in 1271, and fairs were held on Easter Monday, on August 26 and November 8. The market now held on Thursday, formerly on Saturday, dates from 1272. Every alternate Thursday is a great market. In medieval times Romsey had a considerable share of the woollen trade of Hampshire, but by the end of the 17th century this manufacture began to decline, and the introduction of machinery and the adoption of steam led to its subsequent transference to the northern coal centres. The clothing trade was replaced by the manufacture of paper, an industry which still exists.
ROMULUS, the legendary eponymous founder and first king
(753–716?) of Rome, represented as the son of Mars by the
Vestal Rhea Silvia or Ilia, daughter of Numitor, who had been
dispossessed of the throne of Alba by his younger brother
Amulius. Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of Silvia, were
placed in a trough and cast into the Tiber by their granduncle.
The trough grounded in the marshes where Rome afterwards
stood, under the wild fig tree (ficus ruminalis), which was still
holy in later days. The babes were suckled by a she-wolf and
fed by a woodpecker, and then fostered by Acca Larentia, wife
of the shepherd Faustulus. They became leaders of a warlike
band of shepherds on the Palatine, and in course of time were
recognized by their grandfather, whom they restored to his
throne, slaying the usurper Amulius. They now proposed to
found a city on the site where they had been nurtured; but a
quarrel for precedence broke out and Remus was slain. Romulus
strengthened his band by offering an “ asylum ” to outcasts
and fugitives, found wives for them by capture and waged war
with their kinsmen. His most formidable foe was Titus Tatius
(q.v.), king of the Sabines, but after an obstinate struggle he
and Romulus united their forces and reigned side by side till
Tatius was slain at Lavinium in the course of a blood-feud with
Laurentum. Romulus then reigned alone till he suddenly
disappeared in a storm. He was thereafter worshipped as a
god under the name of Quirinus, which, however, is really a
Sabine form of Mars. The story of Romulus, best preserved
in the first book of Livy (see also Dion. Halic. i. 75-ii. 56;
Plutarch, Romulus; Cicero, de Republica, ii. 2–10), belongs
throughout to legend. This was felt in later times by the
Romans themselves, who gave a rationalistic explanation of
the miraculous incidents. Thus, Mars was converted into a
stranger disguised as the god of war, and the she-wolf into a
woman of ill-fame (lupa); Romulus was not taken up into
heaven, but put to death, and carried away piecemeal by the
patricians under their cloaks.
The whole story, probably first given by the annalists Fabius Pictor and Cincius Alimentus, contains religious and etiological elements. The foundation of the city by twins may be explained by the worship of the Lares, who are generally represented as a pair of brothers, especially as the mother of Romulus and Remus was connected with the worship of the hearth of the state. The introduction of the wolf may be of Greek or eastern origin; it may have a totemistic significance; or may be due to the ficus ruminalis, the fig tree near the Lupercal on the Palatine, where the twins were first exposed. This tree was sacred to a goddess Rumina (ruma, “ breast,” whence the suckling incident), and the resemblance between Romulus and ruminolis led to the fig tree and the founder of the city being subsequently connected by the Roman antiquarians. The wolf would then be suggested by the proximity of the Lupercal, the grotto of Faunus Lupercus, with whom the shepherd Faustulus is identical. According to Professor Ducati of Bologna, in a paper on an old Etruscan stele, on which a she-wolf is represented suckling a child, the wolf legend is an importation from Etruria, the original home of which was Crete. Miletus, son of Apollo and a daughter of Minos, having been exposed by his mother, was suckled by she-wolves, being afterwards found and brought up by shepherds. To escape the designs of Minos, Miletus fled to Asia Minor, and founded the city called after him, where the Etruscans first became acquainted with the legend. The opening of the “ asylum ” is a Greek addition (as the name itself suggests). Down to imperial times, the Romans seem to have been ignorant of the Greek custom of taking sanctuary; further, the idea was entirely opposed to the exclusive spirit of the ancient Italians. The story was probably invented to give an explanation of the sacred spot named “ Inter duos lucos ” between the arx and the Capitol. Another Greek touch is the deification of an eponymous hero. The rape of the Sabine women is clearly aetiological, invented to account for the custom of marriage by capture. Consus, at whose festival the rape took place, was a god of the earth and crops, the giver of fruitfulness in plants and animals. It is generally agreed that the capture of the Capitol by Titus Tatius may contain an historical element, pointing to an early conquest of Rome by the Sabines, of which there are some indications. Subsequently, to efface the recollection of an event so distasteful to Roman vanity and national pride, Sabine names and customs were accounted for by a supposed union of Romans and Sabines during the regal period, the result of a friendly league concluded between Romulus and Tatius. According to E. Pais, Romulus is merely the eponym of Roma; his life is nothing but the course of the sun, and the institutions ascribed to him are the result of long historical development.
Romulus, like his double Tullus Hostilius, is regarded as the founder of the military and political (see Rome), as Numa and his counterpart Ancus Marcius of the religious institutions of Rome.
For a critical examination of the story, see Schwegler, Romische Geschichte, bks. viii.-x.; Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Credibility of early Roman History, chap. 11; W. Ihne, History of Rome, i.; Sir J. Seeley, Introduction to his edition of Livy, bk. i.; E. Pais, Storia di Roma (1898), i. pt. 1, and Ancient Legends of Roman History (Eng. trans., 1906); also O. Gilbert, Geschichte and Topographie der Stadt Rom im Altertum (1883–1885).
RONCESVALLES (Fr. Roncevaux), a village of northern
Spain, in the province of Navarre; situated on the small river
Urrobi, at an altitude of 3220 ft. among the Pyrenees, and
within 5 m. from the French frontier. Pop. (1900) 152.
Roncesvalles is famous in history and legend for the defeat of
Charlemagne and the death of Roland (q.v.) in 778. The small
collegiate church contains several curious relics associated with
Roland, and is a favourite place of pilgrimage. The battle is
said to have been fought in the picturesque valley known
as Val Carlos, which is now occupied by a hamlet bearing the
same name, and in the adjoining defile of Ibaneta. Both of
these are traversed by the main road leading north from
Roncesvalles to St Jean Pied de Port, in France.
RONCONI, GIORGIO (1810-1890), Italian baritone vocalist,
was born in 1810. He learnt singing from his father
Domenico, who had been a celebrated tenor in his time, and
made his début in 1831 at Pavia. After singing in Italy 'forsome
years with ever-growing success, he appeared for the
first time in England, in 1842, as Henry Ashton in
Lucia dt Larmrterrrtoor. His success was immediate, and he
continued to be one of the most popular artists on the lyric
stage until his retirement in 1866. His voice was neither
extensive in compass nor fine in quality, but the genius of his
acting and the strength of his personality fully atoned for his
vocal defects. He was equally at home in comedy and tragedy,
and the two parts by which he is best remembered, Rigoletto and
Figaro, show conclusively the range of his talent. -In his later
years Ronconi founded a school of singing at Granada, and he
also accepted the post of professor of singing at the Madrid
Conservatoire. He died in 1890. .
RONDA, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Malaga; on the river Guadiaro and on the Algeciras-Bobadilla railway. Pop. (1900) 20,995. Ronda is built on a high rock nearly surrounded by the Guadiaro, which Hows through an abrupt chasm 530 ft. deep and 300 ft. wide, by which the old town is separated from the new. Of the three bridges, one is said to have been built by the Romans, another by the Moors; the most modern (1761) spans the stream in a single arch at a height of about 255 ft. On the edge of the chasm is the alameda or public promenade, commanding a wide and beautiful prospect of the fertile valley or Vega and the sierras beyond. The old
