Egyptian pyramids, and they still strike us with astonishment and
surprise.

The religion of these strong conquerors was narrow, severe, and dreary.
The early fathers worshipped native deities only. They recognized gods
everywhere--in the home, in the grove, and on the mountain. They
erected their altars on the hills; they had their Lares and Penates to
watch over their hearthstones, and their Vestal Virgins kept
everlasting vigil near the never-dying fires in the temples. With the
art of Greece that made itself felt through Etruria, came also the
influence of the Grecian mythology, and Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva
found a shrine on the top of the Capitoline, where the first statue of
a deity was erected. The mysterious Sibylline Books are also a mark of
the Grecian influence, coming from Cumæ, a colony of Magna Græcia.

During the period we have considered, the city passed through five
distinct stages of political organization. The government at first, as
we have seen, was an elective monarchy, the electors being a
patriarchal aristocracy. After the invasion of the Sabines, there was a
union with that people, the sovereignty being held by rulers chosen
from each; but it was not long before Rome became the head of a federal
state. The Tarquins established a monarchy, which rapidly degenerated
into an offensive tyranny, which aroused rebellion and at last led to
the republic. We have noted that in Greece in the year 510 B.C., the
tyranny of the family of Pisistratus was likewise overturned.

During all these changes, the original aristocrats and their
descendants firmly held their position as the Populus Romanus, the
Roman People, insisting that every one else must belong to an inferior
order, and, as no body of men is willing to be condemned to a