PART III.

EXERCISES.

1. THE Latins founded a colony on the Tiber to guard the river against the Etruscans of whom they were afraid. This colony was called Rome, and as it was founded upon the great river of that part of Italy, it soon became of importance for trade, as well as for keeping off the Etruscans. Now this is all we can really know about the founding of Rome, but the Romans themselves tell this story about it. A wicked king called Amulius ruled in Alba Longa. He had robbed his elder brother of the kingdom, and put his sons to death, but a daughter of his had twin sons whose father was the god Mars. Amulius ordered them to be thrown into the river Tiber; but they floated down the stream till they stuck near the place where Rome was afterwards built. They were fed first by a she-wolf, and afterwards were found and brought up by a shepherd. When they had grown up they were made known to their grandfather, whom they restored to his throne after slaying the wicked Amulius. Then the youths, whose names were Romulus and Remus, determined to build a city on the Tiber. They quarrelled whose city it should be, and Remus was killed in the quarrel. So Romulus built the city, and called it Rome after his own name, and was its first king, and made his city great in war. He was taken up to heaven by his father Mars, and was worshipped by the Romans as a god,

2. When all was ready, Lucius waited for the season of the harvest, when the commons who loved the king were in the fields getting in their corn. Then he went suddenly

to the forum with a band of armed men, and seated himself on the king's throne before the doors of the senate-house, where he was wont to judge the people. And they ran to the king and told him that Lucius was sitting on his throne. Upon this the old man went in haste to the forum, and when he saw Lucius he asked him wherefore he had dared to sit on the king's seat. And Lucius answered that it was his father's throne and that he had more right in it than Servius. Then he seized the old man and threw him down the steps of the senate-house to the ground, and he went into the senate-house and called together the senators, as if he were already king. Servius meanwhile arose and began to make his way home to his house; but when he was come near to the Esquiline Hill, some whom Lucius had sent after him overtook him and slew him and left him in his blood in the middle of the way. Then Tullia mounted her chariot, and drove into the forum, and called Lucius out of the senatehouse, and saluted him as king. But he bade her go home; and as she was going home the body of her father was lying in the way. The driver of the chariot stopped and showed to Tullia where her father lay in his blood. But she bade him drive on, and so went to her home with her father's blood upon the wheels of her chariot.

3. There was a wooden bridge over the Tiber at the bottom of the hill, and the Etruscans followed close upon the Romans to win the bridge, but a single man, named Horatius Cocles, stood fast upon the bridge and faced the Etruscans; two others then resolved to stay with him, Spurius Lartius and Titus Herminius; and these three men stopped the Etruscans, while the Romans, who had fled over the river, were busy in cutting away the bridge. When it was all nearly cut away, Horatius made his two companions leave him and pass over the bridge into the city. Then he stood alone on the bridge and defied all the army of the Etruscans; and they showered their javelins upon him, and

But

he caught them on his shield and stood yet unhurt. just as they were rushing on him to drive him from his post by main force, the last beams of the bridge were cut away, and it all fell with a mighty crash into the river; and while the Etruscans wondered and stopped in their course, Horatius turned and prayed to the god of the river, "O Father Tiber, I pray thee to receive these arms, and me who bear them, and to let thy waters befriend and save me. Then he leaped into the river, and though the darts fell thick around him, yet they did not hit him, and he swam across to the city, safe and sound.

4. At last, only sixteen years after the driving out of the kings, the plebeians thought that this state of things could not be borne any longer. So they marched out of Rome in a body, and took up a position on a hill a few miles away from the city, and declared that they would found there a new plebeian city, and leave the patricians to live in Rome by themselves. You may imagine the patricians did not like being left in this way, so they sent to the plebeians a wise man, Menenius Agrippa, to persuade them to come back. He told them a fable: "Once upon a time the other members of the body conspired against the belly; they declared that they had all the work to do, while the belly lay quietly in the middle of the body and enjoyed without any labor everything they brought it. So they all struck work, and agreed to starve the belly into subjection. But while they starved the belly, the whole body began to waste away, and all the members found that they were becoming weaker themselves. So you plebeians will find that in trying to starve out the patricians you will ruin yourselves." The plebeians thought there was much truth in this and they agreed to go back on condition they might have officers of their own to protect them. These officers were called Tribunes, and their duty was to protect all plebeians from wrong. They could deliver any man from the patrician.

magistrates; their houses were to be places of refuge for any one who was pursued; their doors were to stand open day and night. Moreover any one who laid hands upon them was to be outlawed. Their persons were to be sacred as those of heralds.

5. The Roman people scarcely ever underwent a greater danger than in the war with the Volscians. Coriolanus, leading the enemy, in a series of uninterrupted victories had already advanced almost to the city walls; already had the Romans given up all hope of peace, and were preparing to endure a siege; already the women filled the streets with their cries, and ran to all the sacred places, especially to the temple of Juppiter Capitolinus. There, on the top of the steps of the temple, Valeria, turning to the women, said, "There is one means of safety still left, and it depends upon you alone." When all, with tears, begged to know what they could do, she said: "Come all of you with me to the house of Veturia and implore her to have pity upon the city, and especially the women, and to go into the enemy's camp, and beseech her son with prayers and tears not to bring yet greater harm upon his country." Thereupon the whole company went to Veturia, who, in wonder, asked why they came in such numbers to her debased and unfortunate house. Then Valeria embraced her knees, and said: "Be reconciled and hear the prayer of those who have done no wrong against thee or thy son, but who, if the city be taken, must suffer the utmost misfortunes. Go, beg thy son to make peace with his countrymen and return to his native land. If thou bringest him back, thou wilt win undying glory, and make the women honored in the sight of the men, for having ended a war which they themselves could not end." Veturia granted their prayer and saved the city.

6. Another story which the Romans tell of a war against the Equians, shows how simple their customs were, and

how all the citizens served the state. The consul Minucius was warring against the Equians, but they had shut him. up in a steep, narrow valley, and guarded the mouth of it so that he could not get out. News was brought to Rome, and the Senate said, "There is only one man who can help us : let us make Lucius Quinctius dictator." So they sent messengers to Lucius Quinctius whose surname was the curlyhaired. He was at his farm on which he lived, and was ploughing without his cloak, when the messengers of the Senate found him. So he called to his wife to bring him his cloak, that he might show respect to the messengers. They then hailed him as dictator, and brought him to Rome. And he ordered all who could bear arms to get ready to march, and to take with them provisions and twelve long stakes of wood. So he marched out with his army, and came upon the Equians by night. His soldiers raised a shout, which cheered the consul and his men, who knew that help had come, and so fell upon the Equians. But Lucius bade his men dig a ditch around the Æquians and make a hedge round them with their wooden stakes. This they did all night, and when it was morning the Equians found themselves shut in in their turn. Then they surrendered to the dictator; and so he delivered the consul and his army, and came back to Rome in triumph. But he laid down his office of dictator at once, and went back to his farm.

7. Finally the plebeians asked that the consuls and tribunes also should cease, and that ten new magistrates should be elected from the patricians and plebeians alike. These magistrates were to find out the laws, and write them up in the forum, where the people gathered together, so that every one should know them, and no man should be unjustly oppressed. Till this time the patricians had kept the laws to themselves, and so had been able to judge the plebeians as they chose. For ten years there were bitter