CHAP. IV. THE CITY. 181 the ancient language, the region of the manes.' From this place, according to tradition, the souls of the dead escaped three times a year, desirous of again seeing the light for a moment. Do we not see also, in this tra- dition, the real thought of these ancient men ? When placing in the trench a clod of earth from their former country, they believed they had enclosed there the souls of their ancestors. These souls, reunited there, required a perpetual worship, and kept guard over their descendants. At this same place Romulus set up an altar, and lighted a fire upon it. This Avas the holy fire of the city." Around this hearth arose the city, as the house risea around the domestic hearth ; Romulus traced a furrow which marked the enclosure. Here, too, the smallest details were fixed by a ritual. The founder made use of a copper ploughshare; his plough was drawn by a white bull and a white cow, Romulus, with his head veiled, and in the priestly robes, himself held tiie handle of the plough and directed it, while chanting prayers. His companions followed him, observing a religious silence. As the plough turned up clods of earth, they carefully threw them svithin the enclosure, that no particle of this sacred earth should be on the side of the stranger.^ This enclosure, traced by re- ligion, was inviolable. Neither stranger nor citizen had ' Fcstus, V. Mundus. Scrvius, ad jEn., III. 13i. Plutarch, Romulus, 11.
- Ovid, ibid. Later the hearth was removed. When the
three cities, the Palatine, the Capitoline, and the Quirinal were united in one, the common hearth, or temple of Vesta, was placed on neutral ground between the three hills. ^ Plutarch, Romulus, 11. Ovid, Ibidem. Varro, De Ling. Lat., V. 143. Festus, v. Primigenius; v. Urvat. Virgil, V. 755.
