SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK
Why was it better to have two consuls than one king?
Valerius tells why he wishes the Valerian Law to be passed . Lars Porsena tells his little son the story of Horatius at the bridge .
HOW THE PLEBEIANS WON THEIR RIGHTS
The preceding stories of gods and kings and heroes are told of the first two hundred and fifty years after the supposed date of the founding of Rome , that is , from 753 B. c . to 496 B. C. In one way they are false . For instance, there never was a god Mars to be the father of Romulus and Remus ; and no nation ever suddenly gave up fighting and began to spend the time in cultivating the ground , as the legends say was done in the days of Numa . Indeed , there is no authentic history of Rome with definite dates until at earliest 390 B. C. Nevertheless , even in the most impossible of these stories there is always some bit of truth for a foundation . By search ing for this, we learn that Rome was founded by the Latins to protect them from the Etruscans; that after much hard fighting, two other villages united with the Romans, took the level space between the two hills for their forum , or public square , and built on the Capitoline Hill a strong citadel, or fort , which should serve to defend them both ; and that later they were joined by other settlers who lived on the Ca'li-an Hill . Rome is said to have been founded 753 B.C. A century
HOW THE PLEBEIANS WON THEIR RIGHTS 33
and a half later , the city walls , then nearly five miles in length , inclosed seven hills , the Qui-ri'nal , Vim'i-nal, Es'
qui- line, Cælian , Aventine , Palatine , and Capitoline . That is why Rome is often spoken of as the seven-hilled city .
The chief reason why Rome grew so rapidly was because it had so excellent a location . There were other groups of hills in Italy and other settlements on them , but in these other groups , the hills were higher and farther apart , and the set tlements could be independent of one another and did not have to unite ; therefore they increased in size slowly . In another way the location of Rome was most desirable . It was beside the Tiber , and for that reason the Romans could carry on trade with all the districts through which the Tiber and its branches flowed . Moreover, it was far enough from
a
RUINS OF THE ROMAN FORUM
the sea to be safe from the attacks of pirates. No other town in Italy had so many advantages .
There was one great disadvantage , however, and this was that the people were not united . Servius Tullius had done a good deal to bring them together when he admitted all land owners to the army, but the old distinction of patricians and plebeians was by no means forgotten , and the patricians still had many privileges which were not shared by the plebeians.
In all the fighting between the Romans and the friends of Tarquinius, the plebeians had suffered most. When there was warfare in the summer, most of the patricians could have their land cared for by slaves ; but the plebeian had to go to the army and leave his farm with no one to cultivate it or gather in the crops. He was fortunate if the enemy did not destroy the crops altogether, steal the cattle, and burn the house . The plebeian was required to pay taxes , but he re ceived no pay for his service in the army , and no one thought of asking the state to make good his losses . The result was that the plebeian must either starve or borrow of some patrician . Borrowing was dangerous business in Rome . If a man did not pay his debt within thirty days of the appointed time, the law was that he should be imprisoned , loaded down with chains , and fed on bread and water for thirty days . If he did not pay then , he might be sold as a slave or even put to death . One day , fifteen years after Tarquinius was driven out , an old man came into the forum . His clothes were nothing but rags , and he was thin and pale . The people gathered around him . I know him ," said more than one of them . He was an officer and a brave soldier . See on