Book contents
- Frontmatter
- TO HIS MAJESTY FREDERIC WILLIAM THE THIRD, KING OF PRUSSIA
- PREFACE
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- ANCIENT ITALY
- THE PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF ROME
- ROME
- Various Traditions about the Origin of the City
- Romulus and Numa
- Beginning and Nature of the Earliest History
- The Era from the Foundation of the City
- On the Secular Cycle
- The Beginning of Rome and its Earliest Tribes
- The Patrician Houses and the Curies
- The Senate, the Interrexes, and the Kings
- Tullus Hostilius and Ancus
- The Lay of L. Tarquinius Priscus and Servius Tullius
- Examination of the Stories of L. Tarquinius and Servius Tullius
- The Completion of the City of Rome
- The Six Equestrian Centuries
- The Commonalty and the Plebeian Tribes
- The Centuries
- L. Tarquinius the Tyrant and the Banishment of the Tarquins
- Commentary on the Story of the Last Tarquinius
- The Beginning of the Republic and the Treaty with Carthage
- The War with Porsenna
- The Period down to the Death of Tarquinius
- The Dictatorship
- The Commonalty before the Secession, and the Nexi
The Period down to the Death of Tarquinius
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- TO HIS MAJESTY FREDERIC WILLIAM THE THIRD, KING OF PRUSSIA
- PREFACE
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- ANCIENT ITALY
- THE PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF ROME
- ROME
- Various Traditions about the Origin of the City
- Romulus and Numa
- Beginning and Nature of the Earliest History
- The Era from the Foundation of the City
- On the Secular Cycle
- The Beginning of Rome and its Earliest Tribes
- The Patrician Houses and the Curies
- The Senate, the Interrexes, and the Kings
- Tullus Hostilius and Ancus
- The Lay of L. Tarquinius Priscus and Servius Tullius
- Examination of the Stories of L. Tarquinius and Servius Tullius
- The Completion of the City of Rome
- The Six Equestrian Centuries
- The Commonalty and the Plebeian Tribes
- The Centuries
- L. Tarquinius the Tyrant and the Banishment of the Tarquins
- Commentary on the Story of the Last Tarquinius
- The Beginning of the Republic and the Treaty with Carthage
- The War with Porsenna
- The Period down to the Death of Tarquinius
- The Dictatorship
- The Commonalty before the Secession, and the Nexi
Summary
When we reach the borders of mythical story, which without a miracle could not be immediately followed by annals, we are constrained to adopt a division of time into periods: so that I am not to be reproached for its being immethodical. The opinion we are to form with regard to the pretended histories of the period just marked out, is evident from a comparison of the two historians. Livy under 251 and 252 narrates a war against Pometia and the Auruncians, and repeats the same again afterward, under the year 259, as a war against the Volscians; of an oversight like this Dionysius could not be guilty, and he relates it only in the latter year. On the other hand Livy, who on this point is the more inconsiderate of the two, displays much greater judgement on occasion of the Sabine wars; mentioning nothing about them except two triumphs out of the Fasti; without a syllable on the military occurrences of the five campaigns circumstantially recounted by Dionysius.
Nor does the latter go less into detail in describing the events of the Latin war; concerning which nothing but the battle of Regillus is narrated in Livy; except under 255, where it is said, as briefly as possible, that Fidenæ was besieged, Crustumeria taken, Præneste came over to the Romans.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The History of Rome , pp. 488 - 494Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010