CHAPTER III.
ROME BEFORE NUMA.
A clusterWe of hills, which were anciently counted as seven, lies on the east bank of the Tiber, below its junction with the Anio. Some of these were the site of villages or towns at a period much earlier than that which is commonly called Roman; and the changes of name in the Tiber itself seem to testify to changes of inhabitants. It was successively called Rumon[1], Albula, Thybris, and finally Tiberis. may assume that the first name was Aboriginal,— perhaps Oscan; and that with it the name of Rome itself was connected. The Latins believed Rome to be a foreign word; at least they imagined that it had another sacred name, which might not be mentioned. Albula is apparently Latin. Thybris is in form Greek, and carries the mind to a time when the Capitoline Hill was occupied by a city called Saturnia, and the Janiculum, across the Tiber, by a
- ↑ Servius.
