CHAPTER IV

EARLY HISTORY OF ROME--THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY


After this sketch of the main features which we must expect to find in
Roman religion, we may attempt to look a little more in detail at its
various departments, but before doing so it is necessary to form some
notion of the situation and character of the Roman community: religion
is not a little determined by men's natural surroundings and
occupations. The subject is naturally one of considerable controversy,
but certain facts of great significance for our purpose may fairly be
taken as established. The earliest settlement which can be called
'Rome' was the community of the Palatine hill, which rises out of the
valleys more abruptly than any of the other hills and was the natural
place to be selected for fortification: the outline of the walls and
sacred enclosure running outside them (_pomoerium_) may still be
traced, marking the limits of 'square Rome' (_Roma quadrata_), as the
historians called it. The Palatine community no doubt pursued their
agricultural labours over the neighbouring valleys and hills, and
gradually began to extend their settlement till it included the
Esquiline and Caelian and other lesser heights which made up the
Septimontium--the next stage of Rome's development. Meanwhile a kindred
settlement had been established on the opposite hills of the Quirinal
and Viminal, and ultimately the two communities united, enclosing
within their boundaries the Capitol and their meeting-place in the