Dextra sed Ausonio manus est subiecta Peloro, With this representation Eschylus agrees in the splendid description of Typhon in the Prometheus 363.1 Virgil, however, places him under Inarime, connecting it in all probability somehow or other, with the Arima of Homer (see p. 197), thus Æn. IX. 716. Inarime, Iovis imperiis, imposta Typhoeo. and Lucan. V. 101. 33. Conditus Inarimes æterna mole Typhoeus. Occupat. "Seizes him," "grapples with him.” Adducta. "Raised up and drawn back towards himself." pare Trist. IV. ii. 5. Candidaque adducta collum percussa securi Com 34. Sedit in ore, i. e., inflicta est ori. G. 36. Plangit, simply "strikes." See note on Tibull. I. vii. 28. p. 168. 39, 40. The Ara Maxima which stood in the Forum Boarium. See the conclusion of the chapter extracted from Livy, and also the passages referred to in Virgil and Dionysius. 43, 44. The legends contained in this and the preceding extract are introduced by Ovid, when the course of his work leads him to mention the Carmentalia, a festival celebrated on the III. Id. Jan. (11th of January), in honour, it was believed, of Carmenta the mother of Evander. 1 So also Silius XIV. 196. Virgil E. 111. 578 places Enceladus under Ætna; Callimachus (Hymn. in Del. 141.) assigns this punishment to Briareus. OVID. FASTI. III. 1. INTRODUCTION. THIS and the three following extracts contain a detailed exposition of the popular traditions with regard to the birth of Romulus and Remus, their exposure, preservation and subsequent fortunes down to the death of the latter. In order that the particulars of this famous tale may be impressed upon the mind in a regular and connected form, we shall present the student first with the account of Livy, and then with a more circumstantial narrative derived from the various legends current among the Romans, collected, arranged and combined by the skilful hand of Niebuhr. Livy, having given the names of eleven kings of Alba Longa who reigned in succession after Ascanius, continues thus (I. 3.) : Proca deinde regnat is Numitorem atque Amulium procreat. Numitori, qui stirpis maximus erat, regnum vetustum Silviæ gentis legat. Plus tamen vis potuit, quam voluntas patris, aut verecundia ætatis. Pulso fratre, Amulius regnat. addit sceleri scelus. stirpem fratris virilem interimit: fratris filiæ Rheæ Silviæ, per speciem honoris, quum Vestalem eam legisset, perpetua virginitate spem partus adimit. Sed debebatur, ut opinor, fatis tantæ origo urbis, maximique secundum Deorum opes imperii principium. Vi compressa Vestalis, quum geminum partum edidisset, seu ita rata, seu quia Deus auctor culpæ honestior erat, Martem incertæ stirpis patrem nuncupat. Sed nec Dii, nec homines, aut ipsam, aut stirpem a crudelitate regia vindicant. sacerdos vincta in custodiam datur: pueros in profluentem aquam mitti iubet. Forte quadam divinitus super ripas Tiberis effusus lenibus stagnis, nec adiri usquam ad iusti cursum poterat amnis: et, posse quamvis languida mergi aqua infantes, spem ferentibus dabat. ita velut defuncti regis imperio, in proximâ alluvie, ubi nunc ficus Ruminalis est (Romularem vocatam ferunt) pueros exponunt. Vastæ tum in iis locis solitudines erant. Tenet fama, quum fluitantem alveum, quo expositi erant pueri, tenuis in sicco aqua destituisset, lupam sitientem ex montibus, qui circa sunt, ad puerilem vagitum cursum flexisse: eam summissas infantibus adeo mitem præbuisse mammas, ut lingua lam. bentem pueros magister regii pecoris invenerit. Faustulo fuisse nomen ferunt. Ab eo ad stabula Larentiæ uxori educandos latos. Sunt, qui Larentiam, vulgato corpore, lupam inter pastores vocatam putent: inde locum fabulæ ac miraculo datum. Ita geniti, itaque educati, quum primum adolevit ætas, nec in stabulis, nec ad pecora segnes, venando peragrare circa saltus. Hinc, robore corporibus animisque sumpto, iam non feras tantum subsistere, sed in latrones, præda onustos, impetus facere, pastoribusque rapta dividere; et cum his, crescente indies grege iuvenum, seria ac iocos celebrare. Iam tum in Palatino monte Lupercal hoc fuisse ludicrum ferunt, et a Pallanteo, urbe Arcadica, Pallantium, deinde Palatium, montem appellatum. ibi Evandrum, qui ex eo genere Arcadum multis ante tempestatibus ea tenuerat loca, solenne allatum ex Arcadia instituisse, ut nudi iuvenes, Lyceum Pana venerantes, per lusum atque lasciviam currerent; quem Romani deinde vocarunt Inuum. Huic deditis ludicro, quum solenne notum esset, insidiatos ob iram prædæ amissæ latrones, quum Romulus vi se defendisset, Remum cepisse; captum regi Amulio tradidisse, ultro accusantes. Crimini maxime dabant, in Numitoris agros ab his impetum fieri: inde eos, collecta iuvenum manu, hostilem in modum prædas agere. sic Numitori ad supplicium Remus deditur. Iam inde ab initio Faustulo spes fuerat, regiam stirpem apud se educari; nam et expositos iussu regis infantes sciebat, et tempus, quo ipse eos sustulisset, ad id ipsum congruere; sed rem immaturam, nis aut per occasionem, aut per necessitatem, aperiri noluerat. necessitas prior venit. ita metu subactus, Romulo rem aperit. Forte et Numitori, quum in custodia Remum haberet, audissetque geminos esse fratres, comparando et ætatem eorum, et ipsam minime servilem indolem, tetigerat animum memoria nepotum; sciscitandoque eodem pervenit, ut haud procul esset, quin Remum agnosceret. Ita undique regi dolus nectitur. Romulus, non cum globo iuvenum (nec enim erat ad vim apertam par) sed aliis alio itinere iussis certo tempore ad regiam venire pastoribus, ad regem impetum facit: et a domo Numitoris alia comparata manu adiuvat Remus. ita regem obtruncant. Numitor, inter primum tumultum hostes invasisse urbem atque adortos regiam dictitans, quum pubem Albanam in arcem præsidio armisque obtinendam avocasset, posteaquam iuvenes, perpetrata cæde, pergere ad se gratulantes, vidit, extemplo advocato concilio, scelera in se fratris, originem nepotum, ut geniti, ut educati, ut cogniti essent, cædem deinceps tyranni, seque eius auctorem ostendit. Iuvenes, per mediam concionem agmine ingressi, quum avum regem salutassent, secuta ex omni multitudine consentiens vox ratum nomen imperiumque regi effecit. Ita Numitori Albana permissa re, Romulum Remumque cupido cepit, in iis locis, ubi expositi, ubique educati erant, urbis condendæ, et supererat multitudo Albanorum Latinorumque. ad id pastores quoque accesserant: qui omnes facile spem facerent, parvam Albam, parvum Lavinium, præ ea urbe quæ conderetur, fore. Intervenit deinde his cogitationibus avitum malum, regni cupido, atque inde fœdum certamen coortum a satis miti principio. Quoniam gemini essent, nec ætatis verecundia discrimen facere posset, ut Dii, quorum tutelæ ea loca essent, auguriis legerent, qui nomen novæ urbi daret, qui conditam imperio regeret, Palatium Romulus, Remus Aventinum ad inaugurandum templa capiunt. Priori Remo augurium venisse fertur, sex vultures: iamque, nunciato augurio, quum duplex numerus Romulo se ostendisset, utrumque regem sua multitudo consalutaverat. tempore illi præcepto, at hi numero avium, regnum trahebant. Inde, cum altercatione congressi, certamine irarum ad cædem vertuntur. ibi in turba ictus Remus cecidit. Vulgatior fama est, ludibrio fratris Remum novos transiluisse muros: inde ab irato Romulo (quum verbis quoque increpitans adiecisset, 'Sic deinde, quicunque alius transiliet mœnia mea)' interfectum. Ita solus potitus imperio Romulus; condita urbs conditoris nomine appellata. We now proceed with our extract from Niebuhr's Roman History. The old Roman legend ran as follows:-Procas King of Alba left two sons. Numitor, the elder, being weak and spiritless, suffered Amulius to wrest the government from him, and reduce him to his father's private estates. In the possession of these he lived rich, and, as he desired nothing more, secure: but the usurper dreaded the claims that might be set up by heirs of a different character. He therefore caused Numitor's son to be murdered, and appointed Sylvia, his daughter, one of the vestal virgins. Amulius had no children, or at least only one daughter; so that the race of Anchises and Aphrodite seemed on the point of expiring, when the love of a God prolonged it, in opposition to the ordinances of man, and gave it a lustre worthy of its origin. Silvia had gone into the sacred grove to draw water from the spring for the service of the temple: the sun quenched its rays: the sight of a wolf made her fly into a cave;1 there Mars overpowered the timid virgin, and there consoled her with the promise of noble children, as Poseidon did Tyro, the daughter of Salmoneus. But he did not protect her against the tyrant, nor did her protestations of her innocence save her: the condemnation of the unfortunate priestess seemed to be exacted by Vesta herself; for, at the moment of the childbirth, her image in the temple hid its eyes, her altar trembled, and her fire died away:2 and Amulius was allowed to command that the mother and her twin babes should be drowned 1 I insist in behalf of my Romans on the right of taking the poetical features wherever they are to be found, when they have dropt out of the common narrative. In the present case they are preserved by Servius on n. I. 274; the eclipse by Dionysius 11. 56, and Plutarch Romul. c. 27. 2 Ovid. Fasti. III. 45. in the river. In the Anio Silvia exchanged her earthly existence for deity; and the river was enabled to carry the bole or cradle wherein the children were laid, into the Tiber, which had at that time overflowed its banks, far and wide, even to the foot of the woody hills. At the root of a wild fig-tree, the Ficus Ruminalis, which continued to be preserved and held sacred for many centuries at the foot of the Palatine, the cradle overturned. A she-wolf had come to slake her thirst in the stream; she heard the whimpering of the children, carried them into her den hard by,2 made a bed for them, licked and suckled them: when they wanted something more than milk, a woodpecker, the bird sacred to Mars, brought them food: other birds consecrated to auguries hovered over the babes, to drive away noxious insects. This marvellous spectacle was beheld by Faustulus the shepherd of the royal flocks: the she-wolf gave way to him, and resigned the children to human nurture. Acca Larentia, the shepherd's wife, became their fostermother; they grew up along with her twelve sons,3 on the Palatine hill, in straw huts which they built themselves: that of Romulus was preserved by continual repairs down to the time of Nero, as a sacred relic. They were the most active of the shepherd lads, brave in fighting against wild beasts and robbers, maintaining their right against every one by their might, and converting might into right. Their spoil they shared with their comrades; the adherents of Romulus were called Quinctilii; those of Remus Fabii: and now the seeds of discord were sown. Their wantonness engaged them in disputes with the shepherds of the wealthy Numitor, who fed their flocks on Mount Aventum; so that here, as in the story of Evander and Cacus, we find the quarrel between the Palatine and the Aventine in the tales of the remotest times. Remus was taken by a stratagem of these neighbours, and dragged to Alba as a robber. A foreboding, the remembrance of his grandsons awakened by hearing the story of the two brothers, restrained Numitor from a hasty sentence: the culprit's foster-father hurried with Romulus to the city, and told the old man and the youths of their mutual relation. The youths undertook to avenge their own wrong and that of their house: with their trusty comrades, whom the 1 In poetry of this sort we have no right to ask, why she was thrown into the river? whichever of the two it may have been: and not into the Alban lake? 2 It is remarkable how even those who did not renounce the poetry of the nar rative, endeavoured to reduce it to a minimum; to the fostering care of the wolf at the moment when she first found the little orphans by the Ficus Ruminalis; as if in this case, as well as that of S. Denis, every thing did not depend on the first step. The Lupercal itself bears witness to the genuine form of the fiction: and the conception of the two poets accorded with it. Virgil gives a description of the cave of Mavors. Ovid sings (Fast. 111. 53), Lacte quis infantes nescit crevisse ferino, Et picum expositis saepe tulisse cibos. Nor did the poetical feature escape Trogus; cum saepius ad parvulos reverteretur. The story of the woodpecker and its auioμara could not have been invented of new-born infants. 3 Masurius Sabinus in Gellius N. A. VI. 7. |