extent, have furnished materials to the early annal-song of the Fratres Arvales, which has come down ists. These were the funeral songs (neniae) that to us, is undoubtedly one of these old Latin poems, were chanted by the mourners in the funeral pro-and belongs to so early a period that it was almost cession and accompanied by the mellow sound of unintelligible in the days of Augustus. the pastoral flute. The subject of these old ballads was usually To some readers it may appear strange to speak of course the conquests and triumphs of Roman of the existence of Latin poetry before the time at heroes, and the praises of illustrious men, and they which they began servilely to copy the literature of were recited or sung upon some public occasion. Greece. But, in fact, there were two entirely dis- Nor is it very difficult to conceive how they were tinct eras and classes of Latin literature. The often transferred into the pages of the old Annalone with which we are generally familiar is the ists. It was a custom in Rome, at a very early Graeco Latin literature, dating from the time of the date, for some one to deliver a funeral oration upon second Punic war and continued through the suc- the death of any distinguished man, in which were ceeding ages of the Republic and Empire. Of this set forth in no cautiously measured terms, the brave school Ennius is the first and has been styled the deeds performed by the departed hero. In preparfather of Latin poetry. This is true when applied ing these funeral orations recourse would certainly to the later school of Roman poets, the school to be had to all the triumphal songs in which the which belonged Lucretius and Ovid, Virgil and praises and victories of the hero had been sung, Horace. He was undoubtedly the first that intro- and these triumphal songs would thus often furnish duced the metres and versification of Grecian poe-nearly the whole of what was said by the orator. try into the rude but nervous old language of La- Copies of the eulogy would be preserved with tium. He sneered at the rugged and manly old great care by the family of the deceased, and be Saturnian measure, and did much to bring the lit-handed down to their descendants through sucerature of his country under the humble vassalage cessive generations. Thus would be accumulated to that of Greece which it retained to its latest in large numbers in many or probably all the great day. But there was another and a purely Italian and noble families, private records, founded in a literature that had existed from the earliest days of great measure upon the triumphal songs of the popthe nation. It lacked the polish and the elegance ular bards. And these records we know in after of the Greek imitations, but was more original and years furnished no small share of the scanty matepossessed more nationality. This school became rials from which the first writers drew the history extinct with Naevius, who lived just long enough of their country. In fact, the private memorials of to witness the successful innovation of his rival the noble families of Rome furnished so consideraEnnius, and passed from the stage with the melan-ble a portion of the matter for the first historical choly consciousness that with him died the last of writers, and one too that had so marked an inflothe old national bards of Rome. Ennius has spoken in contemptuous terms of Naevius and the class of poets to which he belonged, but the accomplished Cicero has repelled the insinuation and paid a just tribute to his merit. That this ballad literature of early Rome had a real existence, rests as we thus see, not upon conjecture, but upon positive evidence. But there are still one or two other witnesses whose testimony is perhaps more directly to the point than any we have yet cited. The laws of the twelve tables contained a severe enactment against the authors of libellous poems. This of course shows conclusively that they existed as far back as the days of the old Dècemvirs. The testimony of Ennius himself is also direct and conclusive. He wrote the history of his country from its commencement up to his own time in verse, and says that others have also written of this in strains such as the Fauns and other prophetic deities sung before any one had climbed the rocks of the Muses.* The -Scripsere alii rem Versibus quos olim Fauni Vatesque canebant Ennius quoted by Cic. Brut. 19. ence upon the whole character of the history, that it ought not to be passed over without a more particular notice. It has often been observed by readers, that in the accounts of their wars and battles given by the Roman writers, particularly of the earlier ages, nothing is met with but one continued succession of conquests and triumphs by Roman leaders and Roman armies, and of captured cities and territories, that, so far from passing under the dominion of the conquerors, again in a few years furnish them with new triumphs. This highly censurable feature runs in a greater or less degree throughout the whole current of Roman history down to its latest day. The offspring of overweening arrogance and inordinate national vanity, the character of their history in this respect finds no parallel in that of any other people that ever lived. What amongst other nations occasionally results from the enthusiasm and excitement of the moment is with them a regular and inveterate habit. Exaggerated and partial statements, that, amongst other nations, sometimes spring from distorted views and heated passions, with them are the result of wilful, deliberate, and unblushing falsehood, arising from a cold and selfish heartlessness. It is, indeed, difficult to speak in other than unmeasured terms of censure, of this national stigma, that, like a cankerous ulcer, diffuses its infectious poison throughout the whole stream of Roman history. There can be no doubt that this characteristic was owing, in a considerable degree, at first to the fact that so large a portion of their history was taken from these funeral orations and other private family records of which we have spoken, founded, as they were in a great measure, on the old triumphal songs and national ballads. From such sources then were the works of the old annalists drawn, and on such foundations rests the whole fabric of Roman history, as sketched by the masterly but fanciful pen of Livy. Those noble old heroic lays, though broken up and dressed out in another guise, still shine in every page through the stately and measured rhetoric of Livy, and enliven even the dreary and monotonous pedantry of Dionysius. nius and Tanaquil, and yet, soon after his accession to the throne, he is the father of two grown daughters, whom he gives in marriage to the two sons of the late king, the brothers, be it remembered, of his own wife, and the uncles of his daughters. According to the old story, they were matched unequally, the wild and vicious one in each case being mated with the meek and virtuous, and this is given as the reason of the disagreement and the consequent murder of a husband and wife on each side, and the union of Tarquin the Proud with the wicked Tullia. All this, however, strange to tell, does not take place until at least forty years after their marriage. Tarquinius Superbus, according to Livy's chronology, must have been twenty-seven at his father's death when his mother was compelled to place the crown on the head of Servius; he waits, however, patiently for a period of forty-four years before he takes any steps to obtain his father's kingdom. He must have been near seventy when he began his intrigue with his sister in law Tullia, and about seventy one when he hurled the aged king down his father's throne. At ninety-six he was at the head of his army besieging Ardea when he was expelled from his kingdom, and yet he makes a long and powerful struggle to regain it. He engages actively in the battle of Regillus when he is at least one hundred and six years old, and dies at Cuma some five or six years afterwards. Again Brutus, at the commencement of the reign of the last Tarquinius, is a mere child, and twenty-five years afterwards has two sons old enough to be king. But enough of such absurdities; his must be a wondrous faith that can stand all this incongruity. In speaking of the credibility of the early Roman history and the reasons for rejecting it as poetical and fabulous, an examination of the inconsistencies of its chronology, should occupy a prom-the steps of the senate-house and seated himself on inent position. We can only now, however, cast a hasty glance at the subject. According to the common story, the duration of the Roman monarchy was 244 years and included in the reigns of seven kings, thus allowing something more than an average of 34 years to each. Sir Isaac Newton observed, that it would be impossible to find in the whole course of modern history, with all the chances of a minority, an equal number of successive reigns stretching over an equal period; and when we remember that none of these kings mounted the leaders in a conspiracy for restoring the banished throne until they were full grown men, that four of them met with violent deaths, and another was ex pelled from the city nearly twenty years before his death, the gross improbability of the whole system becomes evident. Inconsistent and improbable as this chronology appears in its outline, it becomes infinitely more so when examined in detail. To give a few specimens of its absurdity. Ancus But it may be asked if we reject all this wellMartius, the fourth king, reigned twenty-four years, known story, what remains of early Roman hisand died leaving the stranger Tarquinius the guar-tory, and with what materials has it been recondian of his sons, who were then old enough to be structed by modern historians? It must be consent out on a hunting party, when Tarquinius fessed that it is not a very easy matter to give in a wished to get them out of the way in order to se- few words a satisfactory answer to these questions. eure the election to himself. He was elected to The truth of Niebuhr's views of the early history the throne, and the sons of King Ancus deferred of the Roman commonwealth, and of his outlines their vengeance upon the usurper for thirty-eight of the ancient constitution, can be seen and felt in years, until they must have been at least fifty-three its full force by those only who have patiently folor four years of age, and according to the chro-lowed him through his long and laborious renology, Tarquinius not less than eighty, and his searches. It is, in short, from internal and not exwife, Tanaquil, seventy-five; and yet he leaves no ternal evidences, that the full conviction of the son of age sufficient to take the throne; the assas- truth of the system is irresistibly forced upon our as escape, and Tanaquil puts up her dependant, minds. And this is Roman chronology-and yet Roman chronology is perhaps as consistent with itself, and with common sense, as any other part of Roman history. Servias Tullius, to secure the royal power in the It has been well and truly remarked by a great amily. Servius Tullius a short time before he is historian, that when we have taken a point of view made king is married to the daughter of Tarqui- in which the whole course of the history that be fore was confused and unintelligible becomes clear ; [portant truths in the history of political revolu and events, which before seemed inconsequent or inconsistent, follow one another in a natural order it is evident that our mode of viewing them must be right. But, at the same time, this species of evidence can be properly appreciated only by those who have seen it developed in the course of the history. We will, however, mention some of the sources from which Niebuhr has drawn-some of the materials from which, with unrivalled skill and ingenuity, he has constructed so magnificent an edifice. tions. It has been conclusively shown that in not a few instances, terms and phrases that had been used in a clear and correct sense, by the old annalists, were copied by Livy without a right understanding of their meaning. One important instance of this has been given above, with reference to the signification of the term Populus (People.) Nor is it at all strange that Livy should often thas mistake the meaning of the old writers; for Polybius, more than a century before, states that the most learned Romans found it difficult to interpret In the outset we had designed presenting to our readers some of the more important points in the history, and a sketch of the leading features in the constitution of the ancient Roman commonwealth as developed in the treatises of modern writers. But we fear, from the time we have already consumed, that we must either weary their patience or make this part of our remarks too brief to be clear and satisfactory. In tracing out the early history of any people, the first question that arises is, what was their race and language, and the next, what was the original form of their social and political organization. Much time and learning have been expended in attempting to discover who were the original inhabi tants of Italy, and after all no very conclusive result has been attained. Perhaps we cannot do better than to take the old Pelasgic stock as the most ancient race in Italy of whom we can ever have any very certain knowledge. The great narratives of Livy and Dionysius of the old treaties and inscriptions upon the tablets; course furnished the foundation for his history, or, and Livy evidently had but little taste for such perhaps, it might be called his historical disserta-learning. tion. A long and intimate acquaintance with every Such are some of the materials that have been part of their works enabled him often to judge them used, and such is the laborious manner in which out of their own mouths, to point out their errors has been reconstructed in modern times the fabric and the necessary correction drawn from their own of early Roman history and the outlines of the anexplicit statements in other places. His almost cient constitution. instinctive faculty of perceiving the truth amidst a mass of fiction often enabled him to discover it when the author himself was not aware of its existence, and to draw out a clear and satisfactory account from confused statements that the writers had not fully understood themselves. Or, as Legarè has well expressed it, he could perceive when a blundering author knew the truth without telling it, or told it without knowing it. From his vast acquaintance with ancient literature, his wonderfully tenacious memory and his great acuteness of intellect, he could bring to bear upon his subjects at once all collateral authorities and illustrations, and thus often correct a loose and inaccurate statement of Livy by the more explicit and definite language of Cicero or Varro. It is, perhaps, not too much to say, that there was nothing in the wide range of the ancient languages throwing light upon the history, the constitution, and the laws of the Roman State with which he was not acquainted. He collected as it were all the small streams of light that were scattered over so vast an extent, united them into one, and formed a blaze of light that poured its bright rays into the darkest recesses of any subject which he was investigating. All the fragments that had come down from antiquity were carefully Belonging to the great Japhetic family they peocollected, and diligently studied and compared. pled all the vast countries washed by the northern Old copies of laws and treaties, broken tablets, waves of the Mediterranean, from the heart of many of which were excavated from the very soil Asia Minor westward through Greece to the most of Rome, mouldering columns and trophies with distant shores of Italia, and perhaps of Spain. their half-effaced inscriptions, some of which dated Troy and Rome were alike the work of their hands. as far back as the days of the Pelasgians, were all They were every where a peaceable, industrions carefully examined, and as it often happened, if and agricultural people, and have left scattered they threw no light upon the history and constitu- over this wide extent of country, massive walls tion of the early ages, they served to distinguish and huge Cyclopean towers that still mock the and trace out the different elements of the language ruthless hand of time and forcibly recall to our spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Rome. And minds those days in which there were giants in the in the hands of a philologer and historian like Nie-earth. Devoted entirely to the pursuits of a quiet buhr, this examination of the several elements of life they were constantly overrun, trodden down, and which a language was made up, often lead to im- oppressed by the more warlike races, with whom it No one can cast even a hasty glance at the ancient world before the light of history had dawned upon the darkness of the traditionary era, and fail to be struck with the importance of this widely spread and remarkable race. was their misfortune to come into unceasing con- |dividual, and affinities between different nations were flict. An impenetrable and mysterious gloom hangs indicated by the relationship between these imaover the history of this singular and fated race. ginary persons. The early history of the Greeks Long before history had emerged from the twilight is filled with such traditionary heroes, the fathers of fable, they swayed the sceptre over vast and of different races, and the founders of cities and populous countries, and then faded away from states. And so also in the West, the Itali were the view, or became absorbed into other and more pow- people of Italus, the Latini of Latinus, and the Auerful races. sones of Auson, and in the same manner is it to be understood that Romulus was the founder of Rome. The ancient population of Rome was divided, it is said, into three tribes, the Ramnes, the Titienses, and the Luceres. And the origin of each tribe or division is pretty clearly marked by the traditions of the early kings. The Ramnes, the oldest and for some time the most important of the three, were, in all probability, the old Oscan conquerors, of whom Romulus is but the personification.† The Titienses are distinctly declared to be of Sabine origin. They undoubtedly passed into Italy from the eastward, and it seems under the name of Tyrrheni or Tyrseni, and probably brought with them, besides other arts, the Pœnecian alphabet. We have seen upon a former occasion that throughout Greece they were brought completely under the dominion of the Hellenic race. They met with a like fate to a considerable extent in Italy. One of the earliest settlements they appear to have made in the West was upon the Tiber, principally upon the right bank, though afterwards they spread also to the South over Latium, and finally over nearly all Southern Italy, and probably Sicily. North of the Tiber they were overrun and subdued by the barbarous Rasenae or Etruscans, who took the name Tyrseniones from their Pelasgian subjects. In Latium and around the immediate situation of Rome they became intimately blended with another warlike people, the Oscans. All will remember the story of the difficulty between the ancient Romans and the Sabines, as drawn by the delicate pencil of Livy. Thirty Sabine virgins are seized by Roman youths,—the whole nation assemble under their king Tatius to take vengeance upon the robbers for the insult and injury,-during the heat of the conflict the objects of the contest throw themselves between the combatants, now their fathers and husbands, and entreat them with tears to stay the bloody strife. Their entreaties prevail, and not only is peace made, but a close union is entered into between the joint rulers of the united people. That the Oscans were the military rulers and the Pelasgians the subject population has been inferred from the composition of the Latin language, of which the Oscan and Pelasgic are the two ele-two nations, and Romulus and Tatius are made ments. It was observed with singular sagacity by Niebuhr that it cannot be mere accident that the words for a house, a field, a plough, wine, oil, milk, kine, swine, sheep, apples, and others relating to domestic and agricultural life should agree entirely in the Latin and Greek languages, while those relating to war and to government are altogether different. We know that the common element in the two languages is the Pelasgic, that in Greek the other element was furnished by the warlike Hellenic rulers, and in Latin by the Oscans. The Oscan tongue, then, must have furnished all military terms and words of government, and if so, the inference is fair, that they were the barbarian conquerors and the Pelasgians their subjects. The striking incidents of this poetic legend no doubt embody much historic truth. The original foundation of Rome by Romulus was stated in the old legend to be on the Palatine hill, and after the treaty and union the Sabines were established upon the Capitol and Quirinal hills. This agrees precisely with our knowledge of the locations of the two tribes. The Ramnes always resided on the Palatine, and the Titienses on the other two; and the statement of the old writers is thus fully confirmed. As Romulus is the representative of the Ramnes, so Tatius evidently is of the Titienses. It may be observed that the complete union of the two elements of the nation could only have These two races becoming intimately blended taken place gradually, and accordingly we find the furnished the nucleus for the population of that several parts of the tradition answering to the succommonwealth, which was destined ultimately to cessive steps in this national amalgamation. At embrace so large a portion of the human family. first the two nations or tribes reside on separate The union of this native Oscan tribe with the hills, they have two kings, and each has a senate stranger race from the East was well symbolized of a hundred old men, who meet separately to conby the reception of the Trojan Æneas, and his sult on any measure before they meet together in marriage with the native princess Lavinia. And common council. After Tatius dies, Romulus reigns we may remark here, that this method of symbol- alone for a number of years, and the two senates izing, of tracing nations to mythic ancestors and are united. Romulus then dies and the question cities to mythic founders, is a common feature run- * Vid. on this subject. S. L. M., March 1848. Art. An. ning throughout the whole traditionary system of Gr. the Ancients. + Vid. Hist. Rome, by Malden, C. iv., p. 122, and also Nations were constantly personified in some in-Niebuhr. VOL. XIV-35 arises upon whom the government shall fall, and |mentioned last, and were excluded from equal rights neither tribe is willing to yield the sovereignty to the other. Finally, however, a compromise is effected, and the Ramnes choose a king from the Titienses or Sabines. This is the good king Numa. We may now observe the complete union and equality of the two races under the common name of Quirines, and the sacred walls of the city are extended around the limits of the Capitoline and Quirinal hills. The senates are permanently united and the whole people welded into one. with the others for a long period, agrees well with the hypothesis that they were the subject Pelasgians; and their residence on the Caelian hill, the original habitation of the Pelasgians, serves still farther to identify them as the same. As the progressive steps of the union of the other two tribes are represented under the reigns of Romulus and Numa, so the development of the rights of the third is embodied in the reign of Tul lus Hostilius. He is said in the story to have extended the limits of the city around the Caelian As to Romulus was referred the whole system, Hill, and to have added a new tribe to the nation; civil and military, of the Roman polity, so to Numa by which we are undoubtedly to understand the was referred the whole system of their national tribe of Luceres, though it is not so stated in the worship. The former was the personification of legend. The whole of his reign is equally poeti the people during a turbulent and restless period, the latter is the embodiment of their national religious institutions. cal with that of his predecessors, and is to be understood only as representing the third great period in Roman history. It is the period during which Since Montesquieu wrote, no one has doubted that the three elements of the Roman people finally great maxim of political philosophy, that laws and became completely united and fused into one institutions are the offspring of the manners of a homogeneous mass. This is perhaps the most people, and faithfully represent the progress of so- suitable point for us to panse and briefly scan some ciety. But before Montesquieu, Vico had felt the of the outlines of the ancient constitution as attriforce of this great truth, he had intuitively discov-buted to Romulus. ered that all the laws and customs, the whole government and constitution of a people, can never be perfected, save by the people themselves, can never be the work of one man or of one age; and that the whole heroic age, as it may be called, of the early Romans had heaped into one man. The three tribes into which the whole Roman people were divided, were composed each of ten divisions called Curiae, and these again were subdivided into Gentes, or Houses. The whole state thus consisted of thirty Curiae. The number of gentes that each Curia contained is not known with But if one man or one age can never perfect the entire certainty, but there are strong and conclucivil and political institutions of a people, neither sive evidences going to show that each Curia concan it their religion. And yet we are told that one tained ten Gentes and each gens again ten housegeneration was sufficient to transform the stern holders or families. If this be correct, the ori barbarian conquerors of Romulus into the peace-ginal division of the Curiae into Gentes consistloving and religious subjects of Numa. It surely ing of an exact number of families must have been cannot be necessary to argue the impossibility of to a considerable extent arbitrary. Though it is such a sudden and complete change. Nature still probable that the families composing a gens knows no saltus, no abrupt transition, either in the or house, were, in many instances at least, really moral or physical world. connected together by ties of blood. But the great bond of union between the members of a gens or house, was a participation in its common religious rites. Each house had its consecrated altar, its peculiar solemnities, and its regular time for the common sacrifice. The wild whirlwind of the French revolution had for generations been muttering in the concealed depths of the national mind, had been gathering all its powers before it burst forth in its fearful fury and desolated that unhappy land. The tremendous torrent of the Reformation that swept away instiWhen any important question was to be submittutions which had grown gray and venerable under ted to the whole people, they met together in their the hand of time, was no exception to this immu- different Curiae; the vote of each Curia was tatable law of Nature. The wild waters of discon-ken separately and determined by the majority of tent* had for years been dammed up in the hearts householders in that Curia, and the vote of the of the people-Luther but raised the floodgate and whole assembly was decided by the majority of the let forth the troubled waves. We have thus seen two of the three ancient tribes placed on an equal footing in political rights and welded together; this condition of equality was not allowed by the third for a considerable peThe fact that the Luceres were always riod. * Vid. Andin's Life of Luther, preface. Curiae, each casting its vote as an unit. This national assembly was called the Comitia Curiata. In addition to this there was also another regular deliberative body more legislative in its character. This was the senate. It was originally composed of one hundred old men of the principal families of the State, but upon the union with the Sabines or Titienses, this number was doubled, and finally, |