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8. The duties of religion having been duly performed, and the multitude summoned to a meeting, as they could be incorporated into one people by no other means than fixed rules, he gave them a [2??] code of laws, and judging that these would be best respected by this rude class of men, if he made himself dignified by the insignia of authority, he assumed a more majestic appearance both in his other appointments, and especially by taking twelve lictors to attend him. [3] Some think that he chose this number of officers from that of the birds, which in the augury had portended the kingdom to him. I do not object to be of the opinion of those who will have it that the apparitors (in general), and this particular class of them,1 and even their number, was taken from their neighbours the Etrurians, from whom were borrowed the curule chair, and the gown edged with purple; and that the Etrurians adopted that number, because their king being elected in common from twelve states, each state assigned him one [4] lictor. Meanwhile the city increased by their taking in various lots of ground for buildings, whilst they built rather with a view to future numbers, than for the population2 which they then [5] had. Then, lest the size of the city might be of no avail, in order to augment the population, according to the ancient policy of the founders of cities, who, after drawing together to them an obscure and mean multitude, used to feign that their offspring sprung out of the earth, he opened as a [p. 14]sanctuary, a place which is now enclosed as you go down “to the two [6] groves.”34 Hither fled from the neighbouring states, without distinction whether freemen or slaves, crowds of all sorts, desirous of change: and this was the first accession of strength to [7] their rising greatness. When he was now not dissatisfied with his strength, he next sets about forming some means of directing that strength. He creates one hundred senators, either because that number was sufficient, or because there were only one hundred who could name their fathers. They certainly were called Fathers, through respect, and their descendants, Patricians.

1 Apparitores hoc genus. There is something incorrect in the language of the original here. In my version I have followed Drakenborch. Walker, in his edition, proposes to read ut for et; thus, quibus ut apparitores et hoc genus ab Etruscis —numerum quoque ipsum ductum placet, "who will have it, that as public servants of this kind, so was their number also, derived from the Etrurians.

2 The population at that time consisted of not more than 3,000 foot, and less than 300 horse. At the death of Romulus, it is said to have amounted to 46,000 foot and almost 1,000 horse.

3 τὸ μεταξὺ χωρίον τοῦ τε καπιτωλίον καὶ τῆς ἄκρας καλεῖται νῦν καιὰ τὴν Ῥωμαίων διάλεκτον μεθόριον δυοῖν δρυμῶν. Dio. ii. 15.

4 Ex industria —deditâ operâαπὸ παρασκευῆς.

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load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
load focus Summary (Latin, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1919)
load focus Summary (English, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1919)
load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
load focus English (Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912)
load focus English (Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1919)
load focus Latin (Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1919)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
load focus Latin (Robert Seymour Conway, Charles Flamstead Walters, 1914)
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  • Commentary references to this page (18):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.11
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.12
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.29
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.31
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.5
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.4
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.33
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.9
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 35.51
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.35
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.39
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.15
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.pos=60
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.14
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.2
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.31
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.37
    • Charles Simmons, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books XIII and XIV, 13.29
  • Cross-references to this page (29):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Lictor
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Pater
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Patricii
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Prodigia
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Romuli
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Sella
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Senatores
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Senatus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Toga
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Aequi
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Apparitores
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Asyla
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Vrbium
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Curulis
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Imperium
    • Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges, SYNTAX OF THE VERB
    • Harper's, Fasces
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), APPARITO´RES
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), ASY´LUM
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), CEL´ERES
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), FASCES
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), LICTOR
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), PATRI´CII
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), REX
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), SENATUS
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), TRIBUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ETRU´RIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LAV´INIUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ROMA
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (2):
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (24):
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