The Childhood of Rome

Marcia wove her basket, putting a band of red around the curve. Frontispiece.
By L. LAMPREY
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY EDNA F. HART-HUBON
Copyright, 1922, By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
to Maitland C. Lamprey
It is scarcely necessary to say that these stories are not meant to be taken as history, even legendary history. The tales of the founding of Rome and of the early life of the Italian races are many and contradictory. It is quite possible that future discoveries may disprove half the theories now held on these subjects. There must have been, however, heroic semi-savage figures like the Romulus of the legends, and the aim of the author has been to re-create in some degree the atmosphere and the surroundings in which they may have lived.
The various customs and events introduced here were not, probably, part of the history of one generation. It is possible, however, that as a tree grows from a seed, the laws of the future city were foreshadowed and suggested in the relations between the Romans as individuals and between the town on the Palatine and its neighbors.
In short, the period described here is a transition stage, and like any age of the founding of a new civilization, contains incongruous elements. It has been stated that even in the great days of the Roman Empire the number of people who actually spoke correct classical Latin was extremely small in proportion to the whole population of any city.
Sing a song of little words, homely parts of speech,
Phrases children use at play, songs that mothers teach,—