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of the consular Fasti, and of the annals of the early Republic. Nor is 

 it at all surprising that this should be the case. The Romans, awaken- 

 ing to a consciousness of their growing power and importance, were 

 satisfied at first to trace their histoiy as far back as the establishment of 

 the Commonwealth. When this was done, their curiosity urged them 

 to penetrate further into the mists of antiquity. The history of the 

 Seven Kings was then made ; a history so vague, so nebulous, so chaotic, 

 that not one single person in it has historical reality, and can be deemed 

 to be, in truth, the author of what is ascribed to him. Not Romulus 

 only, the son of a god, and a god himself, nor Numa, the favourite of a 

 goddess, his spouse, nor Servius Tullius, the son of Vulcan, no — all 

 personages, without exception, bear this unhistorical character, even 

 those of whom nothing absolutely miraculous is reported, such as Tullus 

 Hostilius, or Ancus Martins. The whole period is beyond the reach of 

 chronological calculations. The number of years assigned to it by the 

 Pontifices is as arbitrary as that of the reign of each successive king, or 

 the date of the foundation of the city, which is assigned not only to a 

 particular year, but even to a specific month and day. Niebuhr has 

 satisfactorily shown, that the whole of this chronology is a fabrication 

 resting on certain religious notions respecting the duration of a saeculiun. 

 There is absolutely no dependence to be placed on these chronological 

 statements, even if they assert nothing more than, that one event or 

 institution preceded or followed another ; we cannot take it for granted, 

 for instance, that the worship of Vesta was unknown to the fii*st inha- 

 bitants of Rome, on the ground, that Numa Porapilius, the second king, 

 is reported to have introduced the worship of this goddess. 



In most cases we are forced to this conclusion by the great variety of 

 statements to be found in our sources, respecting almost every important 

 event. Thus the introduction of the international law of the fetiales is 

 ascribed, by some, to Tullus Hostilius ; by others, to Ancus Martins ; 

 the regal insignia are said to have been imported from Etruria by 

 Romulus, or by Tarquinius Priscus. What are we to decide in such 

 cases of conflicting testimony ? Is not the natural conclusion, that the 

 real facts were beyond the reach of our authorities, and that the whole 

 of such statements rest upon arbitrary assumptions ? 



The opinion just pronounced I now proceed to illustrate, and, as far 

 as an illustration has convincing power, to prove. 



Of the few events recorded of the long reign of Romulus none is moi*e 

 familiar to us, from our earliest school-recollections, than that of the rape 

 of the Sabines. Ijivy relates, with his noble and hitherto unrivalled 

 beauty of style, how, after the building of the city, a great number of 

 men were atti-acted to it, especially through the Asylum, in which all 



