To seek for Rome, vain stranger, art thou come, And find’st no mark, within Rome’s walls, of Rome? See here the craggy walls, the towers defaced, And piles that frighten more than once they pleased: See the vast theatres, a shapeless load, And sights more tragic than they ever show’d. This, this is Rome! Her haughty carcass spread Still awes in ruin, and commands when dead. The subject world first took from her their fate; And when she only stood unconquer’d yet, Herself she last subdued, to make the work complete. But ah! so dear the fatal triumph cost, That conquering Rome is in the conquer’d lost. Yet rolling Tiber still maintains his stream, Swell’d with the glories of the Roman name. Strange power of fate! unshaken moles must waste; While things that ever move, for ever last.—VITALIS. As the plan of this work does not admit of our giving any thing like a history of the various trials and fortunes of Rome; we must confine ourselves, almost entirely, to a few particulars relative to its origin, summit of glory and empire, its decay, and ultimate ruin. There is no unquestionable narrative of facts, on which any writer can build the primitive history of this vast city and empire; but in its place we have a mass of popular traditions and fabulous records. On the taking of Troy, Æneas, a prince of that city, quitted his native land, and after a long period, spent in encountering a variety of vicissitudes, he arrived on the coast of Italy, was received with hospitality by the King of Latium, whose name was Latinus, and afterwards obtained his throne, from the circumstance of having married his daughter. Æneas after this built the city of Lavinium, and, thirty years after, his son founded that of Alba Longa, which then became the capital of Latium. Three hundred years after, Romulus founded Rome. [Illustration: ROME.]