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III.

Scenery of the neigh

or commons of Rome. According to the augurs, the Ager Romanus was a peculiar district in a religious sense; auspices could be taken within its bounds, which could be taken no where without them.

And now what was Rome, and what was the counbourhood of try around it, which have both acquired an interest

Rome.

such as can cease only when earth itself shall perish? The hills of Rome are such as we rarely see in England, low in height but with steep and rocky sides o. In early times the natural wood still remained in patches amidst the buildings, as at this day it grows here and there on the green sides of the Monte Testacco. Across the Tiber the ground rises to a greater height than that of the Roman hills, but its summit is a level unbroken line, while the heights, which opposite to Rome itself rise immediately from the river, under the names of Janiculus and Vaticanus, then sweep away to some distance from it, and return in their highest and boldest form at the Monte Mario, just above the Milvian bridge and the Flaminian road. Thus to the west the view is immediately bounded; but to the north and north-east the eye ranges over the low ground of the Campagna to the nearest line of the Apennines, which closes up, as with a gigantic wall, all the Sabine, Latin, and Volscian lowlands, while over it are still distinctly to be seen the high summits of the central Apennines, covered with snow, even at this day, for more than six months in the year. South and south-west lies the wide plain of the Campagna; its level line succeeded by the equally level line of the sea, which can only be distinguished from

5 See Varro de L. L., V. 33. Ed. Müller.

The substance of this description, taken from my journals and recollections of my visit to Rome in 1827, was inserted some time since in the History of Rome published

by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. I am obliged to mention this, lest I might be suspected of having borrowed from another work without acknowledgment what was in fact furnished to that work by myself.

III.

it by the brighter light reflected from its waters. CHAP. Eastward, after ten miles of plain, the view is bounded by the Alban hills, a cluster of high bold points rising out of the Campagna, like Arran from the sea, on the highest of which, at nearly the same height with the summit of Helvellyn', stood the Temple of Jupiter Latiaris, the scene of the common worship of all the people of the Latin name. Immediately under this highest point lies the crater-like basin of the Alban lake; and on its nearer rim might be seen the trees of the grove of Ferentia, where the Latins held the great civil assemblies of their nation. Further to the north, on the edge of the Alban hills looking towards Rome, was the town and citadel of Tusculum; and beyond this, a lower summit crowned with the walls and towers of Labicum seems to connect the Alban hills with the line of the Apennines just at the spot where the citadel of Præneste, high up on the mountain side, marks the opening into the country of the Hernicans, and into the valleys of the streams that feed the Liris.

of the Cam

Returning nearer to Rome, the lowland country Character of the Campagna is broken by long green swelling pagna. ridges, the ground rising and falling, as in the heath country of Surrey and Berkshire. The streams are dull and sluggish, but the hill sides above them constantly break away into little rocky cliffs, where on every ledge the wild fig now strikes out its branches, and tufts of broom are clustering, but which in old times formed the natural strength of the citadels of the numerous cities of Latium. Except in these narrow dells, the present aspect of the country is all bare and desolate, with no trees nor any human habi

7 The height of the Monte Cavo is variously given at 2938 or 2965 French feet. See Bunsen, Vol. I. p. 40. Helvellyn is reckoned at

3055 English feet, by Col Mudge;
by Mr. Ötley, in his Guide to the
Lakes, it is estimated at 3970.

III.

CHAP. tation. But anciently, in the time of the early kings of Rome, it was full of independent cities, and in its population and the careful cultivation of its little garden-like farms, must have resembled the most flourishing parts of Lombardy or the Netherlands.

Such was Rome, and such its neighbourhood; such also, as far as we can discover, was the earliest form of its society, and such the legends which fill up the place of its lost history. Even for the second period, on which we are now going to enter, we have no certain history; but a series of stories as beautiful as they are unreal, and a few isolated political institutions, which we cannot confidently connect with their causes or with their authors. As before then, I must first give the stories in their oldest and most genuine form; and then offer, in meagre contrast, all that can be collected or conjectured of the real history.

CHAPTER IV.

STORIES OF THE LATER KINGS.

"Quis novus hic nostris successit sedibus hospes ?
Quem sese ore ferens, quam forti pectore et armis ?"

VIRGIL, Æn. IV.

STORY OF L. TARQUINIUS PRISCUS.

IV.

Of the

Tarquinius,

came to

IN the days of Ancus Marcius there came to Rome CHAP. from Tarquinii, a city of Etruria, a wealthy Etruscan and. his wife'. The father of this stranger was a birth of Greek, a citizen of Corinth, who left his native land and how he because it was oppressed by a tyrant, and found a Rome. home at Tarquinii. There he married a noble Etruscan lady, and by her he had two sons. But his son found, that for his father's sake he was still looked upon as a stranger; so he left Tarquinii, and went with his wife Tanaquil to Rome, for there, it was said, strangers were held in more honour. Now as he came near to the gates of Rome, as he was sitting in his chariot with Tanaquil his wife, an eagle came and plucked the cap from his head, and bore it aloft into the air; and then flew down again and placed it upon his head, as it had been before. So Tanaquil was glad at this sight, and she told her husband, for she was skilled in augury, that this was a sign of the favour of the gods, and she bade him be of good cheer, for that he would surely rise to greatness.

1 Livy, I. 34.

2 Livy, ibid. Dionys. III. 46–48. Cicero de Republicâ, II. 19.

CHAP.

IV.

Of his

king Ancus.

Now when the stranger came to Rome, they called him Lucius Tarquinius ; and he was a brave man favour with and wise in council; and his riches won the good word of the multitude; and he became known to the king. He served the king well in peace and war, so that Ancus held him in great honour, and when he died he named him by his will to be the guardian of his children.

Of his deeds

in war.

Of his works

in peace.

But Tarquinius was in great favour with the people; and when he desired to be king, they resolved to choose him rather than the sons of Ancus. So he began to reign, and he did great works both in war and peace. He made war on the Latins, and took

from them a great spoil'. Then he made war on the Sabines, and he conquered them in two battles, and took from them the town of Collatia, and gave it to Egerius, his brother's son, who had come with him from Tarquinii. Lastly, there was another war with the Latins, and Tarquinius went round to their cities, and took them one after another; for none dared to go out to meet him in open battle. These were his acts in war.

He also did great works in peace; for he made vast drains to carry off the water from between the Palatine and the Aventine, and from between the Palatine and the Capitoline Hills. And in the space between the Palatine and the Aventine, after he had drained it, he formed the Circus, or great race-course, for chariot and for horse races. Then in the space between the Palatine and the Capitoline he made a forum or market-place, and divided out the ground around it for shops or stalls, and made a covered walk round it. Next he set about building a wall of stone

3 Cicero, Livy, and Dionysius, in locis citatis.

4 Livy, I. 35—38.

5 Livy, I. 39. 35. Dionysius, III. 67, 68.

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