The most ancient town on the Palatine was Rome; the Sabine town also
must have had a name, and I have no doubt that, according to common
analogy, it was Quirium, the name of its citizens being Quirites. This I
look upon as certain. I have almost as little doubt that the town on the
Caelian was called Lucerum, because when it was united with Rome, its
citizens were called, _Lucertes_ (_Luceres_). The ancients derive this
name from Lucumo, king of the Tuscans, or from Lucerus, king of Ardea;
the latter derivation probably meaning that the race was Tyrrheno-Latin,
because Ardea was the capital of that race. Rome was thus enlarged by a
third element, which, however, did not stand on a footing of equality
with the two others, but was in a state of dependence similar to that of
Ireland relatively to Great Britain down to the year 1782. But although
the Luceres were obliged to recognize the supremacy of the two older
tribes, they were considered as an integral part of the whole state,
that is, as a third tribe with an administration of its own, but
inferior rights. What throws light upon our way here is a passage of
Festus, who is a great authority on matters of Roman antiquity, because
he made his excerpts from Verrius Flaccus; it is only in a few points
that, in my opinion, either of them was mistaken; all the rest of the
mistakes in Festus may be accounted for by the imperfection of the
abridgment, Festus not always understanding Verrius Flaccus. The
statement of Festus to which I here allude is that Tarquinius Superbus
increased the number of the Vestals in order that each tribe might have
two. With this we must connect a passage from the tenth book of Livy,
where he says that the augurs were to represent the three tribes. The
numbers in the Roman colleges of priests were always multiples either of
two or of three; the latter was the case with the Vestal Virgins and the
great Flamines, and the former with the Augurs, Pontiffs, and Fetiales,
who represented only the first two tribes. Previously to the passing of
the Ogulnian law the number of augurs was four, and when subsequently
five plebeians were added, the basis of this increase was different, it
is true, but the ancient rule of the number being a multiple of three
was preserved. The number of pontiffs, which was then four, was
increased only by four: this might seem to contradict what has just been
stated, but it has been overlooked that Cicero speaks of _five_ new ones
having been added, for he included the Pontifex Maximus, which Livy does
not. In like manner there were twenty Fetiales, ten for each tribe. To
the Salii on the Palatine Numa added another brotherhood on the
Quirinal; thus we everywhere see a manifest distinction between the
first two tribes and the third, the latter being treated as inferior.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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