to the service
and the entertainment. It so happened that the Potitii were present in
due time, and the entrails were set before them; when they were eaten
up, the Pinarii came to the remainder of the feast. From this time it
was ordained, that while the Pinarian family subsisted, none of them
should eat of the entrails of the solemn sacrifices. The Potitii, being
instructed by Evander, discharged this sacred function as priests for
many ages, until the office, solemnly appropriated to their family,
being delegated to public slaves, their whole race became extinct. This
was the only foreign religious institution which Romulus adopted, being
even then an abettor of immortality attained by merit, to which his own
destinies were conducting him.

[Footnote 12: According to Cato, Rome was founded on the day of the
_Palilia_, the 11th of the Calends of May, in the first year of the 7th
Olympiad, and 751 B.C. This is two years short of Varro's computation.]

[Footnote 13: He taught the Italians to read and write.]

8. The duties of religion having been duly performed, and the multitude
summoned to a meeting, as they could be incorporated into one people by
no other means than fixed rules, he gave them a code of laws, and
judging that these would be best respected by this rude class of men, if
he made himself dignified by the insignia of authority, he assumed a
more majestic appearance both in his other appointments, and especially
by taking twelve lictors to attend him. Some think that he chose this
number of officers from that of the birds, which in the augury had
portended the kingdom to him. I do not object to be of the opinion of
those who will have it that the apparitors (in general), and this
particular class of them,[14] and even their number, was taken from
their neighbours the Etrurians, from whom were borrowed the curule
chair, and the gown edged with purple; and that the Etrurians adopted
that number, because their king being elected in common from twelve
states, each state assigned him one lictor. Meanwhile the city increased
by their taking in various lots of ground for buildings, whilst they
built rather with a view to future numbers, than for the population[15]
which they then had. Then, lest the size of the city might be of no
avail, in order to augment the population, according to the ancient
policy of the founders of cities, who, after drawing together to them an
obscure and mean multitude, used to feign th