the former comers; nor was the strife, however it might be excited, continued simply for the sake of covetousness to assail or possessions to defend. Contrary principles, as far as they may thus be styled, in customs and in creeds, were staked against each other; and the changes of century after century were as much apparent in the different objects for which men lived, as in the varying boundaries within which the separate nations were temporarily established. No other country has even the traditions to exhibit of so many convulsions in preparation of its later destinies.

Among the almost countless variety of races thus poured through every part of Italy, three are to be named above the rest, in consequence of the relations they sustain to Rome. The three are the Latin, the Sabine, and the Etruscan people, of which the last held the territory to the north, the Sabine that to the east, and the Latin that to the south and southeast' of the seven hills, at the time when the city of Romulus is supposed to have been founded. Among each of the three races there existed a confederacy of little compactness, but of such general extent that Rome itself is sometimes conjectured to have belonged to one or to another league. Wars were of continual occurrence, not only amongst the different nations, but

8

7 Florus mentions especially the 8 Micali, Stor. Ant. Pop. Ital., Latins and the Etruscans, in speak- Cap. XXI.

amongst the separate settlements of either nation; and there are many signs in the early legends of Rome which entitle us to imagine, at least, that the beginning of its independence was in some such conflict with its neighbouring and kindred people, against whom it obtained assistance from other neighbours who were not its kindred. Sometimes, there are traces of a colony upon the hills; anon, the colony is transformed into a secession; 10 and then, again, the taper-tradition flickers, and nothing can be seen of any connection with the tribes or the towns of the environs."

But amidst these gathering questions, which it is right to mention, but vain to attempt to solve, some testimonies of firmer kind appear, of which the credibility is a fact, however impossible it be to declare their positive and undeniable certainty. One is to the manner in which hostilities 12 appear to have led to some more peaceable communications between the Italian people; and the possibility of partial union, at least, amongst them began to be apparent, perhaps not so much, however, to themselves, as to those who read their doubtful history. Another evidence is still more trustworthy in respect to the junction of mem

9 And even from Arcadia and Troy. See, also, Niebuhr's chapter, entitled "Traditions on the Founding of the City."

12 It might be added, and rapine. "Ces peuplades errantes ne vivaient que de guerre, c'est à dire de vol." Boulland, Hist. des Transformations

10 From Alba. Göttling, Röm. des Peuples, p. 225. Staatsverfassung, Sect. 29.

11 Becker, Röm. Alterthümer,

Vol. II. p. 11.

bers from the three races in the Roman state whose foundation and increase are directly to be related. Each, willingly or unwillingly, yielded its contribution, perhaps simultaneously, but more probably successively, to the nation in which their habits, their laws, and their descents were commingled.13

These scanty statements concerning the formation of the Roman people excite some reasonable anticipations concerning the history we are here beginning. And as we, a moment since, obtained a clew by surveying the position, so now we may extend it by having reviewed the origin of the people on the seven hills. With them, another nation of warriors appears to have been born; while the impulses to assume and the circumstances to employ their arms are such as enable us to foretell, almost without foreseeing, the end. They will be conquerors of Italy, whose bloom is from the first united in them; conquerors of the world, perhaps, as soon as Italy is subdued: but whether they are to live and triumph for the melioration or the prostration of the vanquished has been already hinted, and may be left for us to decide hereafter.

13"Quippe quum populus Romanus Etruscos, Latinos, Sabinosque miscuerit, et unum ex omnibus sanguinem ducat. Corpus fecit ex membris, et ex omnibus unus est."

Flor., III. 18. The Italian Micali, not content with this, would have Rome "una mescolanza di genti d'ogni nome." Stor. Ant. Pop. Ital., Cap. X.

CHAPTER II.

THE KINGS.

"Temporum illorum tantum fere regum illustrata sunt nomina.".

CICERO, De Rep., II. 18.

"Les fables sont de la tradition, les institutions sont de l'histoire." - DUREAU DE LA MALLE, Écon. Pol. Rom., Tom. I. p. 184.

THE legends or the lays of Rome possess, not only the freshness on which poetry, but, in many respects, the faithfulness on which history, depends. It is neither fit to scare them from existence by a lean and wasteful learning, nor necessary to repeat them, as if the only advantage to be gained were the illustration of the spirit by whose ardent faith they were, in after times, created. If they be attributed to any later generations, none can tell to which they must actually and definitely be assigned; but if credibility be denied them utterly, the only means of composing the early annals of their people must be abandoned as unserviceable. No reasoning against the personality of their heroes or the accuracy of their descriptions has as yet been made incontrovertible; and until both shall be more thoroughly gainsaid, we have some cause for confidence in their general probability. It does not seem that Romulus is to be considered as the name of a personification rather than a human being, simply because it can be derived from

the name of Rome; nor that his successor is to be refused a place amongst the mortal kings of old, because it may be conjectured that the Greek word for Law' corresponds to his name of Numa. The history of Rome would suffer beyond relief by losing the assistance of its legends in the description of the early institutions; and so much has this consequence been dreaded, that the stoutest enemy of the king or the champion, the miracle or the adventure, in the ancient story, will lower his lance before the mention of a law or the outline of an assembly, as if he could not be too humble in presence of tattered pennons such as these. The distinction, however, if not pushed too far, is very fair; and the law may long outlast the history of the lawgiver: but it will scarcely endure beyond his memory. Let it, therefore, be stated here, that the following relation of the liberty existing under the monarchy in Rome, while it will avoid many details of the legends which are purely fabulous, will, nevertheless, be based upon the conviction that the names, at least, they mention were those of living men, and that the institutions they describe were the actual foundations of the Roman constitution.2

It would be an affectation to change the tone of our narrative, in returning to the misty times when,