158 



fugitives from the neighbouring states found protection. But the 

 motley mass of adventurers were without wives, and the chance of 

 obtaining them, as the neighbouring nations proudly refused to give 

 them their daughters in marriage. Therefore Romulus was compelled 

 to use stratagem and violence. He prepared great public games in 

 honour of the god Consus, and invited the neighbouring tribes to come 

 to Rome, with all their families, to see them. It seems that this invita- 

 tion was willingly and very generally accepted by the same persons, who 

 pre>aously had disdained to have anything to do with the upstart Romans. 

 Among others, a great number of Sabines came with their wives and 

 daughters. Suddenly, on a given signal, the Roman youths rushed for- 

 ward with drawn swords, drove away their male guests, and carried off 

 the women. Thus the Roman people, and Romulus their leader and 

 prototype, first wooed the women who were to be the mothers of a nation 

 of heroes. 



There is nothing absolutely miraculous- in this story, as there is in 

 that of the birth and death of Romulus, and it has consequently been 

 implicitly believed, even at a time when the fable of the She-wolf was 

 considered little better than a nureery tale. Livy saw nothing incredible 

 in it, and Dionysius relates it with the same air of historical precision 

 which he always adopts to make a doubtful story pass as authentic. 

 Even Niebuhr does not reject it altogether, but surmises, that there is 

 some historical foundation for the story. 



We shall come to a different conclusion. In the first place the story 

 is, a priori, improbable. It is closely connected with that of the Asylum, 

 by which it is supposed, that a numerous male population was attracted to 

 the infant city. This story is entirely without foundation, as I have shown 

 in some other place. =p Hence great doubt is thrown on the sister story, 

 with which we have to deal at present. It is neither likely, that the 

 majority of the original Roman citizens consisted of fugitives and out- 

 casts from other states, nor that they obtained their wives by an act of 

 treachery. If the former statement were true, we might indeed imagine, 

 that the Sabines and Latins would indignantly refuse to allow the right 

 of intermarriage to the inhabitants of the upstart robber-city ; but we 

 cannot think it possible, that they nevertheless should accept the invi- 

 tation of these same despised and dreaded neighbours, and visit them 

 en masse, accompanied by their wives and daughters, whom they knew 

 to be coveted by them. The story of the Asylum therefore, though in a 

 legend a necessary counterpart of that of the rape, is quite incompatible 

 with it, if either or both are looked upon as historical facts. 



* Researches iutu the History of the Roman Cuu»>lituliuu, i>age 26. 



