founder of it to be Aeneas himself, whom they will have come in company with Ulysses into Italy. Aristotle the Philosopher wrote, that part of the Achaeans themselves, in their return from Troy, were by Tempests driven upon Italy, and forced to plant themselves in Latium. Callias the Historian, who Recorded the Acts of Agathocles, mentioned a Trojan woman, called Roma, that being married to Latinus, King of the Aborigenes, bare to him two sons, Remus and Romulus, who building the Citie, named it Rome af∣ter their mother. Xenagoras reckoned up three sons of Ulysses by Circe, Romus, Antias, and Ardea, all which built Cities of their own name. Diony∣sius of Chalcis, with others, would have this Romus to be the son of Asca∣nius; some of Emethion, and some of Italus by Electra the daughter of La∣tinus. Besides these, many other Greek Authors dissented about the founders of the Citie.
11. Neither have Roman Writers agreed amongst themselves. Some of them would have the sons of Aeneas to be founders of the Citie, viz. Ro∣mulus and Remus; others, his Nephews by his daughter, which he gave up as Hostages to Latinus, King of the Aborigines. Some write how Ascanius being left Heir by his father, divided his inheritance with Romulus and Re∣mus his brethren: he himself built Alba and other Towns, Romulus Capua, so called from Capys his great Grand-father, Anchisa from Anchises his Grand-father, and that place afterwards called Janiculum, which he named after his father Aeneas; then lastly, Rome after his own name, which being afterwards desolate, the Albans repeopled by a Colony led thither by Romu∣lus and Remus. According to this History, this Citie should have been twice founded: First, not long after the Trojan times, and then again in the fifteenth age after; but more than this, Antiochus of Syracuse mentioned a third Rome that must have been before the War of Troy, writing, that from Rome came a certain Sicilian fugitive to Morges, the son of Italus, King of Italy. By reason of this uncertainty of the founders, some, whose prejudice against the Empire of the Citie moved them with envy, accounted it no other than a re∣ceptacle, and fortresse of Barbarians, Fugitives, and Vagabounds, and were ready to call into question the History of Romulus, as a meer invention made to hide the despicable Original of so great a Commonwealth.
12. Whether it was a new Plantation, or reparation of an old Town, there is great variety of opinions concerning the time thereof. Timaeus the Sicilian made its foundation contemporary with that of Carthage, and the 38 year before the first Olympiad: But of those which seem to approach nearer to truth, some place the foundation of it in the sixth Olympiad; whereof Velleius Pa∣terculus assigneth the first year, others the third; and Varro, from the opinion of Tarcutius a most excellent Mathematician, the fourth; which opinion is fol∣lowed by many Authors of great note (besides Augustus, Claudius, Severus, and Philip, Emperours in their Saecular Games) as Plutarch, Tacitus, Dio, Gellius, Censorinus, Onuphrius, Caesar Baronius, Torniellus, Joseph Scaliger, and Jacobus Cappellus. Solinus will have Pomponius Atticus, and Cicero, to reckon from the third year of this Olympiad; but as Pliny, Paterculus and Livy, so Cicero varieth, sometimes counting from the Calends of Janua∣ry of the foregoing, one while of this, and another of the following year. M. Porcius Cato knowing that Rome was built something before the se∣venth Olympiad, not standing upon minute and scrupulous deductions, began the Aera of the Citie from the first of January that fell in the first year of that Olympiad; and so the year of his own Consulship he said to be the 758 year of the Citie. This Aera is followed by the Fasti Capitolini, Solinus, Eusebius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, (who taketh pains to prove the account good) Polybius, Sigonius, Pighius, Occo, Goltzius, Isaacus Casaubonus upon Polybius, and others. Fabius Pictor wrote that Rome was built in the eighth Olympiad, the reason whereof, as Cappellus thinketh, is, because Romu∣lus might then have finished the Wall and Ditch; some deriving the Aera of a building from laying of a foundation, and others from the finishing of the structure. Lastly, L. Cineius, as Dionysius informeth us, held that the Citie