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8. After1 the claims of religion had been duly acknowledged, Romulus called his people to a council. As nothing could unite them into one political body but the observance of common laws and customs, he gave them [2??] a body of laws, which he thought would only be respected by a rude and uncivilised race of men if he inspired them with awe by assuming the outward symbols of power. He surrounded himself with greater state, and in particular he called into his service twelve lictors. [3] Some think that he fixed upon this number from the number of the birds who foretold his sovereignty; but I am inclined to agree with those who think that as this class of public officers was borrowed from the same people from whom the ‘sella curulis2 and the ‘toga praetexta3 were adopted —their neighbours, the Etruscans —so the number itself also was taken from them. Its use amongst the Etruscans is traced to the custom of the twelve sovereign cities of Etruria, when jointly electing a king furnishing him each with one lictor.

[4] Meantime4 the City was growing by the extension of its walls in various directions an increase due rather to the anticipation of its future population than to any present overcrowding. His next care was to secure an addition to the population that the size of the City might not be a [5] source of weakness. It had been the ancient policy of the founders of cities to get together a multitude of people of obscure and low origin and then to spread the fiction that they were the children of the soil. In accordance with this policy, Romulus opened a place of refuge on the spot where, as you go down from the Capitol, you find an enclosed space [6] between two groves. A promiscuous crowd of freemen and slaves, eager for change, fled thither from the neighbouring states. This was the first accession of strength to the nascent greatness [7] of the city.

When5 he was satisfied as to its strength, his next step was to provide for that strength being wisely directed. He created a hundred senators; either, because that number was adequate, or because there were only a hundred heads of houses who could be created. In any case they were called the ‘Patres’ in virtue of their rank, and their descendants were called ‘Patricians.’

1 The Political Constitution.

2 sella curulis —Lit. ‘the chariot seat’, and hence the seat of the supreme magistrate when administering justice.

3 toga praetexta. —Lit. ‘the bordered toga’ (i.e. edged with purple), worn by the higher magistrates and priests, and also by all free-born boys till about their sixteenth year and by girls till their marriage.

4 The Asylum.

5 The Senate.

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load focus Latin (Robert Seymour Conway, Charles Flamstead Walters, 1914)
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  • Commentary references to this page (18):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.11
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.12
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.29
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.31
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.5
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.4
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.33
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.9
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 35.51
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.35
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.39
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.15
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.pos=60
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.14
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.2
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.31
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.37
    • Charles Simmons, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books XIII and XIV, 13.29
  • Cross-references to this page (29):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Lictor
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Pater
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Patricii
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Prodigia
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Romuli
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Sella
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Senatores
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Senatus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Toga
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Aequi
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Apparitores
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Asyla
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Vrbium
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Curulis
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Imperium
    • Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges, SYNTAX OF THE VERB
    • Harper's, Fasces
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), APPARITO´RES
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), ASY´LUM
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), CEL´ERES
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), FASCES
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), LICTOR
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), PATRI´CII
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), REX
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), SENATUS
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), TRIBUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ETRU´RIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LAV´INIUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ROMA
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (2):
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (24):
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