The Story of the Roman People Day 5

10 STORY OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE

the city. The stolen women made peace between the two na tions .

The people of Rome weredivided into patricians, clients, slaves, and plebeians . The patrician alone had the rights of a citizen . The a government was carried on by the king, the senate, and the citi zens . The senate was made up of the heads of families . The assem bly of patricians , or citizens , was called the comitia curiata .

After Romulus had been taken to the gods, he appeared in a vision and predicted that Rome would become the capital of the world .

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Ascanius describes his flight from Troy .

The story that Faustulus told Romulus and Remus .

The Sabine women plan together to make peace .

A Roman boy describes the disappearance of Romulus .

THE LEGENDS OF THE SEVEN KINGS OF ROME

( Continued )

BESIDES the story of Romulus and Remus, the Romans had many other legends about the early days of their city . Ac cording to these legends, Romulus was the first of seven kings. It took a whole year to choose his successor, for the Romans wanted a Roman and the Sabines wanted a Sabine. At length they came to an exceedingly wise agreement; the Romans were to choose the king, but he was to be of the Sabine race. They chose a wise, just man named Nu'ma Pom-pil'i-us. He saw that his subjects were brave, but that

a

LEGENDS OF THE SEVEN KINGS OF ROME 11

they were a rude, savage people who needed to be taught everything except how to fight.

First of all , he made treaties with the tribes around , in order that there might be a time of peace . Then he set to work to instruct his people how to worship the gods . They believed that the goddess E-ge'ri-a used to come to him in a certain shady grove and tell him what to teach them, and therefore they paid close attention to his words. He appointed priests to carry on the worship of Jupiter, Mars, and some of the other gods , and gave them salaries and handsome robes . The priests of Mars wore richly embroidered tunics and carried shields . They used to march through the city in procession, singing hymns to the war-god and carrying on a solemn dance .

Numa had it carefully written out in just what manner the worship of each god was to be car ried on, what sacrifices

MARS

Villa at Rome ) were to be offered , and in what manner. He gave the charge of this worship to the

In the

(

Ludovisi

pon'ti-fex max'i-mus,' or high priest, and taught him also how to tell the will of the godsfromflashesof lightning and the flight of birds.

Thus far, the Romans had been busy chiefly with fighting, but Numa divided among them the lands which Romulus had won, and encouraged them to cultivate the ground. He marked out theirfieldswith stones; and tomakethemfeel it a crime to remove these stones , he set up an altaron the Cap'i-to-line Hill in honorofTer'mi-nus,thegod of boundaries. He also built a tem ple in honor of Ja'nus. In time of war its doors were open, but in peace they were closed; and it is the greatest glory of the reign of Numa that while he was on the thronethe gateswerealwaysclosed. The gates of this temple were flung open, however, almost as soon as Numa died, and a new king, Tul lus Hos-til'i-us, was chosen . He believed that his peo ple would become slow and dull if they gave up fighting, and there fore he seized the first excuse for a war, and in a little while the Romans and the people of Alba Longa were drawn up on thefield of battle. While both lines were awaiting the signal to make an attack, the Alban general asked to speak with

1 See picture on page 170 .

ETRUSCAN WARRIOR ( From a Bronze Statuette )