reader that, according to the popular t Romulus, after he had slain his gra Amulius, and restored his grandfather determined to quit Alba, the hereditary of the Sylvian princes, and to found a The Gods, it was added, vouchsafed the signs of the favour with which they rega enterprise, and of the high destinies res the young colony.

This event was likely to be a favouri of the old Latin minstrels. They would attribute the project of Romulus

divine intimation of the

power and

which it was decreed that his city shoul

They would probably introduce seers fo

the victories of unborn Consuls and Dictators, and the last great victory would generally occupy the most conspicuous place in the prediction. There is nothing strange in the supposition that the poet who was employed to celebrate the first great triumph of the Romans over the Greeks might throw his song of exultation into this form.

The occasion was one likely to excite the strongest feelings of national pride. A great outrage had been followed by a great retribution. Seven years before this time, Lucius Posthumius Megellus, who sprang from one of the noblest houses of Rome, and had been thrice Consul, was sent ambassador to Tarentum, with charge to demand reparation for grievous injuries. The Tarentines gave him audience in their theatre, where he addressed them in such Greek as he could command, which, we may well believe, was not exactly such as Cineas would have spoken. An exquisite sense of the ridiculous belonged to the Greek character; and closely connected with this faculty was a strong propensity to

torial

grossest indecency, and bespattered the gown with filth. Posthumius turned to the multitude, and held up the gow appealing to the universal law of nations sight only increased the insolence of the tines. They clapped their hands, and s shout of laughter which shook the theatre. of Tarentum," said Posthumius, "it will t a little blood to wash this

gown.

Rome, in consequence of this insult, d war against the Tarentines. The Ta sought for allies beyond the Ionian Sea. P king of Epirus, came to their help with

* Dion. Hal. De Legationibus.

Y

army; and, for the first time, the two great nations of antiquity were fairly matched against each other.

The fame of Greece in arms, as well as in arts, was then at the height. Half a century earlier, the career of Alexander had excited the admiration and terror of all nations from the Ganges to the Pillars of Hercules. Royal houses, founded by Macedonian captains, still reigned at Antioch and Alexandria. That barbarian warriors, led by barbarian chiefs, should win a pitched battle against Greek valour guided by Greek science, seemed as incredible as it would now seem that the Burmese or the Siamese should, in the open plain, put to flight an equal number of the best English troops. The Tarentines were convinced that their countrymen were irresistible in war; and this conviction had emboldened them to treat with the grossest indignity one whom they regarded as the representative of an inferior race. Of the Greek generals then living, Pyrrhus was indisputably the first. Among the troops who were trained in the Greek

trenchment, were all of Latian origin, all been gradually brought near to po not by the study of foreign models, bu genius and experience of many genera great native commanders. The first wor broke from the king, when his practised surveyed the Roman encampment, wer meaning:-"These barbarians," he said nothing barbarous in their military ments." He was at first victorious; own talents were superior to those of tains who were opposed to him; and the were not prepared for the onset of the of the East, which were then for the f seen in Italy-moving mountains, w