find a footing in, I might very well say of those that are farther
off, Beyond this there is nothing but prodigies and fictions; the
only inhabitants are the poets and inventors of fables; there is
no credit, or certainty any farther. Yet, after publishing an
account of Lycurgus the lawgiver and Numa the king, I thought I
might, not without reason, ascend as high as to Romulus, being
brought by my history so near to his time. Considering therefore
with myself

Whom shall I set so great a man face to face?
Or whom oppose? Who's equal to the place?

(as Aeschylus expresses it), I found none so fit as he who peopled
the beautiful and far-famed city of Athens, to be set in
opposition with the father of the invincible and renowned city of
Rome. Let us hope that Fable may, in what shall follow, so submit
to the purifying processes of Reason as to take the character of
exact history. We shall beg that we may meet with candid readers,
and such as will receive with indulgence the stories of antiquity.

Theseus seemed to me to resemble Romulus in many particulars. Both
of them had the repute of being sprung from the gods.

Both warriors; that by all the world's allowed.

Both of them united with strength of body an equal vigor of mind;
and of the two most famous cities of the world, the one built in
Rome, and the other made Athens be inhabited. Neither of them
could avoid domestic misfortunes nor jealousy at home; but toward
the close of their lives are both of them said to have incurred