Numa Pompilius

, a celebrated philosopher, born at Cures, a village of the Sabines, on the day that Romulus laid the foundation of Rome. He married Tatia, the daughter of Tatius the king of the Sabines, and at her death he retired into the country to devote himself more freely to literary pursuits. At the death of Romulus, the Romans fixed upon him to be their new king, and two senators were sent to acquaint him with the decisions of the senate and of the people. Numa refused their offers, and it was not but at the repeated solicitations and prayers of his friends that he was prevailed upon to accept the royalty. The beginning of his reign was popular, and he dismi ed the 300 body-guards which his predece or had kept around his person, observing that he did not distrust a people who had compelled him to reign over them. He was not, like Romulus, fond of war and military expeditions, but he applied himself to tame the ferocity of his subjects, to inculcate in their minds a reverence for the Deity, and to quell their di ensions by dividing all the citizens into different cla es. He established different orders of priests, and taught the Romans not to worship the Deity by images; and from his example no graven or painted statues appeared in the temples or sanctuaries of Rome for upwards of 160 years. He encouraged the report which was spread of his paying regular visits to the nymph Egeria, and made use of her name to give sanction to the laws and institutions which he had introduced. He established the college of the vestals, and told the Romans that the safety of the empire depended upon the preservation of the sacred ancyle or shield which, as was generally believed, had dropped down from heaven. He dedicated a temple to Janus, which, during his whole reign, remained shut, as a mark of peace and tranquillity at Rome. Numa died after a reign of 43 years, in which he had given every po ible encouragement to the useful arts, and in which he had cultivated peace, B.C. 672. Not only the Romans, but also the neighbouring nations, were eager to pay their last offices to a monarch whom they revered for his abilities, moderation, and humanity. He forbade his body to be burnt according to the custom of the Romans, but he ordered it to be buried near mount Janiculum, with many of the books which he had written. These books were accidentally found by one of the Romans, about 400 years after his death, and as they contained nothing new or interesting, but merely the reasons why he had made innovations in the form of worship and in the religion of the Romans, they were burnt by order of the senate. He left behind one daughter called Pompilia, who married Numa Martius, and became the mother of Ancus Martius, the fourth king of Rome. Some say that he had also four sons, but this opinion is ill-founded. Plutarch , Lives .— Varro. — Livy , bk. 1 , ch. 18 .— Pliny , bks. 13 & 14, . — Florus , bk. 1 , ch. 2 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 809 ; bk. 9 , li. 562 .— Cicero , de Natura Deorum , bk. 3 , chs. 2 & 17.— Valerius Maximus , bk. 1 , ch. 2 .— Dionysius of Halicarna us , bk. 2 , ch. 59 .— Ovid , Fasti , bk. 3 , . ――One of the Rutulian chiefs killed in the night by Nisus and Euryalus. Virgil , Æneid , bk. 9 , li. 454 .