its superabundant
commodities by the same channel? And in the same river a communication
is found by which it not only receives from the sea all the productions
necessary to the conveniences and elegances of life, but those also
which are brought from the inland districts. So that Romulus seems to
me to have divined and anticipated that this city would one day become
the centre and abode of a powerful and opulent empire; for there is no
other part of Italy in which a city could be situated so as to be able
to maintain so wide a dominion with so much ease.

VI. As to the natural fortifications of Rome, who is so negligent and
unobservant as not to have them depicted and deeply stamped on his
memory? Such is the plan and direction of the walls, which, by the
prudence of Romulus and his royal successors, are bounded on all sides
by steep and rugged hills; and the only aperture between the Esquiline
and Quirinal mountains is enclosed by a formidable rampart, and
surrounded by an immense fosse. And as for our fortified citadel, it is
so secured by a precipitous barrier and enclosure of rocks, that, even
in that horrible attack and invasion of the Gauls, it remained
impregnable and inviolable. Moreover, the site which he selected had
also an abundance of fountains, and was healthy, though it was in the
midst of a pestilential region; for there are hills which at once
create a current of fresh air, and fling an agreeable shade over the
valleys.

VII. These things he effected with wonderful rapidity, and thus
established the city, which, from his own name Romulus, he determined
to call Rome. And in order to strengthen his new city, he conceived a
design, singular enough, and even a little rude, yet worthy of a great
man, and of a genius which discerned far away in futurity the means of
strengthening his power and his people. The young Sabine females of
honorable birth who had come to Rome, attracted by the public games and
spectacles which Romulus then, for the first time, established as
annual games in the circus, were suddenly carried off at the feast of
Consus[313] by his orders, and were given in marriage to the men of the
noblest families in Rome. And when, on this account, the Sabines had
declared war against Rome, the issue of the battle being doubtful and
undecided, Romulus made an alliance with Tatius, King of the Sabines,
at the intercession of the matrons themselves who had been carried off.
By this compact he admi