Discussion in respect to ancient dates.--Difficulties.--Nature of tradition.--Extreme youth of Romulus.--Varro's astrological calculation.--Ingenuity of it.--Olympiads.--The race of Coroebus.--The result of Varro's computation.--Probable character of the first constructions at Rome.--Romulus convenes an assembly of the people.--The speech of Romulus.--His proposals.--The three forms of government.--Romulus himself made king.--Divine intimation in his favor.--Commencement of his reign.--Probable origin of the Roman institutions.--Republican character of the government.--Patricians and plebians.--Patrons and clients.--Duration of the reign of Romulus.--Usages.--Difficulty of immediately organizing such a community.--Importance of the parental and family relation.--The father a magistrate.--The marriage tie.--Religions ceremonies.--Auguries.--The three augurs.--Various kinds of omens.--Station of the augurs.--Thunder and lightning.--Birds.--Nature of the ancient superstition.--Results of the arrangements made by Romulus.--The asylum on the Capitoline hill. There has been a great deal of philosophical discussion, and much debate, among historians and chronologists, in attempting to fix the precise year in which Romulus commenced the building of Rome. The difficulty arises from the fact that no regular records of public events were made in those ancient days. In modern times such records are very systematically kept,--an express object of them being to preserve and perpetuate a knowledge of the exact truth in respect to the time, and the attendant circumstances, relating to all great transactions. On the other hand, the memory of public events in early periods of the world, was preserved only through tradition; and tradition cares little for the exact and the true. She seeks only for what is entertaining. Her function being simply to give pleasure to successive generations of listeners, by exciting their curiosity and wonder with tales,--which, the more strange and romantic they are, the better they are suited to her purpose--she concerns herself very little with such simple verities as dates and names. The exposure of the twin infants of Rhea, supposing such an event to have actually happened, she remembered well, and repeated the narrative of it--adorning it, doubtless, with many embellishments--from age to age, so that the whole story comes down to modern times in full detail; but as to the time when the event took place, she gave herself no concern. The date would have added nothing to the romance of the story, and thus it was neglected and forgotten.