ojan followers with the
aboriginal inhabitants.

(M763) Latium was a small country, bounded on the north by the Tiber, on
the East by the Liris and Vinius, and on the south and west by the Tuscan
Sea. It was immediately surrounded by the Etruscans, Sabines, Equi, and
Marsi. When Latium was originally settled we do not know, but the people
doubtless belonged to the Indo-European race, kindred to the early
settlers of Europe. Latium was a plain, inclosed by mountains and
traversed by the Tiber, of about seven hundred square miles. Between the
Alban Lake and the Alban Mount, was Alba--the original seat of the Latin
race, and the mother city of Rome. Here, according to tradition, reigned
Ascanius, the son of AEneas, and his descendants for three hundred years
were the Latin tribes. After eleven generations of kings, Amulius usurps
the throne, which belonged to Numitor, the elder brother, and dooms his
only daughter, Silvia, to perpetual virginity as a Vestal. Silvia, visited
by a god, gives birth to twins, Romulus and Remus. The twins, exposed by
the order of Amulius, are suckled by a she-wolf, and brought up by one of
the king's herdsmen. They feed their flocks on the Palatine, but a quarrel
ensuing between them and the herdsmen of Numitor on the Aventine, their
royal origin is discovered, and the restoration of Numitor is effected.
But the twins resolve to found a city, and Rome arises on the Palatine, an
asylum for outlaws and slaves, who are provided with wives by the "rape of
the Sabine women."

(M764) Thus, according to the legends, was the foundation of Rome, on a
hill about fourteen miles from the mouth of the Tiber, and on a site less
healthy than the old Latin towns, B.C. 751, or 753. According to the
speculations of Mommsen, it would seem that Rome was at a very early
period the resort of a lawless band of men, who fortified themselves on
the Palatine, and perhaps other hills, and robbed the small merchants, who
sailed up and down the Tiber, as well as the neighboring rural population,
even as the feudal barons intrenched themselves on hills overlooking
plains and rivers. But all theories relating to the foundation of Rome are
based either on legend or speculation. Until we arrive at certain facts, I
prefer those based on legend, such as have been accepted for more than two
thousand years. It is but little consequence whether Romulus and Remus are
real characters, or poetic names. This is probable, that the situa