Tarrutius, his familiar acquaintance, a good philosopher and
mathematician, and one, too, that out of curiosity had studied the
way of drawing schemes and tables, and was thought to be a
proficient in the art; to him Varro propounded to cast Romulus's
nativity, even to the first day and hour, making his deductions
from the several events of the man's life which he should be
informed of, exactly as in working back a geometrical problem; for
it belonged, he said, to the same science both to foretell a man's
life by knowing the time of his birth, and also to find out his
birth by the knowledge of his life. This task Tarrutius undertook,
and first looking into the actions and casualties of the man,
together with the time of his life and manner of his death, and
then comparing all these remarks together, he very confidently and
positively pronounced that Romulus was born the twenty-first day
of the month Thoth, about sun-rising; and that the first stone of
Rome was laid by him the ninth day of the month Pharmuthi, between
the second and third hour. For the fortunes of cities as well as
of men, they think, have their certain periods of time prefixed,
which may be collected and foreknown from the position of the
stars at their first foundation. But these and the like relations
may perhaps not so much take and delight the reader with their
novelty and curiosity as offend him by their extravagance.

The city now being built, Romulus enlisted all that were of age to
bear arms into military companies, each company consisting of
three thousand footmen and three hundred horse. These companies
were called legions, because they were the choicest and most
select of the people for fighting men. The rest of the multitude
he called the people; an hundred of the most eminent he chose for
counselors; these he styled patricians, and their assembly the