Young Folks History of Rome | Page 6

the first to see six vultures flying, but
Romulus saw twelve, and therefore the Palatine Hill was made the
beginning of the city, and Romulus was chosen king. Remus was
affronted, and when the mud wall was being raised around the space
intended for the city, he leapt over it and laughed, whereupon Romulus
struck him dead, crying out, "So perish all who leap over the walls of
my city."
[Illustration: GLADIATORIAL SHOWS AT A BANQUET]
Romulus traced out the form of the city with the plough, and made it
almost a square. He called the name of it Rome, and lived in the midst
of it in a mud-hovel, covered with thatch, in the midst of about fifty
families of the old Trojan race, and a great many young men, outlaws
and runaways from the neighboring states, who had joined him. The
date of the building of Rome was supposed to be A.D. 753; and the
Romans counted their years from it, as the Greeks did from the
Olympiads, marking the date A.U.C., _anno urbis conditæ_, the year of
the city being built. The youths who joined Romulus could not marry,
as no one of the neighboring nations would give his daughter to one of
these robbers, as they were esteemed. The nearest neighbors to Rome
were the Sabines, and the Romans cast their eyes in vain on the Sabine
ladies, till old Numitor advised Romulus to proclaim a great feast in
honor of Neptune, with games and dances. All the people in the country
round came to it, and when the revelry was at its height each of the
unwedded Romans seized on a Sabine maiden and carried her away to
his own house. Six hundred and eighty-three girls were thus seized, and
the next day Romulus married them all after the fashion ever after
observed in Rome. There was a great sacrifice, then each damsel was

told, "Partake of your husband's fire and water;" he gave her a ring, and
carried her over his threshold, where a sheepskin was spread, to show
that her duty would be to spin wool for him, and she became his wife.
[Illustration: THE FORUM.]
Romulus himself won his own wife, Hersilia, among the Sabines on
this occasion; but the nation of course took up arms, under their king
Tatius, to recover their daughters. Romulus drew out his troops into
Campus Martius, or field of Mars, just beneath the Capitol, or great fort
on the Saturnian Hill, and marched against the Sabines; but while he
was absent, Tarpeia, the daughter of the governor of the little fort he
had left on the Saturnian Hill, promised to let the Sabines in on
condition they would give her what they wore on their left arms,
meaning their bracelets; but they hated her treason even while they took
advantage of it, and no sooner were they within the gate than they
pelted her with their heavy shields, which they wore on their left arms,
and killed her. The cliff on the top of which she died is still called the
Tarpeian rock, and criminals were executed by being thrown from the
top of it. Romulus tried to regain the Capitol, but the Sabines rolled
down stones on the Romans, and he was stunned by one that struck him
on the head; and though he quickly recovered and rallied his men, the
battle was going against him, when all the Sabine women, who had
been nearly two years Roman wives, came rushing out, with their little
children in their arms and their hair flying, begging their fathers and
husbands not to kill one another. This led to the making of a peace, and
it was agreed that the Sabines and Romans should make but one nation,
and that Romulus and Tatius should reign together at Rome. Romulus
lived on the Palatine Hill, Tatius on the Tarpeian, and the valley
between was called the Forum, and was the market-place, and also the
spot where all public assemblies were held. All the chief arrangements
for war and government were believed by the Romans to have been
laws of Romulus. However, after five years, Tatius was murdered at a
place called Lavinium, in the middle of a sacrifice, and Romulus
reigned alone till in the middle of a great assembly of his soldiers
outside the city, a storm of thunder and lightning came on, and every
one hurried home, but the king was nowhere to be found; for, as some

say, his father Mars had come down in the tempest and carried him
away to reign with the gods, while others declared that he was
murdered by persons, each of whom carried home a fragment of his
body that it might never be found. It matters less which way we tell