They  begin  with  the  legend  of  the  wolf -suckled
twins  Romulus  and  Remus,  shadowily  demi-
divine  and  said  to  descend  through  iEneas  from
the  royal  race  of  Troy.  The  founding  of  Rome
was  traditionally  placed  about  the  middle  of  the
Eighth  Century.  The  Seventh  Century  and  most
of  the  Sixth  comprised  the  period  of  the  seven
Roman  kings,  from  Romulus  to  Tarquinius  Su-
perbus.  Their  sovereignty  came  to  an  end  through
an  aristocratic  revolution  excited  by  the  reckless
conduct  of  Sextus,  the  son  of  Tarquin.  He  vio-
lated the  Roman  chastity  of  the  beautiful  matron
Lucretia.  She  sent  for  her  husband  Collatinus
and  their  kinsman  Brutus;  she  told  her  poignant
story,  and  took  her  life  in  their  presence.  They
roused  the  people,  expelled  the  king,  and  estab-
lished the  republican  sovereignty  of  annually
elected  consuls — at  first  patrician  or  noble.  When
Porsenna,  of  Clusium,  tried  to  restore  the  Tarquins,
the  bravery  of  Horatius,  who  held  the  bridge


166       THE  TRADITIONS  OF  ROME

unsupported,  saved  Rome,  as  every  schoolboy
knows  who  has  read,  or  has  had  to  read,  the  Lays
of  Macaulay.
So  we  come  to  the  Fifth  Century — in  Greece  the
Century  of  the  Persian  defeats,  of  Pericles  and  of
the  Peloponnesian  War.  Compared  with  historic
facts  like  these,  the  traditions  of  their  contem-
porary Rome  are  surprisingly  nebulous;  yet  among
them  you  begin  to  discern  enduring  solidities.
