THE LIBERTY OF ROME.

BOOK I.

PERIOD OF FOUNDATION.

CHAPTER I.

THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE.

"Omnia Romanæ cedent miracula terræ:

Natura hic posuit quidquid ubique fuit.

Armis apta..... tellus." - PROPERTIUS, III. Eleg., 22. 17-20.

Nor so far from the western coast of Italy as to be land-locked against the intercourse and the enterprise whose paths are on the sea, nor yet so near as to be exposed to the perils and the piracies with which the waters swarmed in early times, there rose a group of seven hills, by which the river Tiber flowed, swift and winding, to the Mediterranean. The hills were neither large nor lofty; but as they stood, covered with rank and rugged vegetation, and flanked with rocks, on some sides steep as precipices, they must often have attracted the herdsman harassed by losses, or the rover weary of forays, by the security of their situation. Below and between them lay some scanty