CHAPTER II. TULLUS HOSTILIUS AND ANCUS MARTIUS, THE THIRD AND § 1. Increase of Rome in next two reigns. § 2. Choice of TULLUS HOSTILIUS. § 3. War with Alba. Legend of Horatii and Curiatii. § 4. War with Etruscans. Punishment of Mettus Fuffetius. § 5. Forced migration of Albans to Rome. § 6. War with Sabines. § 7. Curia Hostilia. § 8. Death of Tullus. § 9, 10. Election of ANCUS MARTIUS: his institutions. § 11. Subjugation of Southern Latium: increase of Roman citizens. § 12. Pons Sublicius: Janiculum: Ostia. § 13. Death of Ancus. § 1. FROM the reigns of Romulus and Numa, the reputed founders of Rome and all her early institutions, we pass to those of two Kings, also a Roman and a Sabine, who swelled the numbers of the Roman people by the addition of large bodies of Latins, many of whom were transferred from their own cities by force or persuasion. These Kings prepared the way for the more extensive political changes attributed to their successors. § 2. An Interregnum again ensued after the death of Numa. But in no long time the Burgesses met, and chose to be their king TULLUS HOSTILIUS, a Roman, whose grandsire had been a captain in the army of Romulus. His reign of two-andthirty years was as bloody and warlike as that of Numa had been calm and peaceful. The acts attributed to him are, first, the establishment of the Latins of Alba in Rome, and secondly, the creation of judges to try matters of life and death in place of the king, called Quæstores Parricidii. The famous Legends which follow give the reasons for both these matters. § 3. The chief war of Tullus was against the Albans. It broke out thus. The lands of Rome and Alba marched together, that is, they bordered one upon the other, and the borderers of both nations had frequent quarrels and plundered one another. King Tullus took up the cause of his people, and demanded restitution of the booty taken by the Albans from Cluilius, the Dictator of Alba, who replied that his people had suffered to the full as much from the Romans as they of Rome from the Albans. Since, then, neither party would make satisfaction, war was declared. Cluilius first led out his army and encamped within five miles of Rome, at a place afterwards called the Fossa Cluilia, where he died, and the Albans chose Mettus Fuffetius to be Dictator in his stead. Meanwhile Tullus, on his part, had marched into the territory of the Albans, and Mettus returned to give him battle. But when the two armies were drawn up ready to fight, Mettus proposed that the quarrel should be decided by the combat of champions chosen from each army, and Tullus agreed to the proposal. Now it chanced that there were three brothers in each army, equal in age, strength, and valour. Horatii was the name of the three Roman brethren, Curiatii of the Alban.a These were chosen to be the champions, and an agreement was made, with solemn rites, that victory should be adjudged to that people whose champions should conquer in the strife. Then the two armies sate down opposite one another as spectators of the combat, but not like common spectators, for each man felt that the question at issue was whether Rome was to be mistress of Alba or Alba of Rome. Long and bravely fought all the champions. At length all the Curiatii were grievously wounded; but of the Horatii two lay dead upon the plain, while the third was yet untouched. So the surviving Horatius, seeing that, single-handed, he could not prevail, pretended to flee before his three opponents. They pursued him, each as he was able; the most vigorous was foremost; he that had lost most blood lagged behind. And when Horatius saw that they were far separate one from another, he turned about and smote the first pursuer; so likewise the second; and lastly he slew the third. Then the Romans were adjudged victorious. But a sad event followed to damp their joy. Horatius was returning home with the spoils of the slaughtered three borne in triumph before him, when, outside the Capuan gate, he met b a In another form of the legend the names are reversed. It may be presumed that this is the Latin version, while the received form is the Roman. Each nation would wish to claim the conqueror. b It may be noted that there was no Capuan Gate (Porta Capena) till after the building of the walls of Servius Tullius. his sister. Alas! she had been betrothed to one of the Alban brethren, and now she beheld his bloody vestments adorning the triumph of her brother, and she wept aloud before all the army. But when Horatius saw this, he was so angered that he took his sword and stabbed her where she stood. Now all, both Senate and People, were shocked at this unnatural deed; and though they owed so much to Horatius, they ordered him to be tried before two Judges (duumviri) appointed by the King. These Judges found Horatius guilty, and condemned him to be "hanged with a rope," according to the law; nor had they power to lighten his punishment. But Horatius appealed to the People, and they pardoned him, because he had fought so well for them, and because old Horatius, the father, entreated for him, and said that his daughter had been rightly slain, and that he would himself have slain her, as he had a right to do, because he was her father; for by the old Roman law the father had this terrible power over his children. But to atone for the bloodshed, the father was ordered to make certain sacrifices at the public expense; and the heads of the Horatian Gens continued to offer these sacrifices ever afterwards. § 4. Thus it was that the Albans became subjects of King Tullus, and they were bound to assist him in war against his enemies; and he soon called upon them to follow him against the Etruscans of Veii and Fidena. So Mettus Fuffetius came to his aid with a brave army; but in the battle Mettus stood aloof upon a hill with his army, waiting to see which party should prevail. The Romans were so hard pressed that the King, to stay the alarm, vowed temples in case of victory to Paleness and Panic-fear (Pallor et Pavor). At length the battle was won, and then the Alban Dictator came down and pretended to be on their side. But Tullus took no notice, and summoned all the Albans to come next day to consult on public affairs. So they came, as to a peaceful assembly, with no arms in their hands, when suddenly the Roman legion closed around them, and they could neither fight nor flee. Then Tullus rebuked the Albans, but said that he would only punish their chief, for that he was the most guilty. And he took Mettus and bound him by the arms and legs to two four-horsed cha riots; and the chariots, being drawn different ways, tore the unhappy wretch asunder. § 5. Then Tullus gave orders that the city of Alba should be dismantled, and that all its burgesses with their clients. should migrate to Rome. It was sad to leave their fathers' homes and the temples of their fathers' gods. Yet was their new abode no strange city. Had not Rome been founded by Alban princes? and did not the Quirites keep up the eternal fire of Vesta and worship the Latin Jupiter? Nor did Tullus treat them as enemies, but gave them the Cælian Hill for their quarter; and he built a palace for himself on the same hill and dwelt in the midst of them: he also made the heads of chief Alban families burgesses of Rome, and placed some of their chief men in the Senate. § 6. After this he also made war against the Sabines; and in fulfilment of a vow which he made in the stress of battle, he celebrated his victory by establishing the games of the Saturnalia and Opalia in honour of the Latin god Saturnus and the goddess Ops. $7. To Tullus Hostilius likewise is attributed the building of the Senate-house, called from him the Curia Hostilia. It stood on the edge of the Comitium facing the Palatine; and in a building erected on the same spot at a later time, and bearing the same name, the Senate continued to hold their ordinary meetings till the days of Julius Cæsar. § 8. But amid his triumphs and successes Tullus rendered not meet reverence to the gods. The people of Rome were smitten by a plague, and the King himself fell ill of a lingering disease. Then he bethought him to seek counsel of Jupiter, after the manner of King Numa. But when he took his station upon the Aventine, and endeavoured to draw forth the father of the gods from heaven, lightnings descended, as to Numa, but with destroying force, so that he himself was smitten and his house burnt down. His reign had lasted two-and-thirty years. § 9. After a short interregnum, the Burgesses chose ANCUS MARTIUS to be King, a Sabine noble, son of a daughter of King Numa. His reputation was worthy of his descent; and his first act was to order the laws of his venerated grandsire to be written out fair on a white board and set up for all to read in the Forum. He also made a prison for criminals in the rock beneath that side of the Saturnian Hill which overhangs the Forum, the same which was afterwards enlarged by King Servius Tullius, and called after him the Tullianum.c § 10. Ancus was a lover of peace; but he did not shrink from war, when war was necessary to protect the honour of the Roman name. But even in matters of war he showed that reverence for law and order, which was his ruling characteristic. For he created a college of sacred Heralds, called Fetiales, whose business it was to demand reparation for injuries in a regular and formal manner, and in case of refusal to declare war by hurling a spear into the enemy's land. § 11. His chief wars were with the Latin cities of the neighbourhood. He took Politorium, and destroyed it; and reduced to subjection all the Latin shore, or that part of Latium which lies between Rome and the sea. The heads of families in these Latin cities, after the example set by Tullus Hostilius, were made Roman citizens; and to such as chose to settle in Rome Ancus assigned Mount Aventine for a dwelling-place, so that thus a fifth hill was added to the other four. In this way the city of Rome was greatly increased, and large numbers added to its citizens; while by the wars of Tullus and Ancus the power of the Latins was proportionably diminished. But the Latins whom Ancus made citizens of Rome, were not, like the Albans in the time of Tullus, put on an equality with the old Burgesses. Most of them continued to reside in their own small cities, subject to Roman authority. They formed a new element in the state-being neither Patrons nor Clientsof which we shall speak more at length in our account of Tarquinius Priscus. It is probably this encouragement of a free people, who were not bound by the ties of Clientship to any It was afterwards named the Mamertine Prison. But this name does not occur in any classic author. d We find, however, that the same formality had already been observed by Tullus Hostilius in declaring war against Alba: see § 3. |