Rhynthon, a dramatic writer of Syracuse, who flourished at Tarentum, where he wrote 38 plays. Authors are divided with respect to the merit of his compositions, and the abilities of the writer. See: [Rhinthon].
Rhypæ, a town of Achaia, at the west of Helice.
Rigodulum, a village of Germany, now Rigol, near Cologne. Tacitus, Histories, bk. 4, ch. 71.
Riphæi. See: [Rhiphæi].
Ripheus, a Trojan who joined Æneas the night that Troy was reduced to ashes, and was at last killed after making a great carnage of the Greeks. He is commended for his love of justice and equity. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, lis. 339 & 426.——One of the Centaurs killed by Theseus at the nuptials of Pirithous. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 352.
Rixamăræ, a people of Illyricum. Livy, bk. 45, ch. 26.
Robīgo, or Rubīgo, a goddess at Rome, particularly worshipped by husbandmen, as she presided over corn. Her festivals, called Robigalia, were celebrated on the 25th of April, and incense was offered to her, as also the entrails of a sheep and of a dog. She was intreated to preserve the corn from blights. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 911.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, li. 151.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5; de Re Rustica, bk. 1, ch. 1.
Rodumna, now Roanne, a town of the Ædui, on the Loire.
Roma, a city of Italy, the capital of the Roman empire, situate on the banks of the river Tiber, at the distance of about 16 miles from the sea. The name of its founder, and the manner of its foundation, are not precisely known. Romulus, however, is universally supposed to have laid the foundations of that celebrated city, on the 20th of April, according to Varro, in the year 3961 of the Julian period, 3251 years after the creation of the world, 753 before the birth of Christ, and 431 years after the Trojan war, and in the fourth year of the sixth Olympiad. In its original state, Rome was but a small castle on the summit of mount Palatine; and the founder, to give his followers the appearance of a nation or a barbarian horde, was obliged to erect a standard as a common asylum, for every criminal, debtor, or murderer, who fled from their native country to avoid the punishment which attended them. From such an assemblage a numerous body was soon collected, and before the death of the founder, the Romans had covered with their habitations the Palatine, Capitoline, Aventine, Esquiline hills, with mount Cœlius and Quirinalis. After many successful wars against the neighbouring states, the views of Romulus were directed to regulate a nation naturally fierce, warlike, and uncivilized. The people were divided into classes, the interests of the whole were linked in a common chain, and the labours of the subject, as well as those of his patron, tended to the same end, the aggrandizement of the state. Under the successors of Romulus, the power of Rome was increased, and the boundaries of her dominions extended; while one was employed in regulating the forms of worship, and inculcating in the minds of his subjects a reverence for the deity, the other was engaged in enforcing discipline among the army, and raising the consequence of the soldiers in the government of the state; and a third made the object of his administration consist in adorning his capital, in beautifying its edifices, and in fortifying it with towers and walls. During 244 years the Romans were governed by kings, but the tyranny, the oppression, and the violence of the last of these monarchs and of his family, became so atrocious, that a revolution was effected in the state, and the democratical government was established. The monarchical government existed under seven princes, who began to reign in the following order: Romulus, B.C. 753; and after one year’s interregnum, Numa, 715; Tullus Hostilius, 672; Ancus Martius, 640; Tarquin Priscus, 616; Servius Tullius, 578; and Tarquin the Proud, 534, expelled 25 years after, B.C. 509; and this regal administration has been properly denominated the infancy of the Roman empire. After the expulsion of the Tarquins from the throne, the Romans became more sensible of their consequence: with their liberty they acquired a spirit of faction, and they became so jealous of their independence, that the first of their consuls who had been the most zealous and animated in the assertion of their freedom, was banished from the city because he bore the name, and was of the family, of the tyrants; and another, to stop their suspicions, was obliged to pull down his house, whose stateliness and magnificence above the rest seemed incompatible with the duties and the rank of a private citizen. They knew more effectually their power when they had fought with success against Porsenna the king of Etruria, and some of the neighbouring states, who supported the claim of the tyrant, and attempted to replace him on his throne by force of arms. A government which is entrusted into the hands of two of the most distinguished of its members, for the limited space of one year, cannot but give rise to great men, glorious exploits, and tremendous seditions. The general who is placed at the head of an army during a campaign, must be active and diligent, when he knows that his power is terminated with the year, and if he has a becoming ambition, he will distinguish his consulship by some uncommon act of valour, before he descends from the dignity of an absolute magistrate to the dependence of a fellow-citizen. Yet these attempts for the attainment of glory often failed of success; and though the Romans could once boast that every individual in their armies could discharge with fidelity and honour the superior offices of magistrate and consul, there are to be found in their annals many years marked by overthrows, or disgraced by the ill conduct, the oppression, and the wantonness of their generals. See: [Consul]. To the fame which their conquests and daily successes had gained abroad, the Romans were not a little indebted for their gradual rise to superiority; and to this may be added the policy of the census, which every fifth year told them their actual strength, and how many citizens were able to bear arms. And indeed it was no small satisfaction to a people who were continually making war, to see that, in spite of all the losses which they might sustain in the field, the increase of the inhabitants of the city was prodigious, and almost incredible; and had Romulus lived after the battle of Actium, he would have been persuaded with difficulty that above 4,000,000 of inhabitants were contained within those walls, which in the most flourishing period of his reign could scarce muster an army of 3000 infantry and 300 horse. But when Rome had flourished under the consular government for about 120 years, and had beheld with pleasure the conquests of her citizens over the neighbouring states and cities, which, according to a Roman historian, she was ashamed to recollect in the summit of her power, an irruption of the barbarians of Gaul rendered her very existence precarious, [♦]and her name was nearly extinguished. The valour of an injured individual [See: [Camillus]] saved it from destruction, yet not before its buildings and temples were reduced to ashes. This celebrated event, which gave the appellation of another founder of Rome to Camillus, has been looked upon as a glorious era to the Romans. The huts and cottages which Romulus had erected, and all his successors repaired, were totally consumed, and when the city arose again from its ruins, the streets were enlarged, convenience as well as order was observed, taste and regularity were consulted, and the poverty, ignorance, and rusticity of the Romans seemed to be extinguished with their old habitations. But no sooner were they freed from the fears of their barbarian invaders, than they turned their arms against those states which refused to acknowledge their superiority, or yield their independence. Their wars with Pyrrhus and the Tarentines displayed their character in a different view; if they before had fought for freedom and independence, they now drew their sword for glory; and here we may see them conquered in the field, and yet refusing to grant that peace for which their conqueror himself had sued. The advantages they gained from their battles with Pyrrhus were many. The Roman name became known in Greece, Sicily, and Africa, and in losing or gaining a victory, the Romans were enabled to examine the manœuvres, observe the discipline, and contemplate the order and the encampments of those soldiers whose friends and ancestors had accompanied Alexander the Great in the conquest of Asia. Italy became subjected to the Romans at the end of the war with the Tarentines, and that period of time has been called the second age, or the adolescence of the Roman empire. After this memorable era they tried their strength not only with distant nations, but also upon a new element; and in the long wars which they waged against Carthage, they acquired territory, and obtained the sovereignty of the sea; and though Annibal for 16 years kept them in continual alarms, hovered round their gates, and destroyed their armies almost before their walls, yet they were doomed to conquer [See: [Punicum bellum]], and soon to add the kingdom of Macedonia [See: [Macedonicum bellum]] and the provinces of Asia [See: [Mithridaticum bellum]] to their empire. But while we consider the Romans as a nation subduing their neighbours by war, their manners, their counsels, and their pursuits at home are not to be forgotten. To be warriors was their profession; their assemblies in the Campus Martius were a meeting of armed men, and very properly denominated an army. Yet while their conquests were so extensive abroad, we find them torn by factions at home; and so far was the resentment of the poorer citizens carried, that we see the enemy at the gates of the city, while all are unwilling to take up arms and to unite in the defence of their common liberty. The senators and nobles were ambitious of power, and endeavoured to retain in their hands that influence which had been exercised with so much success, and such cruelty, by their monarchs. This was the continual occasion of tumults and sedition. The people were jealous of their liberty. The oppression of the nobles irritated them, and the stripes to which they were too often exposed without mercy, was often productive of revolutions. The plebeians, though originally the poorest and most contemptible citizens of an indigent nation, whose food in the first ages of the empire was only bread and salt, and whose drink was water, soon gained rights and privileges by their opposition. Though really slaves, they became powerful in the state; one concession from the patricians produced another, and when their independence was boldly asserted by their tribunes, they were admitted to share in the highest offices of the state, and the laws which forbade the intermarriage of plebeian and patrician families were repealed, and the meanest peasant could by valour and fortitude be raised to the dignity of dictator and consul. It was not till these privileges were obtained by the people from the senate, that Rome began to enjoy internal peace and tranquillity; her battles were then fought with more vigour, her soldiers were more animated, and her sovereignty was more universally established. But supreme power lodged in the hands of a factious and ambitious citizen, becomes too often dangerous. The greatest oppression and tyranny took place of subordination and obedience; and from those causes proceeded the unparalleled slaughter and effusion of blood under a Sylla and a Marius. It has been justly observed, that the first Romans conquered their enemies by valour, temperance, and fortitude; their moderation also and their justice were well known among their neighbours, and not only private possessions, but even mighty kingdoms and empires, were left in their power, to be distributed among a family or to be ensured in the hands of a successor. They were also chosen umpires to decide quarrels, but in this honourable office they consulted their own interest; they artfully supported the weaker side, that the more powerful might be reduced, and gradually become their prey. Under Julius Cæsar and Pompey, the rage of civil war was carried to unprecedented excess: it was not merely to avenge a private injury, but it was a contest for the sovereignty; and though each of the adversaries wore the mask of pretended sincerity, and professed himself to be the supporter of the republic, no less than the abolition of freedom and the public liberty was the aim. What Julius began, his adopted son achieved: the ancient spirit of national independence was extinguished at Rome; and after the battle of Actium, the Romans seemed unable to govern themselves without the assistance of a chief, who, under the title of imperator, an appellation given to every commander by his army after some signal victory, reigned with as much power and as much sovereignty as another Tarquin. Under their emperors, the Romans lived a luxurious and indolent life; they had long forgot to appear in the field, and their wars were left to be waged by mercenary troops, who fought without spirit or animosity, and who were ever ready to yield to him who bought their allegiance and fidelity with the greatest sums of money. Their leaders themselves were not the most prudent or the most humane; the power which they had acquired by bribery was indeed precarious, and among a people where not only the highest offices of the state, but even the imperial purple itself, are exposed to sale, there cannot be expected much happiness or tranquillity in the palace of the emperor. The reigns of the successors of Augustus were distinguished by variety; one was the most abandoned and profligate of men, whom his own vices and extravagance hurried out of the world, while his successor, perhaps the most clement, just, and popular of princes, was sacrificed in the midst of his guards and attendants by the dagger of some offended favourite or disappointed eunuch. Few indeed were the emperors of Rome whose days were not shortened by poison, or the sword of an assassin. If one for some time had the imprudence to trust himself in the midst of a multitude, at last to perish by his own credulity, the other consulted his safety, but with no better success, in the innumerable chambers of his palace, and changed every day, to elude discovery, the place of his retirement. After they had been governed by a race of princes, remarkable for the variety of their characters, the Roman possessions were divided into two distinct empires, by the enterprising Constantine, A.D. 328. Constantinople became the seat of the eastern empire, and Rome remained in the possession of the western emperors, and continued to be the capital of their dominions. In the year 800 of the christian era, Rome with Italy was delivered by Charlemagne, the then emperor of the west, into the hands of the Pope, who still continues to hold the sovereignty, and to maintain his independence under the name of the Ecclesiastical States. The original poverty of the Romans has often been disguised by their poets and historians, who wished it to appear that a nation who were masters of the world, had had better beginning than to be a race of shepherds and robbers. Yet it was to this simplicity they were indebted for their successes. Their houses were originally destitute of every ornament, they were made with unequal boards, and covered with mud, and these served them rather as a shelter against the inclemency of the seasons than for relaxation and ease. Till the age of Pyrrhus, they despised riches, and many salutary laws were enacted to restrain luxury and to punish indolence. They observed great temperance in their meals; young men were not permitted to drink wine till they had attained their 30th year, and it was totally forbidden to women. Their national spirit was supported by policy; the triumphal procession of a conqueror along the streets amidst the applause of thousands, was well calculated to promote emulation, and the number of gladiators who were regularly introduced not only in public games and spectacles, but also at private meetings, served to cherish their fondness for war, whilst it steeled their hearts against the calls of compassion; and when they could gaze with pleasure upon wretches whom they forcibly obliged to murder one another, they were not inactive in the destruction of those whom they considered as inveterate foes or formidable rivals in the field. In their punishments, civil as well as military, the Romans were strict and rigorous; a deserter was severely whipped and sold as a slave, and the degradation from the rank of a soldier and dignity of a citizen was the most ignominious stigma which could be affixed upon a seditious mutineer. The transmarine victories of the Romans proved at last the ruin of their innocence and bravery. They grew fond of the luxury of the Asiatics; and, conquered by the vices and indolence of those nations whom they had subdued, they became as effeminate and as dissolute as their captives. Marcellus was the first who introduced a taste for the fine arts among his countrymen. The spoils and treasures that were obtained in the plunder of Syracuse and Corinth, rendered the Romans partial to elegant refinement and ornamental equipage. Though Cato had despised philosophy [See: [Carneades]], and declared that war was the only profession of his countrymen, the Romans, by their intercourse with the Greeks, soon became fond of literature; and though they had once banished the sophists of Athens from their city, yet they beheld with rapture their settlement among them in the principal towns of Italy, after the conquest of Achaia. They soon after began to imitate their polished captives, and to cultivate poetry with success. From the valour of their heroes and conquerors, indeed, the sublimest subjects were offered to the genius of their poets; but of the little that remains to celebrate the early victories of Rome, nothing can be compared to the nobler effusions of the Augustan age. Virgil has done so much for the Latin name that the splendour and the triumphs of his country are forgotten for a while, when we are transported in the admiration of the majesty of his numbers, the elegant delicacy of his expressions, and the fire of his muse; and the applauses given to the lyric powers of Horace, the softness of Tibullus, the vivacity of Ovid, and to the [♠]superior compositions of other respectable poets, shall be unceasing so long as the name of Rome excites our reverence and our praises, and so long as genius, virtue, and abilities are honoured amongst mankind. Though they originally rejected with horror a law which proposed the building of a public theatre, and the exhibition of plays, like the Greeks, yet the Romans soon proved favourable to the compositions of their countrymen. Livius was the first dramatic writer of consequence at Rome, whose plays began to be exhibited A.U.C. 514. After him Nævius and Ennius wrote for the stage; and in a more polished period Plautus, Terence, Cæcilius, and Afranius claimed the public attention and gained the most unbounded applause. Satire did not make its appearance at Rome till 100 years after the introduction of comedy, and so celebrated was Lucilius in this kind of writing, that he was called the inventor of it. In historical writing the progress of the Romans was slow and inconsiderable, and for many years they employed the pen of foreigners to compile their annals, till the superior abilities of a Livy were made known. In their worship and sacrifices the Romans were uncommonly superstitious; the will of the gods was consulted on every occasion, and no general marched to an expedition without the previous assurance from the augurs that the omens were propitious, and his success almost indubitable. Their sanctuaries were numerous; they raised altars not only to the gods, who, as they supposed, presided over their city, but also to the deities of conquered nations, as well as to the different passions and virtues. There were no less than 420 temples at Rome, crowded with statues; the priests were numerous, and each divinity had a particular college of sacerdotal servants. Their wars were declared in the most awful and solemn manner, and prayers were always offered in the temples for the prosperity of Rome, when a defeat had been sustained or a victory won. The power of fathers over their children was very extensive, and indeed unlimited; they could sell them or put them to death at pleasure, without the forms of a trial, or the interference of the civil magistrate. Many of their ancient families were celebrated for the great men whom they had produced, but the vigorous and interested part they took in the government of the republic exposed them often to danger; and some have observed that the Romans sunk into indolence and luxury when the Cornelii, the Fabii, the Æmylii, the Marcelli, &c., who had so often supported their spirit and led them to victory, had been extinguished in the bloody wars of Marius and of the two triumvirates. When Rome was become powerful, she was distinguished from other cities by the flattery of her neighbours and citizens; a form of worship was established to her as a deity, and temples were raised in her honour, not only in the city but in the provinces. The goddess Roma was represented like Minerva, all armed and sitting on a rock, holding a pike in her hand, with her head covered with a helmet, and a trophy at her feet. Livy, bk. 1, &c.—Cato, de Re Rustica.—Virgil, Eclogues, Georgics, & Æneid.—Horace, bk. 2, satire 6, &c.—Florus, bk. 1, ch. 1, &c.—Paterculus.—Tacitus, Annals & Histories.—Tibullus, bk. 4.—Lucan.—Plutarch, Romulus, Numa, &c.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 1, &c.—Pliny, bk. 7, &c.—Justin, bk. 43.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, &c.—Martial, bk. 12, ltr. 8.——A daughter of Evander.——A Trojan woman who came to Italy with Æneas.——A daughter of Italus and Luceria. It was after one of these females, according to some authors, that the capital of Italy was called Roma.
[♦] ‘aud’ replaced with ‘and’