A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

660 ROMULUS. ROMULUS.
that of Romulus and Titus Tatius, may have arisen their king Romulus; the Sabines built a new town
simply from the circumstance of there being two on the Capitoline and Quirinal hills, where they
magistrates at the head of the state in later times. lived under their king Titus Tatius. The two,
Romulus now found his people too few in num- kings and their senates met for deliberation in the
bers. He therefore set apart, on the Capitoline valley between the Palatine and Capitoline hills,
hill, an asylum, or a sanctuary, in which homicides which was hence called conmitium, or the place of
and runaway slaves might take refuge. The city meeting. But this union did not last long. Titus
thus became filled with men, but they wanted Tatius was slain at a festival at Layinium, by some
women. Romulus, therefore, tried to form trea- Laurentines to whom he had refused satisfaction
ties with the neighbouring tribes, in order to for outrages which had been committed by his
obtain connubium, or the right of legal marriage kinsmen. Henceforward Romulus ruled alone
with their citizens; but his offers were treated over both Romans and Sabines; but, as he negwith disdain, and he accordingly resolved to obtain lected to pursue the murderers, both his people and
by force what he could not gain by entreaty. In those of Laurentum were visited by a pestilence,
the fourth month after the foundation of the city, which did not cease until the murderers on both
lie proclaimed that games were to be celebrated in sides were given up.
honour of the god Consus, and invited his neigh- After the death of Tatius the old legend appears
hours, the Latins and Sabines, to the festival. to have passed on at once to the departure of RoSuspecting no treachery, they came in numbers, mulus from the world. Of the long period which
with their wives and children. But the Roman intervened few particulars are recorded, and these
youths rushed upon their guests, and carried off the Niebuhr supposes, with some justice, to be the invirgins. The old legend related that thirty Sabine ventions of a later age. Romulus is said to have
virgins were thus seized, and became the wives of attacked Fidenae, and to have taken the city; and
their ravishers; but the smallness of the number likewise to have carried on a successful war against
seemed so incredible to a later age, which looked the powerful city of Veii, which purchased a truce
upon the legend as a genuine history, that it was of a hundred years, on a surrender of a third of its
increased to some hundreds by such writers as Va- territory. At length, after a reign of thirty-seven
lerius Antias and Juba (Plut. Rom. 14; comp. years, when the city had become strong and powerLiv. i. 13). The parents of the virgins returned ful, and Romulus had performed all his mortal
home and prepared for vengeance. The inhabitants works, the hour of his departure arrived. One
of three of the Latin towns, Caenina, Antemnae, day as he was reviewing his people in the Campus
and Crustumerium, took up arms one after the Martius, near the Goat's Pool, the sun was sudother, and were successively defeated by the denly eclipsed, darkness overspread the earth, and
Romans. Romulus slew with his own hand Acron, a dreadful storm dispersed the people. When
king of Caenina, and dedicated his arms and ar- daylight returned, Romulus had disappeared, for
mour, as spolia opima, to Jupiter. At last the his father Mars had carried him up to heaven in a
Sabine king, Titus Tatius, advanced with a pow- fiery chariot (" Quirinus Martis equis Acheronta
erful army, against Rome. His forces were so fugit," Hoer. Carln. iii. 3; "Rex patriis astra petegreat that Romulus, unable to resist him in the bat equis," Ov. Fast. ii. 496). The people mourned
field, was obliged to retire into the city. He had for their beloved king; but their mourning gave
previously fortified and garrisoned the top of the way to religious reverence, when lie appeared
Saturnian hill, afterwards called the Capitoline, again in more than mortal beauty to Proculus
which was divided from the city on the Palatine, Julius, and bade him tell the Romans that they
by a swampy valley, the site of the forum. But should become the lords of the worlid, and that he
Tarpeia, the daughter of the commander of the would watch over them as their guardian god Quifortress, dazzled by the golden bracelets of the Sa- rinus. The Romans therefore worshipped him
bines, promised to betray the hill to them, if they under this name. The festival of the Quirinalia
would give her the ornaments which they wore on was celebrated in his honour on the 17th of Fetheir left arms. Her offer was accepted; in the bruary; but the Nones of Quintilis, or the seventh
night time she opened a gate and let in the enemy; of July, was the day on which, according to trabut when she claimed her reward, they threw upon dition, he departed from the earth.
her the shields which they carried on their left Such was the glorified end of Romulus in the
arms, and thus crushed her to death. Her tomb genuine legend. But as it staggered the faith of a
was shown on the hill in later times, and her later age, a tale was invented to account for his
memory was preserved by the name of the Tar- mysterious disappearance. It was related that the
peian rock, from which traitors were afterwards senators, discontented with the tyrannical rule of
hurled down. On the next day the Romans en- their king, murdered him during the gloom of a
deavoured to recover the hill. A long and despe- tempest, cut up his body, and carried home the
rate battle was fought in the valley between the mangled pieces under their robes. But the forgers
Palatine and the Capitoline. At one time the of this tale forgot that Romulus is nowhere repreRomans were driven before the enemy, and the sented in the ancient legend as a tyrant, but as a
day seemed utterly lost, when Romulus vowed a mild and merciful monarch, whose rule became
temple to Jupiter Stator, the Stayer of Flight; still more gentle after the death of Tatius, whom it
whereupon the Romans took courage, and returned branded as a tyrant.
again to the combat. At length, when both parties The genuine features of the old legend about
vere exhausted with the struggle, the Sabine Romulus may still be seen in the accounts of Livy
women rushed in between them, and prayed their (i. 3-16), Dionysius (i. 76-ii. 56), and Pluhusbands and fathers to be reconciled. Their tarch (Romul.), notwithstanding the numerous
prayer was heard; the two people not only made falsifications and interpolations by which it is obpeace, but agreed to form only one nation. The scured, especially in the two latter writers. It is
Romans continued to dwell on the Palatine under given in its most perfect form in the Roman H-s