1.16
After these immortal
achievements, Romulus held a review of his army at
the "Caprae Palus" in the Campus Martius. A violent
thunderstorm suddenly arose and enveloped the king
in so dense a cloud that he was quite invisible to
the assembly. From that hour Romulus was no longer
seen on earth. When the fears of the Roman youth
were allayed by the return of bright, calm sunshine
after such fearful weather, they saw that the royal
seat was vacant. Whilst they fully believed the
assertion of the senators, who had been standing
close to him, that he had been snatched away to
heaven by a whirlwind, still, like men suddenly
bereaved, fear and grief kept them for some time
speechless. At length, after a few had taken the
initiative, the whole of those present hailed
Romulus as "a god, the son of a god, the King and
Father of the City of Rome." They put up
supplications for his grace and favour, and prayed
that he would be propitious to his children and save
and protect them. I believe, however, that even then
there were some who secretly hinted that he had been
torn limb from limb by the senators -a tradition to
this effect, though certainly a very dim one, has
filtered down to us. The other, which I follow, has
been the prevailing one, due, no doubt, to the
admiration felt for the man and the apprehensions
excited by his disappearance. This generally
accepted belief was strengthened by one man's clever
device. The tradition runs that Proculus Julius, a
man whose authority had weight in matters of even
the gravest importance, seeing how deeply the
community felt the loss of the king, and how
incensed they were against the senators, came
forward into the assembly and said: "Quirites! at
break of dawn, to-day, the Father of this City
suddenly descended from heaven and appeared to me.
Whilst, thrilled with awe, I stood rapt before him
in deepest reverence, praying that I might be
pardoned for gazing upon him, 'Go,' said he, 'tell
the Romans that it is the will of heaven that my
Rome should be the head of all the world. Let them
henceforth cultivate the arts of war, and let them
know assuredly, and hand down the knowledge to
posterity, that no human might can withstand the
arms of Rome.'" It is marvellous what credit was
given to this man's story, and how the grief of the
people and the army was soothed by the belief which
had been created in the immortality of Romulus.