ts given by the early writers, the
constructions which Romulus and his companions made were of a very
rude and simple character; such as might have been expected from a
company of boys: for boys we ought perhaps to consider them all, since
it is not to be presumed that the troop, in respect to age and
experience, would be much in advance of the leaders. The wall which
they built about the city was probably only a substantial stone fence,
and their houses were huts and hovels. Even the palace, for there was
a building erected for Romulus himself which was called the palace,
was made, it is said, of _rushes_. Perhaps the meaning is that it was
thatched with rushes,--or possibly the expression refers to a mode of
building sometimes adopted in the earlier stages of civilization, in
which straw, or rushes, or some similar material is mixed with mud or
clay to help bind the mass together, the whole being afterward dried
in the sun. Walls thus made have been found to possess much more
strength and durability than would be supposed possible for such a
material to attain.

However this may be, the hamlet of huts which Romulus and his wild
coadjutors built and walled in, must have appeared, at the time, to
all observers, a very rude and imperfect attempt at building a city;
in fact it must have seemed to them, if it is true that Romulus was at
that time only eighteen years old, more like a frolic of thoughtless
boys than a serious enterprise of men. Romulus, however, whatever
others may have thought of his work, was wholly in earnest. He felt
that he was a prince, and proud of his birth, and fully conscious of
his intellectual and personal power, he determined that he would have
a kingdom.

It seems, however, that thus far he had not been considered as
possessing any thing like regal authority over his company of
followers, but had been regarded only as a sort of chieftain
exercising an undefined and temporary power; for as soon as the huts
were built and the inclosures made, he is said to have convened an
assembly of the people, for consultation in respect to the plan of
government that they should form. Romulus introduced the business of
this meeting by a speech appropriate to the occasion, which speech is
reported by an ancient historian somewhat as follows. Whether Romulus
actually spoke the words thus attributed to him, or whether the
report contains only what the reporter himself imagined him to say,
there is now no mean