The Rise of Rome (Penguin Classics)

by Plutarch

  15. It was because of this training in religion that the city became manageable, and the people were so astounded by Numa’s sacred authority that they accepted his strange and unusual stories and deemed nothing incredible or impossible if Numa wished them to believe it or do it. An example of this is the following story. He once invited a large number of citizens to join him for a meal, at which he placed before them simple dishes and quite ordinary food, but then, just as everyone was beginning to eat, he insisted that the goddess with whom he spent his time had just arrived and suddenly showed them a room filled with expensive goblets and tables laden with every kind of meat and rich furniture.104 But nothing that is recorded about Numa is more bizarre than the tale of his conversation with Jupiter. Now, according to this story, two minor divinities, Picus and Faunus,105 dwelt in the region of the Aventine Hill, which in those days was a place of many springs and shaded recesses, not yet a part of the city and so uninhabited by mortals. These divinities were not unlike satyrs or even titans, but what distinguished them was their skill in using powerful drugs and magical spells by means of which they performed, as they travelled up and down Italy, the same marvels as the beings whom the Greeks call the Idaean Dactyls.106 Numa is said to have gained mastery over Picus and Faunus by adding wine and honey to the spring from which it was their habit to drink. After he captured them, they transformed themselves out of their natural shape into a multitude of different forms, manifesting themselves as monstrous and frightening apparitions. However, when they recognized they were caught fast and escape was impossible, they revealed to Numa many things about the future. And most important of all they taught him the expiatory ritual that must be used when lightning strikes, a ritual the Romans practice to this day and which is performed with onions and hair and sprats.107

  But some writers tell a different tale, that the ritual was not revealed by these divinities but instead they used their magic to call down Jupiter, who angrily decreed that expiation demanded heads – ‘of onions’, inserted Numa, by way of completing the phrase. ‘Heads of men,’ said Jupiter. ‘With hair?’ asked Numa, again trying to avert the horror of the commandment, but the god answered him, ‘with living –’ ‘sprats’, added Numa. Egeria had instructed Numa to say these things. Then Jupiter became kindly disposed to Numa and departed, and this is why the place is called Ilicium,108 and this is why the expiatory ritual is performed in this way. Fables like this, however ridiculous, reveal the religious disposition of the Romans of that time, a disposition they acquired from habituation. As for Numa, our authorities tell us that his confidence in the divine was so profound that once, when it was reported to him that enemies were marching against the city, he smiled and said, ‘Yes, and I am sacrificing.’

  16. Numa is also described as the first to raise a temple to Faithfulness109 and a temple to Terminus.110 Furthermore, he decreed that among the Romans the oath by Faithfulness should be their most solemn oath, and this remains their practice to this very day. The god Terminus, whose name means boundary, is worshipped in both public and private ceremonies wherever the Romans’ fields are defined by boundaries. Nowadays this worship involves the sacrifice of living animals, but in the past these rites were bloodless, for Numa in his wisdom recognized that, inasmuch as the god of boundaries was the protector of peace and a witness for justice, he ought to remain pure of any kind of killing.111 And it is quite clear that it was this king who set limits to the territory of Rome, for Romulus was unwilling to define the extent of his own territory and thereby make it clear how much he had seized from others. After all, borders, when they are respected, act as a curb on the exercise of military power, and if they are not, stand as proofs of injustice. Indeed, at the time of its origin the territory of Rome was not extensive, but through conquest Romulus greatly expanded it. All of this captured land Numa distributed among the poor, for he wished to eliminate the neediness that compels men to behave criminally and instead to turn the people towards agriculture so that they might become settled along with their lands. For there is no other occupation that engenders a passion for peace so keen and so instant as does the life of a farmer, for while it preserves a martial boldness sufficient to protect one’s own property, it curtails the urge to act unjustly or greedily. This is why Numa administered farming to his citizens as if it were a peace-potion, and welcomed this vocation as a means of instilling in his people skills that made them better men rather than simply richer men. He then divided this territory into districts, which he called pagi,112 and for each of them he appointed an overseer, to whom he assigned attendants. Sometimes, however, he visited these districts in person, and he formed an estimation of the character of each of his citizens on the basis of the work they had done on their farms. Some he elevated to positions of honour and trust, but others he faulted for their sloth and carelessness, correction which he hoped would bring them to their senses.113

  17. Of all his institutional reforms, by far the most admired was his division of the common people along the lines of their trades and crafts.114 For, although ostensibly the city was defined by the union of two nations, a situation I described earlier,115 in reality it was divided between these two nations, which refused to join with one another or to put aside their differences. Instead, interminable conflicts and quarrels persisted. Numa took a lesson from material substances that are hard and by nature difficult to combine. When these are crushed and reduced to particles, they become easy to mix together owing to the smallness of their elements. So he decided to increase the number of divisions among the common people and, by creating many new distinctions, dissolve the original and fundamental division keeping them apart, which would disappear amid so many minor ones. Therefore he divided them by their trades and crafts into flautists, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, leatherworkers, curriers, blacksmiths and potters. As for the remaining occupations, these he united into a single organization. Furthermore, he established meetings and assemblies and even religious ceremonies suitable for each of these newly formed associations. Then, for the first time, the habit of describing or regarding some citizens as Sabines and others as Romans vanished from the city, nor did anyone any longer describe some men as subjects of Tatius, others as subjects of Romulus. Thus did Numa’s new classifications result in the harmonious union of all with all.

  Another of Numa’s measures that is praised is his reform of the law allowing fathers to sell their sons into slavery. He introduced an exception for sons who had married either with their father’s approval or in obedience to their father’s commandment, the reason being that it seemed unfair that a woman who had married a free man should find herself living with a slave.116

  18. Numa also applied himself to the study of the calendar, not with scientific exactness but with a respectable degree of careful observation. During the reign of Romulus, the Romans had arranged their months with neither reason nor regularity, allocating fewer than twenty days to some, to others thirty-five days, and still more days to others. Nor had they any idea of the inequality obtaining between the annual courses of the sun and the moon. They had instead only one rule, which was that the year should last 360 days. But Numa calculated that the inequality between the sun’s and the moon’s courses was eleven days, since the lunar year lasted 354 days whereas the solar year lasted 365. Consequently, he doubled this number and in every other year inserted, after the month of February, an intercalary month, which the Romans call Mercedonius and which lasts twenty-two days. This solution, however, later entailed other and greater changes in the calendar.117

  He changed the order of the months. March, which had been the first month, he put third, whereas January, which during the reign of Romulus had been the eleventh month, he now put first.118 February, which had been the twelfth and final month of the year, now became the second. However, there are many authorities who insist that Numa added January and February to the calendar and that originally the Roman calendar had only ten months, as, among some barbarians, there are only three
months in the year and, among the Greeks, the Arcadians have four119 and the Acarnanians six. Scholars tell us that the Egyptians at first had a year with only a single month in it, though afterwards they increased the number to four. This explains why, although they inhabit a land that is very new, the Egyptians appear to be an ancient people whose genealogies go back an inconceivable number of years, for they count their months as if they were years.

  19. The proof that the Romans originally had only ten months in their year is the name of their last month, which they still call the Tenth Month.120 And it can be shown that March used to be their first month by examining the sequence of months that follow it, for the name of the fifth month after March121 was derived from the Latin word for fifth, the name of the sixth month after March122 from the Latin word for sixth, and so on for all the remaining months. When the Romans added January and February before March, the result was that what was now their seventh month was still named the Fifth Month. Besides, it is only reasonable to conclude that Romulus would put March first, since it is the month that is sacred to Mars, and April second, because it is named after Aphrodite,123 which is why the Romans sacrifice to this goddess in April124 and why, on the first day of this month, their women bathe wearing garlands of myrtle. Some commentators disagree with this derivation, arguing that the name of the month is not pronounced as Aphril but – without aspiration – as April.125 They prefer to derive the name of this month from the fact that it marks the height of spring, when the buds and shoots of plants are opened, because the name of the month signifies opening in Latin.126 The next month in succession is called May, a name derived from Maia, the mother of Mercury, to whom the month is sacred, and this month is followed by June, which is named for Juno. A different tradition derives the names of these months from stages of life, one meaning older and the other younger, for in Latin maiores is the word for older men and iuniores the word for younger men.127 The remaining months the Romans named solely on the basis of their order, as if they were counting them. In other words, they named them fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth.128 Subsequently, the fifth month was renamed July after the Caesar who vanquished Pompey. The sixth month was named August, after Caesar’s successor, who received the name Augustus. Domitian imposed new names on the seventh and eighth months,129 but that was not for long, inasmuch as, after his assassination, their previous names were restored. Only the last two months in this sequence have preserved the names they were first given without any change whatsoever.

  Of the months which Numa added or transposed, February may fairly be deemed a month of purification, for that is more or less the meaning of the name of the month, and it is in this month that the Romans make sacrifices to the dead and celebrate the Lupercalia, which in most respects resembles a purification.130 The first month, January, takes its name from Janus.131 Now I believe that Numa deprived the month named for Mars of its place at the start of the year because he wished in every respect to prefer civil values to martial ones. For in ancient times, it is said, this Janus, who was either a demi-god or a mortal king, devoted his political and humanitarian qualities to elevating the condition of mankind, which in those days was bestial and savage. This is why Janus is represented with two faces, because he brought to men’s lives a new outlook and way of living, which replaced what existed before.

  20. Janus also has a temple in Rome that consists mostly of two doors, which the Romans call the Gate of War.132 It is their custom to open this gate during times of war and to close it whenever there is peace. Closing this gate has occurred rarely and only with difficulty, because, as the Romans’ dominion expanded, they continually came into conflict with fresh barbarian tribes dwelling nearby, and, as a consequence, found themselves always at war. In the time of Augustus Caesar the gate was closed after his victory over Antony.133 Before that it was closed for a brief time when Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius were consuls.134 In each case, however, war broke out once more and the gate was opened. During the reign of Numa, by contrast, this gate was not seen open for even a single day. Instead, it remained closed for forty-three years, so lasting and universal was the disappearance of war in that time. This can be explained by the fact that it was not only the Roman people who were charmed and rendered peaceable by the justice and mildness of their king. The surrounding cities, as if a gentle zephyr were wafting from Rome, or a salubrious breeze, also began to change their habits, for all were filled with a desire to live in peace under good laws, to cultivate their lands, to rear their children in quiet and to honour the gods. Throughout Italy there were festivals and banquets, while everyone, whatever his city, made friendly visits to other cities, frequently and without fear. The wisdom of Numa was like a spring out of which noble feelings and a sense of justice poured into all, while his serenity spread everywhere. Even the hyperbole of poets, we are told, falls short of the reality of those days, even lines like

  On shield handles shod with iron, rust-coloured spiders weave

  their webs

  or

  Spear points and two-edged swords are consumed by decay,

  No more the blast of brazen trumpets,

  Nor are the eyes despoiled of sweet sleep.135

  Indeed, historians record neither war nor sedition nor revolution during the reign of Numa. No one hated or envied the king, nor did ambition for power stimulate plots or conspiracies against his throne. Whether it was owing to fear of the gods, who seemed to protect him, or respect for his virtue, or perhaps even his good fortune, which was itself divine in origin and kept the men of his time pure of any wickedness, Numa was in any case an unmistakable example and a convincing proof of an opinion which, many generations later, Plato dared to express about the nature of government. For he insisted that respite and rescue from human ills would come only when, thanks to a stroke of good fortune sent by the gods, the power of a king should be joined in one person with the understanding of a philosopher, thereby assuring that virtue would remain lord and master over vice. ‘For blessed is he’, this man who is truly wise and temperate, ‘and blessed, too, are they who hear the words of wisdom and temperance issuing from his mouth.’136 As soon as this happens, there will be no need for coercion or threats in dealing with the multitude, for, when the people witness in the life of their ruler a conspicuous and splendid model of virtuous conduct, they will of their own accord behave wisely and temperately, and they will unite in friendship and concord in order to lead blameless and blessed lives shaped by justice and moderation. In this lies the noblest purpose of any government, and he is most worthy to be a king who can inspire in his subjects this way of life and this disposition. It is obvious how, more than anyone else, Numa understood these things.

  21. On the topic of Numa’s children and his wives, authorities disagree. According to some,137 Tatia was his only wife and Pompilia his only child. Others, however, attribute to Numa, in addition to his daughter, four sons. These are Pompon, Pinus, Calpus and Mamercus, each of whom is the ancestor of a distinguished family. From Pompon the Pomponii are descended, from Pinus the Pinarii, from Calpus the Calpurnii and from Mamercus the Marcii, who on account of their origins assume the surname Reges, which means kings.138 There also exists a third class of writers. They accuse their rivals of fabricating genealogies going back to Numa in order to flatter these great families.139 They also claim that Pompilia was not the daughter of Tatia but instead of Lucretia, another woman whom Numa married after he became king. Still, all our sources agree that Pompilia was married to Marcius, who was a son of the Marcius who persuaded Numa to accept the throne.140 That Marcius came to Rome with Numa, where he was honoured with membership in the senate. After Numa’s death, he competed with Hostilius141 for the succession, but he lost and consequently starved himself to death. His son, however, the Marcius who was married to Pompilia, remained in Rome and was the father of Ancus Marcius, who was king of Rome after Tullus Hostilius. Ancus Marcius, we learn, was only five years old when Numa died. His death was neit
her swift nor sudden. Instead, according to Piso, he died gradually of old age and the effects of a debilitating malady.142 At the time of his death he was slightly more than eighty years old.

  22. The enviable quality of Numa’s life was revealed even in his funeral. All the nations that were allies or friends of Rome assembled at these rites, bearing offerings and crowns. His bier was carried by senators, who were accompanied by the priests of the gods. The rest of the people, including the women and the children, followed them, yet not like subjects marching in the funeral cortège of an aged king but instead with weeping and lamentations, as if each was laying to rest a loved one taken in the very flower of life. On his own instructions, it is reported, they did not cremate his corpse. They made two stone coffins, which they buried beneath the Janiculum.143 One of these coffins contained his body, the other the sacred books he had written himself, just as Greek lawgivers make their own tablets. While he was living Numa had taught the priests what he had written and fixed in their minds both the practices prescribed in his books as well as their purposes. Consequently, he commanded that his books be buried at the same time as his body, for he deemed it wrong to entrust sacred mysteries to lifeless writings. It is, they say, for this same reason that the Pythagoreans do not commit their doctrines to writing but instead, through oral instruction, teach them to those who are worthy of receiving them. Once, they say, when they taught the solution to certain abstruse and secret geometrical problems to an unworthy person, who then divulged these mysteries to others, the gods threatened to punish this profanation and impiety with a severe public calamity. This is why one must forgive anyone who is keen to argue, on the basis of the many resemblances between them, that Numa and Pythagoras knew one another. Antias144 reports that in this stone coffin there were twelve books dealing with priestly matters and twelve more that discussed various topics in Greek philosophy.