ODERN criticism, which has made an end of So many fine stories and beautiful traditions, has long ago, disposed of our old friends Romulus and Remus. It has turned them into a solar myth, or something equally unsubstantial. Why, then, do we relate these ancient tales again? Well, two reasons may be given for this in the first place modern criticism may, and probably has, gone too far. There may be very likely is some substratum of truth in the stories after all. At any rate, they were accepted as literally true in Rome for centuries; and they so worked on the imagination of the Romans that they helped very powerfully to build up the

Roman power, and even to determine the form that that power took.

The Romans believed, then, that Eneas, the son of Venus and Anchises, having escaped from the destruction of Troy, after many adventures and dangers, came to Italy. The story of these wanderings is narrated with inimitable sweetness of melody and power of expression, by Virgil, the great Roman poet. Here again we have to note the effect of these stories on the literature of the world. Æneas having got to Italy, founded a kingdom there. "Numitor, the fifteenth king after Eneas, had a brother named Amulius, to whom had been allotted and left the treasures which had been brought from Troy. As riches too generally prevail against right, Amulius made use of his wealth to supplant his brother, and soon found means to possess himself of the kingdom. Not content with the crime of usurpation,

he added that of murder also. Numitor's sons first fell a sacrifice to his suspicions; and, to remove all apprehensions of being one day disturbed in his ill-gotten power, he caused Rhea Silvia, his brother's only daughter, to become a vestal virgin; which office obliging her to perpetual celibacy, made him less. uneasy as to the claims of posterity.

His precautions, however, were all frustrated in the event. For Rhea Silvia, in the discharge of some religious service in the temple of Mars, was met by Mars, the god of war. Mars took her to be his wife, and there were two boys born to them, who were no sooner born, than devoted by the usurper to destruction. The mother was condemned to be buried alive, the usual punishment for vestals who married, and the twins were ordered to be flung into the Tiber. It happened, at the time this rigorous sentence was put into execution, that the river had more than usually overflowed its banks, so that the place where the children were thrown being at a distance from the main current, the water was too shallow to drown them. It is said by some, that they were exposed in a cradle, which, on the waters subsiding, was left on dry land. Whatever may have been their situation, they continued without harm; and, that no part of their preservation might want its wonders, we are told that they were for some time suckled by a wolf, attracted to the place by their cries, until Faustulus, the king's herdsman, finding them thus exposed, took them home to Acca Laurentia, his wife, who brought them up as his own.

Others assert that the vicious

life of this woman had procured her the name of Lupa, or wolf; and hence the origin of this wonderful story.

Romulus and Remus, the twins, in whatever manner preserved, seemed early to discover abilities and desires above the meanness of their supposed origin. The shepherd's life began to displease them; and, from tending flocks or hunting wild

beasts, they soon turned their strength against the robbers round the country, whom they often stripped of their plunder to share it with their fellow-shepherds. In one of these excursions, Remus was taken prisoner by Numitor's herdsman, who brought him before the king, and accused him of being a plunderer. Romulus, however, being informed by Faustulus of his supposed birth, was not remiss in assembling a number of his associates to assist him in destroying the tyrant. He was beset on all sides, and, during the amazement and distraction that ensued, was taken and slain. Numitor, who had been deposed fortytwo years, recognised his grandsons, and was once more placed on the throne.

Leaving Numitor in quiet possession of the kingdom, his grandsons resolved to build a city upon those hills where they had formerly lived as shepherds. Many of the neighbouring shepherds, also, and such as were fond of change, repaired to the intended city, and prepared to raise it. In order to proceed in this undertaking with all possible solemnity, and as neither could claim the precedence from birth, the two brothers were advised by the king to take an omen from the flight of birds, and that he whose omen should be most favourable should, in all respects, direct the other. In compliance with this advice, each took his station upon a different hill. To Remus appeared six vultures; to Romulus, twice that number. Hence each party thought itself victorious: the one having the first omen, the other the most complete. This produced a contest, which ended in a battle, wherein Remus was slain. It is even said that he was killed by his brother, who, being provoked at his leaping contemptuously over the city wall, struck him dead upon the spot.

Romulus, being now sole commander, and eighteen years of age, laid the foundation of a city that was one day to give laws to the world. It was called

N the year 490 B.C. Darius, king of Persia, sent Datis and Artaphernes against Greece.

That his lieutenants might appear with a degree of splendour suitable to the majesty of Persia, Darius assembled an army of five hundred thousand men, consisting of the flower of the provincial troops of his extensive empire. The preparation of an adequate number of

transports and ships of war occasioned but a short delay. The maritime provinces of the empire, Egypt, Phoenicia, and the coasts of the Euxine and Ægean seas, were commanded to fit out, with all possible expedition, their whole naval strength; the old vessels were repaired, many new ones were built, and in the course of the same year in which the preparations commenced, a fleet of six hundred sail was ready to put to sea. This immense armament the Persian generals were ordered to employ in extending their conquests on the side of Europe, in subduing the republics of

the natives of Delos, the favourite residence of Latona and her divine children, abandoned the awful majesty of their temple, which was overshadowed by the rough and lofty mount Cynthus. Paros, famous for its marble; Andros, celebrated for its vines; Ceos, the birthplace of the plaintive Simonides; Syros, the native country of the ingenious and philosophic Pherecydes; Ios, the tomb of Homer; the industrious Amorgos; as well as all the other adjacent islands, submitted; and the Persian generals proceeded to the

had acquired just pre-eminence among the Grecian states, not to permit the destruction of the most ancient and the most splendid of the Grecian cities. The senate and assembly approved the justice of this demand; they collected their troops, and seemed ready to afford their rivals, whose danger now converted them into allies, a speedy and effectual relief. But it was only the ninth day of the month; and an ancient, unaccountable, and therefore the more respected, superstition prevented the Spartans from taking the field before the full of the

Marathonian shore, a district of Attica. Meanwhile the Athenians were preparing themselves. Their obstinate and almost continual hostilities with the Phocians, the Thebans, and their other northern neighbours, prevented them from entertaining any hopes of assistance from that quarter; but, on the first appearance of the Persian fleet, they sent a messenger to Sparta, to acquaint the senate of that republic with the immediate danger which threatened them, and to explain how much it concerned the interest, as well as the honour of the Spartans, who

moon. When that period should arrive, they promised to march with the utmost expedition to the plains of Marathon.

Meanwhile the Athenians had been reinforced by a thousand chosen warriors from Platæa, a small city of Boeotia, distant only nine miles from Thebes. The independent spirit of the Platæans rendered them as desirous of preserving their freedom as they were unable to defend it against the Theban power. But that invaluable possession, which their own weakness would have made it necessary for them to surrender, the