The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 05 : $b the Roman Republic
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 05 : $b the Roman Republic
World history
Rome was founded by the sword, a warrior hero made it, and no other
founder was worthy of so great a military state. But Romulus, the first
king, was not only credited with the foundation and military organisation
of the rising state, but with the establishment of its fundamental
political institutions. Accordingly he was supposed to have divided the
people into tribes and curiæ, and some writers go so far as to credit him
with their division into the two classes of patricians and plebeians,
as well as the institution of patronage and clientage. Religion and
religious law were attributed to Numa for the most part, though the Rome
of Romulus could not have been quite destitute of religious worship.
Some temples (those of Jupiter Feretrius and of Jupiter Stator) are
unanimously reported by tradition to have been founded by Romulus. He
is also said to have erected several chapels and altars, instituted
festivals and services, founded priesthoods, the sacra of the curiæ, and,
in particular, to have instituted the order and manner of the worship
of the gods. But the particular form of worship which he is supposed to
have introduced is not specified more clearly. There is even some doubt
as to whether Romulus or Numa instituted the worship of Vesta, the primal
worship of every colony.
On the other hand it is impossible for the institution of the augurs,
which was wholly religious, to have originated with Numa. For the
foundation--_i.e._, the existence of the Roman state, no less than that
of her fundamental institutions, must have rested upon divine sanction,
and been consecrated by divine protection, if the Roman nation’s
consciousness of being a chosen people under the protection and guidance
of the immortal gods has any historical foundation. The faith of the
Romans in their divine origin and the institution of their state by
providence necessarily involves the _augustum augurium_ which decided the
foundation of Rome and was the groundwork of Roman faith. Hence Romulus
must have built the city after consulting the augurs, and in settling all
the early institutions he must have been the first and best augur.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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