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had reposed sufficient confidence in any of their leading statesmen or generals, to induce them to invest him with dictatorial power at periods of national danger, it is possible that they might have maintained their Republic, first against Lacedæmon, and afterwards against Philip, and that this bright luminary of Greece might thus have been preserved for a longer time from extinction. The first dictator, Larcius, is described by Dionysius as behaving with remarkable moderation, as abstaining from all stretches of power, and as resigning his office before the six months had expired: (187) thus serving as an ideal type of the conduct of subsequent dictators, who lived in an age of contemporary registration, and of whom authentic historical accounts were preserved.

The battle of the Lake Regillus, with its personal combats of the chieftains, and the marvellous appearance of the twin sons of Jupiter, resembles rather a battle in the Iliad, or in the romances of chivalry, than a conflict between two armies, on which great political interests depend. This character is well displayed in Mr. Macaulay's ballad on this subject, where the incident of the divine brethren, in particular, is introduced with great poetical effect. In memory of this event, the mark of a horse's foot, supposed to be that of Castor's horse, was shown, in later times, on the rock near Regillus. (168) Small circular marks on the sandstone, in parts of Herefordshire, are now called the prints of St. Elizabeth's horse, with an explanatory legend; and Grimm mentions similar geological legends of marks upon rocks.(169) The belief as to the appearance of Castor and Pollux at battles is doubtless of Grecian origin: thus they are said to have enabled the Locrians to conquer the Crotoniats in a great battle, and the news of the victory reached Lacedæmon on the same day.(170) The story of the twin gods bringing the news of

(167) Compare the interesting remarks of Dionysius, v. 77, upon the constitutional character of the Roman dictatorship.

(168) Cic. de Nat. D. iii. 5.

(169) Deutsche Mythologie, p. 574, ed. 1.; above, vol. i. p. 350, n. 215. (170) See Zenob. ii. 17, and the note in the Göttingen edition. Another version of the story is given in Strabo, vi. 1, § 10, where Locri and Rhe

VOL. II.

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the victory on the same day to Rome, and washing their horses at the fountain of Juturna, was likewise told of the battle of Pydna, at which Perseus was defeated by P. Æmilius;(171) and the intelligence of the great victory of Marius over the Cimbri at the Campus Raudius, near Verona, is also reported to have been divulged at Rome by the same divine informants. (172) These two battles are as historical, and as certainly took place, as the battles of Pavia, Blenheim, and Austerlitz. The connexion of the marvellous story of Castor and Pollux with the battle of Regillus does not therefore prove that the battle itself is a fiction; the intrusion of marvellous incidents does not discredit the main story, where it rests upon clear contemporary evidence.(178)

Livy represents Tarquinius Superbus as having fought at Regillus; and this, although Dionysius substitutes his sons Titus and Sextus for him, was doubtless the received account. Both historians however describe him as flying to Cumæ for refuge after the battle, and dying there, shortly after

gium (and not Croton) are the two contending states, and the news is carried to Olympia, not Lacedæmon. The story is told in explanation of the proverb, ἀληθέστερα τῶν ἐπὶ Σάγρᾳ, and has no claim to be considered historical. For a story of two Messenians named Gonippus and Panormus, who simulated the twin gods, see Pausan. iv. 27, § 1.

(171) Cic. N. D. ii. 2; Florus, ii. 12; Val. Max. i. 8, § 1; Plin. N. H. vii. 22. The true account of the arrival at Rome of the news of the battle of Pydna, is given in Livy, xlv. 1, and (from him) by Plut. Æmil. Paull. 24. (172) Florus, iii. 3; Plin. ib.

(173) Niebuhr says of the Battle of Regillus: This battle, as thrust into history, stands without the slightest result or connexion. The victory is complete yet, after several years of inaction, a federal treaty sets its seal to the perfect independence and equality of the Latins; the very point to decide which the battle was fought; Hist. vol. i. p. 556. The battle of Regillus is represented both by Dionysius and Livy, as fought for the purpose of restoring Tarquin to his throne, and of forcing him back upon the Romans. Dionysius calls the war against the Latins & Tuρavvikos πόλεμοςὁ πρὸς τοὺς τυράννους συστὰς πόλεμος; ν. 70, vi. 17, 21. One important result of the battle is conceived to be, that this attempt is frustrated, and that Tarquin is driven into exile at Cumæ, where he dies. The Latins are likewise described by Dionysius as sending envoys to Rome, in order to beg to be restored to their condition of subjects. See above, p. 32. There is no difficulty in connecting the Battle of Regillus with the received narrative; but it cannot be reconciled with the account of the treaty with Porsena in Pliny.

wards, under the protection of Aristodemus the despot. They only differ by one year as to the time of this event, placing it either in 496 or 495 B.C., about fourteen years after the expulsion of the kings. If however we suppose him, according to the ordinary account, to have been the son of Tarquinius Priscus and Tanaquil, he would have been at least 110 years old at the time of his death: an age improbable in itself and quite inconsistent with the received accounts of his life.(174) The death of Tarquin at Cumæ is considered by Niebuhr as a certain historical fact; and we shall find the presence of members of the Tarquinian party in that city alluded to in the subsequent history. Even however with respect to this event, the accounts were not uniform; for some histories represented him as ending his days with his wife at Tusculum. (175)

§ 14 The foregoing analysis shows that the received history of the first fourteen years of the commonwealth has, like that of the regal period, a legendary character; and that the details and circumstances of the events are variously narrated, and appear to have been derived from an uncertain and fluctuating tradition. Still it might be possible that the main facts should rest on authentic contemporary registration: the nucleus of the history might be sound, though it might be invested with a fictitious covering. In order to determine how far there is any trace of the existence of a uniform series of events which, though meagre and scanty, might have served as a sure support to the oral traditions, we will place in juxtaposition the principal occurrences, as they are arranged under the successive consulships by Dionysius and Livy, from the first to the fourteenth year of the Republic:

(174) See above, ch. xi. § 25, 38. In vi. 11, Dionysius says that Tarquinius Superbus must have been 90 years old at the battle of Regillus; this supposes him to be the grandson of Tarquinius Priscus; but if he is assumed to be the son, and to have been 27 years old at his father's death, he would have been born in 606 в.c., and would have been 110 years old in 496 B.C. Compare Dion. Hal. iv. 7. Niebuhr, Hist. vol. i. n. 1229, reckons his age at 120 years.

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(176) Zonaras, vii. 13, agrees with Dionysius in making the Sabine war extend over this and the three following years. He likewise mentions the two conspiracies in the two years next ensuing. He differs however from both Dionysius and Livy, in placing the death of P.Valerius in the year of P. Valerius and T. Lucretius, and not in the following year.

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(177) M. de la Curne, Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, tom. viii. p. 363-71, attempts to reconcile the histories of Dionysius and Livy for the six years, beginning with the consulship of Cominius and Larcius, and ending with that of Postumius and Virginius, 501-496 B.C. In order to accomplish this object he transposes the order of the events narrated under the first three and the last three consulships in Livy, and conceives that by this transposition he makes the narrative of Livy agree with that of Dionysius. He says: Lorsque j'ai voulu comparer ensemble ce que Denys d'Halicarnasse et Tite Live ont dit de ces consulats, j'ai trouvé d'abord ces auteurs si différents l'un de l'autre, qu'il m'a paru impossible de les concilier.' It is scarcely needful to remark that this harmonizing process is purely arbitrary, and amounts to a confession that the two historians cannot be reconciled.

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(178) A peculiar circumstance is mentioned by Dionysius under this year, which has all the appearance of having been preserved by contemporary registration. Manius Tullius (he says), one of the consuls, in the holy Roman games, during the procession, fell from the sacred chariot in the circus, and died on the third day after the procession. Sulpicius was sole consul during the short remaining portion of the year; v. 57. It is difficult to conceive why such a circumstance as this should be mentioned if it had not been preserved from an authentic record made at the time.

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