Rome -- History -- To 510 B.C.; Romulus, King of Rome
There were to be games too, races, and wrestlings, and other athletic
sports, such as were in vogue in those times. The celebration was to
continue for many days, and the games and sports were to come at the
end. Romulus sent messengers to all the surrounding country to
proclaim the programme of these entertainments, and to invite every
body to come; and he adroitly arranged the details in such a manner
that the chief attractions for grave, sober-minded and substantial men
should be on the earlier days of the show, and that the latter days
should be devoted to lighter amusements, such as would possess a charm
for the young, the light-hearted and the happy. It was among this last
class that he naturally expected to find the maidens whom his men
would choose in looking for wives.
When the time arrived the spectacles commenced. There was a great
concourse at the outset, but the people who first came, were, as
Romulus supposed would be the case, chiefly men. They came in
companies, as if for mutual support and protection, and they exhibited
in a greater or less degree an air of suspicion, watchfulness and
mistrust. They were, however, received with great cordiality and
kindness. They were conducted about the town, and were astonished to
find how considerable a town it was. The streets, the houses, the
walls, the temples, simple in construction as they were, far surpassed
the expectations they had formed. The visitors were treated with great
hospitality, and entertained in a manner which, considering the
circumstances of the case, was quite sumptuous. The women and children
too, who came on these first days, received from all the Romans very
special attention and regard.
As the celebrations went on from day to day, a considerable change
took place in the character and appearance of the company. The men
ceased to be suspicious and watchful. Some went home, and carried such
reports of the new city, and of the kindness, and hospitality, and
gentle behavior of the inhabitants, that new visitors came continually
to see for themselves. Every day the proportion of stern and
suspicious men diminished, and that of gay and happy-looking youths
and maidens increased.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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