Lamp full

The History of RomeBook One · Chapter LII

Livy · D. Spillan, 1853

Tarquin, having recalled the Latins to the meeting, and applauded those who had inflicted well-merited punishment on Turnus, as one convicted of parricide, by his attempting a change of government, spoke as follows: "That he could indeed proceed by a long-established right; because, since all the Latins were sprung from Alba, they were included in that treaty by which the entire Alban nation, with their colonies, fell under the dominion of Rome, under Tullus. However, for the sake of the interest of all parties, he thought rather, that that treaty should be renewed; and that the Latins should, as participators, enjoy the prosperity of the Roman people, rather than that they should be constantly either apprehending or suffering the demolition of their town and the devastations of their lands, which they suffered formerly in the reign of Ancus, afterwards in the reign of his own father." The Latins were persuaded without any difficulty, though in that treaty the advantage lay on the side of Rome; but they both saw that the chiefs of the Latin nation sided and concurred with the king, and Turnus was a recent instance of his danger to each, if he should make any opposition. Thus the treaty was renewed, and notice was given to the young men of the Latins, that, according to the treaty, they should attend in considerable numbers in arms, on a certain day, at the grove of Ferentina. And when they assembled from all the states according to the edict of the Roman king, in order that they should neither have a general of their own, nor a separate command, or their own standards, he compounded companies of Latins and Romans, so as to make one out of two, and two out of one; the companies being thus doubled, he appointed centurions over them.

Whose reign

Tarquinius Superbus 534–510 BC — the years tradition gives him

How much of this is history

Book One covers two and a half centuries before any Roman was writing anything down, and Livy composed it four hundred years after the last event in it. He says in his own preface that what comes before the city’s founding is “rather adorned with poetic legends than founded on authentic records”. The towns on the map are real places; the reigns and the dates are tradition.

Text: Livy, The History of Rome, Book One, in D. Spillan’s translation for Bohn’s Classical Library, 1853 — public domain, from Project Gutenberg ebook 19725, set unaltered. Spillan’s own footnotes are his and are not printed; his argument to the book is on the title page and labelled as his. All 60 chapters, numbering checked. Map: Latium, from Natural Earth 10m land, lakes and the Tiber, public domain, clipped and projected at build time; town coordinates matched against the Pleiades gazetteer (CC-BY) — Pleiades often holds a feature within a town rather than the town itself, so each was seeded with an independent position and the nearest record accepted only within 12 km. Alba Longa and Laurentum are drawn hollow and Caenina and Suessa Pometia are not drawn at all, because their sites are not agreed.