ame a city, and shown how
little reliance can be placed on the accounts given of these periods
by the early historians. We shall hereafter see that great uncertainty
rests on the history of Rome itself during the first four centuries of
its existence.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is scarcely necessary to remark that the Pelas'gi were the
original settlers in these countries.

[2] In all these places we find also the Tyrrhenian Pelas'gi.

* * * * *

CHAPTER III.

THE TOPOGRAPHY OF ROME.

Full in the centre of these wondrous works
The pride of earth! Rome in her glory see.--_Thomson._

1. The city of Rome, according to _Varro_, was founded in the fourth
year of the sixth _Olympiad_, B.C. 753; but Cato, the censor, places
the event four years later, in the second year of the seventh
Olympiad. The day of its foundation was the 21st of April, which was
sacred to the rural goddess Pa'les, when the rustics were accustomed
to solicit the increase of their flocks from the deity, and to purify
themselves for involuntary violation of the consecrated places. The
account preserved by tradition of the ceremonies used on this
occasion, confirms the opinion of those who contend that Rome had a
previous existence as a village, and that what is called its
foundation was really an enlargement of its boundaries, by taking in
the ground at the foot of the Palatine hill. The first care of
Ro'mulus was to mark out the Pomoe'rium; a space round the walls of
the city, on which it was unlawful to erect buildings.

2. The person who determined the Pomoe'rium yoked a bullock and
heifer to a plough, having a copper-share, and drew a furrow to mark
the course of the future wall; he guided the plough so that all the
sods might fall inwards, and was followed by others, who took
care that none should lie the other way. 3. When he came to the place
where it was designed to erect a gate, the plough was taken up,[1] and
carried to where the wall recommenced. The next ceremony was the
consecration of the commit'ium, or place of public assembly. A vault
was built under ground, and filled with the firstlings of all the
natural productions that sustain human life, and with earth which each
foreign settler had brought from his own home. This place was called
_Mun'dus_, and was supposed to become the gate of the lower world; it
was opened on three several days of the year, for the spirits of the
dead.

4. The next