for some time struck dumb with astonishment and disbelief of what he saw. Then going away and getting together as many as he could of his fellows who kept their herds near at hand (for they would not believe what he said), he led them to see the sight themselves.

§ 1.79.7  When these also drew near and saw the wolf caring for the babes as if they had been her young and the babes clinging to her as to their mother, they thought they were beholding a supernatural sight and advanced in a body, shouting to terrify the creature. The wolf, however, far from being provoked at the approach of the men, but as if she had been tame, withdrew gently from the babes and went away, paying little heed to the rabble of shepherds.

§ 1.79.8  Now there was not far off a holy place, arched over by a dense wood, and a hollow rock from which springs issued; the wood was said to be consecrated to Pan, and there was an altar there to that god. To this place, then, the wolf came and hid herself. The grove, to be sure, no longer remains, but the cave from which the spring flows is still pointed out, built up against the side of the Palatine hill on the road which leads to the Circus, and near it is a sacred precinct in which there is a statue commemorating the incident; it represents a she-wolf suckling two infants, the figures being in bronze and of ancient workmanship. This spot is said to have been a holy place of the Arcadians who formerly settled there with Evander.

§ 1.79.9  As soon as the beast was gone the herdsmen took up the babes, and believing that the god desired their preservation, were eager to bring them up. There was among them the keeper of the royal herds of swine, whose name was Faustulus, an upright man, who had been in town upon some necessary business at the time when the deflowering of Ilia and her delivery were made public. And afterwards, when the babes were being carried to the river, he had by some providential chance taken the same road to the Palatine hill and gone along with those who were carrying them. This man, without giving the least intimation to the others that he knew anything of the affair, asked that the babes might be delivered to him, and having received them by general consent, he carried them home to his wife. 10 And finding that she had just given birth to a child and was grieving because it was still-born, he comforted her and gave her these children to substitute in its place, informing her of every circumstance of their fortune from the beginning. And as they grew older he gave to one the name of Romulus and to the other that of Remus. When they came to be men, they showed themselves both in dignity of aspect and elevation of mind not like swineherds and neatherds, but such as we might expect those to be who are born of royal race and are looked upon as the offspring of the gods; and as such they are still celebrated by the Romans in the hymns of their country. 11 But their life was that of herdsmen, and they lived by their own labour, generally upon the mountains in huts which they built, roofs and all, out of sticks and reeds. One of these, called the hut of Romulus, remained even to my day on the flank of the Palatine hill which faces towards the Circus, and it is preserved holy by those who have charge of these matters; they add nothing to it to render it more stately, but if any part of it is injured, either by storms or by the lapse of time, they repair the damage and restore the hut as nearly as possible to its former condition.

§ 1.79.12  When Romulus and Remus were about eighteen years of age, they had some dispute about the pasture with Numitor's herdsmen, whose herds were quartered on the Aventine hill, which is over against the Palatine. They frequently accused one another either of grazing the meadow-land (ὀργάδα) that did not belong to them or of monopolizing that which belonged to both in common, or of whatever the matter chanced to be. From this wrangling they had recourse sometimes to blows and then to arms. 13 Finally Numitor's men, having received many wounds at the hands of the youths and lost some of their number and being at last driven by force from the places in dispute, devised a stratagem against them. They place an ambuscade in the hidden part of the ravine and having concerted the time of the attack with those who lay in wait for the youths, the rest in a body attacked the others' folds by night. No wit happened that Romulus, together with the chief men of the village, had gone at the time to a place called Caenina to offer sacrifices for the community according to the custom of the country; 14 but Remus, being informed of the foe's attack, hastily armed himself and with a few of the villagers who had already got together went out to oppose them. And they, instead of awaiting him, retired, in order to draw him to the place where they intended to face above and attack him to advantage. Remus, being unaware of their stratagem, pursued them for a long distance, till he passed the place where the rest lay in ambush; thereupon these men rose up and at the same time the others who had been fleeing faced about. And having surrounded Remus and his men, they overwhelmed them with a shower of stones and took them prisoners; for they had received orders from their masters to bring the youths to them alive. Thus Remus was captured and led away.

§ 1.80.1  But Aelius Tubero, a shrewd man and careful in collecting the historical data, writes that Numitor's people, knowing beforehand that the youths were going to celebrate in honour of Pan the Lupercalia, the Arcadian festival as instituted by Evander, set an ambush for that moment in the celebration when the youths living near the Palatine were, after offering sacrifice, to proceed from the Lupercal and run round the village naked, their loins girt with the skins of the victims just sacrificed. This ceremony signified a sort of traditional purification of the villagers, and is still performed even to this day.

§ 1.80.2  On this occasion, then, the herdsmen lay in wait in the narrow part of the road for the youths who were taking part in the ceremony, and when the first band with Remus came abreast of them, that with Romulus and the rest being behind (for they were divided into three bands and ran at a distance from one another), without waiting for the others they set up a shout and all rushed upon the first group, and, surrounding them, some threw darts at them, others stones, and others whatever they could lay their hands on. And the youths, startled by the unexpected attack and at a loss how to act, fighting unarmed as they were against armed men, were easily overpowered.

§ 1.80.3  Remus, therefore, having fallen into the hands of the enemy in this manner or in the way Fabius relates, was being led away, bound, to Alba. When Romulus heard of his brother's fate, he thought he ought to follow immediately with the stoutest of the herdsmen in the hope of overtaking Remus while he was still on the road, but he was dissuaded by Faustulus. For seeing that his haste was too frenzied, this man, who was looked upon as the father of the youths and who had hitherto kept everything a secret from them, lest they should venture upon some hazardous enterprise before they were in their prime, now at last, compelled by necessity, took Romulus aside and told him everything.

§ 1.80.4  When the youth heard every circumstance of their fortune from the beginning, he was touched both with compassion for his mother and with solicitude for Numitor. And after taking much counsel with Faustulus, he decided to give up his plan for an immediate attack, but to get ready a larger force, in order to free his whole family from the lawlessness of Amulius, and he resolved to risk the direst peril for the sake of the greatest rewards, but to act in concert with his grandfather in whatever the other should see fit to do.

§ 1.81.1  This plan having been decided upon as the best, Romulus called together all the inhabitants of the village and after asking them to hasten into Alba immediately, but not all by the same gates nor in a body, lest the suspicions of the citizens should be aroused, and then to stay in the market-place and be ready to do whatever should be ordered, he himself set out first for the city.

§ 1.81.2  In the meantime those who had carried off Remus brought him before the king and complained of all the outrageous treatment they had received from the youths, producing their wounded, and threatening, if they found no redress, to desert their herds. And Amulius, desiring to please both the countrymen, who had come in great numbers, and Numitor (for he happened to be present and share the exasperation of his retainers), and longing to see peace throughout the country, and at the same time suspecting the boldness of the youth, so fearless was in his answers, gave judgment against him; but he left his punishment to Numitor, saying that the one who had done an injury could be punished by none so justly as by the one who had suffered it.

§ 1.81.3  While Numitor's herdsmen were leading Remus away with his hands bound behind him and mocking him, Numitor followed and not only admired his grace of body, so much was there that was kingly in his bearing, but also observed his nobility of spirit, which he preserved even in distress, not turning to lamentations and entreaties, as all do under such afflictions, but with a becoming silence going away to his fate.

§ 1.81.4  As soon as they were arrived at his house he ordered all the rest of to withdraw, and Remus being left alone, he asked him who he was and of what parents; for he did not believe such a man could be meanly born. Remus answered that he knew this much only from the account he had received from the man who brought him up, that he with his twin brother had been exposed in a wood as soon as they were born and had then been taken up by the herdsmen and reared by them. Upon which Numitor, after a short pause, either because he suspected something of the truth or because Heaven was bringing the matter to light, said to him:

§ 1.81.5  "I need not inform you, Remus, that you are in my power to be punished in whatever way I may see fit, and that those who brought you here, having suffered many grievous wrongs at your hands, would give much to have you put to death. All this you know. But if I should free you from death and every other punishment, would you show your gratitude and serve me when I desire your assistance in an affair that will conduce to the advantage of us both?"

§ 1.81.6  The youth, having in answer said everything which the hope of life prompts those who are in despair of it to say and promise to those on whom their fate depends, Numitor ordered him to be unbound. And commanding everybody to leave the place, he acquainted him with his own misfortunes — how Amulius, though his brother, had deprived him of his kingdom and bereft him of his children, having secretly slain his son while he was hunting and keeping his daughter bound in prison, and in all other respects continued to treat him as a master would treat his slave.

§ 1.82.1  Having spoken thus and accompanied ship words with many lamentations, he entreated Remus to avenge the wrongs of his house. And when the youth gladly embraced the proposal and begged him to set him at the task immediately, Numitor commended his eagerness and said: "I myself will determine the proper time for the enterprise; but do you meanwhile send a message privately to your brother, informing him that you are safe and asking him to come here in all haste."

§ 1.82.2  Thereupon a man who seemed likely to serve their purpose was found and sent; and he, meeting Romulus not far from the city, delivered his message. Romulus was greatly rejoiced at this and went in haste to Numitor; and having embraced them both, he first spoke words of greeting and then related how he and his brother had been exposed and brought up and all the other circumstances he had learned from Faustulus. The others, who wished his story might be true and needed few proofs in order to believe it, heard what he said with pleasure. And as soon as they knew one another they proceeded to consult together and consider the proper method and occasion for making their attack.

§ 1.82.3  While they were thus employed, Faustulus was brought before Amulius. For, fearing lest the information given by Romulus might not be credited by Numitor, in an affair of so great moment, without manifest proofs, he soon afterwards followed him to town, taking the ark with him as evidence of the exposing of the babes.

§ 1.82.4  But as he was entering the gates in great confusion, taking all possible pains to conceal what he carried, one of the guards observed him (for there was fear of an incursion of the enemy and the gates were being guarded by those who were most fully trusted by the king) and laid hold of him; and insisting upon knowing what the concealed object was, he forcibly threw back his garment. As soon as he saw the ark and found the man embarrassed, he demanded to know the cause of his confusion and what he meant by not carrying openly an article that required no secrecy.

§ 1.82.5  In the meantime more of the guards flocked to them and one of them recognized the ark, having himself carried the children in it to the river; and he so informed those who were present. Upon this they seized Faustulus, and carrying him to the king himself, acquainted him with all that had passed.

§ 1.82.6  Amulius, having terrified the man by the threat of torture if he did not willingly tell the truth, first asked him if the children were alive; and learning that they were, he desired to know in what manner they had been preserved. And when the other had given him a full account of everything as it had happened, the king said: "Well then, since you have spoken the truth about these matters, say where they may now be found; for it is not right that they who are my relations should any longer live ingloriously among herdsmen, particularly since it is due to the providence of the gods that they have been preserved."

§ 1.83.1  But Faustulus, suspecting from the king's unaccountable mildness that his intentions were not in harmony with his professions, answer him in this manner: "The youths are upon the mountains tending their herds, which is their way of life, and I was sent by them to their mother to give her an account of their fortunes; but, hearing that she was in your custody, I was intending to ask your daughter to have me brought to her. And I was bringing the ark with me that I might support my words with a manifest proof. Now, therefore, since you have decided to have the youths brought here, not only am I glad, but I ask you to send such persons with me as you wish. I will point out to them the youths and they shall acquaint them with your commands."

§ 1.83.2  This he said in the desire to discover some means of delaying the death of the youths and at the same time in the hope of making his own escape from the hands of those who were conducting him, as soon as he should arrive upon the mountains. And Amulius speedily sent the most trustworthy of his guards with secret orders to seize and bring before him the persons whom the swineherd should point out to them. Having done this, he at once determined to summon his brother and keep under mild guard till he had ordered the present business to his satisfaction, and he sent for him as if for some other purpose;

§ 1.83.3  but the messenger who was sent, yielding both to his good-will toward the man in danger and to compassion for his fate, informed Numitor of the design of Amulius. And Numitor, having revealed to the youths the danger that threatened them and exhorted them to show themselves brave men, came to the palace with a considerable band of his retainers and friends and loyal servants. These were joined by the countrymen who had entered the city earlier and now came from the complain with swords concealed under their clothes, a sturdy company. And having by a concerted attack forced the entrance, which was defended by only a few heavy-armed troops, they easily slew Amulius and afterwards made themselves masters of the citadel. Such is the account given by Fabius.

§ 1.84.1  But others, who hold that nothing bordering on the fabulous has any place in historical writing, declare that the exposing of the babes by the servants in a manner not in accordance with their instructions is improbable, and they ridicule the tameness of the she-wolf that suckled the children as a story full of melodramatic absurdity.

§ 1.84.2  In place of this they give the following account of the matter: Numitor, upon learning that Ilia was with child, procured other new-born infants and when she had given birth to her babes, he substituted the former in place of the latter. Then he gave the supposititious children to those who were guarding her at the time of her delivery to be carried away, having either secured the loyalty of the guards by money or contrived this exchange by the help of women; and when Amulius had received them, he made away with them by some means or other. As for the babes that were born of Ilia, their grandfather, who was above all things solicitous for their preservation, handed them over to Faustulus.

§ 1.84.3  This Faustulus, they say, was of Arcadian extraction, being descended from those Arcadians who came over with Evander; he lived near the Palatine hill and had the care of Amulius' possessions, and he was prevailed on by his brother, named Faustinus, who had the oversight of Numitor's herds that fed near the Aventine hill, to do Numitor the favour of bringing up the children.

§ 1.84.4  They say, moreover, that the one who nursed and suckled them was not a she-wolf, but, as may well be supposed, a woman, the wife of Faustulus, named Laurentia, who, having formerly prostituted her beauty, had received from the people living round the Palatine hill the nickname of Lupa. This is an ancient Greek term applied to women who prostitute themselves for gain; but they are now called by a more respectable name, hetaerae or "companions." But some who were ignorant of this invented the myth of the she-wolf, this animal being called in the Latin tongue lupa.

§ 1.84.5  The story continues that after the children were weaned they were sent by those who were rearing them to Gabii, a town not far from the Palatine hill, to be instructed in Greek learning; and there they were brought up by some personal friends of Faustulus, being taught letters, music, and the use of Greek arms until they grew to manhood.

§ 1.84.6  After their return to their supposed parents the quarrel arose between them and Numitor's herdsmen concerning their common pastures; thereupon they beat Numitor's men so that these drove away their cattle, doing this by Numitor's direction, to the intent that it might serve as a basis for his complaints and at the same time as an excuse for the crowd of herdsmen to come to town.

§ 1.84.7  When this had been brought about, Numitor raised a clamour against Amulius, declaring that he was treated outrageously, being plundered by the herdsmen of Amulius, and demanding that Amulius, if he was not responsible for any of this, should delivering to him the herdsman and his sons for trial; and Amulius, wishing to clear himself of the charge, ordered not only those who were complained of, but all the rest who were accused of having been present at the conflict, to come and stand trial before Numitor.

§ 1.84.8  Then, when great numbers came to town together with the accused, ostensibly to attend the trial, the grandfather of the youths acquainted them with all the circumstances of their fortune, and telling them that now, if ever, was the time to avenge themselves, he straightway made his attack upon Amulius with the crowd of herdsmen. These, then, are the accounts that are given of the birth and rearing of the founders of Rome.

§ 1.85.1  I am now going to relate the events that happened at the very time of its founding; for this part of my account still remains. When Numitor, upon the death of Amulius, had resumed his rule and had spent a little time in restoring the city from its late disorder to its former orderly state, he presently thought of providing an independent rule for the youths by founding another city.

§ 1.85.2  At the same time, the inhabitants being much increased in number, he thought it good policy to get rid of some part of them, particularly of those who had once been his enemies, lest he might have cause to suspect any of his subjects. And having communicated this plan to the youths and gained their approval, he gave them, as a district to rule, the region where they had been brought up in their infancy, and, for subjects, not only that part of the people which he suspected of a design to begin rebellion anew, but also any who were willing to migrate voluntarily.

§ 1.85.3  Among these, as is likely to happen when a city sends out a colony, there were great numbers of the common people, but there were also a sufficient number of the prominent men of the best class, and of the Trojan element all those who were esteemed the noblest in birth, some of whose posterity remained even to my day, consisting of about fifty families. The youths were supplied with money, arms and corn, with slaves and beasts of burden and everything else that was of use in the building of a city.

§ 1.85.4  After they had led their people out of Alba and intermingled with them the local population that still remained in Pallantium and Saturnia, they divided the whole multitude into two parts. This they did in the hope of arousing a spirit of emulation, so that through their rivalry with each other their tasks might be the sooner finished; however, it produced the greatest of evils, discord.

§ 1.85.5  For each group, exalting its own leader, extolled him as the proper person to command them all; and the youths themselves, being now no longer one in mind or feeling it necessary to entertain brotherly sentiments toward each, since each expected to command the other, scorned equality and craved superiority. For some time their ambitions were concealed, but later they burst forth on the occasion which I shall now describe.

§ 1.85.6  They did not both favour the same site for the building of the city; for Romulus proposed to settle the Palatine hill, among other reasons, because of the good fortune of the place where they had been preserved and brought up, whereas Remus favoured the place that is now named after him Remoria. And indeed this place is very suitable for a city, being a hill not far from the Tiber and about thirty stades from Rome. From this rivalry their unsociable love of rule immediately began to disclose itself; for on the one who now yielded the victor would inevitably impose his will on all occasions alike.

§ 1.86.1  Meanwhile, some time having elapsed and their discord in no degree abating, the two agreed to refer the matter to their grandfather and for that purpose went to Alba. He advised them to leave it to the decision of the gods which of them should give his name to the colony and be its leader. And having appointed for them a day, he ordered them to place themselves early in the morning at a distance from one another, in such stations as each of them should think proper, and after first offering to the gods the customary sacrifices, to watch for auspicious birds; and he ordered that he to whom the more favourable birds first appeared should rule the colony.

§ 1.86.2  The youths, approving of this, went away and according to their agreement appeared on the day appointed for the test. Romulus chose for his station the Palatine hill, where he proposed settling the colony, and Remus the Aventine hill adjoining it, or, according to others, Remoria; and a guard attended them both, to prevent their reporting things otherwise than as they appeared.

§ 1.86.3  When they had taken their respective stations, Romulus, after a short pause, from eagerness and jealousy of his brother, — though possibly Heaven was thus directing him, — even before he saw any omen at all, sent messengers to his brother desiring him to come immediately, as if he had been the first to see some auspicious birds. But while the persons he sent were proceeding with no great haste, feeling ashamed of the fraud, six vultures appeared to Remus, flying from the right; and he, seeing the birds, rejoiced greatly. And not long afterwards the men sent by Romulus took him thence and brought him to the Palatine hill.

§ 1.86.4  When they were together, Remus asked Romulus what birds he had been the first to see, and Romulus knew not what to answer. But thereupon twelve auspicious vultures were seen flying; and upon seeing these he took courage, and pointing them out to Remus, said: "Why do you demand to know what happened a long time ago? For surely you see these birds yourself." But Remus was indignant and complained bitterly because he had been deceived by him; and he refused to yield to him his right to the colony.

§ 1.87.1  Thereupon greater strife arose between them than before, as each, while secretly striving for the advantage, was ostensibly willing to accept equality, for the following reason. Their grandfather, as I have stated, had ordered that he to whom the more favourable birds first appeared should rule the colony; but, as the same kind of birds had been seen by both, one had the advantage of seeing them first and the other that of seeing the greater number. The rest of the people also espoused their quarrel, and arming themselves without orders from their leaders, began war; and a sharp battle ensued in which many were slain on both sides.

§ 1.87.2  In the course of this battle, as some say, Faustulus, who had brought up the youths, wishing to put an end to the strife of the brothers and being unable to do so, threw himself unarmed into the midst of the combatants, seeking the speediest death, which fell out accordingly. Some say also that the stone lion which stood in the principal part of the Forum near the rostra was placed over the body of Faustulus, who was buried by those who found him in the place where he fell.

§ 1.87.3  Remus having been slain in this action, Romulus, who had gained a most melancholy victory through the death of his brother and the mutual slaughter of citizens, buried Remus at Remoria, since when alive he had clung to it as the site for the new city. As for himself, in his grief and repentance for what had happened, he became dejected and lost all desire for life. But when Laurentia, who had received the babes when newly born and brought them up and loved them no less than a mother, entreated and comforted him, he listened to her and rose up, and gathering together the Latins who had not been slain in the battle (they were now little more than three thousand out of a very great multitude at first, when he led out the colony), he built a city on the Palatine hill.

§ 1.87.4  The account I have given seems to me the most probable of the stories about the death of Remus. However, if any has been handed down that differs from this, let that also be related. Some, indeed, say that Remus yielded the leadership to Romulus, though not without resentment and anger at the fraud, but that after the wall was built, wishing to demonstrate the weakness of the fortification, he cried, "Well, as for this wall, one of your enemies could as easily cross it as I do," and immediately leaped over it. Thereupon Celer, one of the men standing on the wall, who was overseer of the work, said, "Well, as for this enemy, one of us could easily punish him," and striking him on the head with a mattock, he killed him then and there. Such is said to have been the outcome of the quarrel between the brothers.

§ 1.88.1  When no obstacle now remained to the building of the city, Romulus appointed a day on which he planned to begin the work, after first propitiating the gods. And having prepared everything that would be required for the sacrifices and for the entertainment of the people, when the appointed time came, he himself first offered sacrifice to the gods and ordered all the rest to do the same according to their abilities. He then in the first place took the omens, which were favourable. After that, having commanded fires to be lighted before the tents, he caused the people to come out and leap over the flames in order to expiate their guilt.

§ 1.88.2  When he thought everything had been done which he conceived to be acceptable to the gods, he called all the people to the appointed place and described a quadrangular figure about the hill, tracing with a plough drawn by a bull and a cow yoked together a continuous furrow designed to receive the foundation of the wall; and from that time this custom has continued among the Romans of ploughing a furrow round the site where they plan to build a city. After he had done this and sacrificed the bull and the cow and also performed the initial rites over many other victims, he set the people to work.

§ 1.88.3  This day the Romans celebrate every year even down to my time as one of their greatest festivals and call it the Parilia. On this day, which comes in the beginning of spring, the husbandmen and herdsmen offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving for the increase of their cattle. But whether they had celebrated this day in even earlier times as a day of rejoicing and for that reason looked upon it as the most suitable for the founding of the city, or whether, because it marked the beginning of the building of the city, they consecrated it and thought they should honour on it the gods who are propitious to shepherds, I cannot say for certain.

§ 1.89.1  Such, then, are the facts concerning the origin of the Romans which I have been able to discover a reading very diligently many works written by both Greek and Roman authors. Hence, from now on let the reader forever renounce the views of those who make Rome a retreat of barbarians, fugitive and vagabonds, and let him confidently affirm it to be a Greek city, — which will be easy when he shows that it is at once the most hospitable and friendly of all cities, and when he bears in mind that the Aborigines were Oinotrians, and these in turn Arcadians,

§ 1.89.2  and remembers those who joined with them in their settlement, the Pelasgians who were Argives by descent and came into Italy from Thessaly; and recalls, moreover, the arrival of Evander and the Arcadians, who settled round the Palatine hill, after the Aborigines had granted the place to them; and also the Peloponnesians, who, coming along with Hercules, settled upon the Saturnian hill; and, last of all, those who left the Troad and were intermixed with the earlier settlers. For one will find no nation that is more ancient or more Greek than these.

§ 1.89.3  But the admixtures of the barbarians with the Romans, by which the city forgot many of its ancient institutions, happened at a later time. And it may well seem a cause of wonder to many who reflect on the natural course of events that Rome did not become entirely barbarized after receiving the Opicans, the Marsians, the Samnites, the Tyrrhenians, the Bruttians and many thousands of Umbrians, Ligurians, Iberians and Gauls, besides innumerable other nations, some of whom came from Italy itself and some from other regions and differed from one another both in their language and habits; for their very ways of life, diverse as they were and thrown into turmoil by such dissonance, might have been expected to cause many innovations in the ancient order of the city.

§ 1.89.4  For many others by living among barbarians have in a short time forgotten all their Greek heritage, so that they neither speak the Greek language nor observe the customs of the Greeks nor acknowledge the same gods nor have the same equitable laws (by which most of all the spirit of the Greeks differs from that of the barbarians) nor agree with them in anything else whatever that relates to the ordinary intercourse of life. Those Achaeans who are settled near the Euxine sea are a sufficient proof of my contention; for, though originally Eleans, of a nation the most Greek of any, they are now the most savage of all barbarians.

§ 1.90.1  The language spoken by the Romans is neither utterly barbarous nor absolutely Greek, but a mixture, as it were, of both, the greater part of which is Aeolic; and the only disadvantage they have experienced from their intermingling with these various nations is that they do not pronounce all their sounds properly. But all other indications of a Greek origin they preserve beyond any other colonists. For it is not merely recently, since they have enjoyed the full tide of good fortune to instruct them in the amenities of life, that they have begun to live humanely; nor is it merely since they first aimed at the conquest of countries lying beyond the sea, after overthrowing the Carthaginian and Macedonian empires, but rather from the time when they first joined in founding the city, that they have lived like Greeks; and they do not attempt anything more illustrious in the pursuit of virtue now than formerly.

§ 1.90.2  I have innumerable things to say upon this subject and can adduce many arguments and present the testimony of credible authors; but I reserve all this for the account I purpose to write of their government. I shall now resume the thread of my narrative, after prefacing to the following Book a recapitulation of what is contained in this.

§ 2.1.1  BOOK II
The city of Rome is situated in the western part of Italy near the river Tiber, which empties into the Tyrrhenian sea about midway along the coast; from the sea the city is distant one hundred and twenty stades. Its first known occupants were certain barbarians, natives of the country, called Sicels, who also occupied many other parts of Italy and of whom not a few distinct memorials are left even to our times; among other things there are even some names of places said to be Sicel names, which show that this people formerly dwelt in the land.

§ 2.1.2  They were driven out by the Aborigines, who occupied the place in their turn; these were descendants of the Oenotrians who inhabited the seacoast from Tarentum to Posidonia. They were a band of holy youths consecrated to the gods according to their local custom and sent out by their parents, it is said, to inhabit the country which Heaven should give them. The Oenotrians were an Arcadian tribe who had of their own accord left the country then called Lycaonia and now Arcadia, in search of a better land, under the leadership of Oenotrus, the son of Lycaon, from whom the nation received its name.

§ 2.1.3  While the Aborigines occupied this region the first who joined with them in their settlement were the Pelasgians, a wandering people who came from the country then called Haemonia and now Thessaly, where they had lived for some time. After the Pelasgians came the Arcadians from the city of Pallantium, who had chosen as leader of their colony Evander, the son of Hermes and the nymph Themis. These built a town beside one of the seven hills that stands near the middle of Rome, calling the place Pallantium, from their mother-city in Arcadia.

§ 2.1.4  Not long afterwards, when Hercules came into Italy on his return home with his army from Erytheia, a certain part of his force, consisting of Greeks, remained behind be settled near Pallantium, beside another of the hills that are now inclosed within the city. This was then called by the inhabitants Saturnian hill, but is now called the Capitoline hill by the Romans. The greater part of these men were Epeans who had abandoned their city in Elis after their country had been laid waste by Hercules.

§ 2.2.1  In the sixteenth generation after the Trojan War the Albans united both these places into one settlement, surrounding them with a wall and a ditch. For until then there were only folds for cattle and sheep and quarters of the other herdsmen, as the land round about yielded plenty of grass, not only for winter but also for summer pasture, by reason of the rivers that refresh and water it.

§ 2.2.2  The Albans were a mixed nation composed of Pelasgians, of Arcadians, of the Epeans who came from Elis, and, last of all, of the Trojans who came into Italy with Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Aphroditê, after the taking of Troy. It is probable that a barbarian element also from among the neighbouring peoples or a remnant of the ancient inhabitants of the place was mixed with the Greek. But all these people, having lost their tribal designations, came to be called by one common name, Latins, after Latinus, who had been king of this country.

§ 2.2.3  The walled city, then, was built by these tribes in the four hundred and thirty-second year after the taking of Troy, and in the seventh Olympiad. The leaders of the colony were twin brothers of the royal family, Romulus being the name of one and Remus of the other. On the mother's side they were descended from Aeneas and were Dardanidae; it is hard to say with certainty who their father was, but the Romans believe them to have been the sons of Mars.

§ 2.2.4  However, they did not both continue to be leaders of the colony, since they quarrelled over the command; but after one of them had been slain in the battle that ensued, Romulus, who survived, became the founder of the city and called it after his own name. The great numbers of which the colony had originally consisted when sent out with him were now reduced to a few, the survivors amounting to three thousand foot and three hundred horse.

§ 2.3.1  When, therefore, the ditch was finished, the rampart completed and the necessary work on the houses done, and the situation required that they should consider also what form of government they were going to have, Romulus called an assembly of the people by the advice of his grandfather, who had instructed him what to say, and told them that the city, considering that it was newly built, was sufficiently adorned both with public and private buildings; but he asked them all to bear in mind that these were not the most valuable things in cities.

§ 2.3.2  For neither in foreign wars, he said, are deep ditches and high ramparts sufficient to give the inhabitants an undisturbed assurance of their safety, but guarantee one thing only, namely, that they shall suffer no harm through being surprised by an incursion of the enemy; nor, again, when civil commotions afflict the State, do private houses and dwellings afford anyone a safe retreat.

§ 2.3.3  For these have been contrived by men for the enjoyment of leisure and tranquillity in their lives, and with them neither those of their neighbours who plot against them are prevented from doing mischief nor do those who are plotted against feel any confidence that they are free from danger; and no city that has gained splendour from these adornments only has ever yet become prosperous and great for a long period, nor, again, has any city from a want of magnificence either in public or in private buildings ever been hindered from becoming great and prosperous. But it is other things that preserve cities and make them great from small beginnings:

§ 2.3.4  in foreign wars, strength in arms, which is acquired by courage and exercise; and in civil commotions, unanimity among the citizens, and this, he showed, could be most effectually achieved for the commonwealth by the prudent and just life of each citizen.

§ 2.3.5  Those who practise warlike exercises and at the same time are masters of their passions are the greatest ornaments to their country, and these are the men who provide both the commonwealth with impregnable walls and themselves in their private lives with safe refuges; but men of bravery, justice and the other virtues are the result of the form of government when this has been established wisely, and, on the other hand, men who are cowardly, rapacious and the slaves of base passions are the product of evil institutions.

§ 2.3.6  He added that he was informed by men who were older and had wide acquaintance with history that of many large colonies planted in fruitful regions some had been immediately destroyed by falling into seditions, and others, after holding out for a short time, had been forced to become subject to their neighbours and to exchange their more fruitful country for a worse fortune, becoming slaves instead of free men; while others, few in numbers and settling in places that were by no means desirable, had continued, in the first place, to be free themselves, and, in the second place, to command others; and neither the successes of the smaller colonies nor the misfortunes of those that were large were due to any other cause than their form of government.

§ 2.3.7  If, therefore, there had been but one mode of life among all mankind which made cities prosperous, the choosing of it would not have been difficult for them; but, as it was, he understood there were many types of government among both the Greeks and barbarians, and out of all of them he heard three especially commended by those who had lived under them, and of these systems none was perfect, but each had some fatal defects inherent in it, so that the choice among them was difficult. He therefore asked them to deliberate at leisure and say whether they would be governed by one man or by a few, or whether they would establish laws and entrust the protection of the public interests to the whole body of the people.

§ 2.3.8  "And whichever form of government you establish," he said, "I am ready to comply with your desire, for I neither consider myself unworthy to command nor refuse to obey. So far as honours are concerned, I am satisfied with those you have conferred on me, first, by appointing me leader of the colony, and, again, by giving my name to the city. For of these neither a foreign war nor civil dissension nor time, that destroyer of all that is excellent, nor any other stroke of hostile fortune can deprive me; but both in life and in death these honours will be mine to enjoy for all time to come."

§ 2.4.1  Such was the speech that Romulus, following the instructions of his grandfather, as I have said, made to the people. And they, having consulted together by themselves, returned this answer: "We have no need of a new form of government and we are not going to change the one which our ancestors approved of as the best and handed down to us. In this we show both a deference for the judgment of our elders, whose superior wisdom we recognize in establishing it, and our own satisfaction with our present condition. For we could not reasonably complain of this form of government, which has afforded us under our kings the greatest of human blessings — liberty and the rule over others.

§ 2.4.2  Concerning the form of government, then, this is our decision; and to this honour we conceive none has so good a title as you yourself by reason both of your royal birth and of your merit, but above all because we have had you as the leader of our colony and recognize in you great ability and great wisdom, which we have seen displayed quite as much in your actions as in your words." Romulus, hearing this, said it was a great satisfaction to him to be judged worthy of the kingly office by his fellow men, but that he would not accept the honour until Heaven, too, had given its sanction by favourable omens.

§ 2.5.1  And when the people approved, he appointed a day on which he proposed to consult the auspices concerning the sovereignty; and when the time was come, he rose at break of day and went forth from his tent. Then, taking his stand under the open sky in a clear space and first offering the customary sacrifice, he prayed to King Jupiter and to the other gods whom he had chosen for the patrons of the colony, that, if it was their pleasure he should be king of the city, some favourable signs might appear in the sky.

§ 2.5.2  After this prayer a flash of lightning darted across the sky from the left to the right. Now the Romans look upon the lightning that passes from the left to the right as a favourable omen, having been thus instructed either by the Tyrrhenians or by their own ancestors. Their reason is, in my opinion, that the best seat and station for those who take the auspices is that which looks toward the east, from whence both the sun and the moon rise as well as the planets and fixed stars; and the revolution of the firmament, by which all things contained in it are sometimes above the earth and sometimes beneath it, begins its circular motion thence.

§ 2.5.3  Now to those who look toward the east the parts facing toward the north are on the left and those extending toward the south are on the right, and the former are by nature more honourable than the latter. For in the northern parts the pole of the axis upon which the firmament turns is elevated, and of the five zones which girdle the sphere the one called the arctic zone is always visible on this side; whereas in the southern parts the other zone, called the antarctic, is depressed and invisible on that side.

§ 2.5.4  So it is reasonable to assume that those signs in the heavens and in mid-air are the best which appear on the best side; and since the parts that are turned toward the east have preëminence over the western parts, and, of the eastern parts themselves, the northern are higher than the southern, the former would seem to be the best.

§ 2.5.5  But some relate that the ancestors of the Romans from very early times, even before they had learned it from the Tyrrhenians, looked upon the lightning that came from the left as a favourable omen. For they say that when Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, was warred upon and besieged by the Tyrrhenians led by their king Mezentius, and was upon the point of making a final sally out of the town, his situation being now desperate, he prayed with lamentations to Jupiter and to the rest of the gods to encourage this sally with favourable omens, and thereupon out of a clear sky there appeared a flash of lightning coming from the left; and as this battle had the happiest outcome, this sign continued to be regarded as favourable by his posterity.

§ 2.6.1  When Romulus, therefore, upon the occasion mentioned had received the sanction of Heaven also, he called the people together in assembly; and having given them an account of these omens, he was chosen king by them and established it as a custom, to be observed by all his successors, that none of them should accept the office of king or any other magistracy until Heaven, too, had given its sanction. And this custom relating to the auspices long continued to be observed by the Romans, not only while the city was ruled by kings, but also, after the overthrow of the monarchy, in the elections of their consuls, praetors and other legal magistrates;

§ 2.6.2  but it has fallen into disuse in our days except as a certain semblance of it remains merely for form's sake. For those who are about to assume the magistracies pass the night out of doors, and rising at break of day, offer certain prayers under the open sky; whereupon some of the augurs present, who are paid by the State, declare that a flash of lightning coming from the left has given them a sign, although there really has not been any.

§ 2.6.3  And the others, taking their omen from this report, depart in order to take over their magistracies, some of them assuming this alone to be sufficient, that no omens have appeared opposing or forbidding their intended action, others acting even in opposition to the will of the god; indeed, there are times when they resort to violence and rather seize than receive the magistracies.

§ 2.6.4  Because of such men many armies of the Romans have been utterly destroyed on land, many fleets have been lost with all their people at sea, and other great and dreadful reverses have befallen the commonwealth, some in foreign wars and others in civil dissensions. But the most remarkable and the greatest instance happened in my time when Licinius Crassus, a man inferior to no commander of his age, led his army against the Parthian nation contrary to the will of Heaven and in contempt of the innumerable omens that opposed his expedition. But to tell about the contempt of the divine power that prevails among some people in these days would be a long story.

§ 2.7.1  Romulus, who was thus chosen king by both men and gods, is allowed to have been a man of great military ability and personal bravery and of the greatest sagacity in instituting the best kind of government. I shall relate such of his political and military achievements as may be thought worthy of mention in a history;

§ 2.7.2  and first I shall speak of the form of government that he instituted, which I regard as the most self-sufficient of all political systems both for peace and for war. This was the plan of it: He divided all the people into three groups, and set over each as leader its most distinguished man. Then he subdivided each of these three groups into ten others, and appointed as many of the bravest men to be the leaders of these also. The larger divisions he called tribes and the smaller curiae, as they are still termed even in our day.

§ 2.7.3  These names may be translated into Greek as follows: a tribe by phylê and trittys, and a curia by phratra and lochos; the commanders of the tribes, whom the Romans call tribunes, by phylarchoi and trittyarchoi; and the commanders of the curiae, whom they call curiones, by phratriarchoi and lochagoi.

§ 2.7.4  These curiae were again divided by him into ten parts, each commanded by its own leader, who was called decurio in the native language. The people being thus divided and assigned to tribes and curiae, he divided the land into thirty equal portions and assigned one of them to each curia, having first set apart as much of it as was sufficient for the support of the temples and shrines and also reserved some part of the land for the use of the public. This was one division made by Romulus, both of the men and of the land, which involved the greatest equality for all alike.

§ 2.8.1  But there was another division again of the men only, which assigned kindly services and honours in accordance with merit, of which I am now going to give an account. He distinguished those who were eminent for their birth, approved for their virtue and wealthy for those times, provided they already had children, from the obscure, the lowly and the poor. Those of the lower rank he called "plebeians" (the Greek would call them dêmotikoi or "men of the people"), and those of the higher rank "fathers," either because they had children or from their distinguished birth or for all these reasons. One may suspect that he found his model in the system of government which at that time still prevailed at Athens.

§ 2.8.2  For the Athenians had divided their population into two parts, the eupatridai or "well-born," as they called those who were of the noble families and powerful by reason of their wealth, to whom the government of the city was committed, and the agroikoi or "husbandmen," consisting of the rest of the citizens, who had no voice in public affairs, though in the course of time these, also, were admitted to the offices.

§ 2.8.3  Those who give the most probable account of the Roman government say it was for the reasons I have given that those men were called "fathers" and their posterity "patricians"; but others, considering the matter in the light of their own envy and desirous of casting reproach on the city for the ignoble birth of its founders, say they were not called patricians for the reasons just cited, but because these men only could point out their fathers, — as if all the rest were fugitives and unable to name free men as their fathers.

§ 2.8.4  As proof of this they cite the fact that, whenever the kings thought proper to assemble the patricians, the heralds called them both by their own names and by the names of their fathers, whereas public servants summoned the plebeians en masse to the assemblies by the sound of ox horns. But in reality neither the calling of the patricians by the heralds is any proof of their nobility nor is the sound of the horn any mark of the obscurity of the plebeians; but the former was an indication of honour and the latter of expedition, since it was not possible in a short time to call every one of the multitude by name.

§ 2.9.1  After Romulus had distinguished those of superior rank from their inferiors, he next established laws by which the duties of each were prescribed. The patricians were to be priests, magistrates and judges, and were to assist him in the management of public affairs, devoting themselves to the business of the city. The plebeians were excused from these duties, as being unacquainted with them and because of their small means wanting leisure to attend to them, but were to apply themselves to agriculture, the breeding of cattle and the exercise of gainful trades. This was to prevent them from engaging in seditions, as happens in other cities when either the magistrates mistreat the lowly, or the common people and the needy envy those in authority.

§ 2.9.2  He placed the plebeians as a trust in the hands of the patricians, by allowing every plebeian to choose for his patron any patrician whom he himself wished. In this he improved upon an ancient Greek custom that was in use among the Thessalians for a long time and among the Athenians in the beginning. For the former treated their clients with haughtiness, imposing on them duties unbecoming to free men; and whenever they disobeyed any of their commands, they beat them and misused them in all other respects as if had been slaves they had purchased. The Athenians called their clients thêtes or "hirelings," because they served for hire, and the Thessalians called theirs penestai or "toilers," by the very name reproaching them with their condition.

§ 2.9.3  But Romulus not only recommended the relationship by a handsome designation, calling this protection of the poor and lowly a "patronage," but he also assigned friendly offices to both parties, thus making the connexion between them a bond of kindness befitting fellow citizens.

§ 2.10.1  The regulations which he then instituted concerning patronage and which long continued in use among the Romans were as follows: It was the duty of the patricians to explain to their clients the laws, of which they were ignorant; to take the same care of them when absent as present, doing everything for them that fathers do for their sons with regard both to money and to the contracts that related to money; to bring suit on behalf of their clients when they were wronged in connexion with contracts, and to defend them against any who brought charges against them; and, to put the matter briefly, to secure for them both in private and in public affairs all that tranquillity of which they particularly stood in need.

§ 2.10.2  It was the duty of the clients to assist their patrons in providing dowries for their daughters upon their marriage if the fathers had not sufficient means; to pay their ransom to the enemy if any of them or of their children were taken prisoner; to discharge out of their own purses their patrons' losses in private suits and the pecuniary fines which they were condemned to pay to the State, making these contributions to them not as loans but as thank-offerings; and to share with their patrons the costs incurred in their magistracies and dignities and other public expenditures, in the same manner as if they were their relations.

§ 2.10.3  For both patrons and clients alike it was impious and unlawful to accuse each other in law-suits or to bear witness or to give their votes against each other or to be found in the number of each other's enemies; and whoever was convicted of doing any of these things was guilty of treason by virtue of the law sanctioned by Romulus, and might lawfully be put to death by any man who so wished as a victim devoted to the Jupiter of the infernal regions. For it was customary among the Romans, whenever they wished to put people to death without incurring any penalty, to devote their persons to some god or other, and particularly to the gods of the lower world; and this was the course what Romulus then adopted.

§ 2.10.4  Accordingly, the connexions between the clients and patrons continued for many generations, differing in no wise from the ties of blood-relationship and being handed down to their children's children. And it was a matter of great praise to men of illustrious families to have as many clients as possible and not only to preserve the succession of hereditary patronages but also by their own merit to acquire others. And it is incredible how great the contest of goodwill was between the patrons and clients, as each side strove not to be outdone by the other in kindness, the clients feeling that they should render all possible services to their patrons and the patrons wishing by all means not to occasion any trouble to their clients and accepting no gifts of money. So superior was their manner of life to all pleasure; for they measured their happiness by virtue, not by fortune.

§ 2.11.1  It was not only in the city itself that the plebeians were under the protection of the patricians, but every colony of Rome and every city that had joined in alliance and friendship with her and also every city conquered in war had such protectors and patrons among the Romans as they wished. And the senate has often referred the controversies of these cities and nations to their Roman patrons and regarded their decisions binding.

§ 2.11.2  And indeed, so secure was the Romans' harmony, which owed its birth to the regulations of Romulus, that they never in the course of six hundred and thirty years proceeded to bloodshed and mutual slaughter, though many great controversies arose between the populace and their magistrates concerning public policy, as is apt to happen in all cities, whether large or small;

§ 2.11.3  but by persuading and informing one another, by yielding in some things and gaining other things from their opponents, who yielded in turn, they settled their disputes in a manner befitting fellow citizens. But from the time that Gaius Gracchus, while holding the tribunician power, destroyed the harmony of the government they have been perpetually slaying and banishing one another from the city and refraining from no irreparable acts in order to gain the upper hand. However, for the narration of these events another occasion will be more suitable.

§ 2.12.1  As soon as Romulus had regulated these matters he determined to appoint senators to assist him in administering the public business, and to this end he chose a hundred men from among the patricians, selecting them in the following manner. He himself appointed one, the best out of their whole number, to whom he thought fit to entrust the government of the city whenever he himself should lead the army beyond the borders.

§ 2.12.2  He next ordered each of the tribes to choose three men who were then at the age of greatest prudence and were distinguished by their birth. After these nine were chosen he ordered each curia likewise to name three patricians who were the most worthy. Then adding to the first nine, who had been named by the tribes, the ninety who were chosen by the curiae, and appointing as their head the man he himself had first selected, he completed the number of a hundred senators.

§ 2.12.3  The name of this council may be expressed in Greek by gerousia or "council of elders," and it is called by the Romans to this day; but whether it received its name from the advanced age of the men who were appointed to it or from their merit, I cannot say for certain. For the ancients used to call the older men and those of greatest merit gerontes or "elders." The members of the senate were called Conscript Fathers, and they retained that name down to my time. This council, also, was a Greek institution.

§ 2.12.4  At any rate, the Greek kings, both those who inherited the realms of their ancestors and those who were elected by the people themselves to be their rulers, had a council composed of the best men, as both Homer and the most ancient of the poets testify; and the authority of the ancient kings was not arbitrary and absolute as it is in our days.

§ 2.13.1  After Romulus had also instituted the senatorial body, consisting of the hundred men, he perceived, we may suppose, that he would also require a body of young men whose services he could use both for the guarding of his person and for urgent business, and accordingly he chose three hundred men, the most robust of body and from the most illustrious families, whom the curiae named in the same manner that they had named the senators, each curia choosing ten young men; and these he kept always about his person.

§ 2.13.2  They were all called by one common name, celeres; according to most writers this was because of the "celerity" required in the services they were to perform (for those who are ready and quick at their tasks the Romans call celeres), but Valerius Antias says that they were thus named after their commander.

§ 2.13.3  For among them, also, the most distinguished man was their commander; under him were three centurions, and under these in turn were others who held the inferior commands. In the city these celeres constantly attended Romulus, armed with spears, and executed his orders; and on campaigns they charged before him and defended his person. And as a rule it was they who gave a favourable issue to the contest, as they were the first to engage in battle and the last of all to desist. They fought on horseback where there was level ground favourable for cavalry manoeuvres, and on foot where it was rough and inconvenient for horses.

§ 2.13.4  This custom Romulus borrowed, I believe, from the Lacedaemonians, having learned that among them, also, three hundred of the noblest youths attended the kings as their guards and also as their defenders in war, fighting both on horseback and on foot.

§ 2.14.1  Having made these regulations, he distinguished the honours and powers which he wished each class to have. For the king he had reserved these prerogatives: in the first place, the supremacy in religious ceremonies and sacrifices and the conduct of everything relating to the worship of the gods; secondly, the guardianship of the laws and customs of the country and the general oversight of justice in all cases, whether founded on the law of nature or the civil law; he was also the judge in person the greatest crimes, leaving the lesser to the senators, but seeing to it that no error was made in their decisions; he was to summon the senate and call together the popular assembly, to deliver his opinion first and carry out the decision of the majority. These prerogatives he granted to the king and, in addition, the absolute command in war.

§ 2.14.2  To the senate he assigned honour and authority as follows: to deliberate and give their votes concerning everything the king should refer to them, the decision of the majority to prevail. This also Romulus took over from the constitution of the Lacedaemonians; for their kings, too, did not have arbitrary power to do everything they wished, but the gerousia exercised complete control of public affairs.

§ 2.14.3  To the populace he granted these three privileges: to choose magistrates, to ratify laws, and to decide concerning war whenever the king left the decision to them; yet even in these matters their authority was not unrestricted, since the concurrence of the senate was necessary to give effect to their decisions. The people did not give their votes all at the same time, but were summoned to meet by curiae, and whatever was resolved upon by the majority of the curiae was reported to the senate. But in our day this practice is reversed, since the senate does not deliberate upon the resolutions passed by the people, but the people have full power over the decrees of the senate; and which of the two customs is better I leave it open to others to determine.

§ 2.14.4  By this division of authority not only were the civil affairs administered in a prudent and orderly manner, but the business of war also was carried on with dispatch and strict obedience. For whenever the king thought proper to lead out his army there was then no necessity for tribunes to be chosen by tribes, or centurions by centuries, or commanders of the horse appointed, nor was it necessary for the army to be numbered or to be divided into centuries or for every man to be assigned to his appropriate post. But the king gave his orders to the tribunes and these to the centurions and they in turn to the decurions, each of whom led out those who were under his command; and whether the whole army or part of it was called, at a single summons they presented themselves ready with arms in hand at the designated post.

§ 2.15.1  By these institutions Romulus sufficiently regulated and suitably disposed the city both for peace and for war: and he made it large and populous by the following means.

§ 2.15.2  In the first place, he obliged the inhabitants to bring up all their male children and the first-born of the females, and forbade them to destroy any children under three years of age unless they were maimed or monstrous from their very birth. These he did not forbid their parents to expose, provided they first showed them to their five nearest neighbours and these also approved. Against those who disobeyed this law he fixed various penalties, including the confiscation of half their property.

§ 2.15.3  Secondly, finding that many of the cities in Italy were very badly governed, both by tyrannies and by oligarchies, he undertook to welcome and attract to himself the fugitives from these cities, who were very numerous, paying no regard either to their calamities or to their fortunes, provided only they were free men. His purpose was to increase the power of the Romans and to lessen that of their neighbours; but he invented a specious pretext for his course, making it appear that he was showing honour to a god.

§ 2.15.4  For he consecrated the place between the Capitol and the citadel which is now called in the language of the Romans "the space between the two groves,"17 — a term that was really descriptive at that time of the actual conditions, as the place was shaded by thick woods on both sides where it joined the hills, — and made it an asylum for suppliants. And built a temple there, — but to what god or divinity he dedicated it I cannot say for certain, — he engaged, under the colour of religion, to protect those who fled to it from suffering any harm at the hands of their enemies; and if they chose to remain with him, he promised them citizenship and a share of the land he should take from the enemy. And people came flocking thither from all parts, fleeing from their calamities at home; nor had they afterwards any thought of removing to any other place, but were held there by daily instances of his sociability and kindness.

§ 2.16.1  There was yet a third policy of Romulus, which the Greeks ought to have practised above all others, it being, in my opinion, the best of all political measures, as it laid the most solid foundation for the liberty of the Romans and was no slight factor in raising them to their position of supremacy. It was this: not to slay all the men of military age or to enslave the rest of the population of the cities captured in war or to allow their land to go back to pasturage for sheep, but rather to send settlers thither to possess some part of the country by lot and to make the conquered cities Roman colonies, and even to grant citizenship to some of them.

§ 2.16.2  By these and other like measures he made the colony great from a small beginning, as the actual results showed; for the number of those who joined with him in founding Rome did not amount to more than three thousand foot nor quite to three hundred horse, whereas he left behind him when he disappeared from among men forty-six thousand foot and about a thousand horse.

§ 2.16.3  Romulus having instituted these measures, not alone the kings who ruled the city after him but also the annual magistrates after them pursued the same policy, with occasional additions, so successfully that the Roman people became inferior in numbers to none of the nations that were accounted the most populous.

§ 2.17.1  When I compare the customs of the Greeks with these, I can find no reason to extol either those of the Lacedaemonians or of the Thebans or of the Athenians, who pride themselves most on their wisdom; all of whom, jealous of their noble birth and granting citizenship to none or to very few (I say nothing of the fact that some even expelled foreigners), not only received no advantage from this haughty attitude, but actually suffered the greatest harm because of it.

§ 2.17.2  Thus, the Spartans after their defeat at Leuctra, where they lost seventeen hundred men, were no longer able to restore their city to its former position after that calamity, but shamefully abandoned their supremacy. And the Thebans and Athenians through the single disaster at Chaeronea were deprived by the Macedonians not only of the leadership of Greece but at the same time of the liberty they had inherited from their ancestors.

§ 2.17.3  But Rome, while engaged in great wars both in Spain and Italy and employed in recovering Sicily and Sardinia, which had revolted, at a time when the situation in Macedonia and Greece had become hostile to her and Carthage was again contending for the supremacy, and when all but a small portion of Italy was not only in open rebellion but was also drawing upon her the Hannibalic war, as it was called, — though surrounded, I say, by so many dangers at one and the same time, Rome was so far from being overcome by these misfortunes that she derived from them a strength even greater than she had had before, being enabled to meet every danger, thanks to the number of her soldiers, and not, as some imagine, to the favour of Fortune;

§ 2.17.4  since for all of Fortune's assistance the city might have been utterly submerged by the single disaster at Cannae, where of six thousand horse only three hundred and seventy survived, and of eighty thousand foot enrolled in the army of the commonwealth little more than three thousand escaped.

§ 2.18.1  It is not only these institutions of Romulus that I admire, but also those which I am going to relate. He understood that the good government of cities was due to certain causes which all statesmen prate of but few succeed in making effective: first, the favour of the gods, the enjoyment of which gives success to men's every enterprise; next, moderation and justice, as a result of which the citizens, being less disposed to injure one another, are more harmonious, and make honour, rather than the most shameful pleasures, the measure of their happiness; and, lastly, bravery in war, which renders the other virtues also useful to their possessors.

§ 2.18.2  And he thought that none of these advantages is the effect of chance, but recognized that good laws and the emulation of worthy pursuits render a State pious, temperate, devoted to justice, and brave in war. He took great care, therefore, to encourage these, beginning with the worship of the gods and genii. He established temples, sacred precincts and altars, arranged for the setting up of statues, determined the representations and symbols of the gods, and declared their powers, the beneficent gifts which they have made to mankind, the particular festivals that should be celebrated in honour of each god or genius, the sacrifices with which they delight to be honoured by men, as well as the holidays, festal assemblies, days of rest, and everything alike of that nature, in all of which he followed the best customs in use among the Greeks.

§ 2.18.3  But he rejected all the traditional myths concerning the gods that contain blasphemies or calumnies against them, looking upon these as wicked, useless and indecent, and unworthy, not only of the gods, but even of good men; and he accustomed people both to think and to speak the best of the gods and to attribute to them no conduct unworthy of their blessed nature.

§ 2.19.1  Indeed, there is no tradition among the Romans either of Caelus being castrated by his own sons or of Saturn destroying his own offspring to secure himself from their attempts or of Jupiter dethroning Saturn and confining his own father in the dungeon of Tartarus, or, indeed, of wars, wounds, or bonds of the gods, or of their servitude among men.

§ 2.19.2  And no festival is observed among them as a day of mourning or by the wearing of black garments and the beating of breasts and the lamentations of women because of the disappearance of deities, such as the Greeks perform in commemorating the rape of Persephonê and the adventures of Dionysus and all the other things of like nature. And one will see among them, even though their manners are now corrupted, no ecstatic transports, no Corybantic frenzies, no begging under the colour of religion, no bacchanals or secret mysteries, no all-night vigils of men and women together in the temples, nor any other mummery of this kind; but alike in all their words and actions with respect to the gods a reverence is shown such as is seen among neither Greeks nor barbarians.

§ 2.19.3  And, — the thing which I myself have marvelled at most, — notwithstanding the influx into Rome of innumerable nations which are under every necessity of worshipping their ancestral gods according to the customs of their respective countries, yet the city has never officially adopted any of those foreign practices, as has been the experience of many cities in the past; but, even though she has, in pursuance of oracles, introduced certain rites from abroad, she celebrates them in accordance with her own traditions, after banishing all fabulous clap-trap. The rites of the Idaean goddess are a case in point;

§ 2.19.4  for the praetors perform sacrifices and celebrated games in her honour every year according to the Roman customs, but the priest and priestess of the goddess are Phrygians, and it is they who carry her image in procession through the city, begging alms in her name according to their custom, and wearing figures upon their breasts and striking their timbrels while their followers play tunes upon their flutes in honour of the Mother of the Gods.

§ 2.19.5  But by a law and decree of the senate no native Roman walks in procession through the city arrayed in a parti-coloured robe, begging alms or escorted by flute-players, or worships the god with the Phrygian ceremonies. So cautious are they about admitting any foreign religious customs and so great is their aversion to all pompous display that is wanting in decorum.

§ 2.20.1  Let no one imagine, however, that I am not sensible that some of the Greek myths are useful to mankind, part of them explaining, as they do, the works of Nature by allegories, others being designed as a consolation for human misfortunes, some freeing the mind of its agitations and terrors and clearing away unsound opinions, and others invented for some other useful purpose.

§ 2.20.2  But, though I am as well acquainted as anyone with these matters, nevertheless my attitude toward the myths is one of caution, and I am more inclined to accept the theology of the Romans, when I consider that the advantages from the Greek myths are slight and cannot be of profit to many, but only to those who have examined the end for which they are designed; and this philosophic attitude is shared by few. The great multitude, unacquainted with philosophy, are prone to take these stories about the gods in the worse sense and to fall into one of two errors: they either despise the gods as buffeted by many misfortunes, or else refrain from none of the most shameful and lawless deeds when they see them attributed to the gods.

§ 2.21.1  But let the consideration of these matters be left to those who have set aside the theoretical part of philosophy exclusively for their contemplation. To return to the government established by Romulus, I have thought the following things also worthy the notice of history. In the first place, he appointed a great number of persons to carry on the worship of the gods. At any rate, no one could name any other newly-founded city in which so many priests and ministers of the gods were appointed from the beginning.

§ 2.21.2  For, apart from those who held family priesthoods, sixty were appointed in his reign to perform by tribes and curiae the public sacrifices on behalf of the commonwealth; I am merely repeating what Terentius Varro, the most learned man of his age, his written in his Antiquities.

§ 2.21.3  In the next place, whereas others generally choose in a careless and inconsiderate manner those who are to preside over religious matters, some thinking fit to make public sale of this honour and others disposing of it by lot, he would not allow the priesthoods to be either purchased for money or assigned by lot, but made a law that each curia should choose two men over fifty years of age, of distinguished birth and exceptional merit, of competent fortune, and without any bodily defects; and he ordered that these should enjoy their honours, not for any fixed period, but for life, freed from military service by their age and from civil burdens by the law.

§ 2.22.1  And because some rites were to be performed by women, others by children whose fathers and mothers were living, to the end that these also might be administered in the best manner, he ordered that the wives of the priests should be associated with their husbands in the priesthood; and that in the case of any rites which men were forbidden by the law of the country to celebrate, their wives should perform them and their children should assist as their duties required; and that the priests who had no children should choose out of the other families of each curia the most beautiful boy and girl, the boy to assist in the rites till the age of manhood, and the girl so long as she remained unmarried. These arrangements also he borrowed, in my opinion, from the practices of the Greeks.

§ 2.22.2  For all the duties that are performed in the Greek ceremonies by the maidens whom they call kanêphoroi and arrhêphoroi are performed by those whom the Romans call tutulatae, who wear on their heads the same kind of crowns with which the statues of the Ephesian Artemis are adorned among the Greeks. And all the functions which among the Tyrrhenians and still earlier among the Pelasgians were performed by those they called cadmili in the rites of the Curetes and in those of the Great Gods, were performed in the same manner by those attendants of the priests who are now called by the Romans camilli.

§ 2.22.3  Furthermore, Romulus ordered one soothsayer out of each tribe to be present at the sacrifices. This soothsayer we call hieroskopos or "inspector of the vitals," and the Romans, preserving something of the ancient name, aruspex. He also made a law that all the priests and ministers of the gods should be chosen by the curiae and that their election should be confirmed by those who interpret the will of the gods by the art of divination.

§ 2.23.1  After he had made these regulations concerning the ministers of the gods, he again, as I have stated, assigned the sacrifices in an appropriate manner to the various curiae, appointing for each of them gods and genii whom they were always to worship, and determined the expenditures for the sacrifices, which were to be paid to them out of the public treasury.

§ 2.23.2  The members of each curia performed their appointed sacrifices together with their own priests, and on holy days they feasted together at their common table. For a banqueting-hall had been built for each curia, and in it there was consecrated, just as in the Greek prytanea, a common table for all the members of the curia. These banqueting-halls had the same name as the curiae themselves, and are called so to our day.

§ 2.23.3  This institution, it seems to me, Romulus took over from the practice of the Lacedaemonians in the case of their phiditia, which were then the vogue. It would seem that Lycurgus, who had learned the institution from the Cretans, introduced it at Sparta to the great advantage of his country; for he thereby in time of peace directed the citizens' lives toward frugality and temperance in their daily repasts, and in time of war inspired every man with a sense of shame and concern not to forsake his comrade with whom he had offered libations and sacrifices and shared in common rites.

§ 2.23.4  And not alone for his wisdom in these matters does Romulus deserve praise, but also for the frugality of the sacrifices that he appointed for the honouring of the gods, the greatest part of which, if not all, remained to my day, being still performed in the ancient manner.

§ 2.23.5  At any rate, I myself have seen in the sacred edifices repasts set before the gods upon ancient wooden tables, in baskets and small earthen plates, consisting of barley bread, cakes and spelt, with the first-offerings of some fruits, and other things of like nature, simple, cheap, and devoid of all vulgar display. I have seen also the libation wines that had been mixed, not in silver and gold vessels, but in little earthen cups and jugs, and I have greatly admired these men for adhering to the customs of their ancestors and not degenerating from their ancient rites into a boastful magnificence.

§ 2.23.6  There are, it is true, other institutions, worthy to be both remembered and related, which were established by Numa Pompilius, who ruled the city after Romulus, a man of consummate wisdom and of rare sagacity in interpreting the will of the gods, and of them I shall speak later; and yet others were added by Tullus Hostilius, the second king after Romulus, and by all the kings who followed him. But the seeds of them were sown and the foundations laid by Romulus, who established the principal rites of their religion.

§ 2.24.1  Romulus also seems to have been the author of that good discipline in other matters by the observance of which the Romans have kept their commonwealth flourishing for many generations; for he established many good and useful laws, the greater part of them unwritten, but some committed to writing. There is no need for me to mention most of them, but I will give a short account of those which I have admired most of all and which I have regarded as suitable to illustrate the character of the rest of this man's legislation, showing how austere it was, how averse to vice, and how closely it resembled the life of the heroic age.

§ 2.24.2  However, I will first observe that all who have established constitutions, barbarian as well as Greek, seem to me to have recognized correctly the general principle that every State, since it consists of many families, is most likely to enjoy tranquillity when the lives of the individual citizens are untroubled, and to have a very tempestuous time when the private affairs of the citizens are in a bad way, and that every prudent statesman, whether he be a lawgiver or a king, ought to introduce such laws as will make the citizens just and temperate in their lives.

§ 2.24.3  Yet by what practices and by what laws this result may be accomplished they do not all seem to me to have understood equally well, but some of them seem to have gone widely and almost completely astray in the principal and fundamental parts of their legislation.

§ 2.24.4  For example, in the matter of marriage and commerce with women, from which the lawgiver ought to begin (even as Nature has begun thence to form our lives), some, taking their example from the beasts, have allowed men to have intercourse with women freely and promiscuously, thinking thus to free their lives from the frenzies of love, of save them from murderous jealousy, and to deliver them from many other evils which come upon both private houses and whole States through women.

§ 2.24.5  Others have banished this wanton and bestial intercourse from their States by joining a man to one woman; and yet for the preservation of the marriage ties and the chastity of women they have never attempted to make even the slightest regulation whatsoever, but have given up the idea as something impracticable. Others have neither permitted sexual intercourse without marriage, like some barbarians, nor neglected the guarding of their women, like the Lacedaemonians, but have established many laws to keep them within bounds. And some have even appointed a magistrate to look after the good conduct of women; this provision, however, for their guarding was found insufficient and too weak to accomplish its purpose, being incapable of bringing the woman of unvirtuous nature to the necessity of a modest behaviour.

§ 2.25.1  But Romulus, without giving either to the husband an action against his wife for adultery or for leaving his home without cause, or to the wife an action against her husband on the ground of ill-usage or for leaving her without reason, and without making any laws for the returning or recovery of the dowry, or regulating anything of this nature, by a single law which effectually provides for all these things, as the results themselves have shown, led the women to behave themselves with modesty and great decorum.

§ 2.25.2  The law was to this effect, that a woman joined to her husband by a holy marriage should share in all his possessions and sacred rites. The ancient Romans designated holy and lawful marriages by the term "farreate," from the sharing of far, which we call zea; for this was the ancient and, for a long time, the ordinary food of all the Romans, and their country produces an abundance of excellent spelt. And as we Greeks regard barley as the most ancient grain, and for that reason begin our sacrifices with barley-corns which we call oulai, so the Romans, in the belief that spelt is both the most valuable and the most ancient of grains, in all burnt offerings begin the sacrifice with that. For this custom still remains, not having deteriorated into first-offerings of greater expense.

§ 2.25.3  The participation of the wives with their husbands in this holiest and first food and their union with them founded on the sharing of all their fortunes took its name from this sharing of the spelt and forged the compelling bond of an indissoluble union, and there was nothing that could annul these marriages.

§ 2.25.4  This law obliged both the married women, as having no other refuge, to conform themselves entirely to the temper of their husbands, and the husbands to rule their wives as necessary and inseparable possessions.

§ 2.25.5  Accordingly, if a wife was virtuous and in all things obedient to her husband, she was mistress of the house to the same degree as her husband was master of it, and after the death of her husband she was heir to his property in the same manner as a daughter was to that of her father; that is, if he died without children and intestate, she was mistress of all that he left, and if he had children, she shared equally with them. But if she did any wrong, the injured party was her judge and determined the degree of her punishment.

§ 2.25.6  Other offences, however, were judged by her relations together with her husband; among them was adultery, or where it was found she had drunk wine — a thing which the Greeks would look upon as the least of all faults. For Romulus permitted them to punish both these acts with death, as being the gravest offences women could be guilty of, since he looked upon adultery as the source of reckless folly, and drunkenness as the source of adultery.

§ 2.25.7  And both these offences continued for a long time to be punished by the Romans with merciless severity. The wisdom of this law concerning wives is attested by the length of time it was in force; for it is agreed that during the space of five hundred and twenty years no marriage was ever dissolved at Rome. But it is said that in the one hundred and thirty-seventh Olympiad, in the consulship of Marcus Pomponius and Gaius Papirius [231 BCE], Spurius Carvilius, a man of distinction, was the first to divorce his wife, and that he was obliged by the censors to swear that he had married for the purpose of having children (his wife, it seems, was barren); yet because of his action, though it was based on necessity, he was ever afterwards hated by the people.

§ 2.26.1  These, then, are the excellent laws which Romulus enacted concerning women, by which he rendered them more observant of propriety in relation to their husbands. But those he established with respect to reverence and dutifulness of children toward their parents, to the end that they should honour and obey them in all things, both in their words and actions, were still more august and of greater dignity and vastly superior to our laws.

§ 2.26.2  For those who established the Greek constitutions set a very short time for sons to be under the rule of their fathers, some till the expiration of the third year after they reached manhood, others as long as they continued unmarried, and some till their names were entered in the public registers, as I have learned from the laws of Solon, Pittacus and Charondas, men celebrated for their great wisdom.

§ 2.26.3  The punishments, also, which they ordered for disobedience in children toward their parents were not grievous: for they permitted fathers to turn their sons out of doors and to disinherit them, but nothing further. But mild punishments are not sufficient to restrain the folly of youth and its stubborn ways or to give self-control to those who have been heedless of all that is honourable; and accordingly among the Greeks many unseemly deeds are committed by children against their parents.

§ 2.26.4  But the lawgiver of the Romans gave virtually full power to the father over his son, even during his whole life, whether he thought proper to imprison him, to scourge him, to put him in chains and keep him at work in the fields, or to put him to death, and this even though the son were already engaged in public affairs, though he were numbered among the highest magistrates, and though he were celebrated for his zeal for the commonwealth.

§ 2.26.5  Indeed, in virtue of this law men of distinction, while delivering speeches from the rostra hostile to the senate and pleasing to the people, have been dragged down from thence and carried away by their fathers to undergo such punishment as these thought fit; and while they were being led away through the Forum, none present, neither consul, tribune, nor the very populace, which was flattered by them and thought all power inferior to its own, could rescue them.

§ 2.26.6  I forbear to mention how many brave men, urged by their valour and zeal to proof some noble deed that their fathers had not ordered, have been put to death by those very fathers, as is related of Manlius Torquatus and many others. But concerning them I shall speak in the proper place.

§ 2.27.1  And not even at this point did the Roman lawgiver stop in giving the father power over the son, but he even allowed him to sell his son, without concerning himself whether this permission might be regarded as cruel and harsher than was compatible with a natural affection. And, — a thing which anyone who has been educated in the lax manners of the Greeks may wonder at above all things and look upon as harsh and tyrannical, — he even gave leave to the father to make a profit by selling his son as often as three times, thereby giving greater power to the father over his son than to the master over his slaves.

§ 2.27.2  For a slave who has once been sold and has later obtained his liberty is his own master ever after, but a son who had once been sold by his father, if he became free, came again under his father's power, and if he was a second time sold and a second time freed, he was still, as at first, his father's slave; but after the third sale he was freed from his father.

§ 2.27.3  This law, whether written or unwritten, — I cannot say positively which, — the kings observed in the beginning, looking upon it as the best of all laws; and after the overthrow of the monarchy, when the Romans first decided to expose in the Forum for the consideration of the whole body of citizens all their ancestral customs and laws, together with those introduced from abroad, to the end that the rights of the people might not be changed as often as the powers of the magistrates, the decemvirs, who were authorized by the people to collect and transcribe the laws, recorded it among the rest, and it now stands on the fourth of the Twelve Tables, as they are called, which they then set up in the Forum.

§ 2.27.4  And that the decemvirs, who were appointed after three hundred years to transcribe these laws, did not first introduce this law among the Romans, but that, finding it long before in use, they dared not repeal it, I infer from many other considerations and particularly from the laws of Numa Pompilius, the successor of Romulus, among which there is recorded the following: "If a father gives his son leave to marry a woman who by the laws is to be the sharer of his sacred rites and possessions, he shall no longer have the power of selling his son." Now he would never have written this unless the father had by all former laws been allowed to sell his sons.

§ 2.27.5  But enough has been said concerning these matters, and I desire also to give a summary account of the other measures by which Romulus regulated the lives of the private citizens.

§ 2.28.1  Observing that the means by which the whole body of citizens, the greater part of whom are hard to guide, can be induced to lead a life of moderation, to prefer justice to gain, to cultivate perseverance in hardships, and to look upon nothing as more valuable than virtue, is not oral instruction, but the habitual practice of such employments as lead to each virtue, and knowing that the great mass of men come to practise them through necessity rather than choice, and hence, if there is nothing to restrain them, return to their natural disposition, he appointed slaves and foreigners to exercise those trades that are sedentary and mechanical and promote shameful passions, looking upon them as the destroyers and corruptors both of the bodies and souls of all who practise them; and such trades were for a very long time held in disgrace by the Romans and were carried on by none of the native-born citizens.

§ 2.28.2  The only employments he left to free men were two, agriculture and warfare; for he observed that men so employed become masters of their appetite, are less entangled in illicit love affairs, and follow that kind of covetousness only which leads them, not to injure one another, but to enrich themselves at the expense of the enemy. But, as he regarded each of these occupations, when separate from the other, as incomplete and conducive to fault-finding, instead of appointing one part of the men to till the land and the other to lay waste the enemy's country, according to the practice of the Lacedaemonians, he ordered the same persons to exercise the employments both of husbandmen and soldiers.

§ 2.28.3  In time of peace he accustomed them to remain at their tasks in the country, except when it was necessary for them to come to market, upon which occasions they were to meet in the city in order to traffic, and to that end he appointed every ninth day for the markets; and when war came he taught them to perform the duties of soldiers and not to yield to others either in the hardships or advantages that war brought. For he divided equally among them the lands, slaves and money that he took from the enemy, and thus caused them to take part cheerfully in his campaigns.

§ 2.29.1  In the case of wrongs committed by the citizens against one another he did not permit the trials to be delayed, but caused them to be held promptly, sometimes deciding the suits himself and sometimes referring them to others; and he proportioned the punishment to the magnitude of the crime. Observing, also, that nothing restrains men from all evil actions so effectually as fear, he contrived many things to inspire it, such as the place where he sat in judgment in the most conspicuous part of the Forum, the very formidable appearance of the soldiers who attended him, three hundred in number, and the rods and axes borne by twelve men, who scourged in the Forum those whose offences deserved it and beheaded others in public who were guilty of the greatest crimes.

§ 2.29.2  Such then, was the general character of the government established by Romulus; the details I have mentioned are sufficient to enable one to form a judgment of the rest.

§ 2.30.1  The other deeds reported of this man, both in his wars and at home, which may be thought deserving of mention in a history are as follows.

§ 2.30.2  Inasmuch as many nations that were both numerous and brave in war dwelt round about Rome and none of them was friendly to the Romans, he desired to conciliate them by intermarriages, which, in the opinion of the ancients, was the surest method of cementing friendships; but considering that the cities in question would not of their own accord unite with the Romans, who were just getting settled together in one city, and who neither were powerful by reason of their wealth nor had performed any brilliant exploit, but that they would yield to force if no insolence accompanied such compulsion, he determined, with the approval of Numitor, his grandfather, to bring about the desired intermarriages by a wholesale seizure of virgins.

§ 2.30.3  After he had taken this resolution, he first made a vow to the god who presides over secret counsels to celebrate sacrifices and festivals every year if his enterprise should succeed. Then, having laid his plan before the senate and gaining their approval, he announced that he would hold a festival and general assemblage in honour of Neptune, and he sent word round about to the nearest cities, inviting all who wished to do so to be present at the assemblage and to take part in the increases; for he was going to hold contests of all sorts, both between horses and between men.

§ 2.30.4  And when many strangers came with their wives and children to the festival, he first offered the sacrifices to Neptune and held the contests: then, on the last day, on which he was to dismiss the assemblage, he ordered the young men, when he himself should raise the signal, to seize all the virgins who had come to the spectacle, each group taking those they should first encounter, to keep them that night without violating their chastity and bring them to him the next day.

§ 2.30.5  So the young men divided themselves into several groups, and as soon as they saw the signal raised, fell to seizing the virgins; and straightway the strangers were in an uproar and fled, suspecting some greater mischief. The next day, when the virgins were brought before Romulus, he comforted them in their despair with the assurance that they had been seized, not out of wantonness, but for the purpose of marriage; for he pointed out that this was an ancient Greek custom and that of all methods of contracting marriages for women it was the most illustrious, and he asked them to cherish those whom Fortune had given them for their husbands.

§ 2.30.6  Then counting them and finding their number to be six hundred and eighty-three, he chose an equal number of unmarried men to whom he united them according to the customs of each woman's country, basing the marriages on a communion of fire and water, in the same manner as marriages are performed even down to our times.

§ 2.31.1  Some state that these things happened in the first year of Romulus' reign, but Gnaeus Gellius says it was in the fourth, which is more probable. For it is not likely that the head of a newly-built city would undertake such an enterprise before establishing its government. As regards the reason for the seizing of the virgins, some ascribe it to a scarcity of women, others to the seeking of pretext for war; but those who give the most plausible account — and with them I agree — attribute it to the design of contracting an alliance with the neighbouring cities, founded on affinity.

§ 2.31.2  And the Romans even to my day continued to celebrate the festival then instituted by Romulus, calling it the Consualia, in the course of which a subterranean altar, erected near the Circus Maximus, is uncovered by the removal of the soil round about it and honoured with sacrifices and burnt-offerings of first-fruits and a course is run both by horses yoked to chariots and by single horses. The god to whom these honours are paid is called Consus by the Romans, being the same, according to some who render the name into our tongue, as Poseidon Seisichthon or the "Earth-shaker"; and they say that this god was honoured with a subterranean altar because he holds the earth.

§ 2.31.3  I know also from hearsay another tradition, to the effect that the festival is indeed celebrated in honour of Neptune and the horse-races are held in his honour, but that the subterranean altar was erected later to a certain divinity whose name may not be uttered, who presides over and is the guardian of hidden counsels; for a secret altar has never been erected to Neptune, they say, in any part of the world by either Greeks or barbarians. But it is hard to say what the truth of the matter is.

§ 2.32.1  When, now, the report of the seizure of the virgins and of their marriage was spread among the neighbouring cities, some of these were incensed at the proceeding itself, though others, considering the motive from which it sprang and the outcome to which it led, bore it with moderation; but, at any rate, in the course of time it occasioned several wars, of which the rest were of small consequence, but that against the Sabines was a great and difficult one. All these wars ended happily, as the oracles had foretold to Romulus before he undertook the task, indicating as they did that the difficulties and dangers would be great but that their outcome would be prosperous.

§ 2.32.2  The first cities that made war upon him were Caenina, Antemnae and Crustumerium. They put forward as a pretext the seizure of the virgins and their failure to receive satisfaction on their account; but the truth was that they were displeased at the founding of Rome and at its great and rapid increase and felt that they ought not to permit this city to grow up as a common menace to all its neighbours.

§ 2.32.3  For the time being, then, these cities were sending ambassadors to the Sabines, asking them to take command of the war, since they possessed the greatest military strength and were most powerful by reason of their wealth and were laying claim to the rule over their neighbours and inasmuch as they had suffered from the Romans' insolence quite as much as any of the rest; for the greater part of the virgins who had been seized belonged to them.

§ 2.33.1  But when they found they were accomplishing nothing, since the embassies from Romulus opposed them and courted the Sabine people both by their words and by their actions, they were vexed at the waste of time — for the Sabines were forever affecting delays and putting off to distant dates the deliberation concerning the war — and resolved to make war upon the Romans by themselves alone, believing that their own strength, if the three cities joined forces, was sufficient to conquer one inconsiderable city. This was their plan: but they did not all assemble together promptly enough in one camp, since the Caeninenses, who seemed to be most eager in promoting the war, rashly set out ahead of the others.

§ 2.33.2  When these men, then, had taken the field and were wasting the country that bordered on their own, Romulus led out his army, and unexpectedly falling upon the enemy while they were as yet off their guard, he made himself master of their camp, which was but just completed. Then following close upon the heels of those who fled into the city, where the inhabitants had not as yet learned of the defeat of their forces, and finding the walls unguarded and the gates unbarred, he took the town by storm; and when the king of the Caeninenses met him with a strong body of men, he fought with him, and slaying him with his own hands, stripped him of his arms.

§ 2.34.1  The town being taken in this manner, he ordered the prisoners to deliver up their arms, and taking such of their children for hostages as he thought fit, he marched against the Antemnates. And having conquered their army also, in the same manner as the other, by falling upon them unexpectedly while they were still dispersed in foraging, and having accorded the same treatment to the prisoners, he led his army home, carrying with him the spoils of those who had been slain in battle and the choicest part of the booty as an offering to the gods; and he offered many sacrifices besides.

§ 2.34.2  Romulus himself came last in the procession, clad in a purple robe and wearing a crown of laurel upon his head, and, that he might maintain the royal dignity, he rode in a chariot drawn by four horses. The rest of the army, both foot and horse, followed, ranged in their several divisions, praising the gods in songs of their country and extolling their general in improvised verses. They were met by the citizens with their wives and children, who, ranging themselves on each side of the road, congratulated them upon their victory and expressed their welcome in every other way. When the army entered the city, they found mixing bowls filled to the brim with wine and tables loaded down with all sorts of viands, which were placed before the most distinguished houses in order that all who pleased might take their fill.

§ 2.34.3  Such was the victorious procession, marked by the carrying of trophies and concluding with a sacrifice, which the Romans call a triumph, as it was first instituted by Romulus. But in our day the triumph had become a very costly and ostentatious pageant, being attended with a theatrical pomp that is designed rather as a display of wealth than as approbation of valour, and it has departed in every respect from its ancient simplicity.

§ 2.34.4  After the procession and the sacrifice Romulus built a small temple on the summit of the Capitoline hill to Jupiter whom the Romans call Feretrius; indeed, the ancient traces of it still remain, of which the longest sides are less than fifteen feet. In this temple he consecrated the spoils of the king of the Caeninenses, whom he had slain with his own hand. As for Jupiter Feretrius, to whom Romulus dedicated these arms, one will not err from the truth whether one wishes to call him Tropaiouchos, or Skylophoros, as some will have it, or, since he excels all things and comprehends universal nature and motion, Hyperpheretês.

§ 2.35.1  After the king had offered to the gods the sacrifices of thanksgiving and the first-fruits of victory, before entering upon any other business, he assembled the senate to deliberate with them in what manner the conquered cities should be treated, and he himself first delivered the opinion he thought the best.

§ 2.35.2  When all the senators who were present had approved of the counsels of their chief as both safe and brilliant and had praised all the other advantages that were likely to accrue from them to the commonwealth, not only for the moment but for all future time, he gave command for the assembling of all the women belonging to the race of the Antemnates and of the Caeninenses who had been seized with the rest. And when they had assembled, lamenting, throwing themselves at his feet and bewailing the calamities of their native cities, he commanded them to cease their lamentations and be silent, then spoke to them as follows:

§ 2.35.3  "Your fathers and brothers and your entire cities deserve to suffer every severity for having preferred to our friendship a war that was neither necessary nor honourable. We, however, have resolved for many reasons to treat them with moderation; for we not only fear the vengeance of the gods, which ever threatens the arrogant, and dread the ill-will of men, but we are also persuaded that mercy contributes not a little to alleviate the common ills of mankind, and we realize that we ourselves may one day stand in need of that of others. And we believe that to you, whose behaviour towards your husbands has thus far been blameless, this will be no small honour and favour.

§ 2.35.4  We suffer this offence of theirs, therefore, to go unpunished and take from your fellow citizens neither their liberty nor their possessions nor any other advantages they enjoy; and both to those who desire to remain there and to those who wish to change their abode we grant full liberty to make their choice, not only without danger but without fear of repenting. But, to prevent their ever repeating their fault or the finding of any occasion to induce their cities to break off their alliance with us, the best means, we consider, and that which will at the same time conduce to the reputation and security of both, is for us to make those cities colonies of Rome and to send a sufficient number of our own people from here to inhabit them jointly with your fellow citizens. Depart, therefore, with good courage; and redouble your love and regard for your husbands, to whom your parents and brothers owe their preservation and your countries their liberty."

§ 2.35.5  The women, hearing this, were greatly pleased, and shedding many tears of joy, left the Forum; but Romulus sent a colony of three hundred men into each city, to whom these cities gave a third part of their lands to be divided among them by lot.

§ 2.35.6  And those of the Caeninenses and Antemnates who desired to remove to Rome they brought thither together with their wives and children, permitting them to retain their allotments of land and to take with them all their possessions; and the king immediately enrolled them, numbering not less than three thousand, in the tribes and the curiae, so that the Romans had then for the first time six thousand foot in all upon the register.

§ 2.35.7  Thus Caenina and Antemnae, no inconsiderable cities, whose inhabitants were of Greek origin (for the Aborigines had taken the cities from the Sicels and occupied them, these Aborigines being, as I said before, part of those Oenotrians who had come out of Arcadia),52 after this war became Roman colonies.

§ 2.36.1  Romulus, having attended to these matters, led out his army against the Crustumerians, who were better prepared than the armies of the other cities had been. And after he had reduced them both in a pitched battle and in an assault upon their city, although they had shown great bravery in the struggle, he did not think fit to punish them any further, but made this city also a Roman colony like the two former.

§ 2.36.2  Crustumerium was a colony of the Albans sent out many years before the founding of Rome. The fame of the general's valour in war and of his clemency to the conquered being spread through many cities, many brave men joined him, bringing with them considerable bodies of troops, who migrated with their whole families. From one of these leaders, who came from Tyrrhenia and whose name was Caelius, one of the hills, on which he settled, is to this day called the Caelian. Whole cities also submitted to him, beginning with Medullia, and became Roman colonies.

§ 2.36.3  But the Sabines, seeing these things, were displeased and blamed one another for not having crushed the power of the Romans while it was in its infancy, instead of which they were now to contend with it when it was greatly increased. They determined, therefore, to make amends for their former mistake by sending out an army of respectable size. And soon afterwards, assembling a general council in the greatest and most famous city in the nation, called Cures,a they voted for the war and appointed Titus, surnamed Tatius, the king of that city, to be their general. After the Sabines had come to this decision, the assembly broke up and all returned home to their several cities, where they busied themselves with their preparations for the war, planning to advance on Rome with a great army the following year.

§ 2.37.1  In the meantime Romulus also was making the best preparations he could in his turn, realizing that he was to defend himself against a warlike people. With this in view, he raised the wall of the Palatine hill by building higher ramparts upon it as a further security to the inhabitants, and fortified the adjacent hills — the Aventine and the one now called the Capitoline — with ditches and strong palisades, and upon these hills he ordered the husbandmen with their flocks to pass the nights, securing each of them by a sufficient garrison; and likewise any other place that promised to afford them security he fortified with ditches and palisades and kept under guard.

§ 2.37.2  In the meantime there came to him a man of action and reputation for military achievements, named Lucumo, lately become his friend, who brought with him from the city of Solonium a considerable body of Tyrrhenian mercenaries. There came to him also from the Albans, sent by his grandfather, a goodly number of soldiers with their attendants, and with them artificers for making engines of war; these men were adequately supplied with provisions, arms, and all necessary equipment.

§ 2.37.3  When everything was ready for the war on both sides, the Sabines, who planned to take the field at the beginning of spring, resolved first to send an embassy to the enemy both to ask for the return of the women and to demand satisfaction for their seizure, just so that they might seem to have undertaken the war from necessity when they failed to get justice, and they were sending the heralds for this purpose.

§ 2.37.4  Romulus, however, asked that the women, since they themselves were not unwilling to live with their husbands, should be permitted to remain with them; but he offered to grant the Sabines anything else they desired, provided they asked it as from friends and did not begin war. Thereupon the others, agreeing to none of his proposals, led out their army, which consisted of twenty-five thousand foot and almost a thousand horse.

§ 2.37.5  And the Roman army was not much smaller than that of the Sabines, the foot amounting to twenty thousand and the horse to eight hundred; it was encamped before the city in two divisions, one of them, under Romulus himself, being posted on the Esquiline hill, and the other, commanded by Lucumo, the Tyrrhenian, on the Quirinal, which did not as yet have that name.

§ 2.38.1  Tatius, the king of the Sabines, being informed of their preparations, broke camp in the night and led his army through the country, without doing any damage to the property in the fields, and before sunrise encamped on the plain that lies between the Quirinal and Capitoline hills. But observing all the posts to be securely guarded by the enemy and no strong position left for his army, he fell into great perplexity, not knowing what use to make of the enforced delay.

§ 2.38.2  While he was thus at his wit's end, he met with an unexpected piece of good fortune, the strongest of the fortresses being delivered up to him in the following circumstances. It seems that, while the Sabines were passing by the foot of the Capitoline to view the place and see whether any part of the hill could be taken within by surprise of or by force, they were observed from above by a maiden whose name was Tarpeia, the daughter of a distinguished man who had been entrusted with the guarding of the place.

§ 2.38.3  This maiden, as both Fabius and Cincius relate, conceived a desire for the bracelets which the men wore on their left arms and for their rings; for at that time the Sabines wore ornaments of gold and were no less luxurious in their habits than the Tyrrhenians. But according to the account given by Lucius Piso, the ex-censor, she was inspired by the desire of performing a noble deed, namely, to deprive the enemy of their defensive arms and thus deliver them up to her fellow citizens.

§ 2.38.4  Which of these accounts is the truer may be conjectured by what happened afterwards. This girl, therefore, sending out one of her maids by a little gate which was not known to be open, desired the king of the Sabines to come and confer with her in private, as if she had an affair of necessity and importance to communicate to him. Tatius, in the hope of having the place betrayed to him, accepted the proposal and came to the place appointed; and the maiden, approaching within speaking distance, informed him that her father had gone out of the fortress during the night on some business, but that she had the keys of the gates, and if they came in the night, she would deliver up the place to them upon condition that they gave her as a reward for her treachery the things which all the Sabines wore on their left arms.

§ 2.38.5  And when Tatius consented to this, she received his sworn pledge for the faithful performance of the agreement and gave him hers. Then having appointed, as the place to which the Sabines were to repair, the strongest part of the fortress, and the most unguarded hour of the night as the time for the enterprise, she returned without being observed by those inside.

§ 2.39.1  So far all the Roman historians agree, but not in what follows. For Piso, the ex-censor, whom I mentioned before, says that a messenger was sent out of the place by Tarpeia in the night to inform Romulus of the agreement she had made with the Sabines, in consequence of which she proposed, by taking advantage of the ambiguity of the expression in that agreement, to demand their defensive arms, and asking him at the same time to send a reinforcement to the fortress that night, so that the enemy together with their commander, being deprived of their arms, might be taken prisoners; but the messenger, he says, deserted to the Sabine commander and acquainted him with the designs of Tarpeia. Nevertheless, Fabius and Cincius say that no such thing occurred, but they insist that girl kept her treacherous compact.

§ 2.39.2  In what follows, however, all are once more in agreement. For they say that upon the arrival of the king of the Sabines with the flower of his army, Tarpeia, keeping her promise, opened to the enemy the gate agreed upon, and rousing the garrison, urged them to save themselves speedily by other exits unknown to the enemy, as if the Sabines were already masters of the place;

§ 2.39.3  that after the flight of the garrison the Sabines, finding the gates open, possessed themselves of the stronghold, now stripped of its guards, and that Tarpeia, alleging that she had kept her part of the agreement, insisted upon receiving the reward of her treachery according to the oaths.

§ 2.40.1  Here again Piso says that, when the Sabines were ready to give the girl the gold they wore on their left arms, Tarpeia demanded of them their shields and not their ornaments. But Tatius resented the imposition and at the same time thought of an expedient by which he might not violate the agreement. Accordingly, he decided to give her the arms as the girl demanded, but to contrive that she should make no use of them; and immediately poising his shield, he hurled it at her with all his might, and ordered the rest to do the same; and thus Tarpeia, being pelted from all sides, fell under the number and force of the blows and died, overwhelmed by the shields.

§ 2.40.2  But Fabius attributes this fraud in the performance of the agreement to the Sabines; for they, being obliged by the agreement to give her the gold as she demanded, were angered at the magnitude of the reward and hurled their shield at her as if they had engaged themselves by their oaths to give her these. But what followed gives the greater appearance of truth to the statement of Piso.

§ 2.40.3  For she was honoured with a monument in the place where she fell and lies buried on the most sacred hill of the city and the Romans every year perform libations to her (I relate what Piso writes); whereas, if she had died in betraying her country to the enemy, it is not to be supposed that she would have received any of these honours, either from those whom she had betrayed or from those who had slain her, but, if there had been any remains of her body, they would in the course of time have been dug up and cast out of the city, in order to warn and deter others from committing the like crimes. But let everyone judge of the matters as he pleases.

§ 2.41.1  As for Tatius and the Sabines, having become masters of a strong fortress and having without any trouble taken the greatest part of the Romans' baggage, they carried on the war thereafter in safety. And as the armies lay encamped at a short distance from each other and many occasions offered, there were many essays and skirmishes, which were not attended with any great advantages or losses to either side, and there were also two very severe pitched battles, in which all the forces were opposed to each other and there was great slaughter on both sides.

§ 2.41.2  For, as the time dragged along, they both came to the same resolution, namely, to decide the issue by a general engagement. Whereupon leaders of both armies, who were masters of the art of war, as well as common soldiers, trained in many engagements, advanced into the plain that lay between the two camps and performed memorable feats both in attacking and receiving the enemy as well as in rallying and renewing the fight on equal terms.

§ 2.41.3  Those who from the ramparts were spectators of this doubtful battle, which, often varying, favoured each side in turn, when their own men had the advantage, inspired them with fresh courage by their exhortations and songs of victory, and when they were hard pressed and pursued, prevented them by their prayers and lamentations from proving utter cowards; and thanks to these shouts of encouragement and entreaty the combatants were compelled to endure the perils of the struggle even beyond their strength. And so, after they had thus carried on the contest all that day without a decision, darkness now coming on, they both gladly retired to their own camps.

§ 2.42.1  But on the following days they buried their dead, took care of the wounded and reinforced their armies; then, resolving to engaged in another battle, they met again in the same plain as before and fought till night.

§ 2.42.2  In this battle, when the Romans had the advantage on both wings (the right was commanded by Romulus himself and the left by Lucumo, the Tyrrhenian) but in the centre the battle remained as yet undecided, one man prevented the utter defeat of the Sabines and rallied their wavering forces to renew the struggle with the victors. This man, whose name was Mettius Curtius, was of great physical strength and courageous in action, but he was famous especially for his contempt of all fear and danger.

§ 2.42.3  He had been appointed to command those fighting in the centre of the line and was victorious over those who opposed him; but wishing to restore the battle in the wings also, where the Sabine troops were by now in difficulties and being forced back, he encouraged those about him, and pursuing such of the enemy's forces as were fleeing and scattered, he drove them back to the gates of the city. This obliged Romulus to leave the victory but half completed and to return and make a drive against the victorious troops of the enemy.

§ 2.42.4  Upon the departure of Romulus with his forces those of the Sabines who had been in trouble were once more upon equal terms with their opponents, and the whole danger was now centred round Curtius and his victorious troops. For some time the Sabines received the onset of the Romans and fought brilliantly, but when large numbers joined in attacking them, they gave way and began to seek safety in their camp, Curtius amply securing their retreat, so that they were not driven back in disorder, but retired without precipitation.

§ 2.42.5  For he himself stood his ground fighting and awaited Romulus as he approached; and there ensued a great and glorious engagement between the leaders themselves as they fell upon each other. But at last Curtius, having received many wounds and lost much blood, retired by degrees till he came to a deep lake in his rear which its difficult for him to make his way round, his enemies being massed on all sides of it, and impossible to pass through by reason of the quantity of mud on the marshy shore surrounding it and the depth of water that stood in the middle.

§ 2.42.6  When he came to the lake, he threw himself into the water, armed as he was, and Romulus, supposing that he would immediately perish in the lake, — moreover, it was not possible to pursue him through so much mud and water, — turned upon the rest of the Sabines. But Curtius with great difficulty got safely out of the lake after a time without losing his arms and was led away to the camp. This place is now filled up, but it is called from this incident the Lacus Curtius, being about in the middle of the Roman Forum.

§ 2.43.1  Romulus, while pursuing the others, had drawn near the Capitoline and had great hopes of capturing the stronghold, but being weakened by many other wounds and stunned by a severe blow from a stone which was hurled from the heights and hit him on the temple, he was taken up half dead by those about him and carried inside the walls.

§ 2.43.2  When the Romans no longer saw their leader, they were seized with fear and the right wing turned to flight; but the troops that were posted on the left with Lucumo stood their ground for some time, encouraged by their leader, a man most famous for his warlike prowess and who had performed many exploits during the course of this war. But when he in his turn was pierced through the side with a javelin and fell through weakness, they also gave way; and thereupon the whole Roman army was in flight, and the Sabines, taking courage, pursued them up to the city.

§ 2.43.3  But as they were already drawing near the gates they were repulsed, when the youths whom the king had appointed to guard the walls sallied out against them with their forces fresh; and when Romulus, too, who by this time was in some degree recovered of his wound, came out to their assistance with all possible speed, the fortune of the battle quickly turned and veered strongly to the other side.

§ 2.43.4  For those who were fleeing recovered themselves from their late fear on the unexpected appearance of their leader, and reforming their lines, no longer hesitated to come to blows with the enemy; while the latter, who but now had been driving the fugitives into the city and thought there was nothing that could prevent them from taking the city itself by storm, when they saw this sudden and unexpected change, took thought for their own safety. But they found it no easy matter to retreat to their camp, pursued as they were down from a height and through a hollow way, and in this rout they sustained heavy losses.

§ 2.43.5  And so, after they had thus fought that day without a decision and both had met with unexpected turns of fortune, the sun now being near his setting, they parted.

§ 2.44.1  But during the following days the Sabines were taking counsel whether they should lead their forces back home, after doing all possible damage to the enemy's country, or should send for another army from home and still hold out obstinately until they should put an end to the war in the most honourable manner.

§ 2.44.2  They considered that it would be a bad thing for them to return home with the shame of having effected nothing or to stay there when none of their attempts succeeded according to their expectations. And to treat with the enemy concerning an accommodation, which they looked upon as the only honourable means of putting an end to the war, they conceived to be no more fitting for them than for the Romans.

§ 2.44.3  On the other side, the Romans were not less, but even more, perplexed than the Sabines what course to take in the present juncture. For they could not resolve either to restore the women or to retain them, believing that the former course involved an acknowledgment of defeat and that it would be necessary to submit to whatever else might be imposed upon them, and that the alternative course would necessitate their witnessing many terrible sights as their country was being laid waste and the flower of their youth destroyed; and, if they should treat with the Sabines for peace, they despaired of obtaining any moderate terms, not only for many other reasons, but chiefly because the proud and headstrong treat an enemy who resorts to courting them, not with moderation, but with severity.

§ 2.45.1  While both sides were consuming the time in these considerations, neither daring to renew the fight nor treating for peace, the wives of the Romans who were of the Sabine race and the cause of the war, assembling in one place apart from their husbands and consulting together, determined to make the first overtures themselves to both armies concerning an accommodation.

§ 2.45.2  The one who proposed this measure to the rest of the women was named Hersilia, a woman of no obscure birth among the Sabines. Some say that, though already married, she was seized with the others as supposedly a virgin; but those who give the most probable account say that she remained with her daughter of her own free will, for according to them her only daughter was among those who had been seized.

§ 2.45.3  After the women had taken this resolution they came to the senate, and having obtained an audience, they made long pleas, begging to be permitted to go out to their relations and declaring that they had many excellent grounds for hoping to bring the two nations together and establish friendship between them. When the senators who were present in council with the king heard this, they were exceedingly pleased and looked upon it, in view of their present difficulties, as the only solution.

§ 2.45.4  Thereupon a decree of the senate was passed to the effect that those Sabine women who had children should, upon leaving them with their husbands, have permission to go as ambassadors to their countrymen, and that those who had several children should take along as many of them as they wished and endeavour to reconcile the two nations.

§ 2.45.5  After this the women went out dressed in mourning, some of them also carrying their infant children. When they arrived in the camp of the Sabines, lamenting and falling at the feet of those they met, they aroused great compassion in all who saw them and none could refrain from tears.

§ 2.45.6  And when the councillors had been called together to receive them and the king had command them to state their reasons for coming, Hersilia, who had proposed the plan and was at the head of the embassy, delivered a long and pathetic plea, begging them to grant peace to those who were interceding for their husbands and on whose account, she pointed out, the war had been undertaken. As to the terms, however, on which peace should be made, she said the leaders, coming together by themselves, might settle them with a view to the advantage of both parties.

§ 2.46.1  After she had spoken thus, all the women with their children threw themselves at the feet of the king and remained prostrate till those who were present raised them from the ground and promised to do everything that was reasonable and in their power. Then, having ordered them to withdraw from the council and having consulted together, they decided to make peace. And first a truce was agreed upon between the two nations; then the kings met together and a treaty of friendship was concluded.

§ 2.46.2  The terms agreed upon by the two, which they confirmed by their oaths, were as follows: that Romulus and Tatius should be kings of the Romans with equal authority and should enjoy equal honours; that the city, preserving its name, should from its founder be called Rome; that each individual citizen should as before be called a Roman, but that the people collectively should be comprehended under one general appellation and from the city of Tatius be called Quirites, and that all the Sabines who wished might live in Rome, joining in common rites with the Romans and being assigned to tribes and curiae.

§ 2.46.3  After they had sworn to this treaty and, to confirm their oaths, had erected altars near the middle of the Sacred Way, as it is called, they mingled together. And all the commanders returned home with their forces except Tatius, the king, and three persons of the most illustrious families, who remained at Rome and received those honours which their posterity after them enjoyed; these were Volusus Valerius and Tallus, surnamed Tyrannius, with Mettius Curtius, the man who swam cross the lake with his arms, and with them there remained also their companions, relations and clients, no fewer in number than the former inhabitants.

§ 2.47.1  Everything being thus settled, the kings thought proper, since the city had received a great increase of people, to double the number of the patricians by adding to the most distinguished families others from among the new settlers equal in number to the old, and they called these "new patricians." Of these a hundred persons, chosen by the curiae, were enrolled with the original senators.

§ 2.47.2  Concerning these matters almost all the writers of Roman history agree. But some few differ regarding the number of the newly-enrolled senators, for they say it was not a hundred, but fifty, that were added to the senate.

§ 2.47.3  Concerning the honours, also, which the kings conferred on the women in return for having reconciled them, not all the Roman historians agree; for some write that, besides many other signal marks of honour which they bestowed upon them, they gave their names to the curiae, which were thirty, as I have said, that being the number of the women who went upon the embassy.

§ 2.47.4  But Terentius Varro does not agree with them in this particular, for he says that Romulus gave the names to the curiae earlier than this, when he first divided the people, some of these names being taken from men who were their leaders and others from districts; and he says that the number of the women who went upon the embassy was not thirty, but five hundred and twenty-seven, and he thinks it very improbable that the kings would have deprived so many women of this honour to bestow it upon only a few of them. But as regards these matters, it has not seemed to me fitting either to omit all mention of them or to say more than is sufficient.

§ 2.48.1  Concerning the city of Cures from which Tatius and his followers came (for the course of my narrative requires that I should speak of them also, and say who they were and whence), we have received the following account. In the territory of Reate, when the Aborigines were in possession of it, a certain maiden of that country, who was of the highest birth, went into the temple of Enyalius to dance.

§ 2.48.2  The Sabines and the Romans, who have learned it from them, give to Enyalius the name of Quirinus, without being able to affirm for certain whether he is Mars or some other god who enjoys the same honours as Mars. For some think that both these names are used of one and the same god who presides over martial combats; others, that the names are applied to two different gods of war.

§ 2.48.3  Be that as it may, this maiden, while she was dancing in the temple, was on a sudden seized with divine inspiration, and quitting the dance, ran into the inner sanctuary of the god; after which, being with child by this divinity, as everybody believed, she brought forth a son named Modius, with the surname Fabidius, who, being arrived at manhood, had not a human but a divine form and was renowned above all others for his warlike deeds. And conceiving a desire to found a city on his own account,

§ 2.48.4  he gathered together a great number of people of the neighbourhood and in a very short time built the city called Cures: he gave it this name, as some say, from the divinity whose son he was reputed to be, or, as others state, from a spear, since the Sabines call spears cures. This is the account given by Terentius Varro.

§ 2.49.1  But Zenodotus of Troezen, a . . . historian, relates that the Umbrians, a native race, first dwelt in the Reatine territory, as it is called, and that, being driven from there by the Pelasgians, they came into the country which they now inhabit, and changing their name with their place of habitation, from Umbrians were called Sabines.

§ 2.49.2  But Porcius Cato says that the Sabine race received its name from Sabus, the son of Sancus, a divinity of that country, and that this Sancus was by some called Jupiter Fidius. He says also that their first place of abode was a certain village called Testruna, situated near the city of Amiternum; that from there the Sabines made an incursion at that time into the Reatine territory, which was inhabited by the Aborigines together with the Pelasgians, and took their most famous city, Cutiliae, by force of arms and occupied it;

§ 2.49.3  and that, sending colonies out of the Reatine territory, they built many cities, in which they lived without fortifying them, among others the city called Cures. He further states that the country they occupied was distant from the Adriatic about two hundred and eighty stades and from the Tyrrhenian Sea a little less than a thousand stades.

§ 2.49.4  There is also another account given of the Sabines in the native histories, to the effect that a colony of Lacedaemonians settled among them at the time when Lycurgus, being guardian to his nephew Eunomus, gave his laws to Sparta. For the story goes that some of the Spartans, disliking the severity of his laws and separating from the rest, quitted the city entirely, and after being borne through a vast stretch of sea, made a vow to the gods to settle in the first land they should reach; for a longing came upon them for any land whatsoever.

§ 2.49.5  At last they made that part of Italy which lies near the Pomentine plains and they called the place where they first landed Foronia, in memory of their being borne through the sea, and built a temple owing to the goddess Foronia, to whom they had addressed their vows; this goddess, by the alteration of one letter, they now call Feronia. And some of them, setting out from thence, settled among the Sabines. It is for this reason, they say, that many of the habits of the Sabines are Spartan, particularly their fondness for war and their frugality and a severity in all the actions of their lives. But this is enough about the Sabine race.

§ 2.50.1  Romulus and Tatius immediately enlarged the city by adding to it two other hills, the Quirinal, as it is called, and the Caelian; and separating their habitations, each of them had his particular place of residence. Romulus occupied the Palatine and Caelian hills, the latter being next to the Palatine, and Tatius the Capitoline hill, which he had seized in the beginning, and the Quirinal.

§ 2.50.2  And cutting down the wood that grew on the plain at the foot of the Capitoline and filling up the greatest part of the lake, which, since it lay in a hollow, was kept well supplied by the waters that came down from the hills, they converted the plain into a forum, which the Romans continue to use even now; there they held their assemblies, transacting their business in the temple of Vulcan, which stands a little above the Forum.

§ 2.50.3  They built temples also and consecrated altars to those gods to whom they had addressed their vows during their battles: Romulus to Jupiter Stator, near the Porta Mugonia, as it is called, which leads to the Palatine hill from the Sacred Way, because this god had heard his vows and had caused his army to stop in its flight and to renew the battle; and Tatius to the Sun and Moon, to Saturn and to Rhea, and, besides these, to Vesta, Vulcan, Diana, Enyalius, and to other gods whose names are difficult to be expressed in the Greek language; and in every curia he dedicated tables to Juno called Quiritis, which remain even to this day.

§ 2.50.4  For five years, then, the kings reigned together in perfect harmony, during which time they engaged in one joint undertaking, the expedition against the Camerinii; for these people, who kept sending out bands of robbers and doing great injury to the country of the Romans, would not agree to have the case submitted to judicial investigation, though often summoned by the Romans to do so. After conquering the Camerinii in a pitched battle (for they came to blows with them) and later besieging and taking their town by storm, they disarmed the inhabitants and deprived them of a third part of their land, which they divided among their own people.

§ 2.50.5  And when the Camerinii proceeded to harass the new settlers, they marched out against them, and having put them to flight, divided all their possessions among their own people, but permitted as many of the inhabitants as wished to so to live at Rome. These amounted to about four thousand, whom they distributed among the curiae, and they made their city a Roman colony. Cameria was a colony of the Albans planted long before the founding of Rome, and anciently one of the most celebrated habitations of the Aborigines.

§ 2.51.1  But in the sixth year, the government of the city devolved once more upon Romulus alone, Tatius having lost his life as the result of a plot which the principal men of Lavinium formed against him. The occasion for the plot was this. Some friends of Tatius had led out a band of robbers into the territory of the Lavinians, where they seized a great many of their effects and drove away their herds of cattle, killing or wounding those who came to the rescue.

§ 2.51.2  Upon the arrival of an embassy from the injured to demand satisfaction, Romulus decided that those who had done the injury should be delivered up for punishment to those they had wronged. Tatius, however, espousing the cause of his friends, would not consent that any persons should be taken into custody by their enemies before trial, and particularly Roman citizens by outsiders, but ordered those who complained that they had been injured to come to Rome and proceed against the others according to law.

§ 2.51.3  The ambassadors, accordingly, having failed to obtain any satisfaction, went away full of resentment; and some of the Sabines, incensed at their action, followed them and set upon them while they were asleep in their tents, which they had pitched near the road when evening overtook them, and not only robbed them of their money, but cut the throats of all they found still in their beds; those, however, who perceived the plot promptly and were able to make their escape got back to their city. After this ambassadors came both from Lavinium and from many cities, complaining of this lawless deed and threatening war if they should not obtain justice.

§ 2.52.1  This violence committed against the ambassadors appeared to Romulus, as indeed it was, a terrible crime and one calling for speedy expiation, since it had been in violation of a sacred law; and finding that Tatius was making light of it, he himself, without further delay, caused those who had been guilty of the outrage to be seized and delivered up in chains to the ambassadors to be led away.

§ 2.52.2  But Tatius not only was angered at the indignity which he complained he had received from his colleague in the delivering up of the men, but was also moved with compassion for those who were being led away (for one of the guilty persons was actually a relation of his); and immediately, taking his soldiers with him, he went in haste to their assistance, and overtaking the ambassadors on the road, he took the prisoners from them.

§ 2.52.3  But not long afterwards, as some say, when he had gone with Romulus to Lavinium in order to perform a sacrifice which it was necessary for the kings to offer to the ancestral gods for the prosperity of the city, the friends and relations of the ambassadors who had been murdered, having conspired against him, slew him at the altar with the knives and spits used in cutting up and roasting the oxen.

§ 2.52.4  But Licinius writes that he did not go with Romulus nor, indeed, on account of any sacrifices, but that he went alone, with the intention of persuading those who had received the injuries to forgive the authors of them, and that when weight people became angry because the men were not delivered up to them in accordance with the decision both of Romulus and of the Roman senate, and the relations of the slain men rushed upon him in great numbers, he was no longer able to escape summary justice and was stoned to death by them. Such was the end to which Tatius came, after he had warred against Romulus for three years and had been his colleague for five. His body was brought to Rome, where it was given honourable burial; and the city offers public libations to him every year.

§ 2.53.1  But Romulus, now established for the second time as sole ruler, expiated the crime committed against the ambassadors by forbidding those who had perpetrated the outrage the use of fire and water; for upon the death of Tatius they had all fled from the city. After that, he brought to trial the Lavinians who had conspired against Tatius and who had been delivered up by their own city, and when they seemed to plead, with considerable justice, that they had but avenged violence with violence, he freed them of the charge.

§ 2.53.2  After he had attended to these matters, he led out his army against the city of Fidenae, which was situated forty stades from Rome and was at that time both large and populous. For on an occasion when the Romans were oppressed by famine and provisions which the people of Crustumerium had sent to them were being brought down the river in boats, the Fidenates crowded aboard the boats in great numbers, seized the provisions and killed some of the men who defended them, and when called upon to make satisfaction, they refused to do so.

§ 2.53.3  Romulus, incensed at this, made an incursion into their territory with a considerable force, and having possessed himself of a great quantity of booty, was preparing to lead his army home; but when the Fidenates came out against him, he gave them battle. After a severe struggle, in which many fell on both sides, the enemy were defeated and put to flight, and Romulus, following close upon their heels, rushed inside the walls along with the fugitives.

§ 2.53.4  When the city had been taken at the first assault, he punished a few of the citizens, and left a guard of three hundred men there; and taking from the inhabitants a part of their territory, which he divided among his own people, he made this city also a Roman colony. It had been founded by the Albans at the same time with Nomentum and Crustumerium, three brothers having been the leaders of the colony, of whom the eldest built Fidenae.

§ 2.54.1  After this war Romulus undertook another against the Camerinii, who had attacked the Roman colonists in their midst while the city of Rome was suffering from a pestilence; it was this situation in particular that encouraged the Camerinii, and believing that the Roman nation would be totally destroyed by the calamity, they killed some of the colonists and expelled the rest.

§ 2.54.2  In revenge for this Romulus, after he had a second time made himself master of the city, put to death the authors of the revolt and permitted his soldiers to plunder the city; and he also took away half the land besides that which had been previously granted to the Roman settlers. And having left a garrison in the city sufficient to quell any future uprising of the inhabitants, he departed with his forces. As the result of this expedition he celebrated a second triumph, and out of the spoils he dedicated a chariot and four in bronze to Vulcan, and near it he set up his own statue with an inscription in Greek characters setting forth his deeds.

§ 2.54.3  The third war Romulus engaged in was against the most powerful city of the Tyrrhenian race at that time, called Veii, distant from Rome about a hundred stades; it is situated on a high and craggy rock and is as large as Athens. The Veientes made the taking of Fidenae the pretext for this war, and sending ambassadors, they bade the Romans withdraw their garrison from that city and restore to its original possessors the territory they had taken from them and were now occupying. And when their demand was not heeded, they took the field with a great army and established their camp in a conspicuous place near Fidenae.

§ 2.54.4  Romulus, however, having received advance information of their march, had set out with the flower of his army and lay ready at Fidenae to receive them. When all their preparations were made for the struggle, both armies advanced into the plain and came to grips, and they continued fighting with great ardour for a long time, till the coming on of night parted them, after they had proved themselves evenly matched in the struggle. This was the course of the first battle.

§ 2.55.1  But in a second battle, which was fought not long afterwards, the Romans were victorious as the result of the strategy of their general, who had occupied in the night a certain height not far distant from the enemy's camp and placed there in ambush the choicest both of the horse and foot that had come to him from Rome since the last action.

§ 2.55.2  The two armies met in the plain and fought in the same manner as before; but when Romulus raised the signal to the troops that lay in ambush on the height, these, raising the battle cry, rushed upon the Veientes from the rear, and being themselves fresh while the enemy were fatigued, they point them to flight with no great difficulty. Some few of them were slain in battle, but the great part, throwing themselves into the Tiber, which flows by Fidenae, with the intention of swimming across the river, were drowned; for, being wounded and spent with labour, they were unable to swim across, while others, who did not know how to swim and had not looked ahead, having lost all presence of mind in face of the danger, perished in the eddies of the river.

§ 2.55.3  If, now, the Veientes had realized that their first plans had been ill-advised and had remained quiet after this, they would have met with no greater misfortune; but, as it was, hoping to repair their former losses and believing that if they attacked with a larger force they would easily conquer in the war, they set out a second time against the Romans with a large army, consisting both of the levy from the city itself and of others of the same race who in virtue of their league came to their assistance.

§ 2.55.4  Upon this, another severe battle was fought near Fidenae, in which the Romans were victorious, after killing many of the Veientes and taking more of them prisoners. Even their camp was taken, which was full of money, arms and slaves, and likewise their boats, which were laden with great store of provisions; and in these the multitude of prisoners were carried down the river to Rome.

§ 2.55.5  This was the third triumph that Romulus celebrated, and it was much more magnificent than either of the former. And when, not long afterwards, ambassadors arrived from the Veientes to seek an end to the war and to ask pardon for their offences, Romulus imposed the following penalties upon them: to deliver up to the Romans the country adjacent to the Tiber, called the Seven Districts, and to abandon the salt-works near the mouth of the river, and also to bring fifty hostages as a pledge that they would attempt no uprising in the future.

§ 2.55.6  When the Veientes submitted to all these demands, he made a treaty with them for one hundred years and engraved terms of it on pillars. He then dismissed without ransom all the prisoners who desired to return home; but those who preferred to remain in Rome — and these were far more numerous than the others — he made citizens, distributing them among the curiae and assigning to them allotments of land on this side of the Tiber.

§ 2.56.1  These are the memorable wars which Romulus waged. His failure to subdue any more of the neighbouring nations seems to have been due to his sudden death, which happened while he was still in the vigour of his age for warlike achievements. There are many different stories concerning it.

§ 2.56.2  Those who give a rather fabulous account of his life say that while he was haranguing his men in the camp, sudden darkness rushed down out of a clear sky and a violent storm burst, after which he was nowhere to be seen; and these writers believe that he was caught up into heaven by his father, Mars.

§ 2.56.3  But those who write the more plausible accounts say that he was killed by his own people; and the reason they allege for his murder is that he released without the common consent, contrary to custom, the hostages he had taken from the Veientes, and that he no longer comported himself in the same manner toward the original citizens and toward those who were enrolled later, but showed greater honour to the former and slighted the latter, and also because of his great cruelty in the punishment of delinquents (for instance, he had ordered a group of Romans who were accused of brigandage against the neighbouring peoples to be hurled down the precipice after he had sat alone in judgment upon them, although they were neither of mean birth nor few in number), but chiefly because he now seemed to be harsh and arbitrary and to be exercising his power more like a tyrant than a king.

§ 2.56.4  For these reasons, they say, the patricians formed a conspiracy against him and resolved to slay him; and having carried out the deed in the senate-house, they divided his body into several pieces, that it might not be seen, and then came out, each one hiding his part of the body under his robes, and afterwards burying it in secret.

§ 2.56.5  Others say that while haranguing the people he was slain by the new citizens of Rome, and that they undertook the murder at the time when the rain and the darkness occurred, the assembly of the people being then dispersed and their chief left without his guard. And for this reason, they say, the day on which this event happened got its name from the flight of the people and is called Populifugia down to our times.

§ 2.56.6  Be that as it may, the incidents that occurred by the direction of Heaven in connexion with this man's conception and death would seem to give no small authority to the view of those who make gods of mortal men and place the souls of illustrious persons in heaven. For they say that at the time when his mother was violated, whether by some man or by a god, there was a total eclipse of the sun and a general darkness as in the night covered the earth, and that at his death the same thing happened.

§ 2.56.7  Such, then, is reported to have been the death of Romulus, who built Rome and was chosen by her citizens as their first king. He left no issue, and after reigning thirty-seven years, died in the fifty-fifth year of his age; for he was very young when he obtained the rule, being no more than eighteen years old, as is agreed by all who have written his history.

§ 2.57.1  The following year there was no king of the Romans elected, but a certain magistracy, called by them an interregnum, had the oversight of public affairs, being created in much the following manner: The patricians who had been enrolled in the senate under Romulus, being, as I have said, two hundred in number, were divided into decuriae; then, when lots had been cast, the first ten persons upon whom the lot fell were invested by the rest with the absolute rule of the State.

§ 2.57.2  They did not, however, all reign together, but successively, each for five days, during which time they had both the rods and the other insignia of the royal power. The first, after his power had expired, handed over the government to the second, and he to the third, and so on to the last. After the first ten had reigned their appointed time of fifty days, ten others received the rule from them, and from those in turn others.

§ 2.57.3  But presently the people decided to abolish the rule of the decuriae, being irked by all the changes of power, since the men did not all have either the same purposes or the same natural abilities. Thereupon the senators, calling the people together in assembly by tribes and curiae, permitted them to consider the form of government and determine whether they wished to entrust the public interests to a king or to annual magistrates.

§ 2.57.4  The people, however, did not take the choice upon themselves, but referred the decision to the senator, intimating that they would be satisfied with whichever form of government the others should approve. The senators all favoured establishing a monarchical form of government, but strife arose over the question from which group the future king should be chosen. For some thought that the one who was to govern the commonwealth ought to be chosen from among the original senators, and others that he should be chosen from among those who had been admitted afterwards and whom they called new senators.

§ 2.58.1  The contest being drawn out to a great length, they at last reached an agreement on the basis that one of two courses should be followed — either the older senators should choose the king, who must not, however, be one of themselves, but might be anyone else whom they should regard as most suitable, or the new senators should do the same. The older senators accepted the right of choosing, and after a long consultation among themselves decided that, since by their agreement they themselves were excluded from the sovereignty, they would not confer it on any of the newly-appointed senators, either, but would find some man from outside who would espouse neither party, and declare him king, as the most effectual means of putting an end to party strife.

§ 2.58.2  After they had come to this resolution, they chose a man of the Sabine race, the son of Pompilius Pompon, a person of distinction, whose name was Numa. He was in that stage of life, being near forty, in which prudence is the most conspicuous, and of an aspect full of royal dignity;

§ 2.58.3  and he enjoyed the greatest renown for wisdom, not only among the citizens of Cures,a but among all the neighbouring peoples as well. After reaching this decision the senators assembled the people, and that one of their number who was then the interrex, coming forward, told them that the senators had unanimously resolved to establish a monarchical form of government and that he, having been empowered to decide who should succeed to the rule, chose Numa Pompilius as king of the State. After this he appointed ambassadors from among the patricians and sent them to conduct Numa to Rome that he might assume the royal power. This happened in the third year of the sixteenth Olympiad, at which Pythagoras, a Lacedaemonian, won the foot-race.

§ 2.59.1  Up to this point, then, I have nothing to allege in contradiction to those who have published the history of this man; but in regard to what follows I am at a loss what to say. For many have written that Numa was a disciple of Pythagoras and that when he was chosen king by the Romans he was studying philosophy at Croton. But the date of Pythagoras contradicts this account,

§ 2.59.2  since he was not merely a few years younger than Numa, but actually lived four whole generations later, as we learn from universal history; for Numa succeeded to the sovereignty of the Romans in the middle of the sixteenth Olympiad, whereas Pythagoras resided in Italy after the fiftieth Olympiad.

§ 2.59.3  But I can advance yet a stronger argument to prove that the chronology is incompatible with the reports handed down about Numa, and that is, that at the time when he was called to the sovereignty by the Romans the city of Croton did not yet exist; for it was not until four whole years after Numa had begun to rule the Romans that Myscelus founded this city, in the third year of the seventeenth Olympiad. Accordingly, it was impossible for Numa either to have studied philosophy with Pythagoras the Samian, who flourished four generations after him, or to have resided in Croton, a city not as yet in existence when the Romans called him to the sovereignty.

§ 2.59.4  But if I may express my own opinion, those who have written his history seem to have taken these two admitted facts, namely, the residence of Pythagoras in Italy and the wisdom of Numa (for he has been allowed by everybody to have been a wise man), and combining them, to have made Numa a disciple of Pythagoras, without going on to inquire whether they both flourished at the same period — unless, indeed, one is going to assume that there was another Pythagoras who taught philosophy before the Samian, and that with him Numa associated. But I do not know how this could be proved, since it is not supported, so far as I know, by the testimony of any author of note, either Greek or Roman. But I have said enough on this subject.

§ 2.60.1  When the ambassadors came to Numa to invite him to the sovereignty, he for some time refused it and long persisted in his resolution not to accept the royal power. But when his brothers kept urging him insistently and at last his father argued that the offer of so great an honour ought not to be rejected, he consented to become king.

§ 2.60.2  As soon as the Romans were informed of this by the ambassadors, they conceived a great yearning for the man before they saw him, esteeming it a sufficient proof of his wisdom that, while the others had valued sovereignty beyond measure, looking upon it as the source of happiness, he alone despised it as a paltry thing and unworthy of serious attention. And when he approached the city, they met him upon the road and with great applause, salutations and other honours conducted him into the city.

§ 2.60.3  After that, an assembly of the people was held, in which the tribes by curiae gave their votes in his favour; and when the resolution of the people had been confirmed by the patricians, and, last of all, the augurs had reported that the heavenly signs were auspicious, he assumed the office.

§ 2.60.4  The Romans say that he undertook no military campaign, but that, being a pious and just man, he passed the whole period of his reign in peace and caused the State to be most excellently governed. They relate also many marvellous stories about him, attributing his human wisdom to the suggestions of the gods.

§ 2.60.5  For they fabulously affirm that a certain nymph, Egeria, used to visit him and instruct him on each occasion in the art of reigning, though others say that it was not a nymph, but one of the Muses. And this, they claim, became clear to every one; for, when people were incredulous at first, as may well be supposed, and regarded the story concerning the goddess as an invention, he, in order to give the unbelievers a manifest proof of his converse with this divinity, did as follows, pursuant to her instructions.

§ 2.60.6  He invited to the house where he lived a great many of the Romans, all men of worth, and having shown them his apartments, very meanly provided with furniture and particularly lacking in everything that was necessary to entertain a numerous company, he ordered them to depart for the time being, but invited them to dinner in the evening.

§ 2.60.7  And when they came at the appointed hour, he showed them rich couches and tables laden with a multitude of beautiful cups, and when they were at table, he set before them a banquet consisting of all sorts of viands, such a banquet, indeed, as it would not have been easy for any man in those days to have prepared in a long time. The Romans were astonished at everything they saw, and from that time they entertained a firm belief that some goddess held converse with him.

§ 2.61.1  But those who banish everything that is fabulous from history say that the report concerning Egeria was invented by Numa, to the end that, when once the people were possessed with a fear of the gods, they might more readily pay regard to him and willingly receive the laws he should enact, as coming from the gods.

§ 2.61.2  They say that in this he followed the example of the Greeks, emulating the wisdom both of Minos the Cretan and of Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian. For the former of these claimed to hold converse with Zeus, and going frequently to the Dictaean mountain, in which the Cretan legends say that the new-born Zeus was brought up by the Curetes, he used to descend into the holy cave; and having composed his laws there, he would produce them, affirming that he had received them from Zeus. And Lycurgus, paying visits to Delphi, said he was forming his code of laws under the instruction of Apollo.

§ 2.61.3  But, as I am sensible that to give a particular account of the legendary histories, and especially of those relating to gods, would require a long discussion, I shall omit doing so, and shall relate instead the benefits which the Romans seem to me to have received from this man's rule, according to the information I have derived from their own histories. But first I will show in what confusion the affairs of the State were before he came to the throne.

§ 2.62.1  After the death of Romulus the senate, being now in full control of the government and having held the supreme power for one year, as I have related, began to be at odds with itself and to split into factions over questions of pre-eminence and equality. For the Alban element, who together with Romulus had planted the colony, claimed the right, not only of delivering their opinions first and enjoying the greatest honours, but also of being courted by the newcomers.

§ 2.62.2  Those, on the other hand, who had been admitted afterwards into the number of the patricians from among the new settlers thought that they ought not to be excluded from any honours or to stand in an inferior position to the others. This was felt particularly by those who were of the Sabine race and who, in virtue the treaty made by Romulus with Tatius, supposed they had been granted citizenship by the original inhabitants on equal terms, and that they had shown the same favour to the former in their turn.

§ 2.62.3  The senate being thus at odds, the clients also were divided into two parties and each joined their respective factions. There were, too, among the plebeians not a few, lately admitted into the number of the citizens, who, having never assisted Romulus in any of his wars, had been neglected by him and had received neither a share of land nor any booty. These, having no home, but being poor and vagabonds, were by necessity enemies to their superiors and quite ripe for revolution.

§ 2.62.4  So Numa, having found the affairs of the State in such a raging sea of confusion, first relieved the poor among the plebeians by distributing to them some small part of the land which Romulus had possessed and of the public land; and afterwards he allayed the strife of the patricians, not by depriving them of anything the founders of the city had gained, but by bestowing some other honours on the new settlers.

§ 2.62.5  And having attuned the whole body of the people, like a musical instrument, to the sole consideration of the public good and enlarged the circuit of the city by the addition of the Quirinal hill (for till that time it was still without a wall), he then addressed himself to the other measures of government, labouring to inculcate these two things by the possession of which he conceived the State would become prosperous and great: first, piety, by informing his subjects that the gods are the givers and guardians of every blessing to mortal men, and, second, justice, through which, he showed them, the blessings also which the gods bestow bring honest enjoyment to their possessors.

§ 2.63.1  As regards the laws and institutions by which he made great progress in both these directions, I do not think it fitting that I should enter into all the details, not only because I fear the length of such a discussion but also because I do not regard the recording of them as necessary to a history intended for Greeks; but I shall give a summary account of the principal measures, which are sufficient to reveal the man's whole purpose, beginning with his regulations concerning the worship of the gods.

§ 2.63.2  I should state, however, that all those rites which he found established by Romulus, either in custom or in law, he left untouched, looking upon them all as established in the best possible manner. But whatever he thought had been overlooked by his predecessor, he added, consecrating many precincts to those gods who had hitherto received no honours, erecting many altars and temples, instituting festivals in honour of each, and appointing priests to have charge of their sanctuaries and rites, and enacting laws concerning purifications, ceremonies, expiations and many other observances and honours in greater number than are to be found in any other city, either Greek or barbarian, even in those that have prided themselves the most at one time or another upon their piety.

§ 2.63.3  He also ordered that Romulus himself, as one who had shown a greatness beyond mortal nature, should be honoured, under the name of Quirinus, by the erection of a temple and by sacrifices throughout the year. For while the Romans were yet in doubt whether divine providence or human treachery had been the cause of his disappearance, a certain man, named Julius, descended from Ascanius, who was a husbandman and of such a blameless life that he would never have told an untruth for his private advantage, arrived in the Forum and said that, as he was coming in from the country, he saw Romulus departing from the city fully armed and that, as he drew near to him, he heard him say these words:

§ 2.63.4  "Julius, announce to the Romans from me, that the genius to whom I was allotted at my birth is conducting me to the gods, now that I have finished my mortal life, and that I am Quirinus." Numa, having reduced his whole system of religious laws to writing, divided them into eight parts, that being the number of the different classes of religious ceremonies.

§ 2.64.1  The first division of religious rites he assigned to the thirty curiones, who, as I have stated, perform the public sacrifices for the curiae.

§ 2.64.2  The second, to those called by the Greeks stephanêphoroi or "wearers of the crown" and by the Romans flamines; they are given this name from their wearing caps and fillets, called † flama, which they continue to wear even to this day.

§ 2.64.3  The third, to the commanders of the celeres, who, as I have stated, were appointed to be the body-guards of the kings and fought both as cavalry and infantry; for these also performed certain specified religious rites.

§ 2.64.4  The fourth, to those who interpret the signs sent by the gods and determine what they portend both to private persons and to the public; these, from one branch of the speculations belonging to their art, the Romans call augurs, and we should call them oiônopoloi or "soothsayers by means of birds"; they are skilled in all sorts of divination in use among the Romans, whether founded on signs appearing in the heavens, in mid-air or on the earth.

§ 2.64.5  The fifth he assigned to the virgins who are the guardians of the sacred fire and who are called Vestals by the Romans, after the goddess whom they serve, he himself having been the first to build a temple at Rome to Vesta and to appoint virgins to be her priestesses. But concerning them it is necessary to make a few statements that are most essential, since the subject requires it; for there are problems that have been thought worthy of investigation by many Roman historians in connexion with this topic and those authors who have not diligently examined into the causes of these matters have published rather worthless accounts.

§ 2.65.1  At any rate, as regards the building of the temple of Vesta, some ascribe it to Romulus, looking upon it as an inconceivable thing that, when a city was being founded by a man skilled in divination, a public hearth should not have been erected first of all, particularly since the founder had been brought up at Alba, where the temple of this goddess had been established from ancient times, and since his mother had been her priestess. And recognizing two classes of religious ceremonies — the one public and common to all the citizens, and the other private and confined to particular families — they declare that on both these grounds Romulus was under every obligation to worship this goddess.

§ 2.65.2  For they say that nothing is more necessary for men than a public hearth, and that nothing more nearly concerned Romulus, in view of his descent, since his ancestors had brought the sacred rites of this goddess from Ilium and his mother had been her priestess. Those, then, who for these reasons ascribe the building of the temple to Romulus rather than to Numa seem to be right, in so far as the general principle is concerned, that when a city was being founded, it was necessary for a hearth to be established first of all, particularly by a man who was not unskilled in matters of religion; but of the details relating to the building of the present temple and to the virgins who are in the service of the goddess they seem to have been ignorant.

§ 2.65.3  For, in the first place, it was not Romulus who consecrated to the goddess this place where the sacred fire is preserved (a strong proof of this is that it is outside of what they call Roma Quadrata, which he surrounded with a wall, whereas all men place the shrine of the public hearth in the best part of a city and nobody outside of the walls); and, in the second place, he did not appoint the service of the goddess to be performed by virgins, being mindful, I believe, of the experience that had befallen his mother, who while she was serving the goddess lost her virginity; for he doubtless felt that the remembrance of his domestic misfortunes would make it impossible for him to punish according to the traditional laws any of the priestesses he should find to have been violated.

§ 2.65.4  For this reason, therefore, he did not build a common temple of Vesta nor did he appoint virgins to be her priestesses; but having erected a hearth in each of the thirty curiae on which the members sacrificed, he appointed the chiefs of the curiae to be the priests of those hearths, therein imitating the customs of the Greeks that are still observed in the most ancient cities. At any rate, what are called prytaneia among them are temples of Hestia, and are served by the chief magistrates of the cities.

§ 2.66.1  Numa, upon taking over the rule, did not disturb the individual hearths of the curiae, but erected one common to them all in the space between the Capitoline hill and the Palatine (for these hills had already been united by a single wall into one city, and the Forum, in which the temple is built, lies between them), and he enacted, in accordance with the ancestral custom of the Latins, that the guarding of the holy things should be committed to virgins.

§ 2.66.2  There is some doubt, however, what it is that is kept in this temple and for what reason the care of it has been assigned to virgins, some affirming that nothing is preserved there but the fire, which is visible to everybody. And they very reasonably argue that the custody of the fire was committed to virgins, rather than to men, because fire in incorrupt and a virgin is undefiled, and the most chaste of mortal things must be agreeable to the purest of those that are divine.

§ 2.66.3  And they regard the fire as consecrated to Vesta because that goddess, being the earth and occupying the central place in the universe, kindles the celestial fires from herself. But there are some who say that besides the fire there are some holy things in the temple of the goddess that may not be revealed to the public, of which only the pontiffs and the virgins have knowledge. As a strong confirmation of this story they cite what happened at the burning of the temple during the First Punic War between the Romans and the Carthaginians over Sicily.

§ 2.66.4  For when the temple caught fire and the virgins fled from the flames, one of the pontiffs, Lucius Caecilius, called Metellus, a man of consular rank, the same who exhibited a hundred and thirty-eight elephants in the memorable triumph which he celebrated for his defeat of the Carthaginians in Sicily, neglecting his own safety for the sake of the public good, ventured to force his way into the burning structure, and, snatching up the holy things which the virgins had abandoned, saved them from the fire; for which he received the honours from the State, as the inscription upon his statue on the Capitol testifies.

§ 2.66.5  Taking this incident, then, as an admitted fact, they add some conjectures of their own. Thus, some affirm that the objects preserved here are a part of those holy things which were once in Samothrace; that Dardanus removed them out of that island into the city which he himself had built, and that Aeneas, when he fled from the Troad, brought them along with the other holy things into Italy. But others declare that it is the Palladium that fell from Heaven, the same that was in the possession of the people of Ilium; for they hold that Aeneas, being well acquainted with it, brought it into Italy, whereas the Achaeans stole away the copy, — an incident about which many stories have been related both by poets and by historians.

§ 2.66.6  For my part, I find from very many evidences that there are indeed some holy things, unknown to the public, kept by the virgins, and not the fire alone; but what they are I do not think should be inquired into too curiously, either by me of by anyone else who wishes to observe the reverence due to the gods.

§ 2.67.1  The virgins who serve the goddess were originally four and were chosen by the kings according to the principles established by Numa, but afterwards, from the multiplicity of the sacred rites they perform, their number was increased of six, and has so remained down to our time. They live in the temple of the goddess, into which none who wish are hindered from entering in the daytime, whereas it is not lawful for any man to remain there at night.

§ 2.67.2  They were required to remain undefiled by marriage for the space of thirty years, devoting themselves to offering sacrifices and performing the other rites ordained by law. During the first ten years their duty was to learn their functions, in the second ten to perform them, and during the remaining ten to teach others. After the expiration of the term of thirty years nothing hindered those who so desired from marrying, upon laying aside their fillets and the other insignia of their priesthood. And some, though very few, have done this; but they came to ends that were not at all happy or enviable. In consequence, the rest, looking upon their misfortunes as ominous, remain virgins in the temple of the goddess till their death, and then once more another is chosen by the pontiffs to supply the vacancy.

§ 2.67.3  Many high honours have been granted them by the commonwealth, as a result of which they feel no desire either for marriage or for children; and severe penalties have been established for their misdeeds. It is the pontiffs who by law both inquire into and punish these offences; to Vestals who are guilty of lesser misdemeanours they scourge with rods, but those who have suffered defilement they deliver up to the most shameful and the most miserable death.

§ 2.67.4  While they are yet alive they are carried upon a bier with all the formality of a funeral, their friends and relations attending them with lamentations, and after being brought as far as the Colline Gate, they are placed in an underground cell prepared within the walls, clad in their funeral attire; but they are not given a monument or funeral rites or any other customary solemnities.

§ 2.67.5  There are many indications, it seems, when a priestess is not performing her holy functions with purity, but the principal one is the extinction of the fire, which the Romans dread above all misfortunes, looking upon it, from whatever cause it proceeds, as an omen that portends the destruction of the city; and they bring fire again into the temple with many supplicatory rites, concerning which I shall speak on the proper occasion.

§ 2.68.1  However, it is also well worth relating in what manner the goddess has manifested herself in favour of those virgins who have been falsely accused. For these things, however incredible they may be, have been believed by the Romans and their historians have related much about them.

§ 2.68.2   To be sure, the professors of the atheistic philosophies, — if, indeed, their theories deserve the name of philosophy, — who ridicule all the manifestations of the gods which have taken place among either the Greeks or barbarians, will also laugh these reports to scorn and attribute them to human imposture, on the ground that none of the gods concern themselves in anything relating to mankind. Those, however, who do not absolve the gods from the care of human affairs, but, after looking deeply into history, hold that they are favourable to the good and hostile to the wicked, will not regard even these manifestations as incredible.

§ 2.68.3  It is said, then, that once, when the fire had been extinguished through some negligence on the part of Aemilia, who had the care of it at the time and had entrusted it to another virgin, one of those who had been newly chosen and were then learning their duties, the whole city was in great commotion and an inquiry was made by the pontiffs whether there might not have been some defilement of the priestess to account for the extinction of the fire. Thereupon, they say, Aemilia, who was innocent, but distracted at what had happened, stretched out her hands toward the altar and in the presence of the priests and the rest of the virgins cried:

§ 2.68.4  "O Vesta, guardian of the Romans' city, if, during the space of nearly thirty years, I have performed the sacred offices to thee in a holy and proper manner, keeping a pure mind and a chaste body, do thou manifest thyself in my defence and assist me and do not suffer thy priestess to die the most miserable of all deaths; but if I have been guilty of any impious deed, let my punishment expiate the guilt of the city." 5

§ 2.68.5  Having said this, she tore off the band of the linen garment she had on and threw it upon the altar, they say, following her prayer; and from the ashes, which had been long cold and retained no spark, a great flame flared up through the linen, so that the city no longer required either expiations or a new fire.

§ 2.69.1  But what I am going to relate is still more wonderful and more like a myth. They say that somebody unjustly accused one of the holy virgins, whose name was Tuccia, and although he was unable to point to the extinction of the fire as evidence, he advanced false arguments based on plausible proofs and depositions; and that the virgin, being ordered to make her defence, said only this, that she would clear herself from the accusation by her deeds.

§ 2.69.2  Having said this and called upon the goddess to be her guide, she led the way to the Tiber, with the consent of the pontiffs and escorted by the whole population of the city; and when she came to the river, she was so hardy as to undertake the task which, according to the proverb, is among the most impossible of achievement: she drew up water from the river in a sieve, and carrying it as far as the Forum, poured it out at the feet of the pontiffs.

§ 2.69.3  After which, they say, her accuser, though great search was made for him, could never be found either alive or dead. But, though I have yet many other things to say concerning the manifestations of this goddess, I regard what has already been said as sufficient.

§ 2.70.1  The sixth division of his religious institutions was devoted to those the Romans call Salii, whom Numa himself appointed out of the patricians, choosing twelve young men of the most graceful appearance. These are the Salii whose holy things are deposited on the Palatine hill and who are themselves called the (Salii) Palatini; for the (Salii) Agonales, by some called the Salii Collini, the repository of whose holy things is on the Quirinal hill, were appointed after Numa's time by King Hostilius, in pursuance of a vow he had made in the war against the Sabines. All these Salii are a kind of dancers and singers of hymns in praise of the gods of war.

§ 2.70.2  Their festival falls about the time of the Panathenaea, in the month which they call March, and is celebrated at the public expense for many days, during which they proceed through the city with their dances to the Forum and to the Capitol and to many other places both private and public. They wear embroidered tunics girt about with wide girdles of bronze, and over these are fastened, with brooches, robes striped with scarlet and bordered with purple, which they call trabeae; this garment is peculiar to the Romans and a mark of the greatest honour. On their heads they wear apices, as they are called, that is, high caps contracted into the shape of a cone, which the Greeks call kyrbasiai.

§ 2.70.3  They have each of them a sword hanging at their girdle and in their right hand they hold a spear or a staff or something else of the sort, and on their left arm a Thracian buckler, which resembles a lozenge-shaped shield with its sides drawn in, such as those are said to carry who among the Greeks perform the sacred rites of the Curetes.

§ 2.70.4  And, in my opinion at least, the Salii, if the word be translated into Greek, are Curetes, whom, because they are kouroi or "young men," we call by that name from their age, whereas the Romans call them Salii from their lively motions. For to leap and skip is by them called salire; and for the same reason they call all other dancers saltatores, deriving their name from the Salii, because their dancing also is attended by much leaping and capering.

§ 2.70.5  Whether I have been well advised or not in giving them this appellation, anyone who pleases may gather from their actions. For they execute their movements in arms, keeping time to a flute, sometimes all together, sometimes by turns, and while dancing sing certain traditional hymns. But this dance and exercise performed by armed men and the noise they make by striking their bucklers with their daggers, if we may base any conjectures on the ancient accounts, was originated by the Curetes. I need not mention the legend which is related concerning them, since almost everybody is acquainted with it.

§ 2.71.1  Among the vast number of bucklers which both the Salii themselves bear and some of their servants carry suspended from rods, they say there is one that fell from heaven and was found in the palace of Numa, though no one had brought it thither and no buckler of that shape had ever before been known among the Italians; and that for both these reasons the Romans concluded that this buckler had been sent by the gods.

§ 2.71.2  They add that Numa, desiring that it should be honoured by being carried through the city on holy days by the most distinguished young men and that annual sacrifices should be offered to it, but at the same time being fearful both of the plot of his enemies and of its disappearance by theft, caused many other bucklers to be made resembling the one which fell from heaven, Mamurius, an artificer, having undertaken the work; so that, as a result of the perfect resemblance of the man-made imitations, the shape of the buckler sent by the gods was rendered inconspicuous and difficult to be distinguished by those who might plot to possess themselves of it.

§ 2.71.3  This dancing after the manner of the Curetes was a native institution among the Romans and was held in great honour by them, as I gather from many other indications and especially from what takes place in their processions both in the Circus and in the theatres.

§ 2.71.4  For in all of them young men clad in handsome tunics, with helmets, swords and bucklers, march in file. These are the leaders of the procession and are called by the Romans, from a game of which the Lydians seem to have been the inventors, ludiones; they show merely a certain resemblance, in my opinion, to the Salii, since they do not, like the Salii, do any of the things characteristic of the Curetes, either in their hymns or dancing. And it was necessary that the Salii should be free men and native Romans and that both their fathers and mothers should be living; whereas the others are of any condition whatsoever. But why should I say more about them?

§ 2.72.1  The seventh division of his sacred institutions was devoted to the college of the fetiales; these may be called in Greek eirênodikai or "arbiters of peace." They are chosen men, from the best families, and exercise their holy office for life; King Numa was also the first who instituted this holy magistracy among the Romans.

§ 2.72.2  But whether he took his example from those called the Aequicoli, according to the opinion of some, or from the city of Ardea, as Gellius writes, I cannot say. It is sufficient for me to state that before Numa's reign the college of the fetiales did not exist among the Romans.

§ 2.72.3  It was instituted by Numa when he was upon the point of making war on the people of Fidenae, who had raided and ravaged his territories, in order to see whether they would come to an accommodation with him without war; and that is what they actually did, being constrained by necessity. But since the college of the fetiales is not in use among the Greeks, I think it incumbent on me to relate how many and how great affairs fall under its jurisdiction, to the end that those who are unacquainted with the piety practised by the ares of those times may not be surprised to find that all their wars had the most successful outcome; for it will appear that the origins and motives of them all were most holy, and for this reason especially the gods were propitious to them in the dangers that attended them.

§ 2.72.4  The multitude of duties, to be sure, that fall within the province of these fetiales makes it no easy matter to enumerate them all; but to indicate them by a summary outline, they are as follows: It is their duty to take care that the Romans do not enter upon an unjust war against any city in alliance with them, and if others begin the violation of treaties against them, to go as ambassadors and first make formal demand for justice, and then, if the others refuse to comply with their demands, to sanction war.

§ 2.72.5  In like manner, if any people in alliance with the Romans complain of having been injured by them and demand justice, these men are to determine whether they have suffered anything in violation of their alliance; and if they find are complaints well grounded, they are to seize the accused and deliver them up to the injured parties. They are also to take cognizance of the crimes committed against ambassadors, to take care that treaties are religiously observed, to make peace, and if they find that peace has been made otherwise than is prescribed by the holy laws, to set it aside; and to inquire into and expiate the transgressions of the generals in so far as they relate to oaths and treaties, concerning which I shall speak in the proper places.

§ 2.72.6  As to the functions they performed in the quality of heralds when they went to any city thought to have injured the Romans (for these things also are worthy of our knowledge, since they were carried out with great regard to both religion and justice), I have received the following account: One of these fetiales, chosen by his colleagues, wearing his sacred robes and insignia to distinguish him from all others, proceeded towards the city whose inhabitants had done the injury; and, stopping at the border, he called upon Jupiter and the rest of the gods to witness that he was come to demand justice on behalf of the Roman State.

§ 2.72.7  Thereupon he took an oath that he was going to a city that had done an injury; and having uttered the most dreadful imprecations against himself and Rome, if what he averred was not true, he then entered their borders. Afterwards, he called to witness the first person he met, whether it was one of the countrymen or one of the townspeople, and having repeated the same imprecations, he advanced towards the city. And before he entered it he called to witness in the same manner the gate-keeper or the first person he met at the gates, after which he proceeded to the forum; and taking his stand there, he discussed with the magistrates the reasons for his coming, adding everywhere the same oaths and imprecations.

§ 2.72.8  If, then, they were disposed to offer satisfaction by delivering up the guilty, he departed as a friend taking leave of friends, carrying the prisoners with him. Or, if they desired time to deliberate, he allowed them ten days, after which he returned and waited till they had made this request three times. But after the expiration of the thirty days, if the city still persisted in refusing to grant him justice, he called both the celestial and infernal gods to witness and went away, saying no more than this, that the Roman State would deliberate at its leisure concerning these people.

§ 2.72.9  Afterwards he, together with the other fetiales, appeared before the senate and declared that they had done everything that was ordained by the holy laws, and that, if the senators wished to vote for war, there would be no obstacle on the part of the gods. But if any of these things was omitted, neither the senate nor the people had the power to vote for war. Such, then, is the account we have received concerning the fetiales.

§ 2.73.1  The last branch of the ordinances of Numa related to the sacred offices allotted to those who held the higher priesthoods and the greatest power among the Romans. These, from one of the duties they perform, namely, the repairing of the wooden bridge, are in their own language called pontifices; but they have jurisdiction over the most weighty matters.

§ 2.73.2  For they the judges in all religious causes wherein private citizens, magistrates or the ministers of the gods are concerned; they make laws for the observance of any religious rites, not established by written law or custom, which may seem to them worthy of receiving the sanction of law and custom; they inquire into the conduct of all magistrates to whom the performance of any sacrifice or other religious duty is committed, and also into that of all the priests; they take care that their servants and ministers whom they employ in religious rites commit no error in the matter of the sacred laws; to the laymen who are unacquainted with such matters they are the expounders and interpreters of everything relating to the worship of the gods and genii; and if they find that any disobey their orders, they inflict punishment upon them with due regard to every offence; moreover, they are not liable to any prosecution or punishment, nor are they accountable to the senate or to the people, at least concerning religious matters.

§ 2.73.3  Hence, if anyone wishes to call them hierodidaskaloi, hieronomoi, hierophylakes, or, as I think proper, hierophantai, he will not be in error. When one of them dies, another is appointed in his place, being chosen, not by the people, but by the pontifices themselves, who select the person they think best qualified among their fellow citizens; and the one thus approved of receives the priesthood, provided the omens are favourable to them.

§ 2.73.4  These — not to speak of others less important — are the greatest and the most notable regulations made by Numa concerning religious worship and divided by him according to the different classes of sacred rites; and through these it came about that the city increased in piety.

§ 2.74.1  His regulations, moreover, that tended to inspire frugality and moderation in the life of the individual citizen and to create a passion for justice, which preserves the harmony of the State, were exceedingly numerous, some of them being comprehended in written laws, and others not written down but embodied in custom and long usage. To treat of all these would be a difficult task; but mention of the two of them which have been most frequently cited will suffice to give evidence of the rest.

§ 2.74.2  First, to the end that people should be content with what they had and should not covet what belonged to others, there was the law that appointed boundaries to every man's possessions. For, having ordered every one to draw a line around his own land and to place stones on the bounds, he consecrated these stones to Jupiter Terminalis and ordained that all should assemble at the place every year on a fixed day and offer sacrifices to them; and he made the festival in honour of these gods of boundaries among the most dignified of all.

§ 2.74.3  This festival the Romans call Terminalia, from the boundaries, and the boundaries themselves, by the change of one letter as compared with our language, they call termines. He also enacted that, if any person demolished or displaced these boundary stones he should be looked upon as devoted to the god, to the end that anyone who wished might kill him a sacrilegious person with impunity and without incurring any stain of guilt.

§ 2.74.4  He established this law with reference not only to private possessions but also to those belonging to the public; for he marked these also with boundary stones, to the end that the gods of boundaries might distinguish the lands of the Romans from those of their neighbours, and the public lands from such as belonged to private persons. Memorials of this custom are observed by the Romans down to our times, purely as a religious form. For they look upon these boundary stones as gods and sacrifice to them yearly, offering up no kind of animal (for it is not lawful to stain these stones with blood), but cakes made of cereals and other first-fruits of the earth.

§ 2.74.5  But they ought still to observe the motive, as well, which led Numa to regard these boundary stones as gods and content themselves with their own possessions without appropriating those of others either by violence or by fraud; whereas now there are some who, in disregard of what is best and of the example of their ancestors, instead of distinguishing that which is theirs from that which belongs to others, set as bounds to their possessions, not the law, but their greed to possess everything, — which is disgraceful behaviour. But we leave the considerations of these matters to others.

§ 2.75.1  By such laws Numa brought the State to frugality and moderation. And in order to encourage the observance of justice in the matter of contracts, he hit upon a device which was unknown to all who have established the most celebrated institutions. For, observing that contracts made in public and before witnesses are, out of respect for the persons present, generally observed and that few are guilty of any violation of them, but that those which are made without witnesses — and these are much more numerous than the others — rest on no other security than the faith of those who make them, he thought it incumbent on him to make this faith the chief object of his care and to render it worthy of divine worship.

§ 2.75.2  For he felt that Justice, Themis, Nemesis, and those the Greeks call Erinyes, with other concepts of the kind, had been sufficiently revered and worshipped as gods by the men of former times, but that Faith, than which there is nothing greater nor more sacred among men, was not yet worshipped either by states in their public capacity or by private persons.

§ 2.75.3  As the result of these reflexions he, first of all men, erected a temple to the Public Faith and instituted sacrifices in her honour at the public expense in the same manner as to the rest of the gods. And in truth the result was bound to be that this attitude of good faith and constancy on the part of the State toward all men would in the course of time render the behaviour of the individual citizens similar. In any case, so revered and inviolable a thing was good faith in their estimation, that the greatest oath a man could take was by his own faith, and this had greater weight than all the testimony taken together. And if there was any dispute between one man and another concerning a contract entered into without witnesses, the faith of either of the parties was sufficient to decide the controversy and prevent it from going any farther.

§ 2.75.4  And the magistrates and courts of justice based their decisions in most causes on the oaths of the parties attesting by their faith. Such regulations, devised by Numa at that time to encourage moderation and enforce justice, rendered the Roman State more orderly than the best regulated household.

§ 2.76.1  But the measures which I am now going to relate made it both careful to provide itself with necessaries and industrious in acquiring the advantages that flow from labour. For this man, considering that a State which was to love justice and to continue in the practice of moderation ought to abound in all things necessary to the support of life, divided the whole country into what are called pagi or "districts," and over each of these districts he appointed an official whose duty it was to inspect and visit the lands lying in his own jurisdiction.

§ 2.76.2  These men, going their rounds frequently, made a record of the lands that were well and ill cultivated and laid it before the king, who repaid the diligence of the careful husbandmen with commendations and favours, and by reprimanding and fining the slothful encouraged them to cultivate their lands with greater attention. Accordingly, the people, being freed from wars and exempt from any attendance on the affairs of the State, and at the same time being disgraced and punished for idleness and sloth, all became husbandmen and looked upon the riches which the earth yields and which of all others are the most just as more enjoyable than the precarious influence of a military life.

§ 2.76.3  And by the same means Numa came to be beloved of his subjects, the example of his neighbours, and the theme of posterity. It was owing to these measures that neither civil dissension broke the harmony of the State nor foreign war interrupted the observance of his most excellent and admirable institutions. For their neighbours were so far from looking upon the peaceful tranquillity of the Romans as an opportunity for attacking them, that, if at any time they were at war with one another, they chose the Romans for mediators and wished to settle their enmities under the arbitration of Numa.

§ 2.76.4  This man, therefore, I should take no shame in placing among the foremost of those who have been celebrated for their felicity in life. For he was of royal birth and of royal appearance; and he pursued an education which was not the kind of useless training that deals only with words, but a discipline that taught him to practise piety and every other virtue.

§ 2.76.5  When he was young he was thought worthy to assume the sovereignty over the Romans, who had invited him to that dignity upon the reputation of his virtue; and he continued to command the obedience of his subjects during his whole life. He lived to a very advanced age without any impairment of his faculties and without suffering any blow at Fortune's hands; and he died the easiest of all deaths, being withered by age, the genius who had been allotted to him from his birth having continued the same favour to him till he disappeared from among men. He lived more than eighty years and reigned forty-three, leaving behind him, according to most historians, four sons and one daughter, whose posterity remain to this day; but according to Gnaeus Gellius he left only one daughter, who was the mother of Ancus Marcius, the second king of the Romans after him.

§ 2.76.6  His death was greatly lamented by the state, which gave him a most splendid funeral. He lies buried upon the Janiculum, on the other side of the river Tiber. Such is the account we have received concerning Numa Pompilius.

§ 3.1.1  BOOK 3
After the death of Numa Pompilius the senate, being once more in full control of the commonwealth, resolved to abide by the same form of government, and as the people did not adopt any contrary opinion, they appointed some of the older senators to govern as interreges for a definite number of days. These men, pursuant to the unanimous desire of the people, chose as king Tullus Hostilius, whose descent was as follows.

§ 3.1.2  From Medullia, a city which had been built by the Albans and made a Roman colony by Romulus after he had taken it by capitulation, a man of distinguished birth and great fortune, named Hostilius, had removed to Rome and married a woman of the Sabine race, the daughter of Hersilius, the same woman who had advised her country-women to go as envoys to their fathers on behalf of their husbands at the time when the Sabines were making war against the Romans, and was regarded as the person chiefly responsible for the alliance then concluded by the leaders of the two nations. This man, after taking part with Romulus in many wars and performing mighty deeds in the battles with the Sabines, died, leaving an only son, a young child at the time, and was buried by the kings in the principal part of the Forum and honoured with a monument and an inscription testifying to his valour.

§ 3.1.3  His only son, having come to manhood and married a woman of distinction, had by her Tullius Hostilius, a man of action, the same who was now chosen king by a vote passed by the citizens concerning him according to the laws; and the decision of the people was confirmed by favourable omens from Heaven. The year in which he assumed the sovereignty was the second of the twenty-seventh Olympiad, the one in which Eurybates, an Athenian, won the prize in the foot-race, Leostratus being archon at Athens [671/0 BCE].

§ 3.1.4  Tullus, immediately upon his accession, gained the hearts of all the labouring class and of the needy among the populace by performing an act of the most splendid kind. It was this: The kings before him had possessed much fertile land, especially reserved for them, from the revenues of which they not only offered sacrifices to the gods, but also had abundant provision for their private needs. This land Romulus had acquired in war by dispossessing the former owners, and when he died childless, Numa Pompilius, his successor, had enjoyed its use; it was no longer the property of the state, but the inherited possession of the successive kings.

§ 3.1.5  Tullus now permitted this land to be divided equally among such of the Romans as had no allotment, declaring that his own patrimony was sufficient both for the sacrifices and for his personal expenditures. By this act of humanity he relieved the poor among the citizens by freeing them from the necessity of labouring as serfs on the estates of others. And, to the end that none might lack a habitation either, he included within the city wall the hill called the Caelian, where those Romans who were unprovided with dwellings were allotted a sufficient amount of ground and built houses; and he himself had his residence in this quarter. These, then, are the memorable actions reported of this king so far as regards his civil administration.

§ 3.2.1  Many military exploits are related of him, but the greatest are those which I shall now narrate, beginning with the war against the Albans. The man responsible for the quarrel between the two cities and the severing of their bond of kinship was an Alban named Cluilius, who had been honoured with the chief magistracy; this man, vexed at the prosperity of the Romans and unable to contain his envy, and being by nature headstrong and somewhat inclined to madness, resolved to involve the cities in war with each other.

§ 3.2.2  But not seeing how he could persuade the Albans to permit him to lead an army against the Romans without just and urgent reasons, he contrived a plan of the following sort: he permitted the poorest and boldest of the Albans to pillage the fields of the Romans, promising them immunity, and so caused many to overrun the neighbouring territory in a series of plundering raids, as they would now be pursuing without danger gains from which they would never desist even under the constraint of fear.

§ 3.2.3  In doing this he was following a very natural line of reasoning, as the event bore witness. For he assumed that the Romans would not submit to being plundered but would rush to arms, and he would thus have an opportunity of accusing them to his people as the aggressors in the war; and he also believed that the majority of the Albans, envying the prosperity of their colony, would gladly listen to these false accusations and would begin war against the Romans. And that is just what happened.

§ 3.2.4  For when the worst elements of each city fell to robbing and plundering each other and at last a Roman army made an incursion into the territory of the Albans and killed or took prisoner many of the bandits, Cluilius assembled the people and inveighed against the Romans at great length, showed them many who were wounded, produced the relations of those who had been seized or slain, and at the same time added other circumstances of his own invention; whereupon it was voted on his motion to send an embassy first of all to demand satisfaction for what had happened, and then, if the Romans refused it, to begin war against them.

§ 3.3.1  Upon the arrival of the ambassadors at Rome, Tullius, suspecting that they had come to demand satisfaction, resolved to anticipate them in doing this, since he wished to turn upon the Albans the blame for breaking the compact between them and their colony. For there existed a treaty between the two cities which had been made in the reign of Romulus, wherein, among other articles, it was stipulated that neither of them should begin a war, but if either complained of any injury whatsoever, that city would demand satisfaction from the city which had done the injury, and failing to obtain it, should then make war as a matter of necessity, the treaty being looked upon as already broken.

§ 3.3.2  Tullius, therefore, taking care that the Romans should not be the first called upon to give satisfaction and, by refusing it, become guilty in the eyes of the Albans, ordered the most distinguished of his friends to entertain the ambassadors of the Albans with every courtesy and to detain them inside their homes while he himself, pretending to be occupied with some necessary business, put off their audience.

§ 3.3.3  The following night he sent to Alba some Romans of distinction, duly instructed as to the course they should pursue, together with the fetiales, to demand satisfaction from the Albans for the injuries the Romans had received. These, having performed their journey before sunrise, found Cluilius in the market-place at the time when the early morning crowd was gathered there. And having set forth the injuries which the Romans had received at the hands of the Albans, they demanded that he should act in conformity with the compact between the cities.

§ 3.3.4  But Cluilius, alleging that the Albans had been first in sending envoys to Rome to demand satisfaction and had not even been vouchsafed an answer, ordered the Romans to depart, on the ground that they had violated the terms of the treaty, and declared war against them. The chief of the embassy, however, as he was departing, demanded from Cluilius an answer to just this one question, namely, whether he admitted that those were violating the treaty who, being the first called upon to give satisfaction, had refused to comply with any part of their obligation.

§ 3.3.5  And when Cluilius said he did, he exclaimed: "Well, then, I call the gods, whom we made witnesses of our treaty, to witness that the Romans, having been the first to be refused satisfaction, will be undertaking a just war against the violators of that treaty, and that it is you Albans who have avoided giving satisfaction, as the events themselves show. For you, being the first called upon for satisfaction, have refused it and you have been the first to declare war against us. Look, therefore, for vengeance to come upon you ere long with the sword."

§ 3.3.6  Tullius, having learned of all this from the ambassadors upon their return to Rome, then ordered the Albans to be brought before him and to state the reasons for their coming; and when they had delivered the message entrusted to them by Cluilius and were threatening war in case they did not obtain satisfaction, he replied: "I have anticipated you in doing this, and having obtained nothing that the treaty directs, I declare against the Albans the war that is both necessary and just."

§ 3.4.1  After these pretences they both prepared themselves for war, not only arming their own forces but also calling to their assistance those of their subjects. And when they had everything ready the two armies drew near to each other and encamped at the distance of forty stades from Rome, the Albans at the Cluilian Ditches, as they are called (for they still preserve the name of the man who constructed them) and the Romans a little farther inside, having chosen the most convenient place for their camp.

§ 3.4.2  When the two armies saw each other's forces neither inferior in numbers nor poorly armed nor to be despised in respect of their other preparations, they lost their impetuous ardour for the combat, which they had felt at first because of their expectation of defeating the enemy by their very onset, and they took thought rather of defending themselves by building their ramparts to a greater height than of being the first to attack. At the same time the most intelligent among them began to reflect, feeling that they were not being governed by the best counsels, and there was a spirit of faultfinding against those in authority.

§ 3.4.3  And as the time dragged on in vain (for they were not injuring one another to any notable extent by sudden dashes of the light-armed troops or by skirmishes of the horse), the man who was looked upon as responsible for the war, Cluilius, being irked at lying idle, resolved to march out with his army and challenge the enemy to battle, and if they declined it, to attack their entrenchments.

§ 3.4.4  And having made his preparations for an engagement and all the plans necessary for an attack upon the enemy's ramparts, in case that should prove necessary, when night came on he went to sleep in the general's tent, attended by his usual guard; but about daybreak he was found dead, no signs appearing on his body either of wounds, strangling, poison, or any other violent death.

§ 3.5.1  This unfortunate event appearing extraordinary to everybody, as one would naturally expect, and the cause of it being enquired into — for no preceding illness could be alleged — those who ascribed all human fortunes to divine providence said that this death had been due to the anger of the gods, because he had handled an unjust and unnecessary war between the mother-city and her colony. But others, who looked upon war as a profitable business and thought they had been deprived of great gains, attributed the event to human treachery and envy, accusing some of his fellow citizens of the opposing faction of having made away with him by secret and untraceable poisons that they had discovered.

§ 3.5.2  Still others alleged that, being overcome with grief and despair, he had taken his own life, since all his plans were becoming difficult and impracticable and none of the things that he had looked forward to in the beginning when he first took hold of affairs was succeeding according to his desire. But those who were not influenced by either friendship or enmity for the general and based their judgment of what had happened on the soundest grounds were of the opinion that neither the anger of the gods nor the envy of the opposing faction nor despair of his plans had put an end to his life, but rather Nature's stern law and fate, when once he had finished the destined course which is marked out for everyone that is born. 3 Such, then, was the end that Cluilius met, before he had performed any noble deed. In his place Mettius Fufetius was chosen general by those in the camp and invested with absolute power; he was a man without either ability to conduct a war or constancy to preserve a peace, one who, though he had been at first as zealous as any of the Albans in creating strife between the two cities and for that reason had been honoured with the command after the death of Cluilius, yet after he had obtained it and perceived the many difficulties and embarrassments with which the business was attended, no longer adhered to the same plans, but resolved to delay and put off matters, since he observed that not all the Albans now had the same ardour for war and also that the victims, whenever he offered sacrifice concerning battle, were unfavourable. 4 And at last he even determined to invite the enemy to an accommodation, taking the initiative himself in sending heralds, after he had been informed of a danger from the outside which threatened both the Albans and Romans, a danger which, if they did not terminate their war with each other by a treaty, was unavoidable and bound to destroy both armies. The danger was this:

§ 3.6.1  The Veientes and Fidenates, who inhabited large and populous cities, had in the reign of Romulus engaged in a war with the Romans for command and sovereignty, and after losing many armies in the course of the war and being punished by the loss of part of their territory, they had been forced to become subjects of the conquerors; concerning which I have given a precise account in the preceding Book. But having enjoyed an uninterrupted peace during the reign of Numa Pompilius, they had greatly increased in population, wealth and every other form of prosperity. Elated, therefore, by these advantages, they again aspired to freedom, assumed a bolder spirit and prepared to yield obedience to the Romans no longer.

§ 3.6.2  For a time, indeed, their intention of revolting remained undiscovered, but during the Alban war it became manifest. For when they learned that the Romans had marched out with all their forces to engaged the Albans, they thought that they had now got the most favourable opportunity for their attack, and through their most influential men they entered into a secret conspiracy. It was arranged that all who were capable of bearing arms should assemble in Fidenae, going secretly, a few at a time, so as to escape as far as possible the notice of those against whom the plot was aimed,

§ 3.6.3  and should remain there awaiting the moment when the armies of the Romans and Albans should quit their camps and march out to battle, the actual time to be indicated to them by means of signals given by some scouts posted on the mountains; and as soon as the signals were raised they were all to take arms and advance in haste against the combatants (the road leading from Fidenae to the camps was not a long one, but only a march of two or three hours at most), and appearing on the battlefield at the time when presumably the conflict would be over, they were to regard neither side as friends, but whether the Romans or the Albans had won, were to slay the victors. This was the plan of action on which the chiefs of those cities had determined.

§ 3.6.4  If, therefore, the Albans, in their contempt for the Romans, had rushed more boldly into an engagement and had resolved to stake everything upon the issue of a single battle, nothing could have hindered the treachery contrived against them from remaining secret and both their armies from being destroyed. But as it was, their delay in beginning war, contrary to all expectations, and the length of time they employed in making their preparations were bringing their foes' plans to nought. For some of the conspirators, either seeking to compass their private advantage or envying their leaders and those who had been the authors of the undertaking or fearing that others might lay information — a thing which has often happened in conspiracies where there are many accomplices and the execution is long delayed — or being compelled by the will of Heaven, which could not consent that a wicked design should meet with success, informed their enemies of the treachery.

§ 3.7.1  Fufetius, upon learning of this, grew still more desirous of making an accommodation, feeling that they now had no choice left of any other course. The king of the Romans also had received information of this conspiracy from his friends in Fidenae, so that he, too, made no delay but hearkened to the overtures made by Fufetius. When the two met in the space between the camps, each being attended by his council consisting of persons of competent judgment, they first embraced, according to their former custom, and exchanged the greetings usual among friends and relations, and then proceeded to discuss an accommodation.

§ 3.7.2  And first the Alban leader began as follows:
"It seems to me necessary to begin my speech by setting forth the reasons why I have determined to take the initiative in proposing a termination of the war, though neither defeated by you Romans in battle nor hindered from supplying my army with provisions nor reduced to any other necessity, to the end that you may not imagine that a recognition of the weakness of my own force or a belief that yours is difficult to overcome makes me seek a plausible excuse for ending the war. For, should you entertain such an opinion of us, you would be intolerably severe, and, as if you were already victorious in the war, you could not bring yourself to do anything reasonable.

§ 3.7.3  In order, therefore, that you may not impute to me false reasons for my purpose to end the war, listen to the true reasons. My country have been appointed me general with absolute power, as soon as I took over the command I considered what were the causes which had disturbed the peace of our cities. And finding them trivial and petty and of too little consequence to dissolve so great a friendship and kinship, I concluded that neither we Albans nor you Romans had been governed by the best counsels.

§ 3.7.4  And I was further convinced of this and led to condemn the great madness that we both have shown, an once I had taken hold of affairs and began to sound out each man's private opinion. For I found that the Albans neither in their private meetings nor in their public assemblies were all of one mind regarding the war; and the signs from Heaven, whenever I consulted the victims concerning battle, presenting, as they did, far greater difficulties than those based on human reasoning, caused me great dismay and anxiety.

§ 3.7.5  In view, therefore, of these considerations, I restrained my eagerness for armed conflicts and devised delays and postponements of the war, in the belief that you Romans would make the first overtures towards peace. And indeed you should have done this, Tullius, since you are our colony, and not have waited till your mother-city set the example. For the founders of cities have a right to receive as great respect from their colonies as parents from their children.

§ 3.7.6  But while we have been delaying and watching each other, to see which side should first make friendly overtures, another motive, more compelling than any arguments drawn from human reason, has arisen to draw us together. And since I learned of this while it was yet a secret to you, I felt that I ought no longer to aim at appearances in concluding peace. For dreadful designs are being formed against us, Tullius, and a deadly plot has been woven against both of us, a plot which was bound to overwhelm and destroy us easily and without effort, bursting upon us like a conflagration or a flood.

§ 3.7.7  The authors of these wicked designs are the chiefs of the Fidenates and Veientes, who have conspired together. Hear now the nature of their plot and how the knowledge of their secret design came to me."

§ 3.8.1  With these words he gave to one of those present the letters which a certain man had brought to him from his friends at Fidenae, and desired him to read them out; and at the same time he produced the man who had brought the letters. After they were read and the man had informed them of everything he had learned by word of mouth from the persons who had despatched the letters, all present were seized with great astonishment, as one would naturally expect upon their hearing of so great and so unexpected a danger. Then Fufetius, after a short pause, continued:

§ 3.8.2  You have now heard, Romans, the reasons why I have thus far been postponing armed conflicts with you and have now thought fit to make the first overtures concerning peace. After this it is for you to consider whether, in order to avenge the seizure of some miserable oxen and sheep, you ought to continue to carry on an implacable war against year founders and fathers, in the course of which, whether conquered or conquerors, you are sure to be destroyed, or, laying aside your enmity toward your kinsmen, to march with us against our common foes, who have plotted not only to revolt from you but also to attack you — although they have neither suffered any harm nor had any reason to fear that they should suffer any — and, what is more, have not attacked us openly, according to the universally recognized laws of war, but under cover of darkness, so that their treachery could least be suspected and guarded against. 3 But I need say no more to convince you that we ought to lay aside our enmity and march with all speed against these impious men (for it would be madness to think otherwise), since you are already resolved and will pursue that resolution. But in what manner the terms of reconciliation may prove honourable and advantageous to both cities (for probably you have long been eager to hear this) I shall now endeavour to explain. 4 For my part, I hold that that mutual reconciliation is the best and the most becoming to kinsmen and friends, in which there is no rancour nor remembrance of past injuries, but a general and sincere remission of everything that has been done or suffered on both sides; less honourable than this form of reconciliation is one by which, indeed, the mass of the people are absolved of blame, but those who have injured one another are compelled to undergo such a trial as reason and law direct. 5 Of these two methods of reconciliation, now, it is my opinion that we ought to choose the one which is the more honourable and magnanimous, and we ought to pass a decree of general amnesty. However, if you, Tullius, do not wish a reconciliation of this kind, but prefer that the accusers and the accused should mutually give and receive satisfaction, the Albans are also ready to do this, after first settling our mutual hatreds. And if, besides this, you have any other method to suggest which is either more honourable or more just, you cannot lay it before us too soon, and for doing so I shall be greatly obliged to you."

§ 3.9.1  After Fufetius had thus spoken, the king of the Romans answered him and said:
"We also, Fufetius, felt that it would be a grave calamity for us if we were forced to decide this war between kinsmen by blood and slaughter, and whenever we performed the sacrifices preparatory to war we were forbidden by them to begin an engagement. As regards the secret conspiracy entered into by the Fidenates and Veientes against us both, we have learned of it, a little ahead of you, through our friends in their midst, and we are not unprepared against their plot, but have taken measures not only to suffer no mischief ourselves but also to punish those foes in such a manner as their treachery deserves. Nor were we less disposed than you to put an end to the war without a battle rather than by the sword;

§ 3.9.2  yet we did not consider it fitting that we should be the first to send ambassadors to propose an accommodation, since we had not been the first to begin the war, but had merely defended ourselves against those who had begun it. But once you are ready to lay down your arms, we will gladly receive your proposal, and will not scrutinize too closely the terms of the reconciliation, but will accept those that are the best and the most magnanimous, forgiving every injury and offence we have received from the city of Alba — if, indeed, those deserve to be called public offences of the city for which your general Cluilius was responsible, and has paid no mean penalty to the gods for the wrongs he did us both.

§ 3.9.3  Let every occasion, therefore, for complaint, whether private or public, be removed and let no memory of past injuries any longer remain — even as you also, Fufetius, think fitting. Yet it is not enough for us to consider merely how we may compose our present enmity toward one another, but we must further take measures to prevent our ever going to war again; for the purpose of our present meeting is not to obtain a postponement but rather an end of our evils. What settlement of the war, therefore, will be enduring and what contribution must each of us make toward the situation, in order that we may be friends both now and for all time? This, Fufetius, you have omitted to tell us; but I shall endeavour to go on and supply this omission also.

§ 3.9.4  If, on the one hand, the Albans would cease to envy the Romans the advantages they possess, advantages which were acquired not without great perils and many hardships (in any case you have suffered no injury at our hands, great or slight, but you hate us for this reason alone, that we seem to be better off than you); and if, on the other hand, the Romans would cease to suspect the Albans of always plotting against them and would cease to be on their guard against them as against enemies (for no one can be a firm friend to one who distrusts him).

§ 3.9.5  How, then, shall each of these results be brought about? Not by inserting them in the treaty, nor by our both swearing to them over the sacrificial victims — for these are small and weak assurances — but by looking upon each other's fortunes as common to us both. For there is only one cure, Fufetius, for the bitterness which men feel over the advantages of others, and that is for the envious no longer to regard the advantages of the envied as other than their own.

§ 3.9.6  In order to accomplish this, I think the Romans ought to place equally at the disposal of the Albans all the advantages they either now or shall hereafter possess; and that the Albans ought cheerfully the accept this offer and all of you, if possible, or at least the most and the best of you, become residents of Rome. Was it not, indeed, a fine thing for the Sabines and Tyrrhenians to leave their own cities and transfer their habitation to Rome? And for you, who are our nearest kinsmen, will it not accordingly be a fine thing if this same step is taken?

§ 3.9.7  If, however, you refuse to inhabit the same city with us, which is already large and will be larger, but are going to cling to your ancestral hearths, do this at least: appoint a single council to consider what shall be of advantage to each city, and give the supremacy to that one of the two cities which is the more powerful and is in a position to render the greater services to the weaker. This is what I recommend, and if these proposals are carried out I believe that we shall then be lasting friends; whereas, so long as we inhabit two cities of equal eminence, as at present, there never will be harmony between us."

§ 3.10.1  Fufetius, hearing this, desired time for taking counsel; and withdrawing from the assembly along with the Albans who were present, he consulted with them whether they should accept the proposals. Then, having taken the opinions of all, he returned to the assembly and spoke as follows: "We do not think it best, Tullius, to abandon our country or to desert the sanctuaries of our fathers, the hearths of our ancestors, and the place which our forbears have possessed for nearly five hundred years, particularly when we are not compelled to such a course either by war or by any other calamity inflicted by the hand of Heaven. But we are not opposed to establishing a single council and letting one of the two cities rule over the other.

§ 3.10.2  Let this article, then, also be inserted in the treaty, if agreeable, and let every excuse for war be removed."
These conditions having been agreed upon, they fell to disputing which of the two cities should be given the supremacy and many words were spoken by both of them upon this subject, each contending that his own city should rule over the other.

§ 3.10.3  The claims advanced by the Alban leader were as follows:
"As for us, Tullius, we deserve to rule over even all the rest of Italy, inasmuch as we represent a Greek nation and the greatest nation of all that inhabit this country. But to the sovereignty of the Latin nation, even if no other, we think ourselves entitled, not without reason, but in accordance with the universal law which Nature bestowed upon all men, that ancestors should rule their posterity. And above all our other colonies, against whom we have thus far no reason to complain, we think we ought to rule your city, having sent our colony thither not so long ago that the stock sprung from us is already extinct, exhausted by the lapse of time, but only the third generation before the present. If, indeed, Nature, inverting human rights, shall ever command the young to rule over the old and posterity over their progenitors, then we shall submit to seeing the mother-city ruled by its colony, but not before.

§ 3.10.4  This, then, is one argument we offer in support of our claim, in virtue of which we will never willingly yield the command to you. Another argument — and do not take this as said by way of censure or reproach of you Romans, but only from necessity — is the fact that the Alban race has to this day continued the same that it was under the founders of the city, and one cannot point to any race of mankind, except the Greeks and Latins, to whom we have granted citizenship; whereas you have corrupted the purity of your body politic by admitting Tyrrhenians, Sabines, and some others who were homeless, vagabonds and barbarians, and that in great numbers too, so that the true-born element among you that went out from our midst is become small, or rather a tiny fraction, in comparison with those who have been brought in and are of alien race.

§ 3.10.5  And if we should yield the command to you, the base-born will rule over the true-born, barbarians over Greeks, and immigrants over the native-born. For you cannot even say this much for yourself, that you have not permitted this immigrant mob to gain any control of public affairs but that you native-born citizens are yourselves the rulers and councillors of the commonwealth. Why, even for your kings you choose outsiders, and the greatest part of your senate consists of these newcomers; and to none of these conditions can you assert that you submit willingly. For what man of superior rank willingly allows himself to be ruled by an inferior? It would be great folly and baseness, therefore, on our part to accept willingly those evils which you must own you submit to through necessity.

§ 3.10.6  My last argument is this: The city of Alba has so far made no alteration in any part of its constitution, though it is already the eighteenth generation that it has been inhabited, but continues to observe in due form all its customs and traditions; whereas your city is still without order and discipline, due to its being newly founded and a conglomeration of many races, and it will require long ages and manifold turns of fortune in order to be regulated and freed from those troubles and dissensions with which it is now agitated. But all will agree that order ought to rule over confusion, experience over inexperience, and health over sickness; and you do wrong in demanding the reverse."

§ 3.11.1  After Fufetius had thus spoken, Tullius answered and said:
"The right which is derived from Nature and the virtue of one's ancestors, Fufetius and ye men of Alba, is common to us both; for we both boast the same ancestors, so that on this score neither of use ought to have any advantage or suffer any disadvantage. But as to your claim that by a kind of necessary law of Nature mother-cities should invariably rule over their colonies, it is neither true nor just.

§ 3.11.2  Indeed, there are many races of mankind among which the mother-cities do not rule over their colonies but are subject to them. The greatest and the most conspicuous instance of this is the Spartan state, which claims the right not only to rule over the other Greeks but even over the Doric nation, of which she is a colony. But why should I mention the others? For you who colonized our city are yourself a colony of the Lavinians.

§ 3.11.3  If, therefore, it is a law of Nature that the mother-city should rule over its colony, would not the Lavinians be the first to issue their just orders to both of us? To your first claim, then, and the one which carries with it the most specious appearance, this is a sufficient answer. But since you also undertook to compare the ways of life of the two cities, Fufetius, asserting that the nobility of the Albans has always remained the same while ours has been 'corrupted' by the various admixtures of foreigners, and demanded that the base-born should not rule over the well-born nor newcomers over the native-born, know, then, that in making this claim, too, you are greatly mistaken.

§ 3.11.4  For we are so far from being ashamed of having made the privileges of our city free to all who desired them that we even take the greatest pride in this course; moreover, we are not the originators of this admirable practice, but took the example from the city of Athens, which enjoys the greatest reputation among the Greeks, due in no small measure, if indeed not chiefly, to this very policy.

§ 3.11.5  And this principle, which has been to us the source of many advantages, affords us no ground either for complaint or regret, as if we had committed some error. Our chief magistracies and membership in the senate are held and the other honours among us are enjoyed, not by men possessed of great fortunes, nor by those who can show a long line of ancestors all natives of the country, but by such as are worthy of these honours; for we look upon the nobility of men as consisting in nothing else than in virtue. The rest of the populace are the body of the commonwealth, contributing strength and power to the decisions of the best men. It is owing to this humane policy that our city, from a small and contemptible beginning, is become large and formidable to its neighbours, and it is this policy which you condemn, Fufetius, that his laid for trains the foundation of that supremacy which none of the other Latins disputes with us.

§ 3.11.6  For the power of states consists in the force of arms, and this in turn depends upon a multitude of citizens; whereas, for small states that are sparsely populated and for that reason weak it is not possible to rule others, nay, even to rule themselves.

§ 3.11.7  On the whole, I am of the opinion that a man should only then disparage the government of other states and extol his own when he can show that his own, by following the principles he lays down, is grown flourishing and great, and that the states he censures, by not adopting them, are in an unhappy plight. But this is not our situation. On the contrary, your city, beginning with greater brilliance and enjoying greater resources than ours, has shrunk to lesser importance, while we, from small beginnings at first, have in a short time made Rome greater than all the neighbouring cities by following the very policies you condemned.

§ 3.11.8  And as for our factional strife — since this also, Fufetius, met with your censure — it tends, not to destroy and diminish the commonwealth, but to preserve and enhance it. For there is emulation between our youths and our older men and between the newcomers and those who invited them in, to see which of us shall do more for the common welfare.

§ 3.11.9  In short, those who are going to rule others ought to be endowed with these two qualities, strength in war and prudence in counsel, both of which are present in our case. And that this is no empty boast, experience, more powerful than any argument, bears us witness. It is certain in any case that the city could not have attained to such greatness and power in the third generation after its founding, had not both valour and prudence abounded in it. Suffer proof of its strength is afforded by the behaviour of many cities of the Latin race which owe their founding to you, but which, nevertheless, scorning your city, have come over us, choosing rather to be ruled by the Romans than by the Albans, because they look upon us as capable of doing both good to our friends and harm to our enemies, and upon you as capable of neither.

§ 3.11.10  I had many other arguments, and valid ones, Fufetius, to advance against the claims which you have presented; but as I see that argument is futile and that the result will be the same whether I say much or little to you, who, though our adversaries, are at the same time the arbiters of justice, I will make an end of speaking. However, since I conceive that there is but one way of deciding our differences which is the best and has been made use of by many, both barbarians and Greeks, when hatred has arisen between them either over the supremacy or over some territory in dispute, I shall propose this and then conclude.

§ 3.11.11  Let each of us fight the battle with some part of our forces and limit the fortune of war to a very small number of combatants; and let us give to that city whose champions shall overcome their adversaries the supremacy over the other. For such contests as cannot be determined by arguments are decided by arms."

§ 3.12.1  These were the reasons urged by the two generals to support the pretensions of their respective cities to the supremacy; and the outcome of the discussion was the adoption of the plan Tullius proposed. For both the Albans and Romans who were present at the conference, in their desire to put a speedy end to the war, resolved to decide the controversy by arms. This also being agreed to, the question arose concerning the number of the combatants, since the two generals were not of the same mind.

§ 3.12.2  For Tullius desired that the fate of the war might be decided by the smallest possible number of combatants, the most distinguished man among the Albans fighting the bravest of the Romans in single combat, and he cheerfully offered himself to fight for his own country, inviting the Alban leader to emulate him. He pointed out that for those who have assumed the command of armies combats for sovereignty and power are glorious, not only when they conquer brave men, but also when they are conquered by the brave; and he enumerated all the generals and kings who had risked their lives for their country, regarding it as a reproach to them to have a greater share of the honours than others but a smaller share of the dangers.

§ 3.12.3  The Alban, however, while approving of the proposal to commit the fate of the cities to a few champions, would not agree to decide it by single combat. He owned that when commanders of the armies were seeking to establish their own power a combat between them for the supremacy was noble and necessary, but when states themselves were contending for the first place he thought the risk of single combat not only hazardous but even dishonourable, whether they met with good or ill fortune.

§ 3.12.4  And he proposed that three chosen men from each city should fight in the presence of all the Albans and Romans, declaring that this was the most suitable number for deciding any matter in controversy, as containing in itself a beginning, a middle and an end. This proposal meeting with the approval of both Romans and Albans, the conference broke up and each side returned to its own camp.

§ 3.13.1  After this the generals assembled their respective armies and gave them an account both of what they had said to each other and of the terms upon which they had agreed to put an end to the war. And both armies having with great approbation ratified the agreement entered into by their generals, there arose a wonderful emulation among the officers and soldiers alike, since a great many were eager to carry off the prize of valour in the combat and expressed their emulation not only by their words but also by their actions, so that their leaders found great difficulty in selecting the most suitable champions.

§ 3.13.2  For if anyone was renowned for his illustrious ancestry or remarkable for his strength of body, famous for some brave deed in action, or distinguished by some other good fortune or bold achievement, he insisted upon being chosen first among the three champions.

§ 3.13.3  This emulation, which was running to great lengths in both armies, was checked by the Alban general, who called to mind that some divine providence, long since foreseeing this conflict between the two cities, had arranged that their future champions should be sprung of no obscure families and should be brave in arms, most comely in appearance, and distinguished from the generality of mankind by their birth, which should be unusual and wonderful because of its extraordinary nature.

§ 3.13.4  It seems that Sicinius, an Alban, had at one and the same time married his twin daughters to Horatius, a Roman, and to Curiatius, an Alban; and the two wives came with child at the same time and each was brought to bed, at her first lying-in, of three male children. The parents, looking upon the event as a happy omen both to their cities and families, brought up all these children till they arrived at manhood. And Heaven, as I said in the beginning, gave them beauty and strength and nobility of mind, so that they were not inferior to any of those most highly endowed by Nature. It was to these men that Fufetius resolved to commit the combat for supremacy; and having invited the Roman king to a conference, he addressed him as follows:

§ 3.14.1  "Tullius, some god who keeps watch over both our cities would seem, just as upon many other occasions, so especially in what relates to this combat to have made his goodwill manifest. For that the champions who are to fight on behalf of all their people should be found inferior to none in birth, brave in arms, most comely in appearance, and that they should furthermore have been born of one father and mother, and, most wonderful of all, that they should have come into the world on the same day, the Horatii with you and the Curiatii with us, all this, I say, has every appearance of a remarkable instance of divine favour.

§ 3.14.2  Why, therefore, do we not accept this great providence of the god and each of us invite the triplets on his side to engage in the combat for the supremacy? For not only all the other advantages which we could desire in the best-qualified champions are to be found in these men, but, as they are brothers, they will be more unwilling than any others among either the Romans or the Albans to forsake their companions when in distress; and furthermore, the emulation of the other youths, which cannot easily be appeased in any other way, will be promptly settled.

§ 3.14.3  For I surmise that among you also, as well as among the Albans, there is a kind of strife among many of those who lay claim to bravery; but if we inform them that some providential fortune has anticipated all human efforts and has itself furnished us with champions qualified to engage upon equal terms in the cause of the cities, we shall easily persuade them to desist. For they will then look upon themselves as inferior to the triplets, not in point of bravery, but only in respect of a special boon of Nature and of the favour of a Chance that is equally inclined toward both sides."15

§ 3.15.1  After Fufetius had thus spoken and his proposal had been received with general approbation (for the most important both of the Romans and Albans were with the two leaders), Tullius, after a short pause, spoke as follows:
"In other respects, Fufetius, you seem to me to have reasoned well; for it must be some wonderful fortune that has produced in both our cities in our generation a similarity of birth never known before. But of one consideration you seem to be unaware — a matter which will cause great reluctance in the youths if we ask them to fight with one another.

§ 3.15.2  For the mother of our Horatii is sister to the mother of the Alban Curiatii, and the young men have been brought up in the arms of both the women and cherish and love one another no less than their own brothers. Consider, therefore, whether, as they are cousins and have been brought up together, it would not be impious in us to put arms in their hands and invite them to mutual slaughter. For the pollution of kindred blood, if they are compelled to stain their hands with one another's blood, will deservedly fall upon us who compel them."

§ 3.15.3  To this Fufetius answered: "Neither have I failed, Tullius, to note the kinship of the youths, nor did I purpose to compel them to fight with their cousins unless they themselves were inclined to undertake the combat. But as soon as this plan came into my mind I sent for the Alban Curiatii and sounded them in private to learn whether they were willing to engage in the combat; and it was only after they had accepted the proposal with incredible and wonderful alacrity that I decided to disclose my plan and bring it forward for consideration. And I advise you to take the same course yourself — to send for the triplets on your side and sound out their disposition. 4 And if they, too, agree of their own accord to risk their lives for their country, accept the favour; but if they hesitate, bring no compulsion to bear upon them. I predict, however, the same result with them as with our own youths — that is, if they are such men as we have been informed, like the few most highly endowed by Nature, and are brave in arms; for the reputation of their valour has reached us also."

§ 3.16.1  Tullius, accordingly, approved of this advice and made a truce for ten days, in order to have time to deliberate and give his answer after learning the disposition of the Horatii; and thereupon he returned to the city. During the following days he consulted with the most important men, and when the greater part of them favoured accepting the proposals of Fufetius, he sent for the three brothers and said to them:

§ 3.16.2  Horatii, Fufetius the Alban informed me at a conference the last time we met at the camp that by divine providence three brave champions were at hand for each city, the noblest and most suitable of any we could hope to find — the Curiatii among the Albans and you among the Romans. He added that upon learning of this he had himself first inquired whether your cousins were willing to give their lives to their country, and that, finding them very eager to undertake the combat on behalf of all their people, he could now bring forward this proposal with confidence; and he asked me also to sound you out, to learn whether you would be willing to risk your lives for your country by engaging with the Curiatii, or whether you choose to yield this honour to others. 3 I, in view of your valour and your gallantry in action, which are not concealed from public notice, assumed that you of all others would embrace this danger for the sake of winning the prize of valour; but fearing lest your kinship with the three Alban brothers might prove an obstacle to your zeal, I requested time for deliberation and made a truce for ten days. And when I came here I assembled the senate and laid the matter before them for their consideration. It was the opinion of the majority that if you of your own free will accepted the combat, which is a noble one and worthy of you and which I myself was eager to wage alone on behalf of all our people, they should praise your resolution and accept the favour from you; but if, to avoid the pollution of kindred blood — for surely it would be no admission of cowardice on your part — you felt that those who are not related to them ought to be called upon to undertake the combat, they should bring no compulsion to bear upon you. This, then, being the vote of the senate, which will neither be offended with you if you show a reluctance to undertake the task nor feel itself under any slight obligation to you if you rate your country more highly than your kinship, deliberate carefully and well."

§ 3.17.1  The youths upon hearing these words withdrew to one side, and after a short conference together returned to give their answer; and the eldest on behalf of them all spoke as follows: "If we were free and sole masters of our own decisions, Tullius, and you had given us the opportunity to deliberate concerning the combat with our cousins, we should without further delay have given your our thoughts upon it. But since our father is still living, without whose advice we do not think it proper to say or do the least thing, we ask you to wait a short time for our answer till we have talked with him."

§ 3.17.2  Tullius having commended their filial devotion and told them to do as they proposed, they went home to their father. And acquainting him with the proposals of Fufetius and with what Tullius had said to them and, last of all, with their own answer, they desired his advice.

§ 3.17.3  And he answered and said: "But indeed this is dutiful conduct on your part, my sons, when you live for your father and do nothing without my advice. But it is time for you to show that you yourselves now have discretion in such matters at least. Assume, therefore, that my life is now over, and let me know what you yourselves would have chosen to do if you had deliberated without your father upon your own affairs."

§ 3.17.4  And the eldest answered him thus: "Father, we would have accepted this combat for the supremacy and would have been ready to suffer whatever should be the will of Heaven; for we had rather be dead than to live unworthy both of you and of our ancestors. As for the bond of kinship with our cousins, we shall not be the first to break it, but since it has already been broken by fate, we shall acquiesce therein.

§ 3.17.5  For if the Curiatii esteem kinship less than honour, the Horatii also will not value the ties of blood more highly than valour." Their father, upon learning their disposition, rejoiced exceedingly, and lifting his hands to Heaven, said he rendered thanks to the gods for having given him noble sons. Then, throwing his arms about each in turn and giving the tenderest of embraces and kisses, he said: "You have my opinion also, my brave sons. Go, then, to Tullius and give him the answer that is both dutiful and honourable."

§ 3.17.6  The youths went away pleased with the exhortation of their father, and going to the king, they accepted the combat; and he, after assembling the senate and sounding the praises of the youths, sent ambassadors to the Alban to inform him that the Romans accepted his proposal and would offer the Horatii to fight for the sovereignty.

§ 3.18.1  As my subject requires not only that a full account of the way the battle was fought should be given, but also that the subsequent tragic events, which resemble the sudden reversals of fortune seen upon the stage, should be related in no perfunctory manner, I shall endeavour, as far as I am able, to give an accurate account of every incident. When the time came, then, for giving effect to the terms of the agreement, the Roman forces marched out in full strength, and afterwards the youths, when they had offered up their prayers to the gods of their fathers; they advanced accompanied by the king, while the entire throng that filed the city acclaimed them and strewed flowers upon their heads. By this time the Albans' army also had marched out.

§ 3.18.2  And when the armies had encamped near one another, leaving as an interval between their camps the boundary that separated the Roman territory from that of the Albans, each side occupying the site of its previous camp, they first offered sacrifice and swore over the burnt offerings that they would acquiesce in whatever fate the event of the combat between the cousins should allot to each city and that they would keep inviolate their agreement, neither they nor their posterity making use of any deceit. Then, after performing the rites which religion required, both the Romans and Albans laid aside their arms and came out in front of their camps to be spectators of the combat, leaving an interval of three or four stades for the champions. And presently appeared the Alban general conducting the Curiatii and the Roman king escorting the Horatii, all of them armed in the most splendid fashion and withal dressed like men about to die.

§ 3.18.3  When they came near to one another they gave their swords to their armour-bearers, and running to one another, embraced, weeping and calling each other by the tenderest names, so that all the spectators were moved to tears and accused both themselves and their leaders of great heartlessness, in that, when it was possible to decide the battle by other champions, they had limited the combat on behalf of the cities to men of kindred blood and compelled the pollution of fratricide. The youths, after their embraces were over, received their swords from their armour-bearers, and the bystanders having retired, they took their places according to age and began the combat.

§ 3.19.1  For a time quiet and silence prevailed in both armies, and then there was shouting by both sides together and alternate exhortations to the combatants; and there were vows and lamentations and continual expressions of every other emotion experienced in battle, some of them caused by what was either being enacted or witnessed by each side, and others by their apprehensions of the outcome; and the things they imagined outnumbered those which actually were happening.

§ 3.19.2  For it was impossible to see very clearly, owing to the great distance, and the partiality of each side for their own champions interpreted everything that passed to match their desire; then, too, the frequent advances and retreats of the combatants and their many sudden countercharges rendered any accurate judgment out of the question; and this situation lasted a considerable time.

§ 3.19.3  For the champions on both sides not only were alike in strength of body but were well matched also in nobility of spirit, and they had their entire bodies protected by the choicest armour, leaving no part exposed which if wounded would bring on swift death. So that many, both of the Romans and of the Albans, from their eager rivalry and from their partiality for their own champions, were unconsciously putting themselves in the position of the combatants and desired rather to be actors in the drama that was being enacted than spectators.

§ 3.19.4  At last the eldest of the Albans, closing with his adversary and giving and receiving blow after blow, happened somehow to run his sword thru the Roman's groin. The latter was already stupefied from his other wounds, and now receiving this final low, a mortal one, he fell down dead, his limbs no longer supporting him.

§ 3.19.5  When the spectators of the combat saw this they all cried out together, the Albans as already victorious, the Romans as vanquished; for they concluded that their two champions would be easily dispatched by the three Albans. In the meantime, the Roman who had fought by the side of the fallen champion, seeing the Alban rejoicing in his success, quickly rushed upon him, and after inflicting many wounds and receiving many himself, happened to plunge his sword into his neck and killed him.

§ 3.19.6  After Fortune had thus in a short time made a great alteration both in the state of the combatants and in the feelings of the spectators, and the Romans had now recovered from their former dejection while the Albans had had their joy snatched away, another shift of Fortune, by giving a check to the success of the Romans, sunk their hopes and raised the confidence of their enemies. For when Alban fell, his brother who stood next to him closed with the Roman who had struck him down; and each, as it chanced, gave the other a dangerous wound at the same time, the Alban plunging his sword down through the Roman's back into his bowels, and the Roman throwing himself under the shield of his adversary and slashing one of his thighs.

§ 3.20.1  The one who had received the mortal wound died instantly, and the other, who had been wounded in the thigh, was scarcely able to stand, but limped and frequently leaned upon his shield. Nevertheless, he still made a show of resistance and with his surviving brother advanced against the Roman, who stood his ground; and they surrounded him, one coming up to him from in front and the other from behind.

§ 3.20.2  The Roman, fearing that, being thus surrounded by them and obliged to fight with two adversaries attacking him from two sides, he might easily be overcome — he was still uninjured — hit upon the plan of separating his enemies and fighting each one singly. He thought he could most easily separate them by feigning flight; for then he would not be pursued by both the Albans, but only by one of them, since he saw that the other no longer had control of his limbs. With this thought in mind he fled as fast as he could; and it was his good fortune not to be disappointed in his expectation.

§ 3.20.3  For the Alban who was not mortally wounded followed at his heels, while the other, being unable to keep going was falling altogether too far behind. Then indeed the Albans encouraged their men and the Romans reproached their champion with cowardice, the former singing songs of triumph and crowning themselves with garlands as if the contest were already won, and the others lamenting as if Fortune would never raise them up again. But the Roman, having carefully waited for his opportunity, turned quickly and, before the Alban could put himself on his guard, struck him a blow on the arm with his sword and clove his elbow in twain,

§ 3.20.4  and when his hand fell to the ground together with his sword, he struck one more blow, a mortal one, and dispatched the Alban; then, rushing from him to the last of his adversaries, who was half dead and fainting, he slew him also. And taking the spoils from the bodies of his cousins, he hastened to the city, wishing to give his father the first news of his victory.

§ 3.21.1  But it was ordained after all that even he, as he was but a mortal, should not be fortunate in everything, but should feel some stroke of the envious god who, having from an insignificant man made him great in a brief moment of time and raised him to wonderful and unexpected distinction, plunged him the same day into the unhappy state of being his sister's murderer.

§ 3.21.2  For when he arrived near the gates he saw a multitude of people of all conditions pouring out from the city and among them his sister running to meet him. At the first sight of her he was distressed that a virgin ripe for marriage should have deserted her household tasks at her mother's side and joined a crowd of strangers. And though he indulged in many absurd reflections, he was at last inclining to those which were honourable and generous, feeling that in her yearning to be the first to embrace her surviving brother and in her desire to receive an account from him of the gallant behaviour of her dead brothers she had disregarded decorum in a moment of feminine weakness.

§ 3.21.3  However, it was not, after all, her yearning for her brothers that had led her to venture forth in this unusual manner, but it was because she was overpowered by love for one of her cousins to whom her father had promised her in marriage, a passion which she had till then kept secret; and when she had overheard a man who came from the camp relating the details of the combat, she could no longer contain herself, but leaving the house, rushed to the city gates like a maenad, without paying any heed to her nurse who called her and ran to bring her back.

§ 3.21.4  But when she got outside the city and saw her brother exulting and wearing the garlands of victory with which the king had crowned him, and his friends carrying the spoils of the slain, among which was an embroidered robe which she herself with the assistance of her mother had woven and sent as a present to her betrothed against their nuptial day (for it is the custom of the Latins to array themselves in embroidered robes when they go to fetch their brides), when, therefore, she saw this robe stained with blood, she rent her garment, and beating her breast with both hands, fell to lamenting and calling upon her cousin by name, so that great astonishment came upon all who were present there.

§ 3.21.5  After she had bewailed the death of her betrothed she stared with fixed gaze at her brother and said: "Most abominable wretch, so you rejoice in having slain your cousins and deprived your most unhappy sister of wedlock! Miserable fellow! Why, you are not even touched with pity for your slain kinsmen, whom you were wont to call your brothers, but instead, as if you had performed some noble deed, you are beside yourself with joy and wear garlands in honour of such calamities. Of what wild beast, then, have you the heart?"

§ 3.21.6  And he, answering her, said: "The heart of a citizen who loves his country and punishes those who wish her ill, whether they happen to be foreigners or his own people. And among such I count even you; for though you know that the greatest of blessings and of woes have happened to us at one and the same time — I mean the victory of your country, which I, your brother, am bringing home with me, and the death of your brothers — you neither rejoice in the public happiness of your country, wicked wretch, nor grieve at the private calamities of your own family, but, overlooking your own brothers, you lament the fate of your betrothed, and this, too, not after taking yourself off somewhere alone under cover of darkness, curse you! but before the eyes of the whole world; and you reproach me for my valour and my crowns of victory, you pretender to virginity, you hater of your brothers and disgrace to your ancestors! Since, therefore, you mourn, not for your brothers, but for your cousins, and since, though your body is with the living, your soul is with him who is dead, go to him on whom you call and cease to dishonour either your father or your brothers."

§ 3.21.7  After these words, being unable in his hatred of baseness to observe moderation, but yielding to the anger which swayed him, he ran his sword through her side; and having slain his sister, he went to his father. But so averse to baseness and so stern were the manners and thoughts of the Romans of that day and, to compare them with the actions and lives of those of our age, so cruel and harsh and so little removed from the savagery of wild beasts, that the father, upon being informed of this terrible calamity, far from resenting it, looked upon it as a glorious and becoming action. 8 In fact, he would neither permit his daughter's body to be brought into the house nor allow her to be buried in the tomb of her ancestors or given any funeral or burial robe or other customary rites; but as she lay there where she had been cast, in the place where she was slain, the passers-by, bringing stones and earth, buried her like any corpse which had none to give it proper burial. 9 Besides these instances of the father's severity there were still others that I shall mention. Thus, as if in gratitude for some glorious and fortunate achievements, he offered that very day to the gods of his ancestors the sacrifices he had vowed, and entertained his relations at a splendid banquet, just as upon the greatest festivals, making less account of his private calamities than of the public advantages of his country. 10 This not only Horatius but many other prominent Romans after him are said to have done; I refer to their offering sacrifice and wearing crowns and celebrating triumphs immediately after the death of their sons when through them the commonwealth had met with good fortune. Of these I shall make mention in the proper places.

§ 3.22.1  After the combat between the triplets, the Romans who were then in the camp buried the slain brothers in a splendid manner in the places where they had fallen, and having offered to the gods the customary sacrifices for victory, were passing their time in rejoicings. On the other side, the Albans were grieving over what had happened and blaming their leader for bad generalship; and the greatest part of them spent that night without food and without any other care for their bodies.

§ 3.22.2  The next day the king of the Romans called them to an assembly and consoled them with many assurances that he would lay no command upon them that was either dishonourable, grievous or unbecoming to kinsmen, but that with impartial judgment he would take thought for what was best and most advantageous for both cities; and having continued Fufetius, their ruler, in the same office and made no other change in the government, he led his army home.

§ 3.22.3  After he had celebrated the triumph which the senate had decreed for him and had entered upon the administration of civil affairs, some citizens of importance came to him bringing Horatius for trial, on the ground that because of his slaying of his sister he was not free of the guilt of shedding a kinsman's blood; and being given a hearing, they argued at length, citing the laws which forbade the slaying of anyone without a trial, and recounting instances of the anger of all the gods against the cities which neglected to punish those who were polluted. 4 But the father spoke in defence of the youth and blamed his daughter, declaring that the act was a punishment, not a murder, and claiming that he himself was the proper judge of the calamities of his own family, since he was the father of both. And a great deal having been said on both sides, the king was in great perplexity what decision to pronounce in the cause. 5 For he did not think it seemly either to acquit any person of murder who confessed he had put his sister to death before a trial — and that, too, for an act which the laws did not concede to be a capital offence — lest by so doing he should transfer the curse and pollution from the criminal to his own household, or to punish as a murderer any person who had chosen to risk his life for his country and had brought her so great power, especially as he was acquitted of blame by his father, to whom before all others both nature and the law gave the right of taking vengeance in the case of his daughter. 6 Not knowing, therefore, how to deal with the situation, he at last decided it was best to leave the decision to the people. And the Roman people, becoming upon this occasion judges for the first time in a cause of a capital nature, sided with the opinion of the father and acquitted Horatius of the murder.
Nevertheless, the king did not believe that the judgment thus passed upon Horatius by men was a sufficient atonement to satisfy those who desired to observe due reverence toward the gods; but sending for the pontiffs, he ordered them to appease the gods and other divinities and to purify Horatius with those lustrations with which it was customary for involuntary homicides to be expiated. 7 The pontiffs erected two altars, one to Juno, to whom the care of sisters is allotted, and the other to a certain god or lesser divinity of the country called in their language Janus, to whom was now added the name Curiatius, derived from that of the cousins who had been slain by Horatius; and after they had offered certain sacrifices upon these altars, they finally, among other expiations, led Horatius under the yoke. It is customary among the Romans, when enemies deliver up their arms and submit to their power, to fix two pieces of wood upright in the ground and fasten a third to the top of them transversely, then to lead the captives under this structure, and after they have passed through, to grant them their liberty and leave to return home. This they call a yoke; and it was the last of the customary expiatory ceremonies used upon this occasion by those who purified Horatius. 8 The place in the city where they performed this expiation is regarded by all the Romans as sacred; it is in the street that leads down from the Carinae as one goes towards Cuprius Street. Here the altars then erected still remain, and over them extends a beam which is fixed in each of the opposite walls; the beam lies over the heads of those who go out of this street and is called in the Roman tongue "the Sister's Beam."26 This place, then, is still preserved in the city as a monument to this man's misfortune and honoured by the Romans with sacrifices every year. 9 Another memorial of the bravery he displayed in the combat is the small corner pillar standing at the entrance to one of the two porticos in the Forum, upon which were placed the spoils of the three Alban brothers. The arms, it is true, have disappeared because of the lapse of time, but the pillar still preserves its name and is called pila Horatia or "the Horatian Pillar."28 10 The Romans also have a law, enacted in consequence of this episode and observed even to this day, which confers immortal honour and glory upon these men; it provides that the parents of triplets shall receive from the public treasury the cost of rearing them until they are grown. With this, the incidents relating to the family of the Horatii, which showed some remarkable and unexpected reversals of fortune, came to an end.

§ 3.23.1  The king of the Romans, after letting a year pass, during which he made the necessary preparations for war, resolved to lead out his army against the city of the Fidenates. The grounds he alleged for the war were that this people, being called upon to justify themselves in the matter of the plot that they had formed against the Romans and Albans, had paid no heed, but immediately taking up arms, shutting their gates, and bringing in the allied forces of the Veientes, had openly revolted, and that when ambassadors arrived from Rome to inquire the reason for their revolt, they had answered that they no longer had anything in common with the Romans since the death of Romulus, their king, to whom they had sworn their oaths of friendship.

§ 3.23.2  Seizing on these grounds for war, Tullus was not only arming his own forces, but also sending for those of his allies. The most numerous as well as the best auxiliary troops were brought to him from Alba by Mettius Fufetius, and they were equipped with such splendid arms as to excel all the other allied forces.

§ 3.23.3  Tullus, therefore, believing that Mettius had been actuated by zeal and by the best motives in deciding to take part in the war, commended him and communicated to him all his plans. But this man, who was accused by his fellow citizens of having mismanaged the recent war and was furthermore charged with treason, in view of the fact that he continued in the supreme command of the city for the third year by order of Tullus, disdaining now to hold any longer a command that was subject to another's command or to be subordinated rather than himself to lead, devised an abominable plot.

§ 3.23.4  He sent ambassadors here and there secretly to the enemies of the Romans while they were as yet wavering in their resolution to revolt and encouraged them not to hesitate, promising that he himself would join them in attacking the Romans during the battle; and these activities and plans he kept secret from everybody.

§ 3.23.5  Tullus, as soon as he had got ready his own army as well as that of his allies, marched against the enemy and after crossing the river Anio encamped near Fidenae. And finding a considerable army both of the Fidenates and of their allies drawn up before the city, he lay quiet that day; but on the next he sent for Fufetius, the Alban, and the closest of his other friends and took counsel with them concerning the best method of conducting the war. And when all were in favour of engaging promptly and not wasting time, he assigned them their several posts and commands, and having fixed the next day for the battle, he dismissed the council.

§ 3.23.6  In the meantime Fufetius, the Alban — for his treachery was still a secret to many even of his own friends — calling together the most prominent centurions and tribunes among the Albans, addressed them as follows:
"Tribunes and centurions, I am going to disclose to you important and unexpected things which I have hitherto been concealing; and I beg of you to keep them secret if you do not wish to ruin me, and to assist me in carrying them out if you think their realization will be advantageous. The present occasion does not permit of many words, as the time is short; so I shall mention only the most essential matters. 7 I, from the time we were subordinated to the Romans up to this day, have led a life full of shame and grief, though honoured by the king with the supreme command, which I am now holding for the third year and may, if I should so desire, hold as long as I live. But regarding it as the greatest of all evils to be the only fortunate man in a time of public misfortune, and taking it to heart that, contrary to all the rights mankind look upon as sacred, we have been deprived by the Romans of our supremacy, I took thought how we might recover it without experiencing any great disaster. And although I considered many plans of every sort, the only way I could discover that promised success, and at the same time the easiest and the least dangerous one, was in hand a war should be started against them by the neighbouring states. 8 For I assumed that when confronted by such a war they would have need of allies and particularly of us. As to the next step, I assumed that it would not require much argument to convince you that it is more glorious as well as more fitting to fight for our liberty than for the supremacy of the Romans. 9 "With these thoughts in mind I secretly stirred up a war against the Romans on the part of their subjects, encouraging the Veientes and Fidenates to take up arms by a promise of my assistance in the war. And thus far I have escaped the Romans' notice as I contrived these things and kept in my own hands the opportune moment for the attack. Just consider now the many advantages we shall derive from this course. 10 First, by not having openly planned a revolt, in which there would have been a double danger — either of being hurried or unprepared and of putting everything to the hazard while trusting to our own strength only, or, while we were making preparations and gathering assistance, of being forestalled by an enemy already prepared — we shall now experience neither of these difficulties but shall enjoy the advantage of both. In the next place, we shall not be attempting to destroy the great and formidable power and good fortune of our adversaries by force, but rather by those means by which every thing that is overbearing and not easy to be subdued by force is taken, namely, by guile and deceit; and we shall be neither the first nor the only people who have resorted to these means. 11 Besides, as our own force is not strong enough to be arrayed against the whole power of the Romans and their allies, we have also added the forces of the Fidenates and the Veientes, whose great numbers you see before you; and I have taken the following precautions that these auxiliaries who have been added to our numbers may with all confidence be depended on to adhere to our alliance. 12 For it will not be in our territory that the Fidenates will be fighting, but while they are defending their own country they will at the same time be protecting ours. Then, too, we shall have this advantage, which men look upon as the most gratifying of all and which has fallen to the lot of but few in times past, namely, that, while receiving a benefit from our allies, we shall ourselves be thought to be conferring one upon them. 13 And if this enterprise turns out according to our wish, as is reasonable to expect, the Fidenates and the Veientes, in delivering us from a grievous subjection, will feel grateful to us, as if it were they themselves who had received this favour at our hands.
"These are the preparations which I have made after much thought and which I regard as sufficient to inspire you with the courage and zeal to revolt. 14 Now hear from me the manner in which I have planned to carry out the undertaking. Tullus has assigned me my post under the hill and has given me the command of one of the wings. When we are about to engage the enemy, I will break ranks and begin to lead up the hill; and you will then follow me with your companies in their proper order. When I have gained the top of the hill and am securely posted, hear in what manner I shall handle the situation after that. 15 If I find my plans turning out according to my wish, that is, if I see that the enemy has become emboldened through confidence in our assistance, and the Romans disheartened and terrified, in the belief that they have been betrayed by us, and contemplating, as they likely will, flight rather than fight, I will fall upon them and cover the field with the bodies of the slain, since I shall be rushing down hill from higher ground and shall be attacking with a courageous and orderly force men who are frightened and dispersed. 16 For a terrible thing in warfare is the sudden impression, even though ill-grounded, of the treachery of allies or of an attack by fresh enemies, and we know that many great armies in the past have been utterly destroyed by no other kind of terror so much as by an impression for which there was no ground. But in our case it will be no vain report, no unseen terror, but a deed more dreadful than anything ever seen or experienced. 17 If, however, I find that the contrary of my calculations is in fact coming to pass (for mention must be made also of those things which are wont to happen contrary to human expectations, since our lives bring us many improbable experiences as well), I too shall then endeavour to do the contrary of what I have just proposed. For I shall lead you against the enemy in conjunction with the Romans and shall share with them the victory, pretending that I occupied the heights with the intention of surrounding the foes drawn up against me; and my claim will seem credible, since I shall have made my actions agree with my explanation. Thus, without sharing in the dangers of either side, we shall have a part in the good fortune of both. 1 8 "I, then, have determined upon these measures, and with the assistance of the gods I shall carry them out, as being the most advantageous, not only to the Albans, but also to the rest of the Latins. It is your part, in the first place, to observe secrecy, and next, to maintain good order, to obey promptly the orders you shall receive, to fight zealously yourselves and to infuse the same zeal into those who are under your command, remembering that we are not contending for liberty upon the same terms as other people, who have been accustomed to obey others and who have received that form of government from their ancestors. 19 For we are freemen descended from freemen, and to us our ancestors have handed down the tradition of holding sway over our neighbours as a mode of life preserved by them for someone five hundred years; of which let us not deprive our posterity. And let none of you entertain the fear that by showing a will to do this he will be breaking a compact and violating the oaths by which it was confirmed; on the contrary, let him consider that he will be restoring to its original force the compact which the Romans have violated, a compact far from unimportant, but one which human nature has established and the universal law of both Greeks and barbarians confirms, namely, that fathers shall rule over and give just commands to their children, and mother-cities to their colonies. 20 This compact, which is forever inseparable from human nature, is not being violated by us, who demand that it shall always remain in force, and none of the gods or lesser divinities will be wroth with us, as guilty of an impious action, if we resent being slaves to our own posterity; but it is being violated by those who have broken it from the beginning and have attempted by an impious act to set up the law of man above that of Heaven. And it is reasonable to expect that the anger of the gods will be directed against them rather than against us, and that the indignation of men will fall upon them rather than upon us. 21 If, therefore, you all believe that these plans will be the most advantageous, let us pursue them, calling the gods and other divinities to our assistance. But if any one of you is minded to the contrary and either believes that we ought never to recover the ancient dignity of our city, or, while awaiting a more favourable opportunity, favours deferring our undertaking for the present, let him not hesitate to propose his thoughts to the assembly. For we shall follow whatever plan meets with your unanimous approval."

§ 3.24.1  Those who were present having approved of this advice and promised to carry out all his orders, he bound each of them by an oath and then dismissed the assembly. The next day the armies both of the Fidenates and of their allies marched out of their camp at sunrise and drew up in order of battle; and on the other side the Romans came out against them and took their positions.

§ 3.24.2  Tullus himself and the Romans formed the left wing, which was opposite to the Veientes (for these occupied the enemy's right), while Mettius Fufetius and the Albans drew up on the right wing of the Roman army, over against the Fidenates, beside the flank of the hill.

§ 3.24.3  When the armies drew near one another and before they came within range of each other's missiles, the Albans, separating themselves from the rest of the army, began to lead their companies up the hill in good order. The Fidenates, learning of this and feeling confident that the Albans' promises to betray the Romans were coming true before their eyes, now fell to attacking the Romans with greater boldness, and the right wing of the Romans, left unprotected by their allies, was being broken and was suffering severely; but the left, where Tullus himself fought among the flower of the cavalry, carried on the struggle vigorously.

§ 3.24.4  In the meantime a horseman rode up to those who were fighting under the king and said: "Our right wing is suffering, Tullus. For the Albans have deserted their posts and are hastening up to the heights, and the Fidenates, opposite to whom they were stationed, extend beyond our wing that is now left unprotected, and are going to surround us." The Romans, upon hearing this and seeing the haste with which the Albans were rushing up the hill, were seized with such fear of being surrounded by the enemy that it did not occur to them either to fight or to stand their ground.

§ 3.24.5  Thereupon Tullus, they say, not at all disturbed in mind by so great and so unexpected a misfortune, made use of a stratagem by which he not only saved the Roman army, which was threatened with manifest ruin, but also shattered and brought to nought all the plans of the enemy. For, as soon as he had heard the messenger, he raised his voice, so as to be heard even by the enemy, and cried:

§ 3.24.6  " Romans, we are victorious over the enemy. For the Albans have occupied for us this hill hard by, as you see, by my orders, so as to get behind the enemy and fall upon them. Consider, therefore, that we have our greatest foes where we want them, some of us attacking them in front and others in the rear, in a position where, being unable either to advance or to retire, hemmed in as they are on the flanks by the river and by the hill, they will make handsome atonement to us. Forward, then, and show your utter contempt of them."

§ 3.25.1  These words he repeated as he rode past all the ranks. And immediately the Fidenates became afraid of counter-treachery, suspecting that the Alban had deceived them by a stratagem, since they did not see either that he had changed his battle order so as to face the other way or that he was promptly charging the Romans, according to his promise; but the Romans, on their side, were emboldened by the words of Tullus and filled with confidence, and giving a great shout, they rushed in a body against the enemy. Upon this, the Fidenates gave way and fled toward their city in disorder.

§ 3.25.2  The Roman king hurled his cavalry against them while they were in this fear and confusion, and pursued them for some distance; but when he learned that they were dispersed and separated from one another and neither likely to take thought for getting together again nor in fact able to do so, he gave over the pursuit and marched against those of the enemy whose ranks were still unbroken and standing their ground.

§ 3.25.3  And now there took place a brilliant engagement of the infantry and a still more brilliant one on the part of the cavalry. For the Veientes, who were posted at this point, did not give way in terror at the charge of the Roman horse, but maintained the fight for a considerable time. Then, learning that their left wing was beaten and that the whole army of the Fidenates and of their other allies was in headlong flight, and fearing to be surrounded by the troops that had returned from the pursuit, they also broke their ranks and fled, endeavouring to save themselves by crossing the river.

§ 3.25.4  Accordingly, those among them who were strongest, least disabled by their wounds, and had some ability to swim, got across the river, without their arms, while all who lacked any of these advantages perished in the eddies; for the stream of the Tiber near Fidenae is rapid and has many windings.

§ 3.25.5  Tullus ordered a detachment of the horse to cut down those of the enemy who were pressing toward the river, while he himself led the rest of the army to the camp of the Veientes and captured it by storm. This was the situation of the Romans after they had been unexpectedly preserved from destruction.

§ 3.26.1  When the Alban observed that Tullus had already won a brilliant victory, he also marched down from the heights with his own troops and pursued those of the Fidenates who were fleeing, in order that he might be seen by all the Romans performing some part of the duty of an ally; and he destroyed many of the enemy who had become dispersed in the left.

§ 3.26.2  Tullus, though he understood his purpose and understood his double treachery, thought he ought to utter no reproaches for the present till he should have the man in his power, but addressing himself to many of those who were present, he pretended to applaud the Alban's withdrawal to the heights, as if it had been prompted by the best motive; and sending a party of horse to him, he requested him to give the final proof of his zeal by hunting down and slaying the many Fidenates who had been unable to get inside the walls and were dispersed about the country.

§ 3.26.3  And Fufetius, imagining that he had succeeded in one of his two hopes and that Tullus was unacquainted with his treachery, rejoiced, and riding over the plains for a considerable time, he cut down all whom he found; but when the sun was now set, he returned from the pursuit with his horsemen to the Roman camp and passed the following night in making merry with his friends.

§ 3.26.4  Tullus remained in the camp of the Veientes till the first watch and questioned the most prominent of the prisoners concerning the leaders of the revolt; and when he learned that Mettius Fufetius, the Alban, was also one of the conspirators and considered that his actions agreed with the information of the prisoners, he mounted his horse, and taking with him the most faithful of his friends, rode off to Rome. 5 Then, sending to the houses of the senators, he assembled them before midnight and informed them of the treachery of the Alban, producing the prisoners as witnesses, and informed them of the stratagem by which he himself had outwitted both their enemies and the Fidenates. And he asked them, now that the war was ended in the most successful manner, to consider the problems that remained — how the traitors ought to be punished and the city of Alba rendered more circumspect for the future. 6 That the authors of these wicked designs should be punished seemed to all both just and necessary, but how this was to be most easily and safely accomplished was a problem that caused them great perplexity. For they thought it obviously impossible to put to death a great number of brave Albans in a secret and clandestine manner, whereas, if they should attempt openly to apprehend and punish the guilty, they assumed that the Albans would not permit it but would rush to arms; and they were unwilling to carry on war at the same time with the Fidenates and Tyrrhenians and with the Albans, who had come to them as allies. While they were in this perplexity, Tullus delivered the final opinion, which met with the approval of all; but of this I shall speak presently.

§ 3.27.1  The distance between Fidenae and Rome being forty stades, Tullus rode full speed to the camp, and sending for Marcus Horatius, the survivor of the triplets, before it was quite day, he commanded him to take the flower of the cavalry and infantry, and proceeding to Alba, to enter the city as a friend, and then, as soon as he had secured the submission of the inhabitants, to raze the city to the foundations without sparing a single building, whether private or public, except the temples; but as for the citizens, he was neither to kill nor injure any of them, but to permit them to retain their possessions.

§ 3.27.2  After sending him on his way he assembled the tribunes and centurions, and having acquainted them with the resolutions of the senate, he placed them as a guard about his person. Soon after, the Alban came, pretending to express his joy over their common victory and to congratulate Tullus upon it. The latter, still concealing his intention, commended him and declared he was deserving of great rewards; at the same time he asked him to write down the names of such of the other Albans also as had performed any notable exploit in the battle and to bring the list to him, in order that they also might get their share of the fruits of victory.

§ 3.27.3  Mettius, accordingly, greatly pleased at this, entered upon a tablet and gave to him a list of his most intimate friends who had been the accomplices in his secret designs. Then the Roman king ordered all the troops to come to an assembly after first laying aside their arms. And when they assembled he ordered the Alban general together with his tribunes and centurions to stand directly beside the tribunal; next to these the rest of the Albans were to take their place in the assembly, drawn up in their ranks, and behind the Albans the remainder of the allied forces, while outside of them all he stationed Romans, including the most resolute, with swords concealed under their garments. When he thought he had his foes where he wanted them, he rose up and spoke as follows:

§ 3.28.1  " Romans and you others, both friends and allies, those who dared openly to make war against us, the Fidenates and their allies, have been punished by us with the aid of the gods, and either will cease for the future to trouble us or will receive an even severer chastisement than that they have just experienced.

§ 3.28.2  It is now time, since our first enterprise has succeeded to our wish, to punish those other enemies also who ear the name of friends and were taken into this war to assist us in harrying our common foes, but have broken faith with us, and entering into secret treaties with those enemies, have attempted to destroy us all.

§ 3.28.3  For these are much worse than open enemies and deserve a severer punishment, since it is both easy to guard against the latter when one is treacherously attacked and possible to repulse them when they are at grips as enemies, but when friends act the part of enemies it is neither easy to guard against them nor possible for those who are taken by surprise to repulse them. And such are the allies sent us by the city of Alba with treacherous intent, although they have received no injury from us but many considerable benefits.

§ 3.28.4  For, as we are their colony, we have not wrested away any part of their dominion but have acquired our own strength and power from our own wars; and by making our city a bulwark against the greatest and most warlike nations we have effectually secured them from a war with the Tyrrhenians and Sabines. In the prosperity, therefore, of our city they above all others should have rejoiced, and have grieved at its adversity no less than at their own.

§ 3.28.5  But they, it appears, continued not only to begrudge us the advantages we had but also to begrudge themselves the good fortune they enjoyed because of us, and at last, unable any longer to contain their festering hatred, they declared war against us. But finding us well prepared for the struggle and themselves, therefore, in no condition to do any harm, they invited us to a reconciliation and friendship and asked that our strife over the supremacy should be decided by three men from each city. These proposals also we accepted, and after winning in the combat became masters of their city. Well, then, what did we do after that?

§ 3.28.6  Though it was in our power to take hostages from them, to leave a garrison in their city, to destroy some of the principal authors of the war between the two cities and to banish others, to change the form of their government according to our own interest, to punish them with the forfeiture of a part of their lands and effects, and — the thing that was easiest of all — to disarm them, by which means we should have strengthened our rule, we did not see fit to do any of these things, but, consulting our filial obligations to our mother-city rather than the security of our power and considering the good opinion of all the world as more important than our own private advantage, we allowed them to enjoy all that was theirs and permitted Mettius Fufetius, as being supposedly the best of the Albans — since they themselves had honoured him with the chief magistracy — to administer their affairs up to the present time.

§ 3.28.7  "For which favours hear now what gratitude they showed, at a time when we needed the goodwill of our friends and allies more than ever. They made a secret compact with our common enemies by which they engaged to fall upon us in conjunction with them in the course of the battle; and when the two armies approached each other they deserted the post to which they had been assigned and made off for the hills near by at a run, eager to occupy the strong positions ahead of anyone else. 8 And if their attempt had succeeded according to their wish, nothing could have prevented us, surrounded at once by our enemies and by our friends, from being all destroyed, and the fruit of the many battles we had fought for the sovereignty of our city from being lost in a single day. 9 But since their plan has miscarried, owing, in the first place, to the goodwill of the gods (for I at any rate ascribe all worthy achievements to them), and, second, to the stratagem I made use of, which contributed not a little to inspire the enemy with fear and you with confidence (for the statement I made during the battle, that the Albans were taking possession of the heights by my orders with a view of surrounding the enemy, was all a fiction and a stratagem contrived by myself), 10 since, I say, things have turned out to our advantage, we should not be the men we ought to be if we did not take revenge on these traitors. For, apart from the other ties which, by reason of their kinship to us, they ought to have preserved inviolate, they recently made a treaty with us confirmed by oaths, and then, without either fearing the gods whom they had made witnesses of the treaty or showing any regard for justice itself and the condemnation of men, or considering the greatness of the danger if their treachery should not succeed according to their wish, endeavoured to destroy us, who are both their colony and their benefactors, in the most miserable fashion, thus arraying themselves, though our founders, on the side of our most deadly foes and our greatest enemies."

§ 3.29.1  While he was thus speaking the Albans had recourse to lamentations and entreaties of every kind, the common people declaring that they had no knowledge of the intrigues of Mettius, and their commanders alleging that they had not learned of his secret plans till they were in the midst of the battle itself, when it was not in their power either to prevent his orders or to refuse obedience to them; and some even ascribed their action to the necessity imposed against their will by their affinity or kinship to the man. But the king, having commanded them to be silent,

§ 3.29.2  addressed them thus: 2 "I, too, Albans, am not unaware of any of these things that you urge in your defence, but am of the opinion that the generality of you had no knowledge of this treachery, since secrets are not apt to be kept even for a moment when many share in the knowledge of them; and I also believe that only a small number of the tribunes and centurions were accomplices in the conspiracy formed against us, but that the greater part of them were deceived and forced into a position where they were compelled to act against their will.

§ 3.29.3  Nevertheless, even if nothing of all this were true, but if all the Albans, as well you who are here present as those who are left in your city, had felt a desire to hurt us, and if you had not now for the first time, but long since, taken this resolution, yet on account of their kinship to you the Romans would feel under every necessity to bear even this injustice at your hands.

§ 3.29.4  But against the possibility of your forming some wicked plot against us hereafter, as the result either of compulsion or deception on the part of the leaders of your state, there is but one precaution and provision, and that is for us all to become citizens of the same city and to regard one only as our fatherland, in whose prosperity and adversity everyone will have that share which Fortune allots to him. For so long as each of our two peoples decides what is advantageous and disadvantageous on the basis of a different judgment, as is now the case, the friendship between us will not be enduring, particularly when those who are the first to plot against the others are either to gain an advantage if they succeed, or, if they fail, are to be secured by their kinship from any serious retribution, while those against whom the attempt is made, if they are subdued, are to suffer the extreme penalties, and if they escape, are not, like enemies, to remember their wrongs — as has happened in the present instance.

§ 3.29.5  "Know, then, that the Romans last night came to the following resolutions, I myself having assembled the senate and proposed the decree: it is ordered that your city be demolished and that no buildings, either public or private, be left standing except the temples; 6 that all the inhabitants, while continuing in the possession of the allotments of land they now enjoy and being deprived of none of their slaves, cattle and other effects, reside henceforth at Rome; that such of your lands as belong to the public be divided among those of the Albans who have none, except the sacred possessions from which the sacrifices to the gods were provided; that I take charge of the construction of the houses in which you newcomers are to establish your homes, determining in what parts of the city they shall be, and assist the poorest among you in the expense of building; 7 that the mass of your population be incorporated with our plebeians and be distributed among the tribes and curiae, but that the following families be admitted to the senate, hold magistracies and be numbered with the patricians, to wit, the Julii, the Servilii, the Curiatii, the Quintilii, the Cloelii, the Geganii, and the Metilii; and that Mettius and his accomplices in the treachery suffer such punishments as we shall ordain when we come to sit in judgment upon each of the accused. For we shall deprive none of them either of a trial or of the privilege of making a defence."

§ 3.30.1  At these words of Tullus the poorer sort of the Albans were very well satisfied to become residents of Rome and to have lands allotted to them, and they received with loud acclaim the terms granted them. But those among them who were distinguished for their dignities and fortunes were grieved at the thought of having to leave the city of their birth and to abandon the hearths of their ancestors and pass the rest of their lives in a foreign country; nevertheless, being reduced to the last extremity, they could think of nothing to say. Tullus, seeing the disposition of the multitude, ordered Mettius to make his defence, if he wished to say anything in answer to the charges.

§ 3.30.2  But he, unable to justify himself against the accusers and witnesses, said that the Alban senate had secretly given him these orders when he led his army forth to war, and he asked the Albans, for whom he had endeavoured to recover the supremacy, to come to his aid and to permit neither their city to be razed nor the most illustrious of the citizens to be haled to punishment. Upon this, a tumult arose in the assembly and, some of them rushing to arms, those who surrounded the multitude, upon a given signal, held up their swords.

§ 3.30.3  And when all were terrified, Tullus rose up again and said: "It is no longer in your power, Albans, to act seditiously or even to make any false move. For if you dare attempt any disturbance, you shall all be slain by these troops (pointing to those who held their swords in their hands). Accept, then, the terms offered to you and become henceforth Romans. For you must do one of two things, either live at Rome or have no other country.

§ 3.30.4  For early this morning Marcus Horatius set forth, sent by me, to raze your city to the foundations and to remove all the inhabitants to Rome. Knowing, then, that these orders are as good as executed already, cease to court destruction and do as you are bidden. As for Mettius Fufetius, who has not only laid snares for us in secret but even now has not hesitated to call the turbulent and seditious to arms, I shall punish him in such manner as his wicked and deceitful heart deserves."

§ 3.30.5  At these words, that part of the assembly which was in an irritated mood, cowered in fear, restrained by inevitable necessity. Fufetius alone still showed his resentment and cried out, appealing to the treaty which he himself was convicted of having violated, and even in his distress abated nothing of his boldness; but the lictors seized him at the command of King Tullus, and tearing off his clothes, scourged his body with many stripes. 6 After he had been sufficiently punished in this manner, they brought up two teams of horses and with long traces fastened his arms to one of them and his feet to the other; then, as the drivers urged their teams apart, the wretch was mangled upon the ground and, being dragged by the two teams in opposite directions, was soon torn apart. 7 This was the miserable and shameful end of Mettius Fufetius. For the trial of his friends and the accomplices of his treachery the king set up courts and put to death such of the accused as were found guilty, pursuant to the law respecting deserters and traitors.

§ 3.31.1  In the meantime Marcus Horatius, who had been sent on with the picked troops to destroy Alba, having quickly made the march and finding the gates open and the walls unguarded, easily made himself master of the city. Then, assembling the people, he informed them of everything which had happened during the battle and read to them the decree of the Roman senate.

§ 3.31.2  And though the inhabitants had recourse to supplications and begged for time in which to send an embassy, he proceeded without any delay to raze the houses and walls and every other building, both public and private; but he conducted the inhabitants to Rome with great care, permitting them to take their animals and their goods with them.

§ 3.31.3  And Tullus, upon arriving from the camp, distributed them among the Roman tribes and curiae, assisted them in building houses in such parts of the city as they themselves preferred, allotted a sufficient portion of the public lands to those of the labouring class, and by other acts of humanity relieved the needs of the multitude.

§ 3.31.4  Thus the city of Alba, which had been built by Ascanius, the son whom Aeneas, Anchises' son, had by Creusa, the daughter of Priam, after having stood for four hundred and eighty-seven years from its founding, during which time it had greatly increased in population, wealth and every form of prosperity, and after having colonized the thirty cities of the Latins and during all this time held the leadership of that nation, was destroyed by the last colony it had planted, and remains uninhabited to this day.

§ 3.31.5  King Tullus, after letting the following winter pass, led out his army once more against the Fidenates at the beginning of spring. These had publicly received no assistance whatever from any of the cities in alliance with them, but some mercenaries had resorted to them from many places, and relying upon these, they were emboldened to come out from their city; then, after arraying themselves for battle and slaying many in the struggle that ensued and losing even more of their own men, they were again shut up inside the town. 6 And when Tullus had surrounded the city with palisades and ditches and reduced those within to the last extremity, they were obliged to surrender themselves to the king upon his own terms. Having in this manner become master of the city, Tullus put to death the authors of the revolt, but released all the rest, leaving them in the enjoyment of all their possessions in the same manner as before and restoring to them their previous form of government. He then disbanded his army, and returning to Rome, rendered to the gods the trophy-bearing procession and sacrifices of thanksgiving, this being the second triumph he celebrated.

§ 3.32.1  After this war another arose against the Romans on the part of the Sabine nation, the beginning and occasion of which was this. There is a sanctuary, honoured in common by the Sabines and the Latins, that is held in the greatest reverence and is dedicated to a goddess named Feronia; some of those who translate the name into Greek call her Anthophoros or "Flower Bearer," others Philostephanos or "Lover of Garlands," and still others Persephonê. To this sanctuary people used to resort from the neighbouring cities on the appointed days of festival, many of them performing vows and offering sacrifice to the goddess and many with the purpose of trafficking during the festive gathering as merchants, artisans and husbandmen; and here were held fairs more celebrated than in any other places in Italy.

§ 3.32.2  At this festival some Romans of considerable importance happened to be present on a certain occasion and were seized by some of the Sabines, who imprisoned them and robbed them of their money. And when an embassy was sent concerning them, the Sabines refused to give any satisfaction, but retained both the persons and the money of the men whom they had seized, and in their turn accused the Romans of having received the fugitives of the Sabines by establishing a sacred asylum (of which I gave an account in the preceding Book).34

§ 3.32.3  As a result of these accusations the two nations became involved in war, and when both had taken the field with large forces a pitched battle occurred between them; and both sides continued to fight with equal fortunes until night parted them, leaving the victory in doubt. During the following days both of them, upon learning the number of the slain and wounded, were unwilling to hazard another battle but left their camps and retired.

§ 3.32.4  They let that year pass without further action, and then, having increased their forces, they again marched out against one another and near the city of Eretum, distant one hundred and sixty stades from Rome, engaged in a battle in which many fell on both sides. And when that battle also continued doubtful for a long time, Tullus, lifting his hands to heaven, made a vow to the gods that if he conquered the Sabines that day he would institute public festivals in honour of Saturn and Ops (the Romans celebrate them every year after they have gathered in all the fruits of the earth)35 and would double the number of the Salii, as they are called. These are youths of noble families who at appointed times dance, fully armed, to the sound of the flute and sing certain traditional hymns, as I have explained in the preceding Book. 5 After this vow the Romans were filled with a kind of confidence and, like fresh troops falling on those that are exhausted, they at last broke the enemy's line in the late afternoon and forced the first ranks to begin flight. Then, pursuing them as they fled to their camp, they cut down many more round the trenches, and even then did not turn back, but having stayed there the following night and cleared the ramparts of their defenders, they made themselves masters of the camp. 6 After this action they ravaged as much of the territory of the Sabines as they wished, but when no one any longer came out against them to protect the country, they returned home. Because of this victory the king triumphed a third time; and not long afterwards, when the Sabines sent ambassadors, he put an end to the war, having first received from them the captives that they had taken in their foraging expeditions, together with the deserters, and levied the penalty which the Roman senate, estimating the damage at a certain sum of money, had imposed upon them for the cattle, the beasts of burden and the other effects that they had taken from the husbandmen.

§ 3.33.1  Although the Sabines had ended the war upon these conditions and had set up pillars in their temples on which the terms of the treaty were inscribed, nevertheless, as soon as the Romans were engaged in a war not likely to be soon terminated against the cities of the Latins, who had all united against them, for reasons which I shall presently mention, they welcomed the situation and forgot those oaths and the treaty as much as if they never had been made. And thinking that they now had a favourable opportunity to recover from the Romans many times as much money as they had paid them, they went out, at first in small numbers and secretly, and plundered the neighbouring country;

§ 3.33.2  but afterwards many met together and in an open manner, and since their first attempt had turned out as they wished and no assistance had come to the defence of the husbandmen, they despised their enemies and proposed to march even on Rome itself, for which purpose they were gathering an army out of every city. They also made overtures to the cities of the Latins with regard to an alliance,

§ 3.33.3  but were not able to conclude a treaty of friendship and alliance with that nation. For Tullus, being informed of their intention, made a truce with the Latins and determined to march against the Sabines; and to this end he armed all the forces of the Romans, which since he had annexed the Alban state, were double the number they had been before, and sent to his other allies for all the troops they could furnish.

§ 3.33.4  The Sabines, too, had already assembled their army, and when the two forces drew near one another they encamped near a place called the Knaves' Wood, leaving a small interval between them. The next day they engaged and the fight continued doubtful for a long time; but at length, in the late afternoon, the Sabines gave way, unable to stand before the Roman horse, and many of them were slain in the flight. The Romans stripped the spoils from the dead, plundered their camp and ravaged the best part of the country, after which they returned home. This was the outcome of the war that occurred between the Romans and the Sabines in the reign of Tullus.

§ 3.34.1  The cities of the Latins now became at odds with the Romans for the first time, being unwilling after the razing of the Albans' city to yield the leadership to the Romans who had destroyed it. It seems that when fifteen years had passed after the destruction of Alba the Roman king, sending embassies to the thirty cities which had been at once colonies and subjects of Alba, summoned them to obey the orders of the Romans, inasmuch as the Romans had succeeded to the Alban's supremacy over the Latin race as well as to everything else that the Albans had possessed. He pointed out that there were two methods of acquisition by which men became masters of what had belonged to others, one the result of compulsion, the other of choice, and that the Romans had by both these methods acquired the supremacy over the cities which the Albans had held.

§ 3.34.2  For when the Albans had become enemies of the Romans, the latter had conquered them by arms, and after the others had lost their own city the Romans had given them a share in theirs, so that it was but reasonable that the Albans both perforce and voluntarily should yield to the Romans the sovereignty they had exercised over their subjects.

§ 3.34.3  The Latin cities gave no answer separately to the ambassadors, but in a general assembly of the whole nation held at Ferentinum they passed a vote not to yield the sovereignty to the Romans, and immediately chose two generals, Ancus Publicius of the city of Cora and Spusius Vecilius of Lavinium, and invested them with absolute power with regard to both peace and war.

§ 3.34.4  These were the causes of the war between the Romans and their kinsmen, a war that lasted for five years and was carried on more or less like a civil war and after the ancient fashion. For, as they never engaged in pitched battles with all their forces ranged against all those of the foe, no great disaster occurred nor any wholesale slaughter, and none of their cities went through the experience of being razed or enslaved or suffer any other irreparable calamity as the result of being captured in war; but making incursions into one another's country when the corn was ripe, they foraged it, and them returning home with their armies, exchanged prisoners.

§ 3.34.5  However, one city of the Latin nation called Medullia, which earlier had become a colony of the Romans in the reign of Romulus, as I stated in the preceding Book, and had revolted again to their countrymen, was brought to terms after a siege by the Roman king and persuaded not to revolt for the future; but no other of the calamities which wars bring in their train was felt by either side at that time. Accordingly, as the Romans were eager for peace, a treaty was readily concluded that left no rancour.

§ 3.35.1  These were the achievements performed during his reign by King Tullus Hostilius, a man worthy of exceptional praise for his boldness in war and his prudence in the face of danger, but, above both these qualifications, because, though he was not precipitate in entering upon a war, when he was once engaged in it he steadily pursued it until he had the upper hand in every way over his adversaries. After he had reigned thirty-two years he lost his life when his house caught fire, and with him his wife and children and all his household perished in the flames.

§ 3.35.2  Some say that his house was set on fire by a thunderbolt, Heaven having become angered at his neglect of some sacred rites (for they say that in his reign some ancestral sacrifices were omitted and that he introduced others that were foreign to the Romans), but the majority state that the disaster was due to human treachery and ascribe it to Marcius, who ruled the state after him.

§ 3.35.3  For they say that this man, who was the son of Numa Pompilius' daughter, was indignant at being in a private station himself, though of royal descent, and seeing that Tullus had children growing up, he suspected very strongly that upon the death of Tullus the kingdom would fall to them. With these thoughts in mind, they say, he had long since formed a plot against the king, and had many of the Romans aiding him to gain the sovereignty; and being a friend of Tullus and one of his closest confidants, he was watching for a suitable opportunity to appear for making his attack.

§ 3.35.4  Accordingly, when Tullus proposed to perform a certain sacrifice at home which he wished only his near relations to know about and that day chanced to be very stormy, with rain and sleet and darkness, so that those who were upon guard before the house had left their station, Marcius, looking upon this as a favourable opportunity, entered the house together with his friends, who had swords under their garments, and having killed the king and his children and all the rest whom he encountered, he set fire to the house in several places, and after doing this spread the report that the fire had been due to a thunderbolt.

§ 3.35.5  But for my part I do not accept this story, regarding it as neither true nor plausible, but I subscribe rather to the former account, believing that Tullus met with this end by the judgment of Heaven. For, in the first place, it is improbable that the undertaking in which so many were concerned could have been kept secret, and, besides, the author of it could not be certain that after the death of Hostilius the Romans would choose him as king of the state; furthermore, even if men were loyal to him and steadfast, yet it was unlikely that the gods would act with an ignorance resembling that of men.

§ 3.35.6  For after the tribes had given their votes, it would be necessary that the gods, by auspicious omens, should sanction the awarding of the kingdom to him; and which of the gods or other divinities was going to permit a man who was impure and stained with the unjust murder of so many persons to approach the altars, begin the sacrifices, and perform the other religious ceremonies? I, then, for these reasons do not attribute the catastrophe to the treachery of men, but to the will of Heaven; however, let everyone judge as he pleases.

§ 3.36.1  After the death of Tullus Hostilius, the interreges appointed by the senate according to ancestral usage chose Marcius, surnamed Ancus, king of the state; and when the people had confirmed the decision of the senate and the signs from Heaven were favourable, Marcius, after fulfilling all the customary requirements, entered upon the government in the second year of the thirty-fifth Olympiad (the one in which Sphaerus, a Lacedaemonian, gained the prize),45 at the time when Damasias held the annual archonship at Athens.

§ 3.36.2  This king, finding that many of the religious ceremonies instituted by Numa Pompilius, his maternal grandfather, were being neglected, and seeing the greatest part of the Romans devoted to the pursuit of war and gain and no longer cultivating the land as aforetime, assembled the people and exhorted them to worship the gods once more as they had done in Numa's reign. He pointed out to them that it was owing to their neglect of the gods that not only many pestilences had fallen upon the city, by which no small part of the population had been destroyed, but also that King Hostilius, who had not shown the proper regard for the gods, had suffered for a long time from a complication of bodily ailments and at last, no longer sound even in his understanding but weakened in mind as well as in body, had come to a pitiable end, both he and his family.

§ 3.36.3  He then commended the system of government established by Numa for the Romans as excellent and wise and one which supplied every citizen with daily plenty from the most lawful employments; and he advised them to restore this system once more by applying themselves to agriculture and cattle-breeding and to those occupations that were free from all injustice, and to scorn rapine and violence and the profits accruing from war.

§ 3.36.4  By these and similar appeals he inspired in all a great desire both for peaceful tranquillity and for sober industry. After this, he called together the pontiffs, and receiving from them the commentaries on religious rites which Pompilius had composed, he caused them to be transcribed on tablets and exposed in the Forum for everyone to examine. These have since been destroyed by time, for, brazen pillars being not yet in use at that time, the laws and the ordinances concerning religious rites were engraved on oaken boards; but after the expulsion of the kings they were again copied off for the use of the public by Gaius Papirius, a pontiff, who had the superintendence of all religious matters. After Marcius had re-established the religious rites which had fallen into abeyance and turned the idle people to their proper employments, he commended the careful husbandmen and reprimanded those who managed their lands ill as citizens not to be depended on.

§ 3.37.1  While instituting these administrative measures he hoped above all else to pass his whole life free from war and troubles, like his grandfather, but he found his purpose crossed by fortune and, contrary to his inclinations, was forced to become a warrior and to live no part of his life free from danger and turbulence.

§ 3.37.2  For at the very time that he entered upon the government and was establishing his tranquil regime the Latins, despising him and looking upon him as incapable of conducting wars through want of courage, sent bands of robbers from each of their cities into the parts of the Roman territory that lay next to them, in consequence of which many of the Romans were suffering injury.

§ 3.37.3  And when ambassadors came from the king and summoned them to make satisfaction to the Romans according to the treaty, they alleged that they neither had any knowledge of the robberies complained of, asserting that these had been committed without the general consent of the nation, nor had become accountable to the Romans for anything they did. For they had not made the treaty with them, they say, but with Tullus, and by the death of Tullus their treaty of peace had been terminated.

§ 3.37.4  Marcius, therefore, compelled by these reasons and the answers of the Latins, led out an army against them, and laying siege to the city of Politorium, he took it by capitulation before any aid reached the besieged from the other Latins. However, he did not treat the inhabitants with any severity, but, allowing them to retain their possessions, transferred the whole population to Rome and distributed them among the tribes.

§ 3.38.1  The next year, since the Latins had sent settlers to Politorium, which was then uninhabited, and were cultivating the lands of the Politorini, Marcius marched against them with his army. And when the Latins came outside the walls and drew up in order of battle, he defeated them and took the town a second time; and having burnt the houses and razed the walls, so the enemy might not again use it as a base of operations nor cultivate the land, he led his army home.

§ 3.38.2  The next year the Latins marched against the city of Medullia, in which there were Roman colonists, and besieging it, attacked the walls on all sides and took it by storm. At the same time Marcius took Tellenae, a prominent city of the Latins, after he had overcome the inhabitants in a pitched battle and had reduced the place by an assault upon the walls; after which he transferred the prisoners to Rome without taking any of their possessions from them, and set apart for them a place in the city in which to build houses.

§ 3.38.3  And when Medullia had been for three years subject to the Latins, he recovered it in the fourth year, after defeating the inhabitants in many great battles. A little later he captured Ficana, a city which he had already taken two years before by capitulation, afterwards transferring all the inhabitants to Rome but doing no other harm to the city — a course in which he seemed to have acted with greater clemency than prudence.

§ 3.38.4  For the Latins sent colonists thither and occupying the land of the Ficanenses, they enjoyed its produce themselves; so that Marcius was obliged to lead his army a second time against this city and, after making himself master of it with great difficulty, to burn the houses and raze the walls.

§ 3.39.1  After this the Latins and Romans fought two pitched battles with large armies. In the first, after they had been engaged a considerable time without any seeming advantage on either side, they parted, each returning to their own camp. But in the later contest the Romans gained the victory and pursued the Latins to their camp.

§ 3.39.2  After these actions there was no other pitched battle fought between them, but continual incursions were made by both into the neighbouring territory and there were all skirmishes between the horse and light-armed foot who patrolled the country; in these the victors were generally the Romans, who had their forces in the field posted secretly in advantageous strongholds, under the command of Tarquinius the Tyrrhenian.

§ 3.39.3  About the same time the Fidenates also revolted from the Romans. They did not, indeed, openly declare war, but ravaged their country by making raids in small numbers and secretly. Against these Marcius led out an army of light troops, and before the Fidenates had made the necessary preparations for war he encamped near their city.

§ 3.39.4  At first they pretended not to know what injuries they had committed to draw the Roman army against them, and when the king informed them that he had come to punish them for their plundering and ravaging of his territory, they excused themselves by alleging that their city was not responsible for these injuries, and asked for time in which to make an investigation and to search out the guilty; and they consumed many days in doing nothing that should have been done, but rather in sending to their allies secretly for assistance and busying themselves with the preparing of arms.

§ 3.40.1  Marcius, having learned of their purpose, proceeded to dig mines leading under the walls of the city from his own camp; and when the work was finally completed, he broke camp and led his army against the city, taking along many siege-engines and scaling-ladders and the other equipment he had prepared for an assault, and approaching a different point from that where the walls were undermined.

§ 3.40.2  Then, the Fidenates had rushed in great numbers to those parts of the city that were being stormed, and were stoutly repulsing the assaults, the Romans who had been detailed for the purpose opened the mouths of the mines and found themselves within the walls; and destroying all who came to meet them, they threw open the gates to the besiegers.

§ 3.40.3  When many of the Fidenates had been slain in the taking of the town, Marcius ordered the rest to deliver up their arms, and made proclamation that all should repair to a certain place in the city. Thereupon he caused a few of them who had been the authors of the revolt to be scourged and put to death, and having given leave to his soldiers to plunder all their houses and left a sufficient garrison there, he marched with his army against the Sabines.

§ 3.40.4  For these also had failed to abide by the terms of the peace which they had made with King Tullus, and making incursions into the territory of the Romans, were again laying waste the neighbouring country. When Marcius, therefore, learned from spies and deserters the proper time to put his plan into execution, while the Sabines were dispersed and plundering the fields, he marched in person with the infantry to the enemy's camp, which was weakly guarded, and took the ramparts at the first onset; and he ordered Tarquinius to hasten with the cavalry against those who were dispersed in foraging.

§ 3.40.5  The Sabines, learning that the Roman cavalry was coming against them, left their plunder and the other booty they were carrying and driving off, and fled to their camp; and when they perceived that this too was in the possession of the infantry, they were at a loss which way to turn and endeavoured to reach the woods and mountains. But being pursue by the light-armed foot and the horse, the greater part of them were destroyed, though some few escaped. And after this misfortune, sending ambassadors once more to Rome, they obtained such a peace as they desired. For the war which was still going on between the Romans and the Latin cities rendered both a truce and a peace with their other foes necessary.

§ 3.41.1  About the fourth year after this war Marcius, the Roman king, leading his own army of citizens and sending for as many auxiliaries as he could obtain from his allies, marched against the Veientes and laid waste a large part of their country. These had been the aggressors the year before by making an incursion into the Roman territory, where they seized much property and slew many of the inhabitants.

§ 3.41.2  And when the Veientes came out against him with a large army and encamped beyond the river Tiber, near Fidenae, Marcius set out with his army as rapidly as possible; and being superior in cavalry, he first cut them off from the roads leading into the country, and then, forcing them to come to a pitched battle, defeated them and captured their camp. Having succeeded in this war also according to his desire, he returned to Rome and conducted in honour of the gods the procession in celebration of his victory and the customary triumph.

§ 3.41.3  The second year after this, the Veientes having again broken the truce they had made with Marcius and demanding to get back the salt-works which they had surrendered by treaty in the reign of Romulus, he fought a second battle with them, one more important than the first, near the salt-works; and having easily won it, he continued from that time forth in undisputed possession of the salt-works.

§ 3.41.4  The prize for valour in this battle also was won by Tarquinius, the commander of the horse; and Marcius, looking upon him as the bravest man in the whole army, kept honouring him in various ways, among other things making him both a patrician and a senator.

§ 3.41.5  Marcius also engaged in a war with the Volscians, since bands of robbers from this nation too were setting out to plunder the fields of the Romans. And marching against them with a large army, he captured much booty; then, laying siege to one of their cities called Velitrae, he surrounded it with a ditch and palisades and, being master of the open country, prepared to assault the walls. But when the elders came out with the emblems of suppliants and not only promised to make good the damage they had done, in such manner as the king should determine, but also agreed to deliver up the guilty to be punished, he made a truce with them, and, after accepting the satisfaction they freely offered, he concluded a treaty of peace and friendship.

§ 3.42.1  Again, some others of the Sabine nation who had not yet felt the Roman power, the inhabitants of . . .,50 a great and prosperous city, without having any grounds of complain against the Romans but being driven to envy of their prosperity, which was increasing disproportionately, and being a very warlike people, began at first with brigandage and the raiding of their fields in small bodies, but afterwards, lured by the hope of booty, made war upon them openly and ravaged much of the neighbouring territory, inflicting severe damage.

§ 3.42.2  But they were not permitted either to carry off their booty or themselves to retire unscathed, for the Roman king, hastening to the rescue, pitched his camp near theirs and forced them to come to an engagement.

§ 3.42.3  A great battle, therefore, was fought and many fell on both sides, but the Romans won by reason of their skill and their endurance of toil, virtues to which they had been long accustomed, and they proved far superior to the Sabines; and pursuing them closely as they fled, dispersed and in disorder, toward their camp, they wrought great slaughter.

§ 3.42.4  Then, having also captured their camp, which was full of all sorts of valuables, and recovered the captives the Sabines had taken in their raids, they returned home. These in brief are the military exploits of this king that have been remembered and recorded by the Romans. I shall now mention the achievements of his civil administration.

§ 3.43.1  In the first place, he made no small addition to the city by enclosing the hill called the Aventine within its walls. This is a hill of moderate height and about eighteen stades in circumference, which was then covered with trees of every kind, particularly with many beautiful laurels, so that one place on the hill is called Lauretum or "Laurel Grove" by the Romans; but the whole is now covered with buildings, including, among many others, the temple of Diana. The Aventine is separated from another of the hills that are included within the city of Rome, called the Palatine Hill (round which was built the first city to be established), by a deep and narrow ravine, but in after times the whole hollow between the two hills was filled up.

§ 3.43.2  Marcius, observing that this hill would serve as a stronghold against the city for any army that approached, encompassed it with a wall and ditch and settled here the populations that he had transferred from Tellenae and Politorium and the other cities he had taken. This is one peace-time achievement recorded of this king that was at once splendid and practical; thereby the city was not only enlarged by the addition of another city but also rendered less vulnerable to the attack of a strong enemy force.

§ 3.44.1  Another peace-time achievement was of even greater consequence than the one just mentioned, as it made the city richer in all the conveniences of life and encouraged it to embark upon nobler undertakings. The river Tiber, descending from the Apennine mountains and flowing close by Rome, discharges itself upon harbourless and exposed shores made by the Tyrrhenian sea; but this river was of small and negligible advantage to Rome because of having at its mouth no trading post where the commodities brought in by sea and down the river from the country above could be received and exchanged with the merchants. But as it is navigable quite up to its source for river boats of considerable seize and as far as Rome itself for sea-going ships of great burden, he resolved to build a seaport at its outlet, making use of the river's mouth itself for a harbour.

§ 3.44.2  For the Tiber broadens greatly where it unites with the sea and forms great bays equal to those of the best seaports; and, most wonderful of all, its mouth is not blocked by sandbanks piled up by the sea, as happens in the case of many even of the large rivers, nor does it by wandering this way and that through fens and marshes spend itself before its stream unites with the sea, but it is everywhere navigable and discharges itself through its one genuine mouth, repelling the surge that comes from the main, notwithstanding the frequency and violence of the west wind on that coast.

§ 3.44.3  Accordingly, oared ships however large and merchantmen up to three thousand bushels burden enter at the mouth of the river and are rowed and towed up to Rome, while those of a larger size ride at anchor off the mouth, where they are unloaded and loaded again by river boats.

§ 3.44.4  Upon the elbow of land that lies between the river and the sea the king built a city and surrounded it with a wall, naming it from its situation Ostia, or, as we should call it, thyra or "portal"; and by this means he made Rome not only an inland city but also a seaport, and gave it a taste of the good things from beyond the sea.

§ 3.45.1  He also built a wall round the high hill called the Janiculum, situated on the other side of the river Tiber, and stationed there an adequate garrison for the security of those who navigated the river; for the Tyrrhenians, being masters of all the country on the other side of the river, had been plundering the merchants.

§ 3.45.2  He also is said to have built the wooden bridge over the Tiber, which was required to be constructed without brass or iron, being held together by its beams alone. This bridge they preserve to the present day, looking upon it as sacred; and if any part of it gives out the pontiffs attend to it, offering certain traditional sacrifices while it is being repaired. These are the memorable achievements of this king during his reign, and he handed Rome on to his successors in much better condition than he himself had received it. After reigning twenty-four years he died, leaving two sons, one still a child in years and the elder just growing a beard.

§ 3.46.1  After the death of Ancus Marcius the senate, being empowered by the people to establish whatever form of government they thought fit, again resolved to abide by the same form and appointed interreges. These, having assembled the people for the election, chosen Lucius Tarquinius as king; and the omens from Heaven having confirmed the decision of the people, Tarquinius took over the sovereignty about the second year of the forty-first Olympiad (the one in which Cleondas, a Theban, gained the prize), Heniochides being archon at Athens [615 BCE].

§ 3.46.2  I shall now relate, following the account I have found in the Roman annals, from what sort of ancestors this Tarquinius was sprung, from what country he came, the reasons for his removing to Rome, and by what course of conduct he came to be king.

§ 3.46.3  There was a certain Corinthian, Demaratus by name, of the family of the Bacchiadae, who, having chosen to engage in commerce, sailed to Italy in a ship of his own with his own cargo; and having sold the cargo in the Tyrrhenian cities, which were at the time the most flourishing in all Italy, and gained great profit thereby, he no longer desired to put into any other ports, but continued to ply the same sea, carrying a Greek cargo to the Tyrrhenians and a Tyrrhenian cargo to Greece, by which means he became possessed of great wealth.

§ 3.46.4  But when Corinth fell a prey to sedition and the tyranny of Cypselus was rising in revolt against the Bacchiadae, Demaratus thought it was not safe for him to live under a tyranny with his great riches, particularly as he was of the oligarchic family; and accordingly, getting together all of his substance that he could, he sailed away from Corinth.

§ 3.46.5  And having from his continual intercourse with the Tyrrhenians many good friends among them, particularly at Tarquinii, which was a large and flourishing city at that time, he built a house there and married a woman of illustrious birth. By her he had two sons, to whom he gave Tyrrhenian names, calling one Arruns and the other Lucumo; and having instructed them in both the Greek and Tyrrhenian learning, he married them, when they were grown, to two women of the most distinguished families.

§ 3.47.1  Not long afterward the elder of his sons died without acknowledged issue, and a few days later Demaratus himself died of grief, leaving his surviving son Lucumo heir to his entire fortune. Lucumo, having thus inherited the great wealth of his father, had aspired to public life and a part in the administration of the commonwealth and to be one of its foremost citizens.

§ 3.47.2  But being repulsed on every side by the native-born citizens and excluded, not only from the first, but even from the middle rank, he resented his disfranchisement. And hearing that the Romans gladly received all strangers and made them citizens, he resolved to get together all his riches and remove thither, taking with him his wife and such of his friends and household as wished to go along; and those who were eager to depart with him were many.

§ 3.47.3  When they were come to the hill called Janiculum, from which Rome is first discerned by those who come from Tyrrhenia, an eagle, descending on a sudden, snatched his cap from his head and flew up again with it, and rising in a circular flight, hid himself in the depths of the circumambient air, then of a sudden replaced the cap on his head, fitting it on as it had been before.

§ 3.47.4  This prodigy appearing wonderful and extraordinary to them all, the wife of Lucumo, Tanaquil by name, who had a good understanding standing, through her ancestors, of the Tyrrhenians' augural science, took him aside from the others and, embracing him, filled him with great hopes of rising from his private station to the royal power. She advised him, however, to consider by what means he might render himself worthy to receive the sovereignty by the free choice of the Romans.

§ 3.48.1  Lucumo was overjoyed at this omen, and as he was now approaching the gates have besought the gods that the prediction might be fulfilled and that his arrival might be attended with good fortune; then he entered the city. After this, gaining an audience with King Marcius, he first informed him who he was and then told him that, being desirous of settling at Rome, he had brought with him all his paternal fortune, which, as it exceeded the limits suitable for a private citizen, he said he proposed to place at the disposal of the king and of the Roman state for the general good.

§ 3.48.2  And having met with a favourable reception from the king, who assigned him and his Tyrrhenian followers to one of the tribes and to one of the curiae, he built a house upon a site in the city which was allotted to him as sufficient for the purpose, and received a portion of land. After he had settled these matters and had become one of the citizens, he was informed that every Roman had a common name and, after the common name, another, derived from his family and ancestors, and wishing to be like them in this respect also, he took the name of Lucius instead of Lucumo as his common name, and that of Tarquinius as his family name, from the city in which he had been born and brought up.

§ 3.48.3  In a very short time he gained the friendship of the king by presenting him with those things which he saw he needed most and by supplying him with all the money he required to carry on his wars. On campaigns he fought most bravely of all, whether of the infantry or of the cavalry, and wherever there was need of good judgment he was counted among the shrewdest counsellors.

§ 3.48.4  Yet the favour of the king did not deprive him of the goodwill of the rest of the Romans; for he not only won to himself many of the patricians by his kindly services but also gained the affections of the populace by his cordial greetings, his agreeable conversation, his dispensing of money and his friendliness in other ways.

§ 3.49.1  This was the character of Tarquinius and for these reasons he became during the lifetime of Marcius the most illustrious of all the Romans, and after that king's death was adjudged by all as worthy of the kingship. When he had succeeded to the sovereignty he first made war upon the people of Apiolae, as it was called, a city of no small note among the Latins.

§ 3.49.2  For the Apiolani and all the rest of the Latins, looking upon the treaty of peace as having been terminated after the death of Ancus Marcius, were laying waste the Roman territory by plundering and pillaging. Tarquinius, desiring to take revenge upon them for these injuries, set out with a large force and ravaged the most fruitful part of their country;

§ 3.49.3  then, when important reinforcements came to the Apiolani from their Latin neighbours, he fought two battles with them and, having gained the victory in both, proceeded to besiege the city, causing his troops to assault the walls in relays; and the besieged, being but few contending against many and not having a moment's respite, were at last subdued. The city being taken by storm, the greater part of the Apiolani were slain fighting, but a few after delivering up their arms were sold together with the rest of the booty; their wives and children were carried away into slavery by the Romans and the city was plundered and burned.

§ 3.49.4  After the king had done this and had razed the walls to the foundations, he returned home with his army. Soon afterwards he undertook another expedition against the city of the Crustumerians. This was a colony of the Latins and in the reign of Romulus had submitted to the Romans; but after Tarquinius succeeded to the sovereignty it began again to incline on the side of the Latins.

§ 3.49.5  However, it was not necessary to reduce this place by a siege and great effort; for the Crustumerians, having become aware both of the magnitude of the force that was coming against them and of their own weakness, since no aid came to them from the rest of the Latins, opened their gates; and the oldest and most honoured of the citizens, coming out, delivered up the city to Tarquinius, asking only that he treat them with clemency and moderation.

§ 3.49.6  This fell out according to his wish, and entering the city, he put none of the Crustumerians to death and punished only a very few, who had been the authors of the revolt, with perpetual banishment, while permitting all the rest to retain their possessions and to enjoy Roman citizenship as before; but, in order to prevent any uprising for the future, he left Roman colonists in their midst.

§ 3.50.1  The Nomentans also, having formed the same plans, met with the same fate. For they kept sending bands of robbers to pillage the fields of the Romans and openly became their enemies, relying upon the assistance of the Latins. But when Tarquinius set out against them and the aid from the Latins was too late in arriving, they were unable to resist so great a force by themselves, and coming out of the town with the tokens of suppliants, they surrendered.

§ 3.50.2  The inhabitants of the city called Collatia undertook to try the fortune of battle with the Roman forces and for that purpose came out of their city; but being worsted in every engagement and having many of their men wounded, they were again forced to take refuge inside their walls, and they kept sending to the various Latin cities asking for assistance. But as these were too slow about relieving them and the enemy was attacking their walls in many places, they were at length obliged to deliver up their town.

§ 3.50.3  They did not, however, meet with the same lenient treatment as had the Nomentans and Crustumerians, for the king disarmed them and fined them in a sum of money; and leaving a sufficient garrison in the city, he appointed his own nephew, Tarquinius Arruns, to rule over them with absolute power for life. This man, who had been born after the death both of his father Arruns and of his grandfather Demaratus, had inherited from neither the part of their respective fortunes which otherwise would have fallen to his share and for this reason he was surnamed Egerius or "the Indigent"; for that is the name the Romans give to poor men and beggars. But from the time when he took charge of this city both he himself and all his descendants were given the surname of Collatinus.

§ 3.50.4  After the surrender of Collatia the king marched against the place called Corniculum; this also was a city of the Latin race. And having ravaged their territory in great security, since none offered to defend it, he encamped close by the city itself and invited the inhabitants to enter into a league of friendship. But since they were unwilling to come to terms, but relied on the strength of their walls and expected allies to come from many directions, he invested the city on all sides and assaulted the walls. 5 The Corniculans resisted long and bravely, inflicting numerous losses upon the besiegers, but becoming worn out with continual labour and no longer being unanimous (for some wished to deliver up the town and others to hold out to the last) and their distress being greatly increased by this very dissension, the town was taken by storm. 6 The bravest part of the people were slain fighting during the capture of the town, while the craven, who owed their preservation to their cowardice, were sold for slaves together with their wives and children; and the city was plundered by the conquerors and burned. 7 The Latins, resenting this proceeding, voted to lead a joint army against the Romans; and having raised a numerous force, they made an irruption into the most fruitful part of their country, carrying off thence many captives and possessing themselves of much booty. King Tarquinius marched out against them with his light troops who were ready for action, but too late to overtake them, he invaded their country and treated it in similar fashion. 8 Many other such reverses and successes happened alternately to each side in the expeditions they made against one another's borders; and they fought one pitched battle with all their forces near the city of Fidenae, in which many fell on both sides though the Romans gained the victory and forced the Latins to abandon their camp by night and retire to their own cities.

§ 3.51.1  After this engagement Tarquinius led his army in good order to their cities, making offers of friendship; and the Latins, since they had no national army assembled and no confidence in their own preparations, accepted his proposals. And some of them proceeded to surrender their cities, observing that in the case of the cities which were taken by storm the inhabitants were made slaves and the cities razed, while those which surrendered by capitulation were treated with no other severity than to be obliged to yield obedience to the conquerors.