2.  The senate, who were to act as counsellors to the king, was composed of a hundred of the principal citizens of Rome, consisting of men whose age, wisdom, or valour, gave them a natural authority over their fellow-subjects.  The king named the first senator, who was called prince of the senate, and appointed him to the government of the city, whenever war required his own absence.

3.  The patricians, who composed the third part of the legislature, assumed to themselves the power of authorising those laws which were passed by the king, or the senate.  All things relative to peace or war, to the election of magistrates, and even to the choosing a king, were confirmed by suffrages in their assemblies.

4.  The plebeians were to till the fields, feed cattle, and follow trades; but not to have any share in the government, to avoid the inconveniences of a popular power.

5.  The first care of the new-created king was, to attend to the interests of religion.  The precise form of their worship is unknown; but the greatest part of the religion of that age consisted in a firm reliance upon the credit of their soothsayers, who pretended, from observation on the flight of birds, and the entrails of beasts, to direct the present, and to dive into futurity.  Rom’ulus, by an express law, commanded that no election should be made, nor enterprise undertaken, without first consulting them.

6.  Wives were forbidden, upon any pretext whatsoever, to separate from their husbands; while, on the contrary, the husband was empowered to repudiate the wife, and even, in some cases, to put her to death.  The laws between children and their parents were still more severe; the father had entire power over his offspring, both of fortune and life; he could imprison and sell them at any time of their lives, or in any stations to which they were arrived.

7.  After endeavouring to regulate his subjects by law, Rom’ulus next gave orders to ascertain their numbers.  The whole amounted to no more than three thousand foot, and about as many hundred horsemen, capable of bearing arms.  These, therefore, were divided equally into three tribes, and to each he assigned a different part of the city.  Each of these tribes was subdivided into ten curiae, or companies, consisting of a hundred men each, with a centurion to command it; a priest called curio, to perform the sacrifices, and two of the principal inhabitants, called duumviri, to distribute justice.

8.  By these judicious regulations, each day added strength to the new city; multitudes of people flocked in from all the adjacent towns, and it only seemed to want women to insure its duration.  In this exigence, Rom’ulus, by the advice of the senate, sent deputies among the Sab’ines, his neighbours, entreating their alliance; and, upon these terms, offering to cement the strictest confederacy with them.  The Sab’ines, who were at that time considered as the most warlike people of Italy, rejected the