has not, however, been
generally believed. It has been thought more probable that Romulus
himself, or some of his partisans and friends, invented and circulated
the story of Celer, in order to screen him in some degree from the
reproach of so unnatural a crime as the killing of a brother so near
and dear to him as Remus had been;--a brother who had shared his
infancy with him, who had slept with him, at the same time, in the
arms of his mother, who had floated with him down the Tiber in the
same ark, been saved from death by the same miraculous intervention,
and through all the years of infancy, childhood, and youth, had been
his constant playmate, companion, and friend. The crime was as much
more atrocious than any ordinary fratricide, as Remus had been nearer
to Romulus than any ordinary brother.

CHAPTER X.

ORGANIZATION.

B.C. 754

Discussion in respect to ancient dates.--Difficulties.--Nature of
tradition.--Extreme youth of Romulus.--Varro's astrological
calculation.--Ingenuity of it.--Olympiads.--The race of
Coroebus.--The result of Varro's computation.--Probable character
of the first constructions at Rome.--Romulus convenes an assembly
of the people.--The speech of Romulus.--His proposals.--The three
forms of government.--Romulus himself made king.--Divine intimation
in his favor.--Commencement of his reign.--Probable origin of the
Roman institutions.--Republican character of the government.--Patricians
and plebians.--Patrons and clients.--Duration of the reign of
Romulus.--Usages.--Difficulty of immediately organizing such a
community.--Importance of the parental and family relation.--The father
a magistrate.--The marriage tie.--Religions ceremonies.--Auguries.--The
three augurs.--Various kinds of omens.--Station of the augurs.--Thunder
and lightning.--Birds.--Nature of the ancient superstition.--Results of
the arrangements made by Romulus.--The asylum on the Capitoline
hill.

There has been a great deal of philosophical discussion, and much
debate, among historians and chronologists, in attempting to fix the
precise year in which Romulus commenced the building of Rome. The
difficulty arises from the fact that no regular records of public
events were made in those ancient days. In modern times such records
are very systematically kept,--an express object of them being to
preserve and perpetuate a knowledge of the exact truth in respect to
the time, and the attendant circumstances, relating to al