itor promised to aid them in their enterprise by every
means in his power. He was to furnish tools and implements, for
excavations and building, and artisans so far as artisans were
required, and was also to provide such temporary supplies of
provisions and stores as might be required at the outset of the
undertaking. He gave permission also to any of his subjects to join
Romulus and Remus in their undertaking, and they, in order to increase
their numbers as much as possible, sent messengers around to the
neighboring country inviting all who were disposed, to come and take
part in the building of the new city. This invitation was accepted by
great numbers of people, from every rank and station in life.

Of course, however, the greater portion of those who came to join the
enterprise, were of a very low grade in respect to moral character.
Men of industry, integrity, and moral worth, who possessed kind hearts
and warm domestic affections, were generally well and prosperously
settled each in his own hamlet or town, and were little inclined to
break away from the ties which bound them to friends and society, in
order to plunge in such a scene of turmoil and confusion as the
building of a new city, under such circumstances, must necessarily be.
It was of course generally the discontented, the idle, and the bad,
that would hope for benefit from such a change as this enterprise
proposed to them. Every restless and desperate spirit, every depraved
victim of vice, every fugitive and outlaw would be ready to embark in
such a scheme, which was to create certainly a new phase in their
relations to society, and thus afford them an opportunity to make a
fresh beginning. The enterprise at the same time seemed to offer them,
through a new organization and new laws, some prospect of release from
responsibility for former crimes. In a word, in preparing to lay the
foundations of their city, Romulus and Remus found themselves at the
head of a very wild and lawless company.

There were seven distinct hills on the ground which was subsequently
included within the limits of Rome. Between and among these hills the
river meandered by sweeping and graceful curves, and at one point,
near the center of what is now the city, the stream passed very near
the foot of one of the elevations called the Palatine Hill. Here was
the spot where the wooden ark in which Romulus and Remus had been set
adrift, had been thrown up upon the shore. The sides of t