Conditions and Terms of Use Copyright © Heritage History 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Some rights reserved This text was produced and distributed by Heritage History, an ONCE UPON A TIME ....................................................... 4 organization dedicated to the preservation of classical juvenile history books, and to the promotion of the works of traditional history authors. HOW THE SHEPHERDS BEGAN THE CITY ...................... 9 The books which Heritage History republishes are in the public HOW CORINTH GAVE ROME A NEW DYNASTY ........... 17 domain and are no longer protected by the original copyright. They may therefore be reproduced within the United States without paying a royalty THE RISE OF THE COMMONS ....................................... 21 to the author. 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This text is intended to be a faithful and complete copy of the original MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE ... 101 document. However, typos, omissions, and other errors may have occurred during preparation, and Heritage History does not guarantee a THE ROMAN READING AND WRITING ....................... 108 perfectly reliable reproduction. THE ROMAN REPUBLICANS SERIOUS AND GAY ........ 115 Permission to use Heritage History documents or images for commercial purposes, or more information about our collection of traditional history resources can be obtained by contacting us at [email protected] Original Copyright 1892 by Arthur Gilman. 2 Distributed by Heritage History 2011 PREFACE relation to each other as well as to the facts of general history, without attempting an incursion into the domain of philosophy. It is proposed to rehearse the lustrous story of Rome, A. G. from its beginning in the mists of myth and fable down to the mischievous times when the republic came to its end, just CAMBRIDGE, May 27, 1886 before the brilliant period of the empire opened. As one surveys this marvelous vista from the vantage- ground of the present, attention is fixed first upon a long succession of well- authenticated facts which are shaded off in the dim distance, and finally lost in the obscurity of unlettered antiquity. The flesh and blood heroes of the more modern times regularly and slowly pass from view, and in their places the unsubstantial worthies of dreamy tradition start up. The transition is so gradual, however, that it is at times impossible to draw the line between history and legend. Fortunately for the purposes of this volume it is not always necessary to make the effort. The early traditions of the Eternal City have so long been recounted as truth that the world is slow to give up even the least jot or tittle of them, and when they are disproved as fact, they must be told over and over again as story. Roman history involves a narrative of social and political struggles, the importance of which is as wide as modern civilization, and they must not be passed over without some attention, though in the present volume they cannot be VIEW OF THE COLOSSEUM AND PORTIONS OF MODERN ROME. treated with the thoroughness they deserve. The story has the advantage of being to a great extent a narrative of the exploits of heroes, and the attention can be held almost the whole time to the deeds of particular actors who successively occupy the focus or play the principal parts on the stage. In this way the element of personal interest, which so greatly adds to the charm of a story, may be infused into the narrative. It is hoped to enter to some degree into the real life of the Roman people, to catch the true spirit of their actions, and to indicate the current of the national life, while avoiding the presentation of particular episodes or periods with undue prominence. It is intended to set down the facts in their proper Original Copyright 1892 by Arthur Gilman. 3 Distributed by Heritage History 2011 CHAPTER I to conceal themselves in a hollow wooden horse, in which they were taken into Troy. Once inside, it was an easy task to open the gates and let the whole army in also. The city was ONCE UPON A TIME then taken and burned. Menelaus was naturally one of the first to hasten from the smoking ruins, though he was almost the Once upon a time, there lived in a city of Asia Minor, last to reach his home. He lived afterwards for years in peace, not far from Mount Ida, as old Homer tells us in his grand and health, and happiness with the beautiful wife who had cost him beautiful poem, a king who had fifty sons and many daughters. so much suffering and so many trials to regain. How large his family was, indeed, we cannot say, for the storytellers of the olden time were not very careful to set down the actual and exact truth, their chief object being to give the people something to interest them. That they succeeded well in this respect we know, because the story of this old king and his great family of sons and daughters has been told and retold thousands of times since it was first related, and that was so long ago that the bard himself has sometimes been said never to have lived at all. Still; somebody must have existed who told the wondrous story, and it has always been attributed to a blind poet, to whom the name Homer has been given. The place in which the old king and his great family lived was Ilium, though it is better known as Troja or Troy, THE PLAINS IF TROY IN MODERN TIMES. because that is the name that the Roman people used for it in later times. One of the sons of Priam, for that was the name of Among the relatives of King Priam was one Anchises, this king, was Paris, who, though very handsome, was a a descendant of Jupiter, who was very old at the time of the wayward and troublesome youth. He once journeyed to Greece war. He had a valiant son, however, who fought well in the to find a wife, and there fell in love with a beautiful daughter struggle, and the story of his deeds was ever afterwards of Jupiter, named Helen. She was already married to treasured up among the most precious narratives of all time. Menelaus, the Prince of Lacedaemonia (brother of another This son was named Aeneas, and he was not only a descendant famous hero, Agamemnon), who had most hospitably of Jupiter, but also a son of the beautiful goddess Venus. He entertained young Paris, but this did not interfere with his did not take an active part in the war at its beginning, but in carrying her off to Troy. The wedding journey was made by the course of time he and Hector, who was one of the sons of the roundabout way of Phoenicia and Egypt, but at last the the king, became the most prominent among the defenders of couple reached home with a large amount of treasure taken Troy. After the destruction of the city, he went out of it, from the hospitable Menelaus. carrying on his shoulders his aged father, Anchises, and leading by the hand his young son, Ascanius, or Iulus, as he This wild adventure led to a war of ten years between was also called. He bore in his hands his household gods, the Greeks and King Priam, for the rescue of the beautiful called the Penates, and began his now celebrated wanderings Helen. Menelaus and some of his countrymen at last contrived Original Copyright 1892 by Arthur Gilman. 4 Distributed by Heritage History 2011 over the earth. He found a resting-place at last on the farther yes, periods of ages, either wholly unknown or obscured or coast of the Italian peninsula, and there one day he blemished with fables." Why this is so the great poet did not marvellously disappeared in a battle on the banks of the little pretend to tell, but he thought that it might be because people brook Numicius, where a monument was erected to his did not know how to write in the first ages, or because their memory as "The Father and the Native God." According to the records had been lost in wars and by the sloth and ignorance best accounts, the war of Troy took place nearly twelve that followed them.