The Story of Rome From the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic | Page 4

VESSEL
(TRIREME) A ROMAN WAR-VESSEL HANNIBAL TERENCE,

THE LAST ROMAN COMIC POET PUBLIUS CORNELIUS SCIPIO
AFRICANUS A ROMAN MATRON ROMAN HEAD-DRESSES
GLADIATORS AT A FUNERAL ACTORS' MASKS A ROMAN
MILE-STONE IN A ROMAN STUDY PLAN OF A ROMAN CAMP
IN THE TIME OF THE REPUBLIC POMPEY (CNEIUS POMPEIUS
MAGNUS) CAIUS JULIUS CÆSAR GLADIATORS TRIUMPHAL
PROCESSION OF A ROMAN GENERAL INTERIOR OF A
ROMAN HOUSE A ROMAN POETESS THE FORUM ROMANUM
IN MODERN TIMES AN ELEPHANT IN ARMOR ITALIAN AND
GERMAN ALLIES, COSTUMES AND ARMOR INTERIOR OF
THE FORUM ROMANUM MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
CLEOPATRA'S SHOW SHIP ANCIENT STATUE OF AUGUSTUS
THE HOUSE-PHILOSOPHER DINING-TABLE AND COUCHES
COVERINGS FOR THE FEET ARTICLES OF THE ROMAN
TOILET RUINS OF THE COLOSSEUM, SEEN FROM THE
PALATINE HILL A COLUMBARIUM

THE STORY OF ROME.

I.
ONCE UPON A TIME.

Once upon a time, there lived in a city of Asia Minor, not far from
Mount Ida, as old Homer tells us in his grand and beautiful poem, a
king who had fifty sons and many daughters. How large his family was,
indeed, we cannot say, for the storytellers of the olden time were not
very careful to set down the actual and exact truth, their chief object
being to give the people something to interest them. That they
succeeded well in this respect we know, because the story of this old
king and his great family of sons and daughters has been told and retold
thousands of times since it was first related, and that was so long ago
that the bard himself has sometimes been said never to have lived at all.
Still; somebody must have existed who told the wondrous story, and it
has always been attributed to a blind poet, to whom the name Homer
has been given.
The place in which the old king and his great family lived was Ilium,

though it is better known as Troja or Troy, because that is the name that
the Roman people used for it in later times. One of the sons of Priam,
for that was the name of this king, was Paris, who, though very
handsome, was a wayward and troublesome youth. He once journeyed
to Greece to find a wife, and there fell in love with a beautiful daughter
of Jupiter, named Helen. She was already married to Menelaus, the
Prince of Lacedæmonia (brother of another famous hero, Agamemnon),
who had most hospitably entertained young Paris, but this did not
interfere with his carrying her off to Troy. The wedding journey was
made by the roundabout way of Phoenicia and Egypt, but at last the
couple reached home with a large amount of treasure taken from the
hospitable Menelaus.
This wild adventure led to a war of ten years between the Greeks and
King Priam, for the rescue of the beautiful Helen. Menelaus and some
of his countrymen at last contrived to conceal themselves in a hollow
wooden horse, in which they were taken into Troy. Once inside, it was
an easy task to open the gates and let the whole army in also. The city
was then taken and burned. Menelaus was naturally one of the first to
hasten from the smoking ruins, though he was almost the last to reach
his home. He lived afterwards for years in peace, health, and happiness
with the beautiful wife who had cost him so much suffering and so
many trials to regain.
[Illustration: THE PLAINS OF TROY IN MODERN TIMES.]
Among the relatives of King Priam was one Anchises, a descendant of
Jupiter, who was very old at the time of the war. He had a valiant son,
however, who fought well in the struggle, and the story of his deeds
was ever afterwards treasured up among the most precious narratives of
all time. This son was named Æneas, and he was not only a descendant
of Jupiter, but also a son of the beautiful goddess Venus. He did not
take an active part in the war at its beginning, but in the course of time
he and Hector, who was one of the sons of the king, became the most
prominent among the defenders of Troy. After the destruction of the
city, he went out of it, carrying on his shoulders his aged father,
Anchises, and leading by the hand his young son, Ascanius, or Iulus, as
he was also called. He bore in his hands his household gods, called the
Penates, and began his now celebrated wanderings over the earth. He
found a resting-place at last on the farther coast of the Italian peninsula,

and there one day he marvellously disappeared in a battle on the banks
of the little brook Numicius, where a monument was erected to his
memory as "The Father and the Native God." According to the best