So little taste, however, for order and beauty, did those display who had the direction of the works, that the city, when rebuilt, was even less regular than in the time of Romulus.
This account appears so absurd as to be scarcely credible; in fact, Manlius was first tried by the "comitia centuriata," and acquitted. His second trial was before the "comitia curiata," where his enemies, the patricians, alone had the right of voting. See Introduction, Chap. III.
Some judicious writers, however, acknowledge that the chasm was afterwards filled up with earth and rubbish. (Livy, l. 7. c. 6. Val. Maximus, l. 5. c. 6. et alli.)
CHAPTER XIII.
SECTION I.
FROM THE WARS WITH THE SAMNITES AND THOSE WITH PYRRHUS, TO THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST PUNIC WAR; WHEN THE ROMANS BEGAN TO EXTEND THEIR CONQUESTS BEYOND ITALY.