of his birth,
and to find the date of a man's birth if the incidents of his life are
given. Taroutius performed his task, and after considering the things
done and suffered by Romulus, the length of his life, the manner of his
death, and all such like matters, he confidently and boldly asserted
that Romulus was conceived by his mother in the first year of the second
Olympiad, at the third hour of the twenty-third day of the month which
is called in the Egyptian calendar _Choiac_, at which time there was a
total eclipse of the sun. He stated that he was born on the twenty-first
day of the month _Thouth_, about sunrise. Rome was founded by him on the
ninth day of the month _Pharmouthi_, between the second and third hour;
for it is supposed that the fortunes of cities, as well as those of men,
have their certain periods which can be discovered by the position of
the stars at their nativities. The quaint subtlety of these speculations
may perhaps amuse the reader more than their legendary character will
weary him.

XIII. When the city was founded, Romulus first divided all the
able-bodied males into regiments, each consisting of three thousand
infantry and three hundred cavalry. These were named legions, because
they consisted of men of military age selected from the population. The
rest of the people were now organised. They were called Populus, and a
hundred of the noblest were chosen from among them and formed into a
council. These he called Patricians, and their assembly the Senate. This
word Senate clearly means assembly of old men; and the members of it
were named Patricians, according to some, because they were the fathers
of legitimate offspring; according to others, because they were able to
give an account of who their own fathers were, which few of the first
colonists were able to do. Others say that it was from their
_Patrocinium_, as they then called, and do at the present day call,
their patronage of their clients. There is a legend that this word arose
from one Patron, a companion of Evander, who was kind and helpful to his
inferiors. But it is most reasonable to suppose that Romulus called them
by this name because he intended the most powerful men to show kindness
to their inferiors, and to show the poorer classes that they ought not
to fear the great nor grudge them their honours, but be on friendly
terms with them, thinking of them and addressing them as fathers
(Patres). For, up to the present day, forei