The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
18. The justice and piety of Numa Pompilius was at that time celebrated.
He dwelt at Cures, a city of the Sabines, and was as eminently learned
in all laws human and divine, as any man could be in that age. They
falsely represent that Pythagoras of Samos was his instructor in
philosophy, because there appears no other person to refer to. Now it is
certain that this philosopher, in the reign of Servius Tullius, more
than a hundred years after this, held assemblies of young men, who
eagerly imbibed his doctrine, in the most distant part of Italy, about
Metapontus, Heraclea, and Croton. But [23]from these places, even had he
flourished at the same time, what fame of his (extending) to the Sabines
could have aroused any one to a desire of learning, or by what
intercourse of language (could such a thing have been effected)?
Besides, how could a single man have safely passed through so many
nations differing in language and customs? I presume, therefore, that
his mind was naturally furnished with virtuous dispositions, and that he
was not so much versed in foreign sciences as in the severe and rigid
discipline of the ancient Sabines, than which class none was in former
times more strict. The Roman fathers, upon hearing the name of Numa,
although they perceived that the scale of power would incline to the
Sabines if a king were chosen from them, yet none of them ventured to
prefer himself, or any other of his party, or any of the citizens or
fathers, to that person, but unanimously resolved that the kingdom
should be conferred on Numa Pompilius. Being sent for, just as Romulus
before the building of the city obtained the throne by an augury, he
commanded the gods to be consulted concerning himself also. Upon this,
being conducted into the citadel by an augur, (to which profession that
office was made a public one and perpetual by way of honour,) he sat
down on a stone facing the south: the augur took his seat on his left
hand with his head covered, holding in his right a crooked wand free
from knots, which they called _lituus_; then taking a view towards the
city and country, after offering a prayer to the gods, he marked out the
regions from east to west, the parts towards the south he called the
right, those towards the north, the left; and in front of him he set out
in his mind a sign as far as ever his eye could reach. Then having
shifted the lituus into his left hand, placing his right hand on the
head of Numa, he prayed in this manner: "O father Jupiter, if it is thy
will that this Numa Pompilius, whose head I hold, should be king of
Rome, I beseech thee to give sure and evident signs of it within those
bounds which I have marked." Then he stated in set terms the omens which
he wished to be sent; and on their being sent, Numa was declared king
and came down from the stand.
[Footnote 23: _Ex quibus locis, quæ fama in Sabinos, aut quo linguæ
commercio ---- quenquam excivisset_. "From which (remote) places, what
high character of him (could have reached) to the Sabines, or by what
intercourse of language could such high character of him have aroused
any one to become a pupil?" Other editions read _quâ famâ_; thus, from
which places by what high character for talent, or by what intercourse
of language, could he, Pythagoras, have aroused any one, etc.?]
19. Having thus obtained the kingdom, he sets about establishing anew,
on the principles of laws and morals, the city recently established by
violence and arms. When he saw that their minds, as having been rendered
ferocious by military life, could not be reconciled to those principles
during the continuance of wars, considering that a fierce people should
be mollified by the disuse of arms, he erected at the foot of Argiletum
a temple of Janus, as an index of peace and war; that when open, it
might show the state was engaged in war, and when shut, that all the
neighbouring nations were at peace with it. Twice only since the reign
of Numa hath this temple been shut; once when T. Manlius was consul, at
the end of the first Punic war; and a second time, which the gods
granted our age to see, by the emperor Augustus Cæsar, after the battle
of Actium, peace being established by sea and land. This being shut,
after he had secured the friendship of the neighbouring states around by
alliance and treaties, all anxiety regarding dangers from abroad being
removed, lest their minds, which the fear of enemies and military
discipline had kept in check, should become licentious by tranquillity,
he considered, that, first of all, an awe of the gods should be
instilled into them, a principle of the greatest efficacy with a
multitude ignorant and uncivilized as in those times. But as it could
not sink deeply into their minds without some fiction of a miracle, he
pretends that he holds nightly interviews with the goddess Egeria; that
by her direction he instituted the sacred rites which would be most
acceptable to the gods, and appointed proper priests for each of the
deities. And, first of all, he divides the year into twelve months,
according to the course of the moon; and because the moon does not make
up thirty days in each month, and some days are wanting to the complete
year as constituted by the solstitial revolution, he so portioned it out
by inserting intercalary months, that every twenty-fourth year, the
lengths of all the intermediate years being completed, the days should
correspond to the same place of the sun (in the heavens) whence they had
set out.[24] He likewise made a distinction of the days[25] into
profane and sacred, because on some it was likely to be expedient that
no business should be transacted with the people.
[Footnote 24: Romulus had made his year to consist of ten months, the
first month being March, and the number of days in the year being only
304, which corresponded neither with the course of the sun or moon.
Numa, who added the two months of January and February, divided the year
into twelve months, according to the course of the moon. This was the
lunar Greek year, and consisted of 354 days. Numa, however, adopted 355
days for his year, from his partiality to odd numbers. The lunar year of
354 days fell short of the solar year by 11-1/4 days;--this in 8 years
amounted to (11-1/4 × 8) 90 days. These 90 days he divided into 2 months
of 22 and 2 of 23 days, ([2 × 22] + [2 × 23] = 90,) and introduced them
alternately every second year for two octennial periods: every third
octennial period, however, Numa intercalated only 66 days instead of 90
days, _i. e._ he inserted 3 months of only 22 days each. The reason was,
because he adopted 355 days as the length of his lunar year instead of
354, and this in 24 years (3 octennial periods) produced an error of 24
days; this error was exactly compensated by intercalating only 66 days
(90-24) in the third octennial period. The intercalations were generally
made in the month of February, after the 23rd of the month. Their
management was left to the pontiffs--_ad metam eandem solis unde orsi
essent_--_dies congruerent_; "that the days might correspond to the same
starting-point of the sun in the heavens whence they had set out." That
is, taking for instance the tropic of Cancer for the place or
starting-point of the sun any one year, and observing that he was in
that point of the heavens on precisely the 21st of June, the object was
so to dispense the year, that the day on which the sun was observed to
arrive at that same _meta_ or starting-point again, should also be
called the 21st of June:--such was the _congruity_ aimed at by these
intercalations.]
[Footnote 25:
_Ille nefastus erit per quem tria verba silentur;
Fastus erit, per quem lege licebit agi._--Ov. F. i. 47.
]
20. Next he turned his attention to the appointment of priests, though
he performed many sacred rites himself, especially those which now
belong to the flamen of Jupiter. But, as he imagined that in a warlike
nation there would be more kings resembling Romulus than Numa, and that
they would go to war in person, he appointed a residentiary priest as
flamen to Jupiter, that the sacred functions of the royal office might
not be neglected, and he distinguished him by a fine robe, and a royal
curule chair. To him he added two other flamines, one for Mars, another
for Quirinus. He also selected virgins for Vesta, a priesthood derived
from Alba, and not foreign to the family of the founder. That they might
be constant attendants in the temple, he appointed them salaries out of
the public treasury; and by enjoining virginity, and other religious
observances, he made them sacred and venerable. He selected twelve Salii
for Mars Gradivus, and gave them the distinction of an embroidered
tunic, and over the tunic a brazen covering for the breast. He commanded
them to carry the celestial shields called [26]Ancilia, and to go
through the city singing songs, with leaping and solemn dancing. Then he
chose out of the number of the fathers Numa Marcius, son of Marcus, as
pontiff,[27] and consigned to him an entire system of religious rites
written out and sealed, (showing) with what victims, upon what days, and
in what temples the sacred rites were to be performed; and from what
funds the money was to be taken for these expenses. He placed all
religious institutions, public and private, under the cognisance of the
pontiff to the end that there might be some place where the people
should come to consult, lest any confusion in the divine worship might
be occasioned by neglecting the ceremonies of their own country, and
introducing foreign ones. (He ordained) that the same pontiff should
instruct the people not only in the celestial ceremonies, but also in
(the manner of performing) funeral solemnities, and of appeasing the
manes of the dead; and what prodigies sent by lightning or any other
phenomenon were to be attended to and expiated. To elicit such
knowledge from the divine mind, he dedicated an altar on the Aventine to
Jupiter [28]Elicius, and consulted the god by auguries as to what
(prodigies) should be expiated.
[Footnote 26: _Ancilia_, from ???????.]
[Footnote 27: _Pontificem_, scil. Maximum.]
[Footnote 28:
_Eliciunt cœlo te, Jupiter: unde minores
Nunc quoque te celebrant, Eliciumque vocant_.
Ov. F. iii. 327.]
21. The whole multitude having been diverted from violence and arms to
the considering and adjusting these matters, both their minds had been
engaged in doing something, and the constant watchfulness of the gods
now impressed upon them, as the deity of heaven seemed to interest
itself in human concerns, had filled the breasts of all with such piety,
that faith and religious obligations governed the state, no less than
fear of the laws and of punishment. And while[29] the people were
moulding themselves after the morals of the king, as their best example,
the neighbouring states also, who had formerly thought that it was a
camp, not a city, situate in the midst of them to disturb the general
peace, were brought (to feel) such respect for them that they considered
it impious that a state, wholly occupied in the worship of the gods,
should be molested. There was a grove, the middle of which was irrigated
by a spring of running water, issuing from a dark grotto. As Numa went
often thither alone, under pretence of conferring with the goddess, he
dedicated the place to the Muses, because their meetings with his wife
Egeria were held there. He also instituted a yearly festival to Faith
alone, and commanded the priests to be carried to her temple in an
arched chariot drawn by two horses, and to perform the divine service
with their hands wrapt up to the fingers, intimating that Faith ought to
be protected, and that her seat ought to be sacred even in men's right