The Senate--a term derived from the Latin word _Senes_, old men--formed the chief council of the state, and its first institution is usually referred to the reign of Romulus. Three members were nominated by each tribe, and three by each of the thirty _curiæ_, making ninety-nine in all, to which Romulus himself is said to have added one, for the purpose of making up round numbers, and at the same time nominating a sort of president over the assembly, who also had to take care of the city, in the absence of the sovereign. There is a difference of opinion as to whether one hundred new members were added to the Senate at the time of the union with the Sabines, for Dionysius says there were; but Livy says there were not; and we are disposed to attach credit to the former, for he was an extremely particular man, while Livy was frequently oblivious of caution in giving credence and currency to mere tradition. Before closing this portion of the narrative of the History of Rome, it is necessary to warn the reader against believing too much of it. The current legends are, indeed, _Legenda_, or things to be read, because every body is in the habit of repeating them; but the student must guard himself against placing credence in the old remark, that "what everybody says must be true," for here is a direct instance of what everybody says being decidedly otherwise. The life and reign of Romulus, are to be taken not simply _cum grano salis_--with a grain of salt--but with an entire cellar of that condiment, which is so useful in correcting the evil consequences of swallowing too much of anything. FOOTNOTES: [1] The Lares of the Romans are supposed to have been the Manes or shades of their ancestors, and consisted of little waxen figures--such as we should put under shades made of glass--which adorned the halls of houses. The Lares were sewn up in stout dog's-skin, durability being consulted more than elegance. The Penates were a superior order of deities, who were kept in the innermost parts of the establishment, and took their name from _penitus_, within, which caused the portion of the house they occupied to be afterwards called the _penetralia_. [2] Troy destroyed, B.C. 1184. Rome founded, B.C. 753. [3] From this circumstance the fig was considered figurative of the foundation of the city, and held sacred in Rome for many centuries. [4] The Pomœrium was not the actual wall, but a boundary line, held very sacred by the Romans. It consisted of nothing but the clod turned inwards by the furrow, and, it is probable, that the offensive act of Remus was not his leaping over the wall, but his hopping over the clod, which would, naturally, excite indignation against him as an unmannerly clod-hopper. [5] The word Feretrius will strike the merest tyro as being derived from _fero_, to strike, and meaning to designate Jupiter in his character of Striker, or Smiter.