The Roman History to the Destruction of the Western Empire

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: merly been obliged to accept a Roman colony, and was now permitted to be plundered, as an example to prevent the like defection in others. This war lafted almoft the reft of this reign, the latter part of which was clouded with terrors from pretended prodigies, while, at the fame time, the king faw his people afflicted with a real famine, which it was not in his power to relieve. He died, after a reign of thirty-two years, fome lay by lightening, with his whole family, others, with more probability, by treafon. C H A P. V. From the death of Tullus Hoftilius to the death of Ancus Martins, the fourth king of Rome. ' . k.FTER an interregnum, as in the former cafe, U. C. Ancus Martius, the grandfon of Numa, was f- was elected king by the people, and the choice afterwards was confirmed by the fenate. As this monarch was a lineal defcendant from Numa, fo he feemed to make him the great object: of his imitation. Indeed he was by nature incapable of making any great figure in war, as he took his name of Ancus, from the crookednefs of one of his arms, which he was incapable of extending: however he made up this dfe.ct by the moft diligent application tp all the arts of peace. He inftituted the facred ceremonies which were to precede a declaration of war; he endeavoured to perfuade the people, that the calamities which lately befel them and his predeceflbr, were owing to a neglect of the gods; he took every occafion to advife his fub- jects to return to the arts of agriculture, and lay afide the lefs ufeful ftratagems of war. Thefe inftitutions and precepts wereconfi- dered by the neighbouring powers rather as marks of cowardice than of wifdorn. The Latins therefore began to make incurfions upon his territories, and by their outrages, in fome meafure, forced him int...