CHAPTER VI
THE FOUNDING OF ROME
IT was in the year 753 B.C. that Romulus was chosen king. He at once began to make preparations to build a city on the Palatine hill. The foundation he wished to lay on the twenty-first of the glad month of April, for, as Romulus knew, this was a feast-day among the shepherds.
Often he, with his brother, had joined the herdsmen on that day, to offer cakes to the goddess Pales, to beseech her blessing on themselves and on their flocks. And when the prayers and sacrifices were over, how gladly he had joined in the shepherds’ games and jollity! No better day could be found on which to lay the foundation of the new city.
When the feast-day arrived, a hole was first dug on the spot where the city was to stand.
Into this hole the king flung the first fruits of the earth, corn and fruit.
Each of his followers then took a handful of earth which he had carried with him from his own, perhaps distant, home, and flung it also into the hole, which was then filled to the top.
Here, too, an altar was built, on which the people laid offerings to the gods. From henceforth the spot, where the temple had been erected, was to be the hearth or centre of the new city.
Romulus then throwing his toga, or as we would say, his mantle, around him, with one end covering his head, took a white bull and a cow and yoked them to a sacred plough, the share of which was made of brass.
With this ploughshare the king then made a furrow to mark the boundary of the city, bidding his followers watch that the upturned earth fell inward to the hearth of the city. Not a clod must be allowed to lie without the furrow. When the plough reached the different spots at which the gates of the city were to stand, it was carefully lifted over the spaces.
As he guided the plough, Romulus cried to his gods that his city might become strong and endure, and ever grow more powerful in the great world.
Out of a clear sky thunder crashed, lightning flashed over the hills as Romulus uttered his petitions, and the people believed that the storm was the answer of the god Jupiter to the prayers of their king.
When these sacred rites were ended, Romulus bade his men begin at once to build the wall which was to surround his city.
The wall itself was sacred. None might enter the city, save by the gates. So the king bade one of his followers, named Celer, to guard the sacred furrow, and to see that no one dared to scale the wall or jump across it, as it was being built.
Remus, who was still angry that he had not been chosen king, had been standing near to Romulus as he laid the foundation of the city. Then, as the wall began to rise before him, a swift rage sprang up in his heart, and he leaped across it, crying: ‘Shall such defences as these guard your city?’
Celer, the watchman, seeing that Remus had scorned the order of the king, raised his spade in sudden fury and struck the young prince dead to the ground.
Then, fearing lest Romulus should punish him for his hasty deed, he fled. Fear lent him wings, and his name from that day became a byword to betoken great speed.
Our own word, ‘celerity,’ comes from Celer, the swift-footed servant of Romulus.
When Romulus was told that his brother had been slain, he showed neither grief nor anger. ‘Thus perish every one who may attempt to cross these walls,’ were his stern words to those who brought the sad tidings.
Celer, it was plain, had fled in needless haste.