The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
they were, whence (they had come), or by what casualty they had left
their home, and in quest of what they had landed on the Laurentine
territory: after he heard that the host were Trojans, their chief Æneas,
the son of Anchises and Venus, and that, driven from their own country
and their homes, which had been destroyed by fire, they were seeking a
settlement and a place for building a town, struck with admiration of
the noble origin of the nation and of the hero, and their spirit, alike
prepared for peace or war, he confirmed the assurance of future
friendship by giving his right hand: that upon this a compact was struck
between the chiefs, and mutual greetings passed between the armies: that
Æneas was hospitably entertained by Latinus: that Latinus, in the
presence of his household gods, added a family league to the public one,
by giving Æneas his daughter in marriage. This event confirms the
Trojans in the hope of at length terminating their wanderings by a fixed
and permanent settlement. They build a town. Æneas calls it Lavinium,
after the name of his wife. In a short time, too, a son was the issue of
the new marriage, to whom his parents gave the name of Ascanius.
2. The Aborigines and Trojans were soon after attacked together in war.
Turnus, king of the Rutulians, to whom Lavinia had been affianced before
the coming of Æneas, enraged that a stranger had been preferred to
himself, made war on Æneas and Latinus together. Neither side came off
from that contest with cause for rejoicing. The Rutulians were
vanquished; the victorious Aborigines and Trojans lost their leader
Latinus. Upon this Turnus and the Rutulians, diffident of their
strength, have recourse to the flourishing state of the Etruscans, and
their king Mezentius; who holding his court at Cœre, at that time an
opulent town, being by no means pleased, even from the commencement, at
the founding of the new city, and then considering that the Trojan power
was increasing much more than was altogether consistent with the safety
of the neighbouring states, without reluctance joined his forces in
alliance with the Rutulians. Æneas, in order to conciliate the minds of
the Aborigines to meet the terror of so serious a war, called both
nations Latins, so that they might all be not only under the same laws,
but also the same name. Nor after that did the Aborigines yield to the
Trojans in zeal and fidelity towards their king Æneas; relying therefore
on this disposition of the two nations, who were now daily coalescing
more and more, although Etruria was so powerful, that it filled with the
fame of its prowess not only the land, but the sea also, through the
whole length of Italy, from the Alps to the Sicilian Strait, though he
might have repelled the war by means of fortifications, yet he led out
his forces to the field. Upon this a battle ensued successful to the
Latins, the last also of the mortal acts of Æneas. He was buried, by
whatever name human and divine laws require him to be called,[8] on the
banks of the river Numicius. They call him Jupiter Indiges.
[Footnote 8: Æneas, being now deified, could not be called by his human
name; and in speaking of his being buried, it would be improper to name
him by his divine title. _---- Indigetem_. He is called by Dionysius
??????? Te??.]
3. Ascanius, the son of Æneas, was not yet old enough to take the
government upon him; that government, however, remained secure for him
till the age of maturity. In the interim, the Latin state and the
kingdom of his grandfather and father was secured for the boy under the
regency of his mother (such capacity was there in Lavinia). I have some
doubts (for who can state as certain a matter of such antiquity) whether
this was the Ascanius, or one older than he, born of Creusa before the
fall of Troy, and the companion of his father in his flight from thence,
the same whom, being called Iulus, the Julian family call the author of
their name. This Ascanius, wheresoever and of whatever mother born, (it
is at least certain that he was the son of Æneas,) Lavinium being
overstocked with inhabitants, left that flourishing and, considering
these times, wealthy city to his mother or step-mother, and built for
himself a new one at the foot of Mount Alba, which, being extended on
the ridge of a hill, was, from its situation, called Longa Alba. Between
the founding of Lavinium and the transplanting this colony to Longa
Alba, about thirty years intervened. Yet its power had increased to such
a degree, especially after the defeat of the Etrurians, that not even
upon the death of Æneas, nor after that, during the regency of Lavinia,
and the first essays of the young prince's reign, did Mezentius, the
Etrurians, or any other of its neighbours dare to take up arms against
it. A peace had been concluded between the two nations on these terms,
that the river Albula, now called Tiber, should be the common boundary
between the Etrurians and Latins. After him Sylvius, the son of
Ascanius, born by some accident in a wood, ascends the throne. He was
the father of Æneas Sylvius, who afterwards begot Latinus Sylvius. By
him several colonies, called the ancient Latins, were transplanted. From
this time, all the princes, who reigned at Alba, had the surname of
Sylvius. From Latinus sprung Alba; from Alba, Atys; from Atys, Capys;
from Capys, Capetus; from Capetus, Tiberinus, who, being drowned in
crossing the river Albula, gave it a name famous with posterity. Then
Agrippa, the son of Tiberinus; after Agrippa, Romulus Silvius ascends
the throne, in succession to his father. The latter, having been killed
by a thunderbolt, left the kingdom to Aventinus, who being buried on
that hill, which is now part of the city of Rome, gave his name to it.
After him reigns Proca; he begets Numitor and Amulius. To Numitor, his
eldest son, he bequeaths the ancient kingdom of the Sylvian family. But
force prevailed more than the father's will or the respect due to
seniority: for Amulius, having expelled his brother, seizes the kingdom;
he adds crime to crime, murders his brother's male issue; and under
pretence of doing his brother's daughter, Rhea Sylvia, honour, having
made her a vestal virgin, by obliging her to perpetual virginity he
deprives her of all hopes of issue.
4. But, in my opinion, the origin of so great a city, and the
establishment of an empire next in power to that of the gods, was due to
the Fates. The vestal Rhea, being deflowered by force, when she had
brought forth twins, declares Mars to be the father of her illegitimate
offspring, either because she believed it to be so, or because a god was
a more creditable author of her offence. But neither gods nor men
protect her or her children from the king's cruelty: the priestess is
bound and thrown into prison; the children he commands to be thrown into
the current of the river. By some interposition of providence,[9] the
Tiber having overflowed its banks in stagnant pools, did not admit of
any access to the regular bed of the river; and the bearers supposed
that the infants could be drowned in water however still; thus, as if
they had effectually executed the king's orders, they expose the boys in
the nearest land-flood, where now stands the ficus Ruminalis (they say
that it was called Romularis). The country thereabout was then a vast
wilderness. The tradition is, that when the water, subsiding, had left
the floating trough, in which the children had been exposed, on dry
ground, a thirsty she-wolf, coming from the neighbouring mountains,
directed her course to the cries of the infants, and that she held down
her dugs to them with so much gentleness, that the keeper of the king's
flock found her licking the boys with her tongue. It is said his name
was Faustulus; and that they were carried by him to his homestead to be
nursed by his wife Laurentia. Some are of opinion that she was called
Lupa among the shepherds, from her being a common prostitute, and that
this gave rise to the surprising story. The children thus born and thus
brought up, when arrived at the years of manhood, did not loiter away
their time in tending the folds or following the flocks, but roamed and
hunted in the forests. Having by this exercise improved their strength
and courage, they not only encountered wild beasts, but even attacked
robbers laden with plunder, and afterwards divided the spoil among the
shepherds. And in company with these, the number of their young
associates daily increasing, they carried on their business and their
sports.
[Footnote 9: _Forte quádam divinitus_. ?e?? t??? t???. Plut.]
5. They say, that the festival of the lupercal, as now celebrated, was
even at that time solemnized on the Palatine hill, which, from
Palanteum, a city of Arcadia, was first called Palatium, and afterwards
Mount Palatine. There they say that Evander, who belonged to the tribe
of Arcadians,[10] that for many years before had possessed that country,
appointed the observance of a feast, introduced from Arcadia, in such
manner, that young men ran about naked in sport and wantonness, doing
honour to Pan Lycæus, whom the Romans afterwards called Inuus. That the
robbers, through rage at the loss of their booty, having lain in wait
for them whilst intent on this sport, as the festival was now well
known, whilst Romulus vigorously defended himself, took Remus prisoner;
that they delivered him up, when taken, to king Amulius, accusing him
with the utmost effrontery. They principally alleged it as a charge
against them, that they had made incursions upon Numitor's lands, and
plundered them in a hostile manner, having assembled a band of young men
for the purpose. Upon this Remus was delivered to Numitor to be
punished. Now, from the very first, Faustulus had entertained hopes that
the boys whom he was bringing up were of the blood royal; for he both
knew that the children had been exposed by the king's orders, and that
the time at which he had taken them up agreed exactly with that period:
but he had been unwilling that the matter, as not being yet ripe for
discovery, should be disclosed, till either a fit opportunity or
necessity should arise. Necessity came first; accordingly, compelled by
fear, he discovers the whole affair to Romulus. By accident also, whilst
he had Remus in custody, and had heard that the brothers were twins, on
comparing their age, and _observing_ their turn of mind entirely free
from servility, the recollection of his grand-children struck Numitor;
and on making inquiries[11] he arrived at the same conclusion, so that
he was well nigh recognising Remus. Thus a plot is concerted for the
king on all sides. Romulus, not accompanied by a body of young men, (for
he was unequal to open force,) but having commanded the shepherds to
come to the palace by different roads at a fixed time, forces his way to
the king; and Remus, with another party from Numitor's house, assists
his brother, and so they kill the king.
[Footnote 10: Scil. "The Pallantean."]
[Footnote 11: By all his inquiries he arrived at the same conclusion as
before, viz. that they were his grand-children.]
6. Numitor, at the beginning of the fray, having given out that enemies
had invaded the city, and assaulted the palace, after he had drawn off
the Alban youth to secure the citadel with a garrison and arms, when he
saw the young men, after they had killed the king, advancing to
congratulate him, immediately called an assembly of the people, and
represented to them the unnatural behaviour of his brother towards him,
the extraction of his grand-children, the manner of their birth and
education, and how they came to be discovered; then he informed them of
the king's death, and that he was killed by his orders. When the young