he took Alba Longa, a powerful and strong
city at that time, and slew its king, Amulius.

III. Having acquired this glory, he conceived the design (as they tell
us) of founding a new city and establishing a new state. As respected
the site of his new city, a point which requires the greatest foresight
in him who would lay the foundation of a durable commonwealth, he chose
the most convenient possible position. For he did not advance too near
the sea, which he might easily have done with the forces under his
command, either by entering the territory of the Rutuli and Aborigines,
or by founding his citadel at the mouth of the Tiber, where many years
after Ancus Martius established a colony. But Romulus, with admirable
genius and foresight, observed and perceived that sites very near the
sea are not the most favorable positions for cities which would attain
a durable prosperity and dominion. And this, first, because maritime
cities are always exposed, not only to many attacks, but to perils they
cannot provide against. For the continued land gives notice, by many
indications, not only of any regular approaches, but also of any sudden
surprises of an enemy, and announces them beforehand by the mere sound.
There is no adversary who, on an inland territory, can arrive so
swiftly as to prevent our knowing not only his existence, but his
character too, and where he comes from. But a maritime and naval enemy
can fall upon a town on the sea-coast before any one suspects that he
is about to come; and when he does come, nothing exterior indicates who
he is, or whence he comes, or what he wishes; nor can it even be
determined and distinguished on all occasions whether he is a friend or
a foe.

IV. But maritime cities are likewise naturally exposed to corrupt
influences, and revolutions of manners. Their civilization is more or
less adulterated by new languages and customs, and they import not only
foreign merchandise, but foreign fashions, to such a degree that
nothing can continue unalloyed in the national institutions. Those who
inhabit these maritime towns do not remain in their native place, but
are urged afar from their homes by winged hope and speculation. And
even when they do not desert their country in person, still their minds
are always expatiating and voyaging round the world.

Nor, indeed, was there any cause which more deeply undermined Corinth
and Carthage, and at last overthrew them both, than this wandering and