Читать книгу THE HISTORY OF ROME (Complete Edition in 4 Volumes) - Livy - Страница 26

The whole multitude having been diverted from violence and arms to the considering and adjusting these matters, both their minds had been engaged in doing something, and the constant watchfulness of the gods now impressed upon them, as the deity of heaven seemed to interest itself in human concerns, had filled the breasts of all with such piety, that faith and religious obligations governed the state, no less than fear of the laws and of punishment. And while29 the people were moulding themselves after the morals of the king, as their best example, the neighbouring states also, who had formerly thought that it was a camp, not a city, situate in the midst of them to disturb the general peace, were brought (to feel) such respect for them that they considered it impious that a state, wholly occupied in the worship of the gods, should be molested. There was a grove, the middle of which was irrigated by a spring of running water, issuing from a dark grotto. As Numa went often thither alone, under pretence of conferring with the goddess, he dedicated the place to the Muses, because their meetings with his wife Egeria were held there. He also instituted a yearly festival to Faith alone, and commanded the priests to be carried to her temple in an arched chariot drawn by two horses, and to perform the divine service with their hands wrapt up to the fingers, intimating that Faith ought to be protected, and that her seat ought to be sacred even in men's right hands. He instituted many other sacred rites, and dedicated places for performing them, which the priests call Argei. But the greatest of all his works was his maintenance of peace, during the whole period of his reign, no less than of his royal prerogative. Thus two kings in succession, by different methods, the one by war, the other by peace, aggrandized the state. Romulus reigned thirty-seven years, Numa forty-three: the state was both strong and well versed in the arts of war and peace.