name for a chief or prince.1 The Etruscan settlement on the Cælian is placed by some authors in the time of Tullus Hostilius, of Ancus Marcius, and even of Tarquinius Priscus. But authority preponderates in favour of the first statement; and if it be correct, we already find, in the reign of Romulus, three distinct races settled at Rome; and of these the Roman race appears to have been far from enjoying the preponderance, to judge from the fact that, of the six subsequent kings of Rome, only one, Tullus Hostilius, was of Roman descent, and that the rest were either Sabines or Etruscans. The original Etruscan settlement on the Calian was not, however, altogether a permanent one. A portion of the new colonists having incurred the suspicion of the Romans, they were compelled to leave the hill and take up their abode between the Capitoline and the Palatine, a spot commanded by both those hills, which derived from its new inhabitants the name of VICUS Tuscus. The remainder of the Etruscans were removed to a hill called Cæliolus, which appears to have been a portion or branch of the Calian.2

Thus the Romans of the Palatine city with their Etruscan allies, on the one hand, and on the other the Sabines dwelling on the Capitoline and Quirinal, formed two distinct yet allied and friendly cities, governed respectively by Romulus and Tatius. The former of those monarchs continued to reside on the Palatine near the Scale Cacî and descent towards the VALLIS MURCIA, not far from the modern church of Sta. Anastasia; while Tatius is supposed to have lived on that southern part of Mons Saturnius. subsequently occupied by the Ædes Monetæ.3 The gate forming the entrance to the Sabine city, the same which

1 Dionys. H. ii. 37, 42 sq.; Cic. Rep. ii. 8; Varro, L. L. v. 46. Propertius calls the Etruscan Lucmo and Lucomedius. Eleg. iv. 1, 29, and 2, 51.

2 Tac. Ann. iv. 65. Sometimes, however, the name of the Vicus

Tuscus is referred to the Tuscans who took refuge at Rome after the defeat of Aruns at Aricia in the second, or, according to Dionysius, fourth year of the Republic. Liv. ii. 14; Dionys. v. 36.

Plut. Rom. 20.

had been betrayed to their army by Tarpeia, lay on the
north-east side of the Capitoline Hill, a little to the north
of the Arch of Septimius Severus. Afterwards, when the
Roman and Sabine cities were amalgamated into one in
the reign of Numa, and consequently the gate had become
useless, its site was occupied by the TEMPLE OF JANUS, the
celebrated index of peace and war.1 The space under the
eastern foot of the Capitoline which afterwards became
the Roman Forum served as a common place of meeting
to the inhabitants of both cities, the swampy parts having
been filled up with earth; while business of state between
the two kings and their senates was transacted on a more
elevated spot called the VULCANAL,2 which lay above the
north-western corner of the Forum, and close to the gate,
or Janus, of the Sabine city already described. Romulus
had consecrated this area to Vulcan, and had erected
upon
it an altar to that deity; whose place of worship,
as in this instance, was allowed to be established only
outside the city boundaries. It seems probable that the
Vulcanal owed its name to some volcanic agency which
had manifested itself at this spot; since Ovid, in his ver-
sion of the legend of Tarpeia already quoted, introduces
Janus describing how he repulsed the Sabines by ejacu-
lating upon them streams of hot sulphureous water :

Oraque, qua pollens ope sum, fontana reclusi,
Sumque repentinas ejaculatus aquas.
Ante tamen calidis subjeci sulphura venis,
Clauderet ut Tatio fervidus humor iter.1

From the Sabines, as we have observed, were derived a great part of the Roman superstitions and religious observances. Tatius is said to have dedicated many temples to the gods, and especially to SEMO SANCUS, or Dius

1 See Ovid, Fasti, i. 255 sqq.

2 Dionys. ii. 50.

Plut. Q. Rom. 44; Vitruvius,

Fasti, i. 269 sqq. So also Varro: 'Ad Janum geminum aquæ calda fuerunt.'-De L. L. v. 156.

i. 7.

FIDIUS, an ancient Sabine deity, whose name of Dius signified his love of the open air; whence his temple had a perforated roof.1 It probably stood at or near the present Palazzo Quirinale. Also to Flora, Dijovis, Summanus, the god of nocturnal lightnings,2 Larunda, Vortumnus, Mars, Sol, Luna, &c. ;3 but most of these were probably only open spaces with altars, like the Vulcanal, and we must recollect that temples had no images before A.U.C. 170. They may probably have been introduced by the Etruscan kings.

The joint dominion of Romulus and Tatius had lasted in harmony five years when the Sabine king was killed by some of the inhabitants of Lavinium whom he had offended. Romulus caused him to be interred upon the Aventine at a spot which, according to Plutarch, was called Armilustrium. Varro, however, represents Tatius as having been killed by the inhabitants of Laurentum, and calls the name of his burial-place on the Aventine Lauretum, either from his murderers, or because there was a laurel grove at that spot. The sole government now devolved to Romulus, and the Sabine and Roman cities became henceforth united under one monarch. Under the vigorous administration of Romulus, the city grew apace. He subdued Fidena and reduced it to be a Roman colony; and when the Veientines took up arms against him on this account, he overthrew them in a great battle, so that they were glad to purchase peace by ceding to him a district close to the Tiber called Septem Pagi and some salt-works at the mouth of that river. The situation of the district called Septem Pagi is not ascertained; but it probably comprehended the Mons Vaticanus

1 Ovid, Fasti, vi. 213 sqq.; Propert. v. 9, 74; Varro, L. L. v. § 66. 2 Festus, p. 229.

See Varro, L. L. v. § 74. 4 Plut. Numa, 8.

5 Liv. i. 14; Dionys. ii. 51 sq.

• Rom. 23.

7'In eo (Aventino) Lauretum, ab eo, quod ibi sepultus est Tatius rex, qui ab Laurentibus interfectus est; vel ab silva laurea, quod ea ibi excisa est ædificatus vicus.-L. L. v. 152.

and the Janiculum.1 We know of no other war to which the acquisition of these tracts by Rome can with probability be referred; and since the Janiculum was fortified by Ancus Marcius, as we shall see further on, it must have been in the possession of the Romans in the reign of that monarch. A truce of a hundred years was now made between Veii and Rome, and the conditions of it were engraved upon a brazen column.2 Romulus is also said

by some writers to have reduced Cameria to subjection; but the capture of that city is placed by Livy in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus. In the midst, however, of these splendid successes, Romulus died after a reign of thirtyseven years. He is supposed to have vanished during a supernatural darkness, or eclipse, and to have been carried up to heaven in the chariot of his father Mars; whilst a more rationalised account represents him as having been murdered by the senators for his tyranny, and his body secretly disposed of, so that it was never seen more.1 Romulus is supposed to have disappeared at a place in the Campus Martius called PALUS CAPREE, or CAPRÆ, which became a locus religiosus. It lay probably somewhere under the Quirinal.5

Romulus having left no heir to his crown, an interregnum ensued which lasted during a year, when Numa Pompilius, a Sabine of Cures, was elected king. His election is said to have been effected by a compromise between the Roman and Sabine inhabitants of the city; the old Roman senators being the electors, while the person elected was to be of the Sabine race: a circumstance which shows the power and consideration enjoyed by that people. As Romulus extended the dominion of Rome without, so the reign of Numa was devoted to consolidate

1 Cf. Nibby, D' Intorni, vol. iii. p. 388.

2 Dionys. Hal. ii. 50-55; Liv. i. 15; Plut. Rom. 25.

3 i. 38.

D

4 Ibid. i. 16; Dionys. ii. 56; Cic. Rep. i. 16, ii. 10; Ovid, Fasti, ii. 485 sqq.; Plut. Rom. 26-28.

5 Liv. i. 16 ; Ov. Fast. ii. 489.

the city within, and to civilise and improve the people by laws and religious institutions, and by promoting all the customs and conveniences of domestic life. Hence his peaceful reign becomes highly important for the history of the city. It was his especial care to bring about a complete union between the Roman and Sabine inhabitants; and as a pledge of this union he instituted a festival in honour of Mars. His choice of a residence seems to testify his desire to conciliate the two elements of the Roman population, and to fuse them into a whole, as well as to display the importance which he attached to the observances of religion. For he fixed his dwelling neither in the Sabine nor the Roman city, but between both, at the south-eastern corner of the neutral ground or Forum, near the modern church of Sta. Maria Liberatrice. Although called a REGIA, or palace, it appears to have been a building of the most humble pretensions-in fact, a mere adjunct to the TEMPLE OF VESTA which he had erected close to it; and hence we also find it called by the more humble name of ATRIUM REGIUM and ATRIUM VESTE. The erection of the Temple of Vesta at this spot was perhaps also done with the view of fusing and harmonising the Sabine and Roman population. For we must recollect that as in a Roman family the hearth was its proper centre and bond of union, so the Temple of Vesta was the public hearth of the city, in which was preserved in ever-living brightness the eternal fire, together with the Palladium, which Æneas was believed to have brought with him from Troy; for whose perpetual custody Numa appointed four Vestal virgins. But though the ÆDES VESTE was in ordinary language called a temple, and is even mentioned by that name by Horace 2 and Ovid, yet we must recollect that it was no templum in the proper sense of the term, but merely an ædes sacra;

1 Festus, p. 372 (Müll.).

2 Od. i. 2, 16.

3 Fast, vi. 297.