ensions. The parallel of Babylon,
according to the description given by Herodotus, might fairly have been
cited as a further argument; since it might have seemed reasonable to
suppose that there was no great difference of size between the chief
cities of the two kindred empires."--_Rawlinson_.]

THE FOUNDATION OF ROME

B.C. 753

BARTHOLD GEORG NIEBUHR

Rome occupies a unique position in the history of the world. The
whole Mediterranean basin was at one time merely a Roman lake, and
the adjacent countries were Roman in letters, law, religion and the
practice of war. Roman roads crossed the continents east and west
and penetrated to the depths of Asia and Africa. Roman garrisons
were stationed in every important city of the provinces, and when
the great city on the banks of the Tiber at last fell before
successive irruptions of northeasterly barbarians and Roman power
was at its extreme ebb, the spirit of Roman institutions still
survived in the civilization of Spain, France, Italy, Britain, even
in Greece and Asia. Roman law had become the code of the world.
Iberian, Gaul, and Italian had modified in varying degree their
native dialects in conformity with the more copious and logical
idiom of Latium.

A group of legends gathers round the birthplace of the Eternal
City. It is AEneas who escapes from Troy and brings into the land of
Italian Latinus his native gods. His son Ascanius conquers and
slays Mezentius in a battle between Latins and Etruscans, and
eleven kings of Alba, all surnamed Silvius, succeeded him on the
throne. The last king of Alba Longa is Procas, whose usurping son
Amulius drives his eldest brother Numitor from the throne.
Numitor's daughter, Silvia, becomes the mother of the immortal
twins Romulus and Remus, by Mamers, the god of war; the children
are exposed by cruel Amulius, suckled by a wolf, and become
founders of Rome.

Such is the outline of the poem, or rather tissue of poetry in
which the founding of Rome is embalmed.

The critical acumen of Niebuhr may have dispelled some of the
clouds and contradictions in which early historians and poets have
wrapped the record of this great event. But no critic can ever
destroy the beauty and charm of the old Latin chronicles or
diminish the glory of the day that saw the first walls