The Story of Rome From the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic | Page 9

easy task
for the twins to agree just where they should even begin the city.
Romulus thought that the Palatine Hill, on which he and his brother had
lived, was the most favorable spot for the purpose, while Remus
inclined no less decidedly in favor of the Aventine, on which Numitor
had fed his flocks. In this emergency, they seem to have asked counsel
of their grandfather, and he advised them to settle the question by
recourse to augury, [Footnote: Augury was at first a system of divining
by birds, but in time the observation of other signs was included. At
first no plebeians could take the auspices, as they seem to have had no
share in the divinities whose will was sought, but in the year 300, B.C.,
the college of augurs, then comprising four patricians, was enlarged by
the admission of five plebeians. The augurs were elected for life.] a
practice of the Etrurians with which they were probably quite familiar,
for they had been educated, we are told, at Gabii, the largest of the
towns of Latium, where all the knowledge of the region was known to
the teachers.
Following this advice, the brothers took up positions at a given time on
the respective hills, surrounded by their followers; those of Romulus
being known as the Quintilii, and those of Remus as the Fabii. Thus, in
anxious expectation, they waited for the passage of certain birds which
was to settle the question between them. We can imagine them as they
waited. The two hills are still to be seen in the city, and probably the
two groups were about half a mile apart. On one side of them rolled the
muddy waters of the Tiber, from which they had been snatched when
infants, and around them rose the other elevations over which the
"seven-hilled" city of the future was destined to spread. From morning

to evening they patiently watched, but in vain. Through the long April
night, too, they held their posts, and as the sun of the second day rose
over the Coelian Hill, Remus beheld with exultation six vultures
swiftly flying through the air, and thought that surely fortune had
decided in his favor. The vulture was a bird seldom seen, and one that
never did damage to crops or cattle, and for this reason its appearance
was looked upon as a good augury. The passage of the six vultures did
not, however, settle this dispute, as Numitor expected it would, for
Romulus, when he heard that Remus had seen six, asserted that twelve
had flown by him. His followers supported this claim, and determined
that the city should be begun on the Palatine Hill. It is said that this hill,
from which our word palace has come, received its name from the town
of Pallantium, in Arcadia, from which Evander came to Italy.
The twenty-first of April was a festal day among the shepherds, and it
was chosen as the one on which the new city should be begun (753
B.C.). In the morning of the day, it was customary, so they say, for the
country people to purify themselves by fire and smoke, by sprinkling
themselves with spring water, by formal washing of their hands, and by
drinking milk mixed with grape-juice. During the day they offered
sacrifices, consisting of cakes, milk, and other eatables, to Pales, the
god of the shepherds. Three times, with faces turned to the east, a long
prayer was repeated to Pales, asking blessings upon the flocks and
herds, and pardon for any offences committed against the nymphs of
the streams, the dryads of the woods, and the other deities of the Italian
Olympus. This over, bonfires of hay and straw were lighted, music was
made with cymbal and flute, and shepherds and sheep were purified by
passing through the flames. A feast followed, the simple folk lying on
benches of turf, and indulging in generous draughts of their homely
wines, such, probably, as the visitor to-day may regale himself with in
the same region. Towards evening, the flocks were fed, the stables were
cleansed and sprinkled with water with laurel brooms, and laurel
boughs were hung about them as adornments. Sulphur, incense,
rosemary, and fir-wood were burned, and the smoke made to pass
through the stalls to purify them, and even the flocks themselves were
submitted to the same cleansing fumes.
The beginning of a city in the olden time was a serious matter, and
Romulus felt the solemnity of the acts in which he was about to engage.

He sent men to Etruria, from which land the religious customs of the
Romans largely came, to obtain for him the minute details of the rites
suitable for the occasion.
At the proper moment he began the Etrurian ceremonies, by