(iii.) Each of the three tribes was bound to furnish 1000 men for the infantry and 100 men for the cavalry. Thus 3000 foot-soldiers and 300 horse-soldiers formed the original army of the Roman state, and were called a Legion.
2. REIGN OF NUMA POMPILIUS, B.C. 716-673.—On the death of Romulus, the Senate, at first, would not allow the election of a new king. The Senators enjoyed the royal power in rotation as Inter-reges, or between-kings. In this way a year passed. But the people at length insisted that a king should be chosen, and the Senate were obliged to give way. The choice fell upon the wise and pious Numa Pompilius, a native of the Sabine Cures who had married the daughter of Tatius. The forty-three years of Numa's reign glided away in quiet happiness without any war or any calamity.
As Romulus was the founder of the political institutions of Rome, so Numa was the author of the religious institutions. Instructed by the nymph Egeria, whom he met in the sacred grove of Aricia, he instituted the Pontiffs, four in number, with a Pontifex Maximus at their head, who had the general superintendence of religion; the Augurs, also four in number, who consulted the will of the gods on all occasions, both private and public; three Flamens, each of whom attended to the worship of separate deities—Jupiter,[5] Mars, and Quirinus; four Vestal Virgins, who kept alive the sacred fire of Vesta brought from Alba Longa; and twelve Salii, or priests of Mars, who had the care of the sacred shields.[6] Numa reformed the calendar, encouraged agriculture, and marked out the boundaries of property, which he placed under the care of the god Terminus. He also built the temple of Janus, a god represented with two heads looking different ways. The gates of this temple were to be open during war and closed in time of peace.
3. REIGN OF TULLUS HOSTILIUS, B.C. 673-641.—Upon the death of Numa an interregnum again followed; but soon afterward Tullus Hostilius, a Roman, was elected king. His reign was as warlike as that of Numa had been peaceful. The most memorable event in it is the destruction of Alba Longa. A quarrel having arisen between the two cities, and their armies having been drawn up in array against each other, the princes determined to avert the battle by a combat of champions chosen from each army. There were in the Roman army three brothers, born at the same birth, named Horatii; and in the Alban army, in like manner, three brothers, born at the same birth, and called Curiatii. The two sets of brothers were chosen as champions, and it was agreed that the people to whom the conquerors belonged should rule the other. Two of the Horatii were slain, but the three Curiatii were wounded, and the surviving Horatius, who was unhurt, had recourse to stratagem. He was unable to contend with the Curiatii united, but was more than a match for each of them separately. Taking to flight, he was followed by his three opponents at unequal distances. Suddenly turning round, he slew, first one, then the second, and finally the third. The Romans were declared the conquerors, and the Albans their subjects. But a tragical event followed. As Horatius was entering Rome, bearing his threefold spoils, his sister met him, and recognized on his shoulders the cloak of one of the Curiatii, her betrothed lover. She burst into such passionate grief that the anger of her brother was kindled, and, stabbing her with his sword, he exclaimed, "So perish every Roman woman who bewails a foe." For this murder he was condemned by the two judges of blood to be hanged upon the fatal tree, but he appealed to the people, and they gave him his life.
Shortly afterward Tullus Hostilius made war against the Etruscans of Fidenæ and Veii. The Albans, under their dictator Mettius Fuffetius, followed him to the war as the subjects of Rome. In the battle against the Etruscans, the Alban dictator, faithless and insolent, withdrew to the hills, but when the Etruscans were defeated he descended to the plain, and congratulated the Roman king. Tullus pretended to be deceived. On the following day he summoned the two armies to receive their praises and rewards. The Albans came without arms, and were surrounded by the Roman troops. They then heard their sentence. Their dictator was to be torn in pieces by horses driven opposite ways; their city was to be razed to the ground; and they themselves, with their wives and children, transported to Rome. Tullus assigned to them the Cælian Hill for their habitation. Some of the noble families of Alba were enrolled among the Roman patricians, but the great mass of the Alban people were not admitted to the privileges of the ruling class. They were the origin of the Roman Plebs, who were thus quite distinct from the Patricians and their Clients. The Patricians still formed exclusively the Populus, or Roman people, properly so called. The Plebs were a subject-class without any share in the government.
After carrying on several other wars Tullus fell sick, and sought to win the favor of the gods, as Numa had done, by prayers and divination. But Jupiter was angry with him, and smote him and his whole house with fire from heaven. Thus perished Tullus, after a reign of thirty-two years.
4. REIGN OF ANCUS MARCIUS, B.C. 640-616.—Ancus Marcius, the successor of Tullus Hostilius, was a Sabine, being the son of Numa's daughter. He sought to tread in the footsteps of his grandfather by reviving the religious ceremonies which had fallen into neglect; but a war with the Latins called him from the pursuits of peace. He conquered several of the Latin cities, and removed many of the inhabitants to Rome, where he assigned them the Aventine for their habitation. Thus the number of the Plebeians was greatly enlarged. Ancus instituted the Fetiales, whose duty it was to demand satisfaction from a foreign state when any dispute arose, to determine the circumstances under which hostilities might be commenced, and to perform the proper religious rites on the declaration of war. He also founded a colony at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, built a fortress on the Janiculum as a protection against the Etruscans, and united it with the city by a bridge across the Tiber, called the Pons Sublicius, because it was made of wooden piles, and erected a prison to restrain offenders. He died after a reign of twenty-four years.
