tory, what was the earliest form of civil society at Rome? If we look at the map, we shall see that Rome lies at the farthest extremity of Latium, divided from Etruria only by the Tiber, and having the Sabines close on the north, between the Tiber and the Anio. No other Latin town, so far as we know was built on the Tiber; some were clustered on and round the Alban hills, others lined the coast of the Mediterranean; but from all these Rome, by its position, stoop aloof. Tradition reports that as Rome was thus apart from the rest of the Latin cities, and so near a neighbour to the Etruscans and Sabines, so its population was in part formed out of these nations, and many of its rites and institutions borrowed from the other. Tradition describes the very first founders of the city as the shepherds and herdsmen of the banks of the Tiber, and tells how their numbers were presently swelled by strangers and outcasts from all the countries about. It speaks of a threefold division of the Roman people, in the very earliest age of its history; the tribes of the Ramnenses, Titienses, and Luceres. It distinctly acknowledges the Titienses to have been Sabines; and in some of its guesses at the origin of the Luceres, it connects their name with that of the Etruscan Lucumones, and thus supposes them to have been composed of Etruscans. We know that for all points o detail, and for keeping a correct account of time, tradition is worthless. It is very possible that all the Etruscan rites and usages came in with the Tarquinii, and were falsely carried back to an earlier period. But the mixture of Sabines with the original people of the Palatine hill, cannot be doubted; and the stories of the asylum, and of the violence done to the Sabine women, seem to shew that the first settlers of the Palatine were a n ixed race, in which other blood was largely mingled with that of the Latins. We may conceive of this earlier people of Mamers, as of the Mamertini of a more historical period: that they were a band of resolute adventurers from various parts, practised in arms, and little scrupulous how they used them. Thus the origin of the highest Roman nobility greatly resembled that of the larger band of adventurers who followed the standard of William the Norman, and were the founders of the nobility of England. The people or citizens of Rome, were divided into the three tribes of the Ramnenses, Titienses, and Luceres, from whatever circumstances they may have risen. Each of these tribes was divided into ten smaller bodies called curiæ; so that the whole people consisted of thirty curiæ: the same divisions were in war represented by the thirty centuries which made up the legion, just as the three tribes were represented by the three centuries of horsemen; but that the soldiers of each century were exactly a hundred, is apparently unfounded.

We see, then, that this city, which afterward became the mistress of the world, was at this time but a large village. Its principal inhabitants laboured with the plough in an unproductive soil. Every one made choice of the spot he meant to cultivate; and, until the taking of Rome by the Gauls, 364 years after its foundation, it was rather to be called a mass of separated dwellings than a regularly built city. Whereas, the circumference of the walls, in the time of Augustus, was thirty thousand paces, without including the part that approached the Tiber, which was twenty thousand; independent, also, of the suburbs. Its embellishments were superb and prodigious. But to return to the first foundation of Rome. There were very few women at this time among the Romans; and their neighbours being unwilling to marry their daughters to these heroic robbers, Romulus caused public games to be exhibited, at which many of the Sabine women were present, who were seized by the Romans. This conduct produced a war between the two nations, which terminated in their union. Romulus being acknowledged king, endeavoured to civilize his new subjects; and, having ascertained their number, which was 3,000 men, he divided them into three tribes of 1,000 each, and each tribe into

ten curiæ of 100 each. He employed by turns force and address to complete the work he had begun: he formed a body of cavalry, consisting of three hundred men; and chose for his council one hundred old men, or at least such as had experience to recommend them. To these he gave the name of senators. Romulus governed happily during five years with Tatius, whom he had associated in the government: but Tatius being killed at Lavinium, Romulus was left sole possessor of the sovereign power. He conquered the Fidenæ and the Veientes; and cemented, by salutary laws, the strength and tranquility of Rome: but afterward, aiming to become a despot, he was assassinated in the senate.

After an interregnum, Numa Pompilius was elected king. The amiable and humane disposition of this prince softened the warlike and ferocious temper of the Romans. To restain them from outrage and barbarity, he pretended to have received his instruction from the nymph Egeria; an artifice which had the desired effect. His reign was pacific throughout: he inspired the people with a love of religion and peace; he encouraged agriculture: amended the calendar: moderated the laws relative to paternal authority: created the pontiffs, the vestals, &c., and died justly regretted by the people, who lamented him as a father and a king. It was Numa who established the different religious ceremonies and orders of priests; namely, thirty curiones, or priests of the curiæ, one for each; three flamens, or priests of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus; three hundred celeres. or sacrificers; a body of augurs, who interpreted signs, dreams, &c.; four vestal virgins, priestesses of Vesta, leading a life of continence, and pre serving a perpetual fire in the temple of the goddess; the salii who had charge of twelve sacred shields, suspended in the temple of Mars; feciales, or heralds; and pontifices, who presided over all religious affairs. The latter formed a college, the head of which was termed the pontifex maxi mus, and was generally some eminent person in the state, as the king, consul, or emperor. There was another class of ministers of religion, called haruspices. who pretended to foretell events by inspecting the entrails of beasts offered in sacrifices; but Numa did not allow such sacrifices in his reign.

Tullus Hostilius, his successor, was an ambitious and intrepid prince, who delighted in war: he defeated the Fidenates and the Sabines, and demolished Alba. The Horatii and the Curatii were chosen to fight three against three: two of the Horatii being killed, the remaining one had recourse to stratagem, and by that means conquered his adversaries: after having gained the victory, he killed his sister for shedding tears for one of the Curatii. Tullus Hostilius is said to have died by a thunderbolt, but more probably by conspiracy. The fine disposition of Numa reappeared in Ancus Martius, a friend to the arts, to religion, and to peace. The Latins, mistaking the character of Ancus, made war upon him; but were soon taught that he was equally capable of humbling his enemies as of making his people happy; he subdued the Veientes, the Fidenates, and the Volscians. He embellished Rome, built public prisons, and founded the port of Ostia. Tarquin the Elder, descended from an illustrious family of Corinth, was elected as the successor of Ancus. The introduction of plebeians into the senate, the decoration of Rome with superb edifices, and the foundation of the capitol, were the principal events of his reign. vius Tullius, a man of obscure birth, succeeded Tarquin in the Roman throne. He subdued the enemies of Rome, enacted salutary laws, enlarged the city, established quit-rents, and a body of magistrates to judge particular causes. Having formed the design of making his subjects free, it was his intention to change the form of government from a monarchy to that of a republic; but, being murdered by Tarquin, who succeeded him on the throne, this generous resolution was prevented from fulfilment. He reigned gloriously, and cemented the union between Rome and the

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neighbouring states. He was the first Roman king who stamped coin. Tarquin the Superb, a proud and ferocious tyrant, mounted the throne after having murdered Servius Tullius, his wife's father. He formed projects disgraceful to his country He delighted in luxury and debauchery; paying little regard to the established laws, he oppressed the people and endeavoured to destroy the senate, a body instituted with so much wisdom, and who already began to be the immovable rampart of the liberty of the people. The Romans in this reign triumphed over the Sabines and the Volscians, and finished the capitol. The excesses and despotism of Tarquin and his sons increased so much the public hatred against him. that he was precipitated from a throne which he disgraced.

It is observable, in this sketch of the Roman history, that the Greeks were, in every respect, superior to the Romans when their state was in its infancy; the Romans never quitting their huts upon the seven hills, but to make captives of women, and pillage the neighbouring villages. The Greeks, on the contrary, were occupied in defending their liberties: they repulsed large armies and fleets of the Persians; and they cultivated and brought to perfection the fine arts, of which the Romans were almost totally ignorant until the time of Scipio Africanus. The ferocity and spirit of rapine which prevailed among the first Romans, one might suppose would have induced the surrounding nations to exterminate them: but the necessities which urged them to commit depredations, animated their courage, and rendered their acts of injustice irresistible. They were successful in war, from being inured to it; and, at the end of four centu ries, they had conquered all the nations from the Adriatic Gulf to the river Euphrates.

The Roman Republic.

This republic, hereafter so celebrated, commenced with the expulsion of Tarquin, the last king of Rome; and it having been declared by the senate that he had forfeited the royal dignity, they elected two chief magistrates, called consuls, whose power was to last only one year. The consuls had several other magistrates subordinate to them, such as praters, magistrates whose office it was to render justice: tribunes, the magistrates of the people: they might oppose all the resolutions of the other magistrates, and their persons were held sacred and inviolable: quæstors, officers who took charge of the public money: ædiles, officers who superintended the buildings, and the exhibition of public games : censors, officers whose business it was to rate the people, and inspect and correct their manners: proconsuls, magistrates commissioned to govern provinces with consular authority; and, on particular occasions, a dictator was appointed, who possessed sovereign authority.

This revolution was the epoch of the glory of Rome. Each consul exerted himself for the benefit of his country during his short administration, in order to merit a future election; but the jealousy of the people demonstrated itself from the first consulates. Valerius, famous for his victories, became suspected; and, to satisfy the plebeians, a law was made, which permitted an appeal to the people, after condemnation from the senate and consuls, in all cases where the punishment of a Roman citizen was intended. In the meantime the Tarquins were busy in soliciting the neighbouring nations to avenge their quarrel. Porsenna, king of Etruria, marched against Rome, and reduced it to the greatest extremities, but the spirit shown by the republicans astonished their enemies, who could no longer resist their impetuosity; and from this time the Tarquins lost all hope. The jealousy which had hitherto subsisted between the patricians and the plebeians augmented rather than abated: the latter

thought the power invested in the consuls too great, although it had been considerably lessened by the Valerian law. They accordingly retired to the sacred mountain, and violent measures were used in vain to reduce them; but the mild and simple eloquence or Menenius Agrippa induced them to listen to terms of accomodation. They demanded a magistrate, whose business it should be to keep a watchful eye over their interests, and defend them against the intrigues of the consuls and the senate; accordingly, tribunes were created, and established by a law, denominated sacred, and which in some measure relieved them from the yoke of aristocracy, now become nearly as heavy as the despotism of their kings.

The Roman people continued to be everywhere successful in battle; but their intestine divisions brought them frequently into the most imminent danger. Coriolanus, one of the most illustrious generals, was banished by a popular faction, and his services wholly forgotten. Enraged at their ingratitude, he put himself at the head of the Volscians, marched against his country, and would probably have become its conqueror, had it not been that the entreaties of his mother prevailed on him to desist from his enterprise. Spurius Cassius, aspiring at tyranny, proposed the agrarian law, and thereby opened a new source of discord; he was thrown from the Tarpeian rock, the death destined for the punishment of traitors. Soon after this, Cincinnatus quitted his plough for the good of the republic; he left his field for the city; and his peaceful rustic employment for the rude clamour of war. This celebrated character suppressed, during the consulate, the factions of the tribunes; and, while dictator, defeated the enemies of the republic. After having performed several other actions which added glory to his character, he augmented it by another superior to them all; that of returning to his plough without ambition, but with the honest pride of having served his country.

The imperfection of the laws in a nation so addicted to war as the Romans, obliged the people of Rome to borrow, from those of Athens, the laws of Solon. The decemvirs, to whom the examination of these laws was committed, adopted those which appeared to them most eligible; profiting by the sagacity of the Greeks, as the Greeks had done by the Egyptians. After having digested them, they delayed to put them in force, and governed with despotic authority. The ill success against the Æquites and Sabines; the murder of Siccius Dentatus, a man of great valour, but obscure birth, who had opposed their tyranny; the reciprocal hatred subsisting between the army and the senate; and, lastly, the death of Virginia, stabbed by her father to save her from the dishonour intended her by Appius, gave the finishing blow to their power and despotism; and the same crime which had proved fatal to monarchy, was the ruin of the decemvirate.

The consuls and the military tribunes succeeded each other alternately during seventy-eight years, in which time the enemies of Rome reaped considerable advantages from their internal dissensions. Camillus, who opposed the tribunes concerning the agrarian law, was banished. Rome was soon after attacked by the Gauls, who plundered and burnt great part of it. Camillus was recalled, and made dictator: he entirely defeated the invaders and Rome arose from its ashes with additional splendour. The people, prompted by the tribunes, were on the point of quitting Rome, and transferring the republic to the Veientes; but Camillus opposed the design, and turned their restless thoughts toward military achieve ments. He began with the Samnites, a fierce and warlike nation, hitherto unconquered. A long and bloody war took place. The senate punished with extreme severity, the treason of some of the Roman troops, who charmed with the climate of Padua, where they lay in garrison, formed a design of murdering the inhabitants, and establishing themselves in the possession of their country. Manlius had his son put to death, althougb

a conqueror, for fighting without orders. About the same time the famous war of Tarentum called the celebrated Pyrrhus into Italy. Active and restless, he was continually forming schemes, and occupied himself more in the affairs of others than in his own. He was a perfect master of the military art, but totally ignorant of that of governing. In addition to the opposition of his army to that of the Roman, he introduced elephants into the field, which being new to the Roman troops, was the cause of their discomfiture. But, being aware of the unconquerable spirit of his opponents, he solicited an alliance with them through the means of the orator Cyneas. He attempted to corrupt, by presents, the virtue of Fabricius. He passed into Sicily, with a view to succour that island against the Carthaginians. And afterwards returning to Italy, he abandoned them entirely, filled with veneration for a people whose courage and constancy he was unable even to shake.

Rome now began to fix the attention of strangers. It received ambas sadors from, and accepted an alliance with, Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, the enlightened protector of the arts and sciences. About this time luxury was first introduced among the Roman people, the source of all their future misfortunes. It destroyed republican virtue; it debilitated their courage; and was thus, eventually, the cause of the downfall of Rome. The siege of Messina by the Carthaginians, and their union with Hiero, king of Syracuse, caused the first Punic war. Hiero soon after formed an alliance with the Romans, and remained ever after faithful to their cause. The love of glory rendered them as unconquerable on the sea as they had before been on the land. Sicily, the object of their ambi tion, was the witness of their naval victories. Africa herself trembled at the sight of her fleets. However, Xantippus, the Lacedemonian, whom the Carthaginians, with the basest ingratitude, deprived of his life, defeated and made prisoner the brave but unfortunate Regulus. The Carthaginians demanded peace, and Regulus himself, who was one of the ambassadors, opposed the treaty, and fell a victim to the love of his country: he returned to Carthage to meet the most horrid death that enraged Carthaginians could inflict. Hamilcar was afterwards defeated, which terminated the first Punic war.

The siege and conquest of Saguntum, a city in alliance with the Romans, gave birth to the second Punic war. Hannibal, already famous for his brilliant success in Spain, who had from his infancy been taught to regard the Romans with detestation, advanced towards Italy at the head of an army; crossed the Rhone; traversed the Alps in the midst of winter; defeated Scipio on the banks of the Vesin; was conqueror at Trebia, Thrasy menus, and Cannæ; and filled Rome itself with alarm. The pleasures of Capua, it is said, where he had the imprudence to winter, saved Rome from destruction. It gave the Romans time to recover from the consternation which his rapid progress had occasioned; they collect ed all their force, and rose more terrible than ever, by their constancy, their discipline, their courage, and their policy. Their numerous victo ries astonished Spain and Sicily. They declared war against Philip, the ally of Carthage; took Syracuse, Agrigentum, and Capua; defeated Asdrubal; and all Spain submitted to the younger Scipio. This general went into Africa, and, by his successes, obliged Hannibal to quit Europe and return home. The interview between these two great generals has tened the battle of Zama, where every manœuvre in the art of war was displayed. Scipio was the conqueror, and the Roman senate dictated the conditions of peace. This victory augmented the already immoderate ambition of Rome, which threatened the world with slavery.

Hannibal, after having passed some time at the court of Antiochus, king of Syria, whom he had engaged to declare war against the Romans returned to Bithynia; but fearing that he should be delivered up to his in