HKB
the artificers' quarters, lying beyond the forum and in the jaws of the suburra, which stretched away over the level ground to the foot of the Esquiline and Quirinal Hills.--D.O.]
[Footnote 19: Romulus had made his year to consist of ten months, the first month being March, and the number of days in the year only 304, which corresponded neither with the course of the sun nor moon. Numa, who added the two months of January and February, divided the year into twelve months, according to the course of the moon. This was the lunar Greek year, and consisted of 354 days. Numa, however, adopted 355 days for his year, from his partiality to odd numbers. The lunar year of 354 days fell short of the solar year by 11-1/4 days; this in 8 years amounted to (11-1/4 x 8) 90 days. These 90 days he divided into 2 months of 22, and 2 of 23 days [(2 x 22) + (2 x 23) = 90], and introduced them alternately every second year for two octennial periods: every third octennial period, however, Numa intercalated only 66 days instead of 90 days--i. e., he inserted 3 months of only 22 days each. The reason was, because he adopted 355 days as the length of his lunar year instead of 354, and this in 24 years (3 octennial periods) produced an error of 24 days; this error was exactly compensated by intercalating only 66 days (90--24) in the third octennial period. The intercalations were generally made in the month of February, after the 23d of the month. The management was left to the pontiffs--ad metam eandem solis unde orsi essent--dies congruerent; "that the days might correspond to the same starting-point of the sun in the heavens whence they had set out." That is, taking for instance the Tropic of Cancer for the place or starting-point of the sun any one year, and observing that he was in that point of the heavens on precisely the 21st of June, the object was so to dispense the year, that the day on which the sun was observed to arrive at that same meta or starting-point again, should also be called the 21st of June.]
[Footnote 20: A more general form of the legend ran to the effect that but one of these shields fell from heaven, and that the others were made like it, to lessen the chance of the genuine one being stolen.--D.O.]
[Footnote 21: The chief of the fetiales.]
[Footnote 22: This vervain was used for religious purposes, and plucked up by the roots from consecrated ground; it was carried by ambassadors to protect them from violence.]
[Footnote 23: This gate became later the starting-point of the Appian Way.--D.O.]
[Footnote 24: An imaginary sacred line that marked the bounds of the city. It did not always coincide with the line of the walls, but was extended from time to time. Such extension could only be made by a magistrate who had extended the boundaries of the empire by his victories,--D.O.]
[Footnote 25: Literally, "Horatian javelins."--D.O.]
[Footnote: Evidently so established after the destruction of the inhabitants in the storming (see p. 17, above).--D. O.]
[Footnote 27: Tiber and Anio.--D. O.]
[Footnote 28: Scourging and beheading, scourging to death, burying alive, and crucifixion (for slaves) may make us question the justice of this boast. Foreign generals captured in war were only strangled. Altogether, the Roman indifference to suffering was very marked as compared with the humanity of the Greeks.--D. O.]
[Footnote 29: The Lares were of human origin, being only the deified ancestors of the family: the Penates of divine origin, the tutelary gods of the family.]
[Footnote 30: "Curia Hostilia." It was at the northwest corner of the forum, northeast of the comitium.--D. O.]
[Footnote 31: Identified with Juno.--D. O.]
[Footnote 32: This story makes us suspect that it was the case of another warlike king who had incurred the enmity of the senate. The patricians alone controlled or were taught in religious matters.--D.O.]