49. THE ROMANS
FOUNDING OF ROME
Rome sprang from a settlement of Latin shepherds, farmers, and traders on the Palatine Mount. [7] This was the central eminence in a group of low hills south of the Tiber, about fifteen miles by water from the river's mouth. Opposite the Palatine community there arose on the Quirinal Hill another settlement, which seems to have been an outpost of the Sabines. After much hard fighting the rival hill towns united on equal terms into one state. The low marshy land between the Palatine and Quirinal became the Forum, or common market place, and the steep rock, known as the Capitoline, formed the common citadel. [8]
[Illustration: Map, VICINITY OF ROME.]
UNION OF THE SEVEN HILLS
The union of the Palatine and Quirinal settlements greatly increased the area and population of the Roman city. In course of time settlements were made on the neighboring hills and these, too, cast in their lot with Rome. Then a fortification, the so-called "Wall of Servius," was built to bring them all within the boundaries of the enlarged community. Rome came into existence as the City of the Seven Hills.
MYTHS OF EARLY ROME
Long after the foundation of Rome, when that city had grown rich and powerful, her poets and historians delighted to relate the many myths which clustered about the earlier stages of her career. According to these myths Rome began as a colony of Alba Longa, the capital of Latium. The founder of this city was Ascanius, son of the Trojan prince Aeneas, who had escaped from Troy on its capture by the Greeks and after long wanderings had reached the coast of Italy. Many generations afterwards, when Numitor sat on the throne of Alba Longa, his younger brother, Amulius, plotted against him and drove him into exile. He had Numitor's son put to death, and forced the daughter, Rhea Silvia, to take the vows of a Vestal Virgin. [9]
[Illustration: AN EARLY ROMAN COIN
Shows the twins, Romulus and Remus as infants suckled by a wolf.]