strength and stability. It seems probable that several villages might
have been formed at an early age on the different hills, which were
afterwards included in the circuit of Rome; and that the first of them
which obtained a decided superiority, the village on the Palatine
hill, finally absorbed the rest, and gave its name to "the eternal
city".

There seems to be some uncertainty whether Romulus gave his name
to the city, or derived his own from it; the latter is asserted by
several historians, but those who ascribe to the city a Grecian
origin, with some show of probability assert that Romus (another form
of Romulus) and Roma are both derived from the Greek [Greek: rômê],
_strength_. The city, we are assured, had another name, which the
priests were forbidden to divulge; but what that was, it is now
impossible to discover.

We have thus traced the history of the Latins down to the period when
Rome was founded, or at least when it became a city, and shown how
little reliance can be placed on the accounts given of these periods
by the early historians. We shall hereafter see that great uncertainty
rests on the history of Rome itself during the first four centuries of
its existence.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is scarcely necessary to remark that the Pelas'gi were the
original settlers in these countries.

[2] In all these places we find also the Tyrrhenian Pelas'gi.