derived its name from its position on the Alban mountain; for _Alb_,
or _Alp_, signifies lofty in the ancient language of Italy, and the
emblem of a sow with thirty young, may have been a significant emblem
of the dominion which it unquestionably possessed over the other Latin
states. The only thing that we can establish as certain in the early
history of La'tium is, that its inhabitants were of a mixed race, and
the sources from whence they sprung Pelasgic and Oscan; that is, one
connected with the Greeks, and the other with some ancient Italian
tribe. We have seen that this fact is the basis of all their
traditions, that it is confirmed by the structure of their language,
and, we may add, that it is further proved by their political
institutions. In all the Latin cities, as well as Rome, we find the
people divided into an aristocracy and democracy, or, as they are more
properly called, Patricians and Plebeians. The experience of all ages
warrants the inference, which may be best stated in the words of Dr.
Faber: "In the progress of the human mind there is an invariable
tendency not to introduce into an undisturbed community a palpable
difference between lords and serfs, instead of a legal equality of
rights; but to abolish such difference by enfranchising the serfs.
Hence, from the universal experience of history, we may be sure that
whenever this distinction is found to exist, the society must be
composed of two races differing from each other in point of origin."

The traditions respecting the origin of Rome are innumerable; some
historians assert that its founder was a Greek; others, Æneas and his
Trojans; and others give the honour to the Tyrrhenians: all, however,
agree, that the first inhabitants were a Latin colony from Alba. Even
those who adopted the most current story, which is followed by Dr.
Goldsmith, believed that the city existed before the time of Rom'ulus,
and that he was called the founder from being the first who gave it