ROME (ROMAN LITERATURE) ROMULUS. 



gical stories, which are, perhaps, the outlines of 

 ancient tragedies. A poetical astronomy of the 

 same author illustrates the constellations celebrated 

 in poetry. The age of Fulgentius, by whom we 

 have three books of mythological tables, is equally 

 uncertain. Petronius, a contemporary of Nero, may 

 most properly be mentioned here, as he is connected 

 with the poets by his Sati/ricon, in which he des- 

 cribes the corruption of his age with wit and viva- 

 city, and by his poetical pieces interspersed through 

 that work. In mathematics, the Greeks had laid 

 the foundation for a scientific geometry and astro- 

 nomy, and medicine opened a wide field for tlieir 

 inventive spirit. In all these departments, the 

 Romans were not much distinguished. Among the 

 mathematical authors, Vitruvius is the first, both in 

 time and merit. He was also an architect ; and his 

 work on architecture is still highly esteemed. Fron- 

 tinus wrote upon aqueducts, Vegetius upon the mili- 

 tary art, (the application of mathematics to the art 

 of war could not fail to find favour among the Ro- 

 mans ;) and after him Firmicus Maternus wrote a 

 Mathesis ; but this is, in reality, a treatise on astro- 

 logy, as was also the work of Julius Obsequens on 

 prodigies. Pomponius Mela and Vibius Sequester are 

 worthy of being mentioned as geographers. The 

 latter gives a list of the names of rivers, seas, moun- 

 tains, forests, &c. Tacitus, by his description of 

 ancient Germany, may be included under this head. 

 Physicians were first esteemed among the Romans, 

 after the time of Coesar and Augustus ; and the 

 eight books of Celsus on medicine, which form only 

 a part of a large Encyclopedia, are very important, 

 both on account of their contents and their style. 

 JEmilius Macer and Aulus Apuleius (not the Apu- 

 leius before mentioned) wrote concerning the quali- 

 ties of plants. We also possess some unimportant 

 treatises on medicine by ScriboniusLargus and Mar- 

 cellus Empiricus ; and there is still extant a poem 

 on the subject of this science by Serenus Sammo- 

 niacus, a favourite of the emperor Severus. Seve- 

 ral agricultural works of the Romans are entirely 

 lost to us. There is still extant a work on agri- 

 culture, which bears the name of Cato the elder; 

 and the three books of the learned Varro on hus- 

 bandry are very important and instructive. The 

 works of Columella and Palladius on agriculture, 

 are partly written in verse and deserve commenda- 

 tion. A miserably written work on the art of 

 cookery is ascribed to the notorious gourmand Api- 

 cius -Amongthe polyhistors is Pliny the elder, who 

 wrote a work on natural history, in which he at the 

 same time treated of cosmography and geography, 

 medicine and the arts, with great erudition, but yet 

 in a stiff style. He has given us an example of 

 what the Romans might have done, with their great 

 advantages, for the extension of human knowledge. 

 Solinus made an abridgement of this work. Finally 

 Marcianus Capella, in the fifth century, wrote, in 

 barbarous language, a sort of Encyclopedia, under 

 the name of Satyricon, (on account of the variety 

 of its contents,) in which he treated of several of 

 the sciences, with their most important principles. 



On a review of Roman literature, we find that it 

 continued to flourish only for a short time, from 

 Cicero till the death of Trajan, that the prose 

 reached a higher degree of excellence than poetry, 

 in which various departments obtained various suc- 

 cess, and that notwithstanding the merits of the 

 Romans in art and literature, the Greeks excelled 

 them. Perhaps their literature, at least the poetry, 

 would have attained a greater elevation, if they had 



imitated less, and sought for original ideas in domes- 

 tic scenes. 



In jurisprudence alone did Roman literature ac- 

 quire an entirely peculiar character, and an eleva- 

 tion which it has maintained down to the latest 

 times, and which has enabled it to exert a power- 

 ful influence on all the refined nations of modern 

 Europe. See Civil Law. 



See Manso, On the Characteristics of Roman Lite- 

 rature (in German, Breslau, 1818); Cavriana, Delle 

 Scienze, Lettere ed Arti dei Romani dalla Fonda- 

 zione di Roma fino al Augusta, (Mantua, 1822, 2 

 vols.); Dunlop's History of Roman Literature (3 

 vols. 1828). 



ROMAN SCHOOL. See Italy ; division, Italian 

 Art. 



ROMILLY, SIR SAMUEL, an eminent lawyer, 

 was the son of a jeweller, of French extraction, 

 born in London, in 1757. He received a private 

 education, and was placed in the office of a solici- 

 tor, which he quitted to study for the bar, to which 

 he was called in 1 783. For some years his practice 

 was chiefly confined to draughts in equity; but he 

 gradually rose to distinction in the court of chan- 

 cery, in which he ultimately took the lead, being 

 equally distinguished by his profound legal infor- 

 mation, and logical and forcible eloquence. His 

 general politics agreeing with those of the whigs, 

 he was, during the short administration of Mr Fox 

 and Lord Grenville (1806), appointed solicitor-gene- 

 ral, and knighted. When his party went out of 

 office, he remained in parliament, where he became 

 distinguished by his talent in debate, and particu- 

 larly by the eloquence with which he pleaded the 

 necessity of a revision of the criminal code, with a 

 view to the limitation of capital punishment, and a 

 more appropriate regulation of the scale of penal- 

 ties. On this subject he also composed a very able 

 pamphlet Observations on the Criminal Law of 

 England (1810) and to his exertions may be traced 

 the final determination of the executive to the re- 

 forms and condensation of the various acts in re- 

 gard to crime, which have since taken place under 

 the superintendence of Sir R. Peel. Sir Samuel 

 Romilly also published Objections to the Creation 

 of a Vice-Chancellor (1812) ; and was in the height 

 of popularity and reputation, when a nervous disor- 

 der, produced by grief at the death of his wife, to 

 whom he was devotedly attached, deprived him of 

 reason, and in a fit of temporary frenzy, he termin- 

 ated his useful and philanthropic existence, Novem- 

 ber 2, 1818. A collection of his speeches, with a 

 Memoir of his Life, by H. Peters, was published in 

 1820. B. Constant published his Eloge, (Paris, 

 1819). 



ROMULUS was the founder and first king of 

 Rome. According to tradition, his mother was 

 Rhea Sylvia, a daughter of Numitor, king of Alba, 

 and one of tlie priestesses of Vesta, who were em- 

 ployed in preserving the fire sacred to this goddess, 

 and were bound to spend their lives in strict chas- 

 tity. She was devoted to the service of Vesta, by 

 her uncle Amulius, who had deprived her father of 

 his throne, and wished to prevent her from having 

 posterity who might dispossess him of his usurped 

 crown. But the royal maid forgot her vow of 

 chastity, and male twins were the fruit of her clan- 

 destine amour. In order to escape the horrible 

 punishment denounced by the law against those 

 vestals who violated their vows, Rhea Sylvia gave 

 out that Mars, the god of war, was the father of her 

 children. This artifice saved the mother, and a 



