On the Fortunes of the Romans (8-9)

But enough ! For such important testimonies from her witnesses has Fortune to support her. But we must also introduce the testimony of the very events of history, taking as the beginning of our account the beginning of Rome. To begin with, who would not at once declare touching the birth, the preservation, the nurture, the development of Romulus, that Fortune laid the foundations, and that Virtue finished the building? In the first place,

then, it appears that the circumstances surrounding the origin and the birth of the very founders and builders of Rome were of a marvellous good fortune.[*] For their mother is said to have consorted with a god; and even as they relate that Heracles was conceived during a long night (for the day was retarded in contrariety to nature, and the sun delayed), so regarding the generation and conception of Romulus they record that the sun was eclipsed and carne into exact conjunction with the moon at the time when Mars, a god, consorted with the mortal Silvia.[*] And this same thing, they say, happened to Romulus also at the very time of his translation from this life; for they relate that he disappeared during an eclipse of the sun on the Capratine Nones,[*] on which day, even to the present time, they hold high festival.

Later, when the children were born and the despot gave orders to do away with them, by the decree of Fortune no barbarous or savage servant but a compassionate and humane man received them, with the result that he did not kill them; but there was a margin of the river, bordering upon a green meadow,[*] shaded round about with lowly shrubs; and here the servant deposited the infants near a certain wild fig-tree, to which people later gave the name Ruminalis.[*] Then a she-wolf, that had newly whelped, with her dugs distended and overflowing with milk because her young had perished, being

herself in great need of relief, circled around[*] the infants and then gave them suck, thus ridding herself of the pain caused by the milk as if it had been a second birth-pang. And a bird sacred to Mars, which they call the woodpecker, visited them and, perching near on tiptoe, would, with its claw, open the mouth of each child in turn and place therein a morsel, sharing with them a portion of its own food. Wherefore they named this wild fig-tree Ruminalis, from the teat (ruma) which the wolf offered to the children as she crouched beside the tree. And for a long time the people who dwelt near this place preserved the custom of never exposing any of the new-born infants, but they acknowledged and reared them all, in honour of Romulus’s experience and the similarity of the childrens’ case with his.

And, in truth, the fact that they were not discovered while they were being reared and educated in Gabii, and that it was unknown that they were the sons of Silvia and the grandchildren of king Numitor surely appears to have been a furtive and shrewd device of Fortune, so that they might not, because of their lineage, be put to death before performing their tasks, but that they might in their very successes be discovered, by bringing to notice their noble qualities as tokens by which to recognize their high birth.

At this point there occurs to me the remark of a great and prudent general, Themistocles,[*] which was made to certain of the generals who came into favour at Athens after him and felt that they deserved to be rated above him. He said that the Day-After contended

with the Feast-Day, saying that the Feast-Day was full of wearying tasks and labours, but on the Day-After men enjoyed in quiet all things that had been made ready. Then the Feast-Day said, What you say is true; but if I had not been, where would you be? And so, said Themistocles, if I had not been at the time of the Persian Wars, what benefit would now come from you? And this, methinks, is what Fortune says to the Virtue of Romulus: Brilliant and mighty are your deeds, and in very truth you have proved yourself to be divine in blood and birth. But do you observe how far you fall behind me? For if, at the time of his birth, I had not accompanied him in a helpful and humane guise, but had deserted and abandoned the infants, how could you have come into being and whence had you derived such lustre? If on that occasion there had not come to them a female beast swollen with the abundance and the burden of her milk, and in need of some creature to be fed rather than of something to yield her sustenance, but if instead there had come some utterly savage and ravening creature, would not even now these fair palaces and temples, theatres, promenades, fora, and public buildings be herdsmen’s huts and folds of shepherds who paid homage to some man of Alba or Etruria or Latium as their lord? The beginning, as every one knows, is of supreme importance in everything,[*] and particularly in the founding and building of a city; and this Fortune provided, since she had preserved and protected the founder. For Virtue made Romulus great, but Fortune watched over him until be became great.

And in truth, it is generally agreed that a

marvellous good Fortune guided the reign of Numa which endured for so many years.[*] For the tale that a certain Egeria, a dryad and a wise divinity, consorted in love with the man, and helped him in instituting and shaping the government of his State,[*] is perhaps somewhat fabulous. For other mortals who are said to have attained divine marriages and to have been beloved of goddesses, men like Peleus and Anchises, Orion and Emathion, by no means lived through their lives in a satisfactory, or even painless, manner. On the contrary, it appears likely that Numa had Good Fortune as his true wife, counsellor, and colleague; and she took the city in charge when it was being carried hither and yon amid the enmity and fierceness of bordering tribes and neighbours, as in the midst of turbulent billows of a troubled sea and was inflamed by countless struggles and dissensions; and she calmed those opposing passions and jealousies as though they had been but gusts of wind. Even as they relate that the sea, when it has received the brood of halcyons in the stormy season, keeps them safe and assists in their nurture, even such a calm in the affairs of Rome, free from war or pestilence or danger or terror, Fortune caused to overspread and surround the city, and thus afforded the opportunity to a newly settled and sorely shaken people to take root and to establish their city on a firm foundation where it might grow in quiet, securely and unhindered. It is as with a merchantman or a trireme, which is constructed by blows and with great violence, and is buffeted by hammers and nails, bolts and saws and axes, and, when it is completed, it must remain at rest and grow firm for a suitable period of time until its bonds hold tight and its fastenings have acquired affinity; but if it be launched while its joinings are still damp and slippery, these will all be loosened when they are racked by the waves, and will admit the sea. Even so the first ruler and artificer of Rome, in organizing the city from rustics and shepherds, as though building up from a stout keel,[*] took upon himself no few labours, nor of slight moment were the wars and dangers that he withstood in warding off, of necessity, those who opposed the creation and foundation of Rome.

But he who was the second to take over the State gained time by good fortune to consolidate and make assured the enlargement of Rome; for much peace did he secure for her and much quiet. But if at that time a Porsenna had pressed hard upon the city and had erected an Etruscan stockade and a camp beside the new walls which were still moist and unstable, or if from the Marsi had come some rebellious chief filled with warlike frenzy, or some Lucanian, incited by envy and love of strife, a man contentious and warlike, as later was Mutilus or the bold Silo b or Sulla’s last antagonist, Telesinus,[*] arming all Italy at one preconcerted signal, as it were - if one of these had sounded his trumpets round about Numa, the lover of wisdom, while he was sacrificing and praying, the early beginnings of the City would not have been able to hold out against such a mighty surge and billow, nor would they ever have increased to such a goodly and numerous people. But as it is, it seems likely that the peace of Numa’s reign was a provision to equip

them for their subsequent wars, and that the people, like an athlete, having, during a period of forty-three years following the contests of Romulus’s time, trained themselves in quiet and made their strength staunch enough to cope in battle with those who later arrayed themselves against them. For they relate that no famine nor pestilence nor failure of crops nor any unseasonable occurrence in either summer or winter vexed Rome during that time, as if it were not wise human counsel, but divine Fortune that was Rome’s guardian during those crucial days. Therefore at that time the double door of Janus’s[*] temple was shut, which the Romans call the Portal of War; for it is open when there is war,but closedwhen peace has beenmade. But after Numa died it was opened, since the war with the Albans had broken out. Then countless other wars followed in continuous succession until again, after four hundred and eighty years, it was closed in the peace following the Punic War, when Gaius Atilius and Titus Manlius were consuls.[*] After this year it was again opened and the wars continued until Caesar’s victory at Actium.[*] Then the arms of Rome were idle for a time, but not for long; for the tumults caused by the Cantabri and Gaul, breaking forth at the sanie time with the Germans, disturbed the peace. These facts are added to the record as proofs of Numa’s good fortune.