off they treated them with the greatest respect. Aftorwards, when the city was once founded, they made it a sanctuary for people in distress to take refuge in, saying that it belonged to the god Asylus; and they received in it all sorts of persons, not giving up slaves to their masters, debtors to their creditors, or murderers to their judges, but Baying that, in accordanco with a Pythian oracle, the Banctuary was free to all; so that the city soon becamo full of men, for they say that at first it contained no less than a thousand hearths. Of this moro hereafter. When they woro proceeding to found the city, they at onco quarrelled about its sito. Romulus fixed upon what is How called Roma Quadrata, a square pieco of ground, and wished the city to be built in that place; but Remus prestrong position on Mount Aventine, which, in memory of him, was called the Remonium, and now is called Rignarium.

ferred a

They agreed to decide their disputo by watching tho flight of birds, and having taken their seats apart, it is said that six vultures appeared to Remus, and afterwards twice as many to Romulus. Some say that Remus really saw his vultures, but that Romulus only pretended to have Been them, and when Remus came to him, then the twelve appeared to Romulus; for which reason the Romans at Present day draw their anguries especially from vultures. Herodorus of Pontus says that Hercules dolighted in the sight of a vulture, when about to do any great action. It is tho most harmless of all creatures, for it injures neither crops, fruit, nor cattle, and lives entirely upon dead corpses. It does not kill or injuro anything that has lifo, and even abstains from dead birds from its relationship to them. Now eagles, and owls, and falcons, peck and kill other birds, in spite of schylus's lino,

the

"Bird-enting bird pollutod o'or must bo."

Moreover, the other birds aro, so to speak, ever before our eyes, and continually remind us of their presence; but tho vulture is seldom seen, and it is difficult to meet with its

young,

idea

their

which has suggested to somo persons the strange

that vultures como from somo other world to pay us rare visits, which are like those occurrences which

according to the soothsayers, do not happen naturally or spontaneously, but by the interposition of Heaven.

X. When Remus discovered the deceit ho was very angry, and, while Romulus was digging a trench round where the city wall was to be built, he jeered at the works, and hindered them. At last, as he jumped over it, he was struck dead either by Romulus himself, or by Celer, one of his companions. In this fight, Faustulus was slain, and also Pleistinus, who is said to have been Faustulus's brother and to have helped him in rearing Romulus and his brother. Coler retired into Tyrrhenia, and from him the Romans call quick sharp men Celeres; Quintus Metellus, who, when his father died, in a very few days exhibited a show of gladiators, was surnamed Celer by the Romans in their wonder at the short time ho had spent in his preparations.

XI. Romulus, after burying Remus and his foster-parents. in the Remurium, consecrated his city, having fetched men from Etruria, who taught him how to perform it according to sacred rites and ceremonies, as though they wero celebrating holy mysteries. A tronch was dug in a circle round what is now the Comitium, and into it were flung first-fruits of all those things which are honourablo and necessary for men. Finally cach man brought a little of the earth of the country from which he came, and flung it into one heap and mixed it all together. They call this pit by the samo namo as the heavens, Mundus. Next, they drew the outline of the city in the form of a cirolo, with this place as its centre. And then the founder, having fitted a plough with a brazen ploughshare, and yoked to it a bull and a cow, himself ploughs a deep furrow round the boundaries. It is the duty of his attendants to throw the clods inwards, which the plough turns up, and to let nono of them fall outwards. By this line they define the oxtent of tho fortifications, and it is called by contraction, Pomarium, which means behind the walls or beyond tho walls (post mania). Wherever they intend to placo a gato they take off the ploughshare, and carry the plough over, leaving a space. After this ceremony thoy con sider the entire wall sacred, except the gates; but if they woro sacred also, they could not without scruple

PLUTARCH'S LIVES.

bring in and out necessaries and unclean things through

them.

X/I. It is agreed that the foundation of the city took place on the eleventh day before the Kalends of May (tho 21st of April). And on this day the Romans keep a festival which they call the birthday of the city. At this feast, originally,

has life, but thought it right to keep the anniversary the birth of the city puro and unpolluted by blood. However, before the foundation of the city, they used to keep a pastoral feast called Palilia. The Roman months at the present day do not in any way correspond to those of Greece; yet they (tho Grecks) distinctly affirm that tho day upon which Romulus founded the city was the 30th of the month. The Greeks likewise tell us that on that day an eclipso of the sun took placo, which they think was that observed by Antimachus of Teos, the epic poet, which occurred in the third year of the sixth Olympiad. In tho time of Varro the philosopher, who of all the Romans was Tarou tius, a companion of his, a philosopher and mathematician, who had especially devoted himself to the art of casting nativities, and was thought to have attained great skill therein. To this man Varro proposed the task of finding tho day and hour of Romulus's birth, basing his calculations on tho influence which the stars were said to problems by the analytic method; for it belongs, he argued, to the same science to predict the life of a man from the time of his birth, and to find the dato of a man's birth if the incidents of his life are given. Taroutius performed his task, and after considering tho things done and suffered by Romulus, the length of his life, the manner of his death, and all such like matters, ho confidently and boldly asserted

we are told, they sacrificed nothing that

have had

upon his life, just as geometricians solve their

that Romulus

was conceived by his mother in the first

year of the second Olympiad, at the third hour of the Egyptian calendar Choiac, at which time there was a total twenty-third day of the month which is called in the twenty-first day of the month Thouth, about sunrise. Rome was founded by him on the ninth day of tho month

eclipse of the sun.

He stated that he was born on the

Pharmouthi, between the second and third hour; for it is supposed that the fortunes of cities, as well as thoso of men, have their cortain poriods which can bo discovered by the position of the stars at their nativitics. The quaint subtlety of theso speculations may perhaps amuso the reader more than their legendary character will weary him.

XIII. When the city was founded, Romulus first divided all the able-bodied males into regiments, each consisting of three thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry. These were named legions, because they consisted of men of military age selected from the population. The rest of the people were now organised. They were called Populus, and a hundred of the noblest were chosen from among them and formed into a council. These he called Patriciaus, and their assembly the Senate. This word Senate clearly means assembly of old men; and tho members of it were named Patricians, according to somo, because they wero the fathers of legitimato offspring; according to others, because they were able to give an account of who their own fathers were, which few of the first colonists were able to do. Others say that it was from their Patrocinium, as they then called, and do at the present day call, their patronage of their clients. There is a legend that this word arose from one Patron, a companion of Evander, who was kind and helpful to his inferiors. But it is most reasonable to suppose that Romulus called them by this name because he intended the most powerful men to show kindness to their inferiors, and to show the poorer classes that they ought not to fear the great nor grudge them their honours, but be on friendly terins with them, thinking of them and addressing them as fathers (Patres). For, up to the present day, foreigners address the senators as Lords, but the Romans call them Conscript Fathers, using the most honourable and least offensive of their titles. Originally they were merely called the Fathers, but afterwards, as more were enrolled, they were called Conscript Fathers. By this more dignified title Romulus distinguished the Senate from the People; and he introduced another distinction between the powerful and the common people by naming the

their

law or

PLUTARCH'S LIVES.

foriner patrons, which means defenders, and the latter clients, which means dependants. By this means he implanted in them a mutual good feeling which was tho source of great benefits, for the patrons acted as advocates for their clients in law suits, and in all casez became their advisers and friends, while the clients not only respected patrons but even assisted them, when they were poor, to portion their daughters or pay their creditors. No against his client, nor a client against his patron. Moremagistrate could compel a patron to bear witness over, in later times, although all their other rights remained unimpaired, it was thought disgraceful for a patron to receive money from a client. So much for these matters. XIV. In the fourth month after the city was founded, wo are told by Fabius, the reckless deed of carrying off tho women took placo. Somo say that Romulus himself naturally loved war, and, being persuaded by some prophecies that lone was fated to grow by wars and so reach the greatest prosperity, attacked the Sabines with

out

provocation; for he did not carry off many maidens, but only thirty, as though it was war that he desired moro

than

wives for his followers.

Romulus saw that his city was newly-filled with colonists, few of whom had wives, while most of them were a mixed multitude of poor or unknown origin, who were despised to fall to pioces. He intended his violence to lead to an alliance with the Sabines, as soon as the damsels became reconciled to their lot, and set about it as follows: First Consus, either because he was the god of counsel (for the discovered, hidden in the earth. Romans to this day call their assembly Concilium, and their

chief

on

This god was called

magistrates consuls, as it were those who take counsel behalf of the people), or else it was the equestrian The altar stands in the greater hippodrome,

Neptune.

apd is kept concealed except during the horse-races, when

it is

uncovered. Some say that, as the whole plot was

dark and mysterious, it was natural that the god's altar

should be underground.

When it was brought out, he

proclaimed a splendid sacrifice in its honour, and games