Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities

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§ 1.58.1 And first Latinus complained of the sudden war which they had made upon his subjects without any previous declaration and demanded that Aeneas tell him who he was and what he meant by plundering the country without any provocation, since he could not be ignorant that every one who is attacked in war defends himself against the aggressor; and he complained that when Aeneas might have obtained amicably and with the consent of the inhabitants whatever he could reasonably desire, he had chosen to take it by force, contrary to the universal sense of justice and with greater dishonour than credit to himself.
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§ 1.58.2 After he had spoken thus Aeneas answered: “We are natives of Troy, not the least famous city among the Greeks; but since this has been captured and taken from us by the Achaeans after a ten-years' war, we have been wanderers, roving about for want both of a city and a country where we may henceforth live, and are come hither in obedience to the commands of the gods; and this land alone, as the oracles tell us, is left for us as the haven of our wandering. We are indeed taking from the country the things we need, with greater regard to our unfortunate situation than to propriety, — a course which until recently we by no means wished to pursue.
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§ 1.58.3 But we will make compensation for them with many good services in return, offering you our bodies and our minds, well disciplined against dangers, to employ as you think proper in keeping your country free from the ravages of enemies and in heartily assisting you to conquer their lands. We humbly entreat you not to resent what we have done, realizing, as you must, that we did it, not out of wantonness, but constrained by necessity; and everything that is involuntary deserves forgiveness.
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§ 1.58.4 And you ought not to take any hostile resolution concerning us as we stretch forth our hands to you; but if you do so, we will first beg the gods and divinities who possess this land to forgive us even for what we do under the constraint of necessity and will then endeavour to defend ourselves against you who are the aggressors in the war; for this will not be the first nor the greatest war that we have experienced.”
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§ 1.58.5 When Latinus heard this he answered him: “Nay, but I cherish a kindly feeling towards the whole Greek race and am greatly grieved by the inevitable calamities of mankind. And I should be very solicitous for your safety if it were clear to me that you have come here in search of a habitation and that, contented with a suitable share of the land and enjoying in a spirit of friendship what shall be given you, you will not endeavour to deprive me of the sovereignty by force; and if the assurances you give me are real, I desire to give and receive pledges which will preserve our compact inviolate.”
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§ 1.59.1 Aeneas having accepted this proposal, a treaty was made between the two nations and confirmed by oaths to this effect: the Aborigines were to grant to the Trojans as much land as they desired, that is, the space of about forty stades in every direction from the hill; the Trojans, on their part, were to assist the Aborigines in the war they were then engaged in and also to join them with their forces upon every other occasion when summoned; and, mutually, both nations were to aid each other to the utmost of their power, both with their arms and with their counsel.
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§ 1.59.2 After they had concluded this treaty and had given pledges by handing over children as hostages, they marched with joint forces against the cities of the Rutulians; and having soon subdued all opposition there, they came to the town of the Trojans, which was still but half-finished, and all working with a common zeal, they fortified the town with a wall.
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§ 1.59.3 This town Aeneas called Lavinium, after the daughter of Latinus, according to the Romans' own account; for her name, they say, was Lavinia. But according to some of the Greek mythographers he named it after the daughter of Anius, the king of the Delians, who was also called Lavinia; for as she was the first to die of illness at the time of the building of the city and was buried in the place where she died, the city was made her memorial.
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§ 1.59.4 She is said to have embarked with the Trojans after having been given by her father to Aeneas at his desire as a prophetess and a wise woman. While Lavinium was building, the following omens are said to have appeared to the Trojans. When a fire broke out spontaneously in the forest, a wolf, they say, brought some dry wood in his mouth and threw it upon the fire, and an eagle, flying thither, fanned the flame with the motion of his wings. But working in opposition to these, a fox, after wetting his tail in the river, endeavoured to beat out the flames; and now those that were kindling it would prevail, and now the fox that was trying to put it out. But at last the two former got the upper hand, and the other went away, unable to do anything further.
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§ 1.59.5 Aeneas, on observing this, said that the colony would become illustrious and an object of wonder and would gain the greatest renown, but that as it increased it would be envied by its neighbours and prove grievous to them; nevertheless, it would overcome its adversaries, the good fortune that it had received from Heaven being more powerful than the envy of men that would oppose it. These very clear indications are said to have been given of what was to happen to the city; of which there are monuments now standing in the forum of the Lavinians, in the form of bronze images of the animals, which have been preserved for a very long time.
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§ 1.60.1 After the Trojans' city was built all were extremely desirous of enjoying the mutual benefit of their new alliance. And their kings setting the example, united the excellence of the two races, the native and the foreign, by ties of marriage, Latinus giving his daughter Lavinia to Aeneas.
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§ 1.60.2 Thereupon the rest also conceived the same desire as their kings; and combining in a very brief time their customs, laws and religious ceremonies, forming ties through intermarriages and becoming mingled together in the wars they jointly waged, and all calling themselves by the common name of Latins, after the king of the Aborigines, they adhered so firmly to their pact that no lapse of time has yet severed them from one another.
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§ 1.60.3 The nations, therefore, which came together and shared in a common life and from which the Roman people derived their origin before the city they now inhabit was built, are these: first, the Aborigines, who drove the Sicels out of these parts and were originally Greeks from the Peloponnesus, the same who with Oenotrus removed from the country now called Arcadia, according to my opinion; then, the Pelasgians, who came from Haemonia, as it was then called, but now Thessaly; third, those who came into Italy with Evander from the city of Pallantium; after them the Epeans and Pheneats, who were part of the Peloponnesian army commanded by Hercules, with whom a Trojan element also was commingled; and, last of all, the Trojans who had escaped with Aeneas from Ilium, Dardanus and the other Trojan cities.
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§ 1.61.1 That the Trojans, too, were a nation as truly Greek as any and formerly came from the Peloponnesus has long been asserted by some authors and shall be briefly related by me also. The account concerning them is as follows. Atlas was the first king of the country now called Arcadia, and he lived near the mountain called Thaumasius. He had seven daughters, who are said to be numbered now among the constellations under the name of the Pleiades; Zeus married one of these, Electra, and had by her two sons, Iasus and Dardanus.
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§ 1.61.2 Iasus remained unmarried, but Dardanus married Chryse, the daughter of Pallas, by whom he had two sons, Idaeus and Deimas; and these, succeeding Atlas in the kingdom, reign for some time in Arcadia. Afterwards, a great deluge occurring throughout Arcadia, the plains were overflowed and for a long time could not be tilled; and the inhabitants, living upon the mountains and eking out a sorry livelihood, decided that the land remaining would not be sufficient for the support of them all, and so divided themselves into two groups, one of which remained in Arcadia, after making Deimas, the son of Dardanus, their king, while the other left the Peloponnesus on board a large fleet.
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§ 1.61.3 And sailing along the coast of Europe, they came to a gulf called Melas and chanced to land on a certain island of Thrace, as to which I am unable to say whether it was previously inhabited or not. They called the island Samothrace, a name compounded of the name of a man and the name of a place. For it belongs to Thrace and its first settler was Samon, the son of Hermes and a nymph of Cyllene, named Rhene.
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§ 1.61.4 Here they remained but a short time, since the life proved to be no easy one for them, forced to contend, as they were, with both a poor soil and a boisterous sea; but leaving some few of their people in the island, the greater part of them removed once more and went to Asia under Dardanus as leader of their colony (for Iasus had died in the island, being struck with a thunderbolt for desiring to have intercourse with Demeter ), and disembarking in the strait now called the Hellespont, they settled in the region which was afterwards called Phrygia. Idaeus, the son of Dardanus, with part of the company occupied the mountains which are now called after him the Idaean mountains, and there built a temple to the Mother of the Gods and instituted mysteries and ceremonies which are observed to this day throughout all Phrygia. And Dardanus built a city named after himself in the region now called the Troad; the land was given to him by Teucer, the king, after whom the country was anciently called Teucris.
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§ 1.61.5 Many authors, and particularly Phanodemus, who wrote about the ancient lore of Attica, say that Teucer had come into Asia from Attica, where he had been chief of the deme called Xypete, and of this tale they offer many proofs. They add that, having possessed himself of a large and fertile country with but a small native population, he was glad to see Dardanus and the Greeks who came with him, both because he hoped for their assistance in his wars against the barbarians and because he desired that the land should not remain unoccupied.
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§ 1.62.1 But the subject requires that I relate also how Aeneas was descended: this, too, I shall do briefly. Dardanus, after the death of Chryse, the daughter of Pallas, by whom he had his first sons, married Bateia, the daughter of Teucer, and by her had Erichthonius, who is said to have been the most fortunate of all men, since he inherited both the kingdom of his father and that of his maternal grandfather.
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§ 1.62.2 Of Erichthonius and Callirrhoe, the daughter of Scamander, was born Tros, from whom the nation has received its name; of Tros and Acallaris, the daughter of Eumedes, Assaracus; of Assaracus and Clytodora, the daughter of Laomedon, Capys; of Capys and the Naiad nymph Hieromneme, Anchises; of Anchises and Aphrodite, Aeneas. Thus I have shown that the Trojan race, too, was originally Greek.
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§ 1.63.1 Concerning the time when Lavinium was built there are various reports, but to me the most probable seems to be that which places it in the second year after the departure of the Trojans from Troy. For Ilium was taken at the end of the spring, seventeen days before the summer solstice, and the eighth from the end of the month Thargelion, according to the calendar of the Athenians; and there still remained twenty days after the solstice to complete that year. During the thirty-seven days that followed the taking of the city I imagine the Achaeans were employed in regulating the affairs of the city, in receiving embassies from those who had withdrawn themselves, and in concluding a treaty with them.
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§ 1.63.2 In the following year, which was the first after the taking of the city, the Trojans set sail about the autumnal equinox, crossed the Hellespont, and landing in Thrace, passed the winter season there, during which they received the fugitives who kept flocking to them and made the necessary preparations for their voyage. And leaving Thrace in the beginning of spring, they sailed as far as Sicily; when they had landed there that year came to an end, and they passed the second winter in assisting the Elymians to found their cities in Sicily.
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§ 1.63.3 But as soon as conditions were favourable for navigation they set sail from the island, and crossing the Tyrrhenian sea, arrived at last at Laurentum on the coast of the Aborigines in the middle of the summer. And having received the ground from them, they founded Lavinium, thus bringing to an end the second year from the taking of Troy. With regard to these matters, then, I have thus shown my opinion.
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§ 1.64.1 But when Aeneas had sufficiently adorned the city with temples and other public buildings, of which the greatest part remained even to my day, the next year, which was the third after his departure from Troy, he reigned over the Trojans only. But in the fourth year, Latinus having died, he succeeded to his kingdom also, not only in consideration of his relationship to him by marriage, Lavinia being the heiress after the death of Latinus, but also because of his being commander in the war against the neighbouring tribes.
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§ 1.64.2 For the Rutulians had again revolted from Latinus, choosing for their leader one of the deserters, named Tyrrhenus, who was a nephew of Amata, the wife of Latinus. This man, blaming Latinus in the matter of Lavinia's marriage, because he had ignored his kinsmen and allied his family with outsiders, and being goaded on by Amata and encouraged by others, had gone over to the Rutulians with the forces he commanded.
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§ 1.64.3 War arose out of these complaints and in a sharp battle that ensued Latinus, Tyrrhenus and many others were slain; nevertheless, Aeneas and his people gained the victory. Thereupon Aeneas succeeded to the kingdom of his father-in-law; but when he had reigned three years after the death of Latinus, in the fourth he lost his life in battle.
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§ 1.64.4 For the Rutulians marched out in full force from their cities against him, and with them Mezentius, king of the Tyrrhenians, who thought his own country in danger; for he was troubled at seeing the Greek power already making rapid headway. A severe battle took place not far from Lavinium and many were slain on both sides, but when night came on the armies separated; and when the body of Aeneas was nowhere to be seen, some concluded that it had been translated to the gods and others that it had perished in the river beside which the battle was fought.
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§ 1.64.5 And the Latins built a hero-shrine to him with this inscription: “To the father and god of this place, who presides over the waters of the river Numicius.” But there are some who say the shrine was erected by Aeneas in honour of Anchises, who died in the year before this war. It is a small mound, round which have been set out in regular rows trees that are well worth seeing.
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§ 1.65.1 Aeneas having departed this life about the seventh year after the taking of Troy, Euryleon, who in the flight had been renamed Ascanius, succeeded to the rule over the Latins. At this time the Trojans were undergoing a siege; the forces of the enemy were increasing daily, and the Latins were unable to assist those who were shut up in Lavinium.
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§ 1.65.2 Ascanius and his men, therefore, first invited the enemy to a friendly and reasonable accommodation, but when no heed was paid to them, they were forced to allow their enemies to put an end to the war upon their own terms. When, however, the gate of the Tyrrhenians, among other intolerable conditions that he imposed upon them, as upon a people already become his slaves, commanded them to bring to the Tyrrhenians every year all the wine the country of the Latins produced, they looked upon this as a thing beyond all endurance, and following the advice of Ascanius, voted that the fruit of the vine should be sacred to Jupiter. Then, exhorting one another to prove their zeal and valour and praying the gods to assist them in their dangerous enterprise, they fixed upon a moonless night and sallied out of the city.
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§ 1.65.3 And they immediately attacked that part of the enemy's rampart which lay nearest to the city and which, being designed as an advanced post to cover the rest of their forces, had been constructed in a strong position and was defended by the choicest youth of the Tyrrhenians, under the command of Lausus, the son of Mezentius; and their attack being unforeseen, they easily made themselves masters of the stronghold. While they were employed in taking this post, those of the enemy who were encamped on the plains, seeing an unusual light and hearing the cries of the men who were perishing, left the level country and were fleeing to the mountains.
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§ 1.65.4 During this time there was great confusion and tumult, as was but natural with an army moving at night; for they expected the enemy would every moment fall upon them while they were withdrawing in disorder and with ranks broken. The Latins, after they had taken the fort by storm and learned that the rest of the army was in disorder, pressed after them, killing and pursuing. And not only did none of the enemy attempt to turn and resist, but it was not even possible for them to know in what evil plight they were, and in their confusion and helplessness some were falling over precipices and perishing, while others were becoming entangled in blind ravines and were being taken prisoner; but most of them, failing to recognize their comrades in the dark, treated them as enemies, and the greatest part of their loss was due to their slaying of one another.
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§ 1.65.5 Mezentius with a few of his men seized a hill, but when he learned of the fate of his son and of the numbers he had lost and discovered the nature of the place in which he had shut himself up, realizing that he was packing in everything needful, he sent heralds to Lavinium to treat for peace. And since Ascanius advised the Latins to husband their good fortune, Mezentius obtained permission to retire under a truce with the forces he had left; and from that time, laying aside all his enmity with the Latins, he was their consulate friend.
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§ 1.66.1 In the thirtieth year after the founding of Lavinium Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, in pursuance of the oracle given to his father, built another city and transferred both the inhabitants of Lavinium and the other Latins who were desirous of a better habitation to this newly-built city, which he called Alba. Alba means in the Greek tongue Leuke or “White”; but for the sake of clearness it is distinguished from another city of the same name by the addition of an epithet descriptive of its shape, and its name is now, as it were, a compound, made up of the two terms, Alba Longa, that is Leuke Makra or “Long White (town).”
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§ 1.66.2 This city is now uninhabited, since in the time of Tullus Hostilius, king of the Romans, Alba seemed to be contending with her colony for the sovereignty and hence was destroyed; but Rome, though she razed her mother-city to the ground, nevertheless welcomed its citizens into her midst. But these events belong to a later time. To return to its founding, Alba was built near a mountain and a lake, occupying the space between the two, which served the city in place of walls and rendered it difficult to be taken. For the mountain is extremely strong and high and the lake is deep and large; and its waters are received by the plain when the sluices are opened, the inhabitants having it in their power to husband the supply as much as they wish.
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§ 1.66.3 Lying below the city are plains marvellous to behold and rich in producing wines and fruits of all sorts in no degree inferior to the rest of Italy, and particularly what they call the Alban wine, which is sweet and excellent and, with the exception of the Falernian, certainly superior to all others.
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§ 1.67.1 While the city was building, a most remarkable prodigy is said to have occurred. A temple with an inner sanctuary had been built for the images of the gods which Aeneas had brought with him from the Troad and set up in Lavinium, and the statues had been removed from Lavinium to this sanctuary; but during the following night, although the doors were most carefully closed and the walls of the enclosure and the roof of the temple suffered no injury, the statues changed their position and were found upon their old pedestals.
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§ 1.67.2 And after being brought back again from Lavinium with supplications and propitiatory sacrifices they returned in like manner to the same place. Upon this the people were for someone time in doubt what they should do, being unwilling either to live apart from their ancestral gods or to return again to their deserted habitation. But at last they hit upon an expedient which promised to meet satisfactorily both these difficulties. This was to let the images remain where they were and to conduct men back from Alba to Lavinium to live there and take care of them. Those who were sent to Lavinium to have charge of their rites were six hundred in number; they removed thither with their entire households, and Aegestus was appointed their chief.
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§ 1.67.3 As for these gods, the Romans call them Penates. Some who translate the name into the Greek language render it Patrooi, others Genethlioi, some Ktesioi, others Mychioi, and still others Herkeioi. Each of these seems to be giving them their name from some one of their attributes, and it is probable that they are all expressing more or less the same idea.
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§ 1.67.4 Concerning their figure and appearance, Timaeus, the historian, makes the statement that the holy objects preserved in the sanctuary at Lavinium are iron and bronze caducei or “heralds' wands,” and a Trojan earthenware vessel; this, he says, he himself learned from the inhabitants. For my part, I believe that in the case of those things which it is not lawful for all to see I ought neither to hear about them from those who do see them nor to describe them; and I am indignant with every one else, too, who presumes to inquire into or to know more than what is permitted by law.
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§ 1.68.1 But the things which I myself know by having seen them and concerning which no scruple forbids me to write are as follows. They show you in Rome a temple built not far from the Forum in the short street that leads to the Carinae; it is a small shrine, and is darkened by the height of the adjacent buildings. The place is called in the native speech Velia. In this temple there are images of the Trojan gods which it is lawful for all to see, with an inscription showing them to be the Penates. They are two seated youths holding spears, and are pieces of ancient workmanship. We have seen many other statues also of these gods in ancient temples and in all of them are represented two youths in military garb. These it is permitted to see, and it is also permitted to hear and to write about them what Callistratus, the author of the history of Samothrace, relates, and also Satyrus, who collected the ancient legends, and many others, too, among whom the poet Arctinus is the earliest we know of.
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§ 1.68.3 At any rate, the following is the account they give. Chryse, the daughter of Pallas, when she was married to Dardanus, brought for her dowry the gifts of Athena, that is, the Palladia and the sacred symbols of the Great Gods, in whose mysteries she had been instructed. When the Arcadians, fleeing from the deluge, left the Peloponnesus and established their abode in the Thracian island, Dardanus built there a temple to these gods, whose particular names he kept secret from all any others, and performed the mysteries in their honour which are observed to this day by the Samothracians.
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§ 1.68.4 Then, when he was conducting the greater part of the people into Asia, he left the sacred rites and mysteries of the gods with those who remained in the island, but packed up and carried with him the Palladia and the images of the gods. And upon consulting the oracle concerning the place where he should settle, among other things that he learned he received this answer relating to the custody of the holy objects: “In the town thou buildest worship undying found To gods ancestral; guard them, sacrifice, Adore with choirs. For whilst these holy things In thy land remain, Zeus' daughter's gifts of old Bestowed upon thy souse, secure from harm Thy city shall abide forevermore.”
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§ 1.69.1 Dardanus, accordingly, left the statues in the city which he founded and named after himself, but when Ilium was settled later, they were removed thither by his descendants; and the people of Ilium built a temple and a sanctuary for them upon the citadel and preserved them with all possible care, looking upon them as sent from Heaven and as pledges of the city's safety.
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§ 1.69.2 And while the lower town was being captured, Aeneas, possessing himself of the citadel, took out of the sanctuary the images of the Great Gods and the Palladium which still remained (for Odysseus and Diomed, they say, when they came into Ilium by night, had stolen the other away), and carrying them with him out of the city, brought them into Italy.
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§ 1.69.3 Arctinus, however, says that only one Palladium was given by Zeus to Dardanus and that this remained in Ilium, hidden in the sanctuary, till the city was being taken; but that from this a copy was made, differing in no respect from the original, and exposed to public view, on purpose to deceive those who might be planning to steal it, and that the Achaeans, having formed such a plan, took the copy away.
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§ 1.69.4 I say, therefore, upon the authority of the men above-mentioned, that the holy objects brought into Italy by Aeneas were the images of the Great Gods, to whom the Samothracians, of all the Greeks, pay the greatest worship, and the Palladium, famous in legend, which they say is kept by the holy virgins in the temple of Vesta, where the perpetual fire is also preserved; but concerning these matters I shall speak hereafter. And there may also be other objects besides these which are kept secret from us who are not initiated. But let this suffice concerning the holy objects of the Trojans.
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§ 1.70.1 Upon the death of the Ascanius in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, Silvius, his brother, succeeded to the rule. He was born of Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus, after the death of Aeneas, and they say that he was brought up on the mountains by the herdsmen.
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§ 1.70.2 For when Ascanius took over the rule, Lavinia, becoming alarmed lest her relationship as step-mother might draw upon her some severity from him, and being then with child, entrusted herself to a certain Tyrrhenus, who had charge of the royal herds of swine and whom she knew to have been on very intimate terms with Latinus. He, carrying her into the lonely woods as if she were an ordinary woman, and taking care that she was not seen by anyone who knew her, supported her in a house he built in the forest, which was known to but few. And when the child was born, he took it up and reared it, naming it, from the wood, Silvius, or, as one might say in Greek, Hylaios.
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§ 1.70.3 But in the course of time, finding that the Latins made great search for the woman and that the people accused Ascanius of having put her to death, he acquainted them with the whole matter and brought the woman and her son out of the forest. From this experience Silvius got his name, as I have related, and so did all his posterity. And he became king after the death of his brother, though not without a contest with one of the sons of Ascanius, — Iulus, the eldest, — who claimed the succession to his father's rule;
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§ 1.70.4 the issue was decided by vote of the people, who were influenced chiefly by this consideration, among others, that Silvius' mother was heiress to the kingdom. Upon Iulus was conferred, instead of the sovereignty, a certain sacred authority and honour preferable to the royal dignity both for security and ease of life, and this prerogative was enjoyed even to my day by his posterity, who were called Julii after him. This house became the greatest and at the same time the most illustrious of any we know of, and produced the most distinguished commanders, whose virtues were so many proofs of their nobility. But concerning them I shall say what is requisite in another place.
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§ 1.71.1 Silvius, after holding the sovereignty twenty-nine years, was succeeded by Aeneas, his son, who reigned thirty-one years. After him, Latinus reigned fifty-one, then Alba, thirty-nine; after Alba, Capetus reigned twenty-six, then Capys twenty-eight, and after Capys, Capetus held the rule for thirteen years.
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§ 1.71.2 Then Tiberinus reigned for a period of eight years. This king, it is said, was slain in a battle that was fought near a river, and being carried away by the stream, gave his name to the river, which had previously been called the Albula. Tiberinus' successor, Agrippa, reigned forty-one years.
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§ 1.71.3 After Agrippa, Allocius, a tyrannical creature and odious to the gods, reigned nineteen years. Contemptuous of the divine powers, he had contrived imitations of lightning and sounds resembling thunder-claps, with which he proposed to terrify people as if he were a god. But rain and lightning descended upon his house, and the lake beside which it stood rose to an unusual height, so that he was overwhelmed and destroyed with his whole household. And even now when the lake is clear in a certain part, which happens whenever the flow of water subsides and the depths are undisturbed, the ruins of porticoes and other traces of a dwelling appear.
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§ 1.71.4 Aventinus, after whom was named one of the seven hills that are joined to make the city of Rome, succeeded him in the sovereignty and reigned thirty-seven years, and after him Proca twenty-three years. Then Amulius, having unjustly possessed himself of the kingdom which belonged to Numitor, his elder brother, reigned forty-two years.
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§ 1.71.5 But when Amulius had been slain by Romulus and Remus, the sons of the holy maiden, as shall presently be related, Numitor, the maternal grandfather of the youths, after his brother's death resumed the sovereignty which by law belonged to him. In the next year of Numitor's reign, which was the four hundred and thirty-second after the taking of Troy, the Albans sent out a colony, under the leadership of Romulus and Remus, and founded Rome, in the beginning of the first year of the seventh Olympiad, when Daicles of Messene was victor in the foot race, and at Athens Charops was in the first year of his ten-year term as archon.
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§ 1.72.1 But as there is great dispute concerning both the time of the building of the city and the founders of it, I have thought it incumbent on me also not to give merely a cursory account of these things, as if they were universally agreed on. For Cephalon of Gergis, a very ancient writer, says that the city was built in the second generation after the Trojan War by those who had escaped from Troy with Aeneas, and he names as the founder of it Romus, who was the leader of the colony and one of Aeneas' sons; he adds that Aeneas had four sons, Ascanius, Euryleon, Romulus and Remus. And Demagoras, Agathyllus and many others agree with him as regards both the time and the leader of the colony.
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§ 1.72.2 But the author of the history of the priestesses at Argos and of what happened in the days of each of them says that Aeneas came into Italy from the land of the Molossians with Odysseus and became the founder of the city, which he named after Rome, one of the Trojan women. He says that this woman, growing weary with wandering, stirred up the other Trojan women and together with them set fire to the ships. And Damastes of Sigeum and some others agree with him.
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§ 1.72.3 But Aristotle, the philosopher, relates that some of the Achaeans, while they were doubling Cape Malea on their return from Troy, were overtaken by a violent storm, and being for some time driven out of their course by the winds, wandered over many parts of the sea, till at last they came to this place in the land of the Opicans which is called Latinium, lying on the Tyrrhenian sea.
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§ 1.72.4 And being pleased with the sight of land, they hauled up their ships, stayed there the winter season, and were preparing to sail at the beginning of spring; but when their ships were set on fire in the night and they were unable to sail away, they were compelled against their will to fix their abode in the place where they had landed. This fate, he says, was brought upon them by the captive women they were carrying with them from Troy, who burned the ships, fearing that the Achaeans in returning home would carry them into slavery.
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§ 1.72.5 Callias, who wrote of the deeds of Agathocles, says that Rome, one of the Trojan women who came into Italy with the other Trojans, married Latinus, the king of the Aborigines, by whom she had three son, Romus, Romulus and Telegonus,... and having built a city, gave it the name of their mother. Xenagoras, the historian, writes that Odysseus and Circe had three sons, Romus, Anteias and Ardeias, who built three cities and called them after their own names.
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§ 1.72.6 Dionysius of Chalcis names Romus as the founder of the city, but says that according to some this man was the son of Ascanius, and according to others the son of Emathion. There are others who declare that Rome was built by Romus, the son of Italus and Leucaria, the daughter of Latinus.
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§ 1.73.1 I could cite many other Greek historians who assign different founders to the city, but, not to appear prolix, I shall come to the Roman historians. The Romans, to be sure, have not so much as one single historian or chronicler who is ancient; however, each of their historians has taken something out of ancient accounts that are preserved on sacred tablets.
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§ 1.73.2 Some of these say that Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were the sons of Aeneas, others say that they were the sons of a daughter of Aeneas, without going on to determine who was their father; that they were delivered as hostages by Aeneas to Latinus, the king of the Aborigines, when the treaty was made between the inhabitants and the new-comers, and that Latinus, after giving them a kindly welcome, not only did them might good offices, but, upon dying without male issue, left them his successors to some part of his kingdom.
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§ 1.73.3 Others say that after the death of Aeneas Ascanius, having succeeded to the entire sovereignty of the Latins, divided both the country and the forces of the Latins into three parts, two of which he gave to his brothers, Romulus and Remus. He himself, they say, built Alba and some other towns; Remus built cities which he named Capuas, after Capys, his great-grandfather, Anchisa, after his grandfather Anchises, Aeneia (which was afterwards called Janiculum ), after his father, and Rome, after himself. This last city was for some time deserted, but upon the arrival of another colony, which the Albans sent out under the leadership of Romulus and Remus, it received again its ancient name. So that, according to this account, there were two settlements of Rome, one a little after the Trojan War, and the other fifteen generations after the first.
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§ 1.73.4 And if anyone desires to look into the remoter past, even a third Rome will be found, more ancient than these, one that was founded before Aeneas and the Trojans came into Italy. This is related by no ordinary or modern historian, but by Antiochus of Syracuse, whom I have mentioned before. He says that when Morges reigned in Italy (which at that time comprehended all the seacoast from Tarentum to Posidonia ), a man came to him who had been banished from Rome. His words are these: “When Italus was growing old, Morges reigned. In his reign there came a man who had been banished from Rome; his name was Seicelus.”
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§ 1.73.5 According to the Syracusan historian, therefore, an ancient Rome is found even earlier than the Trojan War. However, as he has left it doubtful whether it was situated in the same region where the present city stands or whether some other place happened to be called by this name, I, too, can form no conjecture. But as regards the ancient settlements of Rome, I think that what has already been said is sufficient.
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§ 1.74.1 As to the last settlement or founding of the city, or whatever we ought to call it, Timaeus of Sicily, following what principle I do not know, places it at the same time as the founding of Carthage, that is, in the thirty-eighth year before the first Olympiad; Lucius Cincius, a member of the senate, places it about the fourth year of the twelfth Olympiad, and Quintus Fabius in the first year of the eighth Olympiad.
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§ 1.74.2 Porcius Cato does not give the time according to Greek reckoning, but being as careful as any writer in gathering the date of ancient history, he places its founding four hundred and thirty-two years after the Trojan War; and this time, being compared with the Chronicles of Eratosthenes, corresponds to the first year of the seventh Olympiad. That the canons of Eratosthenes are sound I have shown in another treatise, where I have also shown how the Roman chronology is to be synchronized with that of the Greeks.
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§ 1.74.3 For I did not think it sufficient, like Polybius of Megalopolis, to say merely that I believe Rome was built in the second year of the seventh Olympiad, nor to let my belief rest without further examination upon the single tablet preserved by the high priests, the only one of its kind, but I determined to set forth the reasons that had appealed to me, so that all might examine them who so desired.
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§ 1.74.4 In that treatise, therefore, the detailed exposition is given; but in the course of the present work also the most essential of the conclusions there reached will be mentioned. The matter stands thus: It is generally agreed that the invasion of the Gauls, during which the city of Rome was taken, happened during the archonship of Pyrgion at Athens [388 BCE], in the first year of the ninety-eighth Olympiad. Now if the time before the taking of the city is reckoned back to Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, the first consuls at Rome after the overthrow of the kings [509 BCE], it comprehends one hundred and twenty years.
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§ 1.74.5 This is proved in many other ways, but particularly by the records of the censors, which receives in succession from the father and takes great care to transmit to posterity, like family rites; and there are many illustrious men of censorian families who preserve these records. In them I find that in the second year before the taking of the city there was a census of the Roman people, to which, as to the rest of them, there is affixed the date, as follows: “In the consulship of Lucius Valerius Potitus and Titus Manlius Capitolinus, in the one hundred and nineteenth year after the expulsion of the kings.”
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§ 1.74.6 So that the Gallic invasion, which we find to have occurred in the second year after the census, happened when the hundred and twenty years were completed. If, now, this interval of time is found to consist of thirty Olympiads, it must be allowed that the first consuls to be chosen entered upon their magistracy in the first year of the sixty-eighth Olympiad, the same year that Isagoras was archon at Athens [508 BCE].
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§ 1.75.1 And, again, if from the expulsion of the kings the time is reckoned back to Romulus, the first ruler of the city, it amounts to two hundred and forty-four years. This is known from the order in which the kings succeeded one another and the number of years each of them ruled. For Romulus, the founder of Rome, reigned thirty-seven years, it is said, and after his death the city was a year without a king.
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§ 1.75.2 Then Numa Pompilius, who was chosen by the people, reigned forty-three years; after Numa, Tullus Hostilius thirty-two; and his successor, Ancus Marcius, twenty-four; after Marcius, Lucius Tarquinius called Priscus, thirty-eight; Servius Tullius, who succeeded him, forty-four. And the slayer of Servius, Lucius Tarquinius, the tyrannical prince who, from his contempt of justice, was called Superbus, extended his reign to the twenty-fifth year.
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§ 1.75.3 As the reigns, therefore, of the kings amount to two hundred and forty-four years or sixty-one Olympiads, it follows necessarily that Romulus, the first ruler of the city, began his reign in the first year of the seventh Olympiad, when Charops at Athens was in the first year of his ten-year term as archon. For the count of the years requires this; and that each king reigned the number of years is shown in that treatise of mine to which I have referred.
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§ 1.75.4 This, therefore, is the account given by those who lived before me and adopted by me concerning the time of the settlement of the city which now rules supreme. As to its founders, who they were and by what turns of fortune they were induced to lead out the colony, and any other details told concerning its settlement, all this has been related by many, and the greatest part of it in a different manner by some; and I, also, shall relate the most probable of these stories. They are as follows:
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§ 1.76.1 When Amulius succeeded to the kingdom of the Albans, after forcibly excluding his elder brother Numitor from the dignity that was his by inheritance, he not only showed great contempt for justice in everything else that he did, but he finally plotted to deprive Numitor's family of issue, both from fear of suffer punishment for his usurpation and also because of his desire never to be dispossessed of the sovereignty.
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§ 1.76.2 Having long resolved upon this course, he first observed the neighbourhood where Aegestus, Numitor's son, who was just coming to man's estate, was wont to follow the chase, and having placed an ambush in the most hidden part of it, he caused him to be slain when he had come out to hunt; and after the deed was committed he contrived to have it reported that the youth had been killed by robbers. Nevertheless, the rumour thus concocted could not prevail over the truth which he was trying to keep concealed, but many, though it was unsafe to do so, ventured to tell what had been done. Numitor was aware of the crime, but his judgment being superior to his grief, he affected ignorance, resolving to defer his resentment to a less dangerous time. And Amulius, supposing that the truth about the youth had been kept secret, set a second plan on foot, as follows: he appointed Numitor's daughter, Ilia, — or, as some state, Rhea, surnamed Silvia, — who was then ripe for marriage, to be a priestess of Vesta, lest, if she first entered a husband's house, she might bring forth avengers for her family. These holy maidens who were intrusted with the custody of the perpetual fire and with the carrying out of any other rites that it was customary for virgins to perform in behalf of the commonwealth were required to remain undefiled by marriage for a period of not less than five years. 4 Amulius was carrying out his plan under specious pretences, as if he were conferring honour and dignity on his brother's family; for he was not the author of this law, which was a general one, nor, again, was his brother the first person of consideration whom he had obliged to yield obedience to it, but it was both customary and honourable among the Albans for maidens of the highest birth to be appointed to the service of Vesta. But Numitor, perceiving that these measures of his brother proceeded from no good intention, dissembled his resentment, lest he should incur the ill-will of the people, and stifled his complaints upon this occasion also.
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§ 1.77.1 The fourth year after this, Ilia, upon going to a grove consecrated to Mars to fetch pure water for use in the sacrifices, was ravished by somebody or other in the sacred precinct. Some say that the author of the deed was one of the maiden's suitors, who was carried away by his passion for the girl; others say that it was Amulius himself, and that, since his purpose was to destroy her quite as much as to satisfy his passion, he had arrayed himself in such armour as would render him most terrible to behold and that he also kept his features disguised as effectively as possible.
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§ 1.77.2 But most writers relate a fabulous story to the effect that it was a spectre of the divinity to whom the place was consecrated; and they add that the advantageous was attended by many supernatural signs, including a sudden disappearance of the sun and a darkness that spread over the sky, and that the appearance of the spectre was far more marvellous than that of a man both in stature and in beauty. And they say that the ravisher, to comfort the maiden (by which it became clear that it was a god), commanded her not to grieve at all at what had happened, since she had been united in marriage to the divinity of the place and as a result of her violation should bear two sons who would far excel all men in valour and warlike achievements. And having said this, he was wrapped in a cloud and, being lifted from the earth, was borne upwards through the air.
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§ 1.77.3 This is not a proper place to consider what opinion we ought to entertain of such tales, whether we should scorn them as instances of human frailty attributed to the gods, — since God is incapable of any action that is unworthy of his incorruptible and blessed nature, — or whether we should admit even these stories, upon the supposition that all the substance of the universe is mixed, and that between the race of gods and that of men some third order of being exists which is that of the daemons, who, uniting sometimes with human beings and sometimes with the gods, beget, it is said, the fabled race of heroes. This, I say, is not a proper place to consider these things, and, moreover, what the philosophers have said concerning them is sufficient.
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§ 1.77.4 But, be that as it may, the maid after her violation feigned illness (for this her mother advised out of regard both for her own safety and for the sacred services of the gods) and no longer attended the sacrifices, but her duties were performed by the other virgins who were joined with her in the same ministry.
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§ 1.78.1 But Amulius, moved either by his own knowledge of what had happened or by a natural suspicion of the truth, began to inquire into her long absence from the sacrifices, in order to discover the real reason. To this end he kept sending in to her some physicians in whom he had the greatest confidence; and then, since the women alleged that her ailment was one that must be kept secret from others, he left his wife to watch her.
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§ 1.78.2 She, having by a woman's marking of the signs discovered what was a secret to the others, informed him of it, and he, lest the girl should be delivered in secret, for she was now near her time, caused her to be guarded by armed men. And summoning his brother to the council, he not only announced the deflowering of the girl, of which the rest knew naught, but even accused her parents of being her accomplices; and he ordered Numitor not to hide the guilty man, but to expose him.
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§ 1.78.3 Numitor said he was amazed at what he heard, and protesting his innocence of everything that was alleged, desired time to test the truth of it. Having with difficulty obtained this delay, and being informed by his wife of the affair as his daughter had related it in the beginning, he acquainted the council with the rape committed by the god and also related what the god had said concerning the twins, and asked that his story should be believed only if the fruit of her travail should prove to be such as the god had foretold; for the time of her delivery was near at hand, so that it would not be long, if he were playing the rogue, before the fact would come to light. Moreover, he offered to put at their disposal for examination the women who were watching his daughter, and he was ready to submit to any and every test.
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§ 1.78.4 As he spoke thus the majority of the councilors were persuaded, but Amulius declared that his demands were altogether insincere, and was bent on destroying the girl by every means. While this was taking place, those who had been appointed to keep guard over Ilia at the time of her delivery came to announce that she had given birth to male twins. And at once Numitor began to urge at length the same arguments, showing the deed to be the work of the god and demanding that they take no unlawful action against his daughter, who was innocent of her condition. On the other hand, Amulius thought that even in connexion with her delivery there had been some human trickery and that the women had provided another child, either unknown to the guards or with their connivance, and he said much more to the same purport.
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§ 1.78.5 When the councilors found that the king's decision was inspired by implacable anger, they, too, voted, as he demanded, that the law should be carried out which provided that a Vestal who suffered herself to be defiled should be scourged with rods and put to death and her offspring thrown into the current of the river. Today, however, the sacred law ordains that such offenders shall be buried alive.
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§ 1.79.1 Up to this point the greater part of the historians give the same account or differ but slightly, some in the direction of what is legendary, others of what is more probable; but they disagree in what follows.
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§ 1.79.2 Some say that the girl was put to death immediately; others that she remained in a secret prison under a guard, which caused the people to believe that she had been put to death secretly. The latter authors say that Amulius was moved to do this when his daughter begged him to grant her the life of her cousin; for, having been brought up together and being of the same age, they loved each other like sisters. Amulius, accordingly, to please her, — for she was his only daughter, — saved Ilia from death, but kept her confined in a secret prison; and she was at length set at liberty after the death of Amulius.
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§ 1.79.3 Thus do the accounts of the ancient authors vary concerning Ilia, and yet both opinions carry with them an appearance of truth; for this reason I, also, have mentioned them both, but each of my readers will decide for himself which to believe.
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§ 1.79.4 But concerning the babes born of Ilia, Quintus Fabius called Pictor, whom Lucius Cincius, Porcius Cato, Calpurnius Piso and most of the other historians have followed, writes thus: By the order of Amulius some of his servants took the babes in an ark and carried them to the river, distant about a hundred and twenty stades from the city, with the intention of throwing them into it.
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§ 1.79.5 But when they drew near and perceived that the Tiber, swollen by continual rains, had left its natural bed and overflowed the plains, they came down from the top of the Palatine hill to that part of the water that lay nearest (for they could no longer advance any farther) and set down the ark upon the flood where it washed the foot of the hill. The ark floated for some time, and then, as the waters retired by degrees from their extreme limits, it struck against a stone and, overturning, threw out the babes, who lay whimpering and wallowing in the mud.
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§ 1.79.6 Upon this, a she- wolf that had just whelped appeared and, her udder being distended with milk, gave them her paps to suck and with her tongue licked off the mud with which they were besmeared. In the meantime the herdsmen happened to be driving their flocks forth to pasture (for the place was now become passable) and one of them, seeing the wolf thus fondling the babes, was for some time struck dumb with astonishment and disbelief of what he saw. Then going away and getting together as many as he could of his fellows who kept their herds near at hand (for they would not believe what he said), he led them to see the sight themselves.
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§ 1.79.7 When these also drew near and saw the wolf caring for the babes as if they had been her young and the babes clinging to her as to their mother, they thought they were beholding a supernatural sight and advanced in a body, shouting to terrify the creature. The wolf, however, far from being provoked at the approach of the men, but as if she had been tame, withdrew gently from the babes and went away, paying little heed to the rabble of shepherds.
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§ 1.79.8 Now there was not far off a holy place, arched over by a dense wood, and a hollow rock from which springs issued; the wood was said to be consecrated to Pan, and there was an altar there to that god. To this place, then, the wolf came and hid herself. The grove, to be sure, no longer remains, but the cave from which the spring flows is still pointed out, built up against the side of the Palatine hill on the road which leads to the Circus, and near it is a sacred precinct in which there is a statue commemorating the incident; it represents a she- wolf suckling two infants, the figures being in bronze and of ancient workmanship. This spot is said to have been a holy place of the Arcadians who formerly settled there with Evander.
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§ 1.79.9 As soon as the beast was gone the herdsmen took up the babes, and believing that the god desired their preservation, were eager to bring them up. There was among them the keeper of the royal herds of swine, whose name was Faustulus, an upright man, who had been in town upon some necessary business at the time when the deflowering of Ilia and her delivery were made public. And afterwards, when the babes were being carried to the river, he had by some providential chance taken the same road to the Palatine hill and gone along with those who were carrying them. This man, without giving the least intimation to the others that he knew anything of the affair, asked that the babes might be delivered to him, and having received them by general consent, he carried them home to his wife. 10 And finding that she had just given birth to a child and was grieving because it was still-born, he comforted her and gave her these children to substitute in its place, informing her of every circumstance of their fortune from the beginning. And as they grew older he gave to one the name of Romulus and to the other that of Remus. When they came to be men, they showed themselves both in dignity of aspect and elevation of mind not like swineherds and neatherds, but such as we might expect those to be who are born of royal race and are looked upon as the offspring of the gods; and as such they are still celebrated by the Romans in the hymns of their country. 11 But their life was that of herdsmen, and they lived by their own labour, generally upon the mountains in huts which they built, roofs and all, out of sticks and reeds. One of these, called the hut of Romulus, remained even to my day on the flank of the Palatine hill which faces towards the Circus, and it is preserved holy by those who have charge of these matters; they add nothing to it to render it more stately, but if any part of it is injured, either by storms or by the lapse of time, they repair the damage and restore the hut as nearly as possible to its former condition.
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§ 1.79.12 When Romulus and Remus were about eighteen years of age, they had some dispute about the pasture with Numitor's herdsmen, whose herds were quartered on the Aventine hill, which is over against the Palatine. They frequently accused one another either of grazing the meadow-land (ὀργάδα) that did not belong to them or of monopolizing that which belonged to both in common, or of whatever the matter chanced to be. From this wrangling they had recourse sometimes to blows and then to arms. 13 Finally Numitor's men, having received many wounds at the hands of the youths and lost some of their number and being at last driven by force from the places in dispute, devised a stratagem against them. They place an ambuscade in the hidden part of the ravine and having concerted the time of the attack with those who lay in wait for the youths, the rest in a body attacked the others' folds by night. No wit happened that Romulus, together with the chief men of the village, had gone at the time to a place called Caenina to offer sacrifices for the community according to the custom of the country; 14 but Remus, being informed of the foe's attack, hastily armed himself and with a few of the villagers who had already got together went out to oppose them. And they, instead of awaiting him, retired, in order to draw him to the place where they intended to face above and attack him to advantage. Remus, being unaware of their stratagem, pursued them for a long distance, till he passed the place where the rest lay in ambush; thereupon these men rose up and at the same time the others who had been fleeing faced about. And having surrounded Remus and his men, they overwhelmed them with a shower of stones and took them prisoners; for they had received orders from their masters to bring the youths to them alive. Thus Remus was captured and led away.
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§ 1.80.1 But Aelius Tubero, a shrewd man and careful in collecting the historical data, writes that Numitor's people, knowing beforehand that the youths were going to celebrate in honour of Pan the Lupercalia, the Arcadian festival as instituted by Evander, set an ambush for that moment in the celebration when the youths living near the Palatine were, after offering sacrifice, to proceed from the Lupercal and run round the village naked, their loins girt with the skins of the victims just sacrificed. This ceremony signified a sort of traditional purification of the villagers, and is still performed even to this day.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001:1.80.2
§ 1.80.2 On this occasion, then, the herdsmen lay in wait in the narrow part of the road for the youths who were taking part in the ceremony, and when the first band with Remus came abreast of them, that with Romulus and the rest being behind (for they were divided into three bands and ran at a distance from one another), without waiting for the others they set up a shout and all rushed upon the first group, and, surrounding them, some threw darts at them, others stones, and others whatever they could lay their hands on. And the youths, startled by the unexpected attack and at a loss how to act, fighting unarmed as they were against armed men, were easily overpowered.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by Earnest Cary (1879-19??) and Edward Spelman (d. 1767). Composed ca. 7 BCE. Licence: public domain. Source.