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The Story of Rome |
by Mary Macgregor |
A vivid account of the story of Rome from the earliest times to the death of Augustus, retold for children, chronicling the birth of a city and its growth through storm and struggle to become a great world empire. Gives short accounts of battles and campaigns, and of the men who expanded the borders of the Roman empire to include all lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Ages 10-14 | 593 pages |
$18.95 |
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NUMITOR RECOGNISES HIS GRANDSONS
[8] THE young prisoner was brought before Numitor in the city
of Alba. No sooner had the old man's eyes fallen on
the lad than he threw up his hands in amaze, and gazed
more keenly at the prisoner.
"No herdsman this," muttered the old king to himself,
"rather does he bear himself as a prince."
Scanning the face before him even more closely, it
seemed to Numitor that the features were not unknown to
him. Dreams of his lost daughter Silvia gladdened his
heart.
Gently the old man tried to win the confidence of the
lad, asking him who he was, and whence he came.
Remus was touched by the kindness of Numitor, and
answered: "I will hide nothing from you, sire, for you
seem of a princely temper, in that you give a hearing
and examine before you punish."
Then he told the old man the story that Faustulus had
often told to him and Romulus, of how the wolf had
found them as babes on the banks of the river Tiber,
and had carried them to her cave and fed them with her
milk.
Long before Remus had ended his story, Numitor knew
that it was his grandson, his daughter Silvia's child,
who stood before him, and his old heart beat quick with
joy. Here at length was one who would take his side
against the cruel King Amulius.
At this moment Romulus, leading a rough band of
herdsmen, approached the city gate, determined to
rescue his brother from the hands of Numitor.
[9] In the city were many folk who groaned under the
tyranny of Amulius. These, hearing that Romulus was
without the city gate, stole noiselessly away to join
the prince, believing he had come to punish the king.
Meantime Romulus had divided his followers into
companies of a hundred men. At the head of each
company was a captain, carrying a small bundle of grass
and shrubs tied to a pole.
These rough standards were called "manipuli," and it
was because they carried these manipuli that captains
in the Roman army came to be called Manipulares.
When Amulius heard that Numitor had recognised in the
prisoner one of his long lost grandsons he was afraid.
Then, hearing the shouts and blows of Romulus and his
men as they attacked the city gate, he rushed to defend
it, determined that the second prince should not enter
the city.
But Romulus captured the gate, slew the king, and
entered the city in triumph.
Here he found Remus, no longer a prisoner as he had
feared, but the acknowledged grandson of Numitor.
The old king welcomed Romulus as joyfully as he had
welcomed his brother, and the two princes, eager to
please the gentle old man, placed him upon the throne
from which he had so long ago been driven.
They then sped to the prison where their mother Silvia
had lain since the princes had been born. Swiftly they
set her free, and cheered her by their love and care as
good sons ever will.
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