part I

can see nothing more impious. Is it because ye are averse to building, ye are prepared to incur this guilt, this disgrace? Even though no better, no more ample structure could be erected throughout the entire city than that cottage of our founder, is it not better to dwell in cottages, like shepherds and rustics, amid your sacred places and your household gods, than to go publicly into exile? Our forefathers, strangers and shepherds, when there was nothing in these places but woods and marshes, erected a new city in a very short time; do we, with a Capitol and citadel safe, and the temples of the gods still standing, feel it irksome to build up what has been burnt? and what we individually would have done, if our private residence had been burned down, shall we as a body refuse to do in the case of a public conflagration?

54. "What, if by some evil design of accident a fire should break out at Veii, and the flames spread by the wind, as may happen, should consume a considerable portion of the city; are we then to seek Fidenæ, or Gabii, or any other city to remove to? Has our native soil so slight a hold on us, or this earth which we call mother; or does our love of country lie merely in the surface and in the timber of the houses? For my part, I will acknowledge to you, whilst I was absent, though I am less disposed to remember this as the effect of your injustice than of my own misfortune, as often as my country came into my mind, all these circumstances occurred to me, the hills, the plains, the Tiber, the face of the country familiar to my eyes, and this sky, beneath which I had been born and educated; may these now induce you, by their endearing hold on you, to remain in your present settlement, rather than they should cause you to pine away through regret, after having left them. Not without good reason did gods and men select this place for founding a city: these most healthful hills; a commodious river, by means of which the produce of the soil may be conveyed from the inland countries, by which maritime supplies may be obtained; close enough to the sea for all purposes of convenience, and not exposed by too much proximity to the dangers of foreign fleets; a situation in the centre of the regions of Italy, singularly adapted by nature for the increase of a city. The very size of so new a city is a proof. Romans, the present year is the three hundred and sixty-fifth year of the city; for so long a time are you waging war amid nations of such long standing; yet not to mention single cities, neither the Volscians combined with the Æquans, so many and such strong towns, nor all Etruria, so potent by land and sea, occupying the breadth of Italy between the two seas, can cope with you in war. And as the case is so, where, in the name of goodness, is the wisdom in you who have tried [this situation] to make trial now of some other, when, though your own valour may be removed elsewhere, the fortune of this place certainly cannot be transferred? Here is the Capitol, where, a human head being found, it was foretold that in that place would be the head of the world, and the chief seat of empire. Here, when the Capitol was to be freed by the rites of augury, Juventas and Terminus, to the very great joy of our fathers, suffered not themselves to be moved. Here is the fire of Vesta, here the Ancilia sent down from heaven, here are all the gods propitious to you if you stay."

55. Camillus is said to have moved them as well by other parts of his speech, but chiefly by that which related to religious matters. But an expression seasonably uttered determined the matter whilst still undecided; for when a meeting of the senate, a little after this, was being held in the Curia Hostilia regarding these questions, and some troops returning from relieving guard passed through the forum in their march, a centurion in the comitium cried out, "Standard-bearer, fix your standard! it is best for us to remain here." Which expression being heard, both the senate came out from the senate-house, and all cried out that "they embraced the omen," and the commons, who were collected around, joined their approbation. The law [under discussion] being rejected, the building of the city commenced in several parts at once. Tiles were supplied at the public expense. The privilege of hewing stone and felling timber wherever each person wished was granted, security being taken that they would finish the buildings on that year. Their haste took away all attention to the regulating the course of the streets, whilst, setting aside all distinction of property, they build on any part that was vacant. That is the reason why the ancient sewers, at first conducted through the public streets, now in many places pass under private houses, and why the form of the city appears more like one taken up by individuals, than regularly portioned out [by commissioners].

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