ption, Julius
Caesar.

[265] See before, c. 65. But he bequeathed a legacy to his daughter,
Livia.

[266] Virgil.

[267] Ibid.

[268] Ibid.

[269] Geor. ii.

[270] I am prevented from entering into greater details, both by the
size of my volume, and my anxiety to complete the undertaking.

[271] After performing these immortal achievements, while he was holding
an assembly of the people for reviewing his army in the plain near the
lake of Capra, a storm suddenly rose, attended with great thunder and
lightning, and enveloped the king in so dense a mist, that it took all
sight of him from the assembly. Nor was Romulus after this seen on
earth. The consternation being at length over, and fine clear weather
succeeding so turbulent a day, when the Roman youth saw the royal seat
empty, though they readily believed the Fathers who had stood nearest
him, that he was carried aloft by the storm, yet struck with the dread as
it were of orphanage, they preserved a sorrowful silence for a
considerable time. Then a commencement having been made by a few, the
whole multitude salute Romulus a god, son of a god, the king and parent
of the Roman city; they implore his favour with prayers, that he would be
pleased always propitiously to preserve his own offspring. I believe
that even then there were some who silently surmised that the king had
been torn in pieces by the hands of the Fathers; for this rumour also
spread, but was not credited; their admiration of the man and the
consternation felt at the moment, attached importance to the other
report. By the contrivance also of one individual, additional credit is
said to have been gained to the matter. For Proculus Julius, whilst the
state was still troubled with regret for the king, and felt incensed
against the senators, a person of weight, as we are told, in any matter,
however important, comes forward to the assembly. "Romans," he said,
"Romulus, the father of this city, suddenly descending from heaven,
appeared to me this day at day-break. While I stood covered with awe,
and filled with a religious dread, beseeching him to allow me to see him
face to face, he said; 'Go tell the Romans, that the gods do will, that
my Rome should become the capital of the world. Therefore let them
cultivate the art of war, and let them know and hand down to posterity,
that no human power shall be able to withstand the Roman arms.' Having
said this, he ascended up to heaven."