Part 3

THE DEEDS OF CONSTANTINE 319

THE GOTHS CROSS THE DANUBE 325

THE DOWNFALL OF ROME 331

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

ROMAN.

PAGE THE CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO Frontispiece.

ROME FROM THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S 18

THE FORUM OF ROME 26

BRUTUS ORDERING THE EXECUTION OF HIS SONS 40

HORATIUS KEEPING THE BRIDGE 46

THE SACRIFICE OF VIRGINIA 75

RUINS OF THE ROMAN AQUEDUCTS 106

HANNIBAL CROSSING THE ALPS 139

THE BATHS OF CARACALLA 150

THE ASSASSINATION OF CÆSAR 218

ANTONY'S ORATION OVER CÆSAR 224

THE GALLEY OF CLEOPATRA 230

THE TOMB OF HADRIAN 260

A ROMAN CHARIOT RACE 275

THE COLISEUM AT ROME 282

THE JEWS' WAILING PLACE, JERUSALEM 294

THE RUINS OF POMPEII 306

EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF MARCUS AURELIUS 309

ARCH OF TITUS, ROME 320

THE LAST COMBAT OF THE GLADIATORS 333

HOW ROME WAS FOUNDED.

Very far back in time, more than twenty-six hundred years ago, on the banks of a small Italian river, known as the Tiber, were laid the foundations of a city which was in time to become the conqueror of the civilized world. Of the early days of this renowned city of Rome we know very little. What is called its history is really only legend,--stories invented by poets, or ancient facts which became gradually changed into romances. The Romans believed them, but that is no reason why we should. They believed many things which we doubt. And yet these romantic stories are the only existing foundation-stones of actual Roman history, and we can do no better than give them for what little kernel of fact they may contain.

In our tales from Greek history it has been told how the city of Troy was destroyed, and how Æneas, one of its warrior chiefs, escaped. After many adventures this fugitive Trojan prince reached Italy and founded there a new kingdom. His son Ascanius afterwards built the city of Alba Longa (the long white city) not far from the site of the later city of Rome. Three hundred years passed away, many kings came and went, and then Numitor, a descendant of Æneas, came to the throne. But Numitor had an ambitious brother, Amulius, who robbed him of his crown, and, while letting him live, killed his only son and shut up his daughter Silvia in the temple of the goddess Vesta, to guard the ever-burning fire of that deity.