a 
214 ROM 
ROMBLON, or Romblino, one of the smaller Philip¬ 
pine islands, about 30 miles in circumference. Lat. 12. 40. 
N. long. 121. 58. E. 
ROMBOUTS (Theodore), a native of Antwerp, and born 
in 1597, was a painter of very considerable merit. At first 
he studied under Abraham Jansens; but in his 20th year he 
went to Italy, and there began his career as an historical 
painter. He was patronized by the duke of Tuscany, and 
painted several large compositions for that prince, who 
honoured and rewarded him handsomely. On his return to 
Antwerp, he found Rubens in possession of full fame; and 
soon perceived how difficult it was for him to meet with that 
degree of estimation at home which he had received abroad. 
A noble emulation, however, stimulated him to enter the lists 
with that great master; and -though he certainly was not 
adequate to the combat, yet he exhibited considerable prow¬ 
ess, which even Rubens acknowledged. 
R 0 
ROME [Roma Lat. so named from the Gr. 
strength; or, according toothers, from Romulus, its founder; 
the ulus being dropped as being a diminutive ill suited to 
the grandeur of the state.] The name of that well-known 
state of Italy which, arising from an insignificant beginning, 
included nearly all the populated world, introduced into the 
barbarian regions of Europe the arts of civilization, rescued 
from oblivion, and preserved for our times the literature of the 
Greeks; and lastly diffused through its extensive dominions 
The early history of Rome is like that of all other ancient 
nations; a series of fables founded on the traditionary records 
of primitive wars. Her population has not of course been 
traced to its first elements, but the structure of the language 
sufficiently proves that Italy was either peopled directly from 
Greece, or from the same original stock with that country. 
Probably both these opinions are correct, since tradition has 
preserved several accounts of descents of Grecians on the 
Italian shores, and in each of these, mention is made of 
severe battles with the aboriginal inhabitants. We may refer 
to the article Italy for some speculations as to the number 
and origin cf the nations into which this country was divided. 
It is sufficient to mention in this place, that at the time Rome 
was built, the Etrurians, Tuscans, or Tyrrhenians, inhabited a 
large contiguous territory, had made some progress in lan¬ 
guage, and had framed regular laws, and a free system of 
government: and many other warlike but divided and bar¬ 
barous tribes occupied the remainder of the country. 
The inhabitants of Rome ascribed their origin to the Tro¬ 
jans ; and that they w r ere somewhat farther removed from the 
surrounding nations by language and character, than these 
were from one another, may reasonably be inferred from the 
perpetual coalitions that were formed between the latter 
against the Romans, who, on the contrary, generally had to 
maintain their contests single-handed. 
Those who would know the pleasant fable of /Eneas’s 
voyage from Troy to Italy, may turn to the grateful pages of 
Virgil. The historian has nothing fixed or certain to record. 
All that seems to bear the semblance of probability in those 
marvellous adventures, is, that the Trojans, driven from 
their country, became a band of piratical robbers who made 
numerous descents on the shores of the Hellespont, on the 
coasts of Sicily, and lastly on Italy. [See Dion. Hal. Vol. I. 
p. 47, where he puts nearly the same proposition into the 
mouth of /Eneas.] At some of these places the Trojans were 
favourably received. But whoever considers the extreme 
difficulty of transporting large masses of men across the seas, 
must easily perceive that the Trojans could! never effectually 
contend with any distant country, populously inhabited, for 
a place of settlement. Accordingly we find that it was only 
by negociation, and by an alliance with the king of Latium, 
that /Eneas was enabled to make head against Mezentius, 
and the chiefs who were opposed to the new colony. 
The Romans, were much attached to this deduction of their 
ancestry, and their-historians mention several proofs of its 
R 0 M 
As he died at the age of 40, his works are not numerous. 
The principal ones, among those executed after his return 
from Italy, were painted for the court-house of Ghent. 
He likewise painted pictures of low subjects, such as 
mountebanks and their attendants, soldiers playing at cards, 
&c. &c.; which he did as pastime, or merely to acquire 
money, but they are not among his best performances. On 
the historical pictures he produced, his reputation rests for 
support, and is upheld to a considerable rank. 
ROMBROOK, dr Romerick, a village of England, in 
Hertfordshire, near Ickleton. 
ROMBROUGH, a village of England, in Suffolk; north¬ 
west of Halesworth. 
ROMDEN, a village of England in Kent, near Smarden. 
M E. 
the important truths of Christianity. Sinking under the 
reaction these great changes produced, Rome lost successively 
the temporal government of the world, and lhe spiritual 
dominion'of mankind, and now presents in hernoble ruins 
only a mausoleum of departed greatness, and in her feeble 
and enslaved population, a contrast to that haughty power 
which so long subjected to republican sway the proudest 
find most powerful monarchs of the world. 
veracity, as well as several traces of /Eneas’s peregrination^. 
Dionysius mentions especially, that at Zacynthus, in which 
island /Eneas had instituted games, called the races of 
iEneas and Venus,' the statues of both were standing in 
his day. In Leucas, where the Trojans landed, was to be 
seen, in the same author’s time, a temple erected to Venus 
the mother of /Eneas. Nor were Actium and Ambraicia 
without monuments that testified his arrival in those places. 
At Dodona were found brazen vases, upon which the name 
of the Trojan hero, who had made an offering of them to 
Jupiter, was engraven in old characters. Not far from Bu- 
throtos, in Epirus, a Trojan camp which had escaped the 
injuries of time, retained the name of Troja. All these an¬ 
tiquities, still subsisting in the reign of Augustus, were then 
looked upon as indisputable proofs of /Eneas’s voyage to 
Epirus: “ and that he came into Italy (adds Dionysius) we 
have the concurrent testimony of all the Romans; the ceremo¬ 
nies they observe in their sacrifices and festivals bear witness 
to it, as also the Sibylline books, the Pythian orv.cles, and 
many other things, w’hich nobody can reasonably reject as 
invented merely for ornament.” And though several Gre¬ 
cian authorities state that /Eneas died in Greece, there is 
so much contradiction amongst them, that it is far easier to 
credit the Roman story. The name of Trojans was gra¬ 
dually lost in that of Latins. By a marriage with Lavinia, 
daughter of Latinus, and by the subsequent death of the 
latter, /Eneas obtained the sovereignty of a kingdom. He 
is said to have reigned three years; during which time he 
established the worship of the gods of his own country, and 
to the religion of the Latins added that of Troy. The two 
Palladiums, which had been the protectors of that city, 
became the tutelary deities of Lavinium, and the worship of 
Vesta was likewise introduced, and virgins, from her called 
Vestals, were appointed to keep a fire continually burning 
in honour of that goddess. Jupiter, Venus, and many other 
deities who had been revered in Troy, probably became 
known to the Latins through iEneas; which probably ob¬ 
tained him the epithet of pious JEneus. 
The death of .Eneas, which took place in consequence of 
his being forced, during a battle, into the river Nuroicus, 
left his son Ascanius, or Julus, master of the throne. He 
defeated the Etrurians, and fixed the Tiber as a boundary of 
division betwen their states and his own. He then resigned 
Latium to a posthumous son of Lavinia, and built Alba 
Longa. On his death, the two states were again united 
under 
