Roma.The novel of ancient Rome

vagabonds, fugitives, and exiles, who offered sanctuary to those who could find it nowhere else. As a haruspex, and because of his training as a priest of Hercules, Potitius had presided at the consecration of the Altar of Asylaeus. His father’s harsh words about the Asylum and its inhabitants struck Potitius as a personal rebuke.

But the elder Potitius was only beginning his tirade. “And you, my son-you go on these raids with them. You join in the looting!”

“I travel with Romulus and Remus as their haruspex, father. At river crossings, I ask the numina for safe passage. Before each battle, I take the auspices, reading the entrails of birds to determine if the day is propitious for victory. During storms, I study the lightning for signs of the gods’ will. These are the things I was trained to do, during my schooling in Tarquinia.”

“Before you became a haruspex, you were a priest of Hercules, my son. First and foremost, you are the keeper of the Ara Maxima.”

“I know that, Father. But consider: Hercules was the son of a god, and a hero to the people. So are Romulus and Remus.”

“No! The twins are nothing more than orphans raised by a pig farmer and his whore of a wife. They’re more like Cacus than like Hercules.”

“Father!”

“Think, my son. Hercules rescued the people and moved on, asking for nothing. Cacus killed and stole without remorse. Which of those two do your beloved twins more closely resemble?”

Potitius gasped at the recklessness of his father’s words. If he himself had ever harbored such thoughts, he had banished them once he made the decision to stand by the twins and to bind his fortunes to theirs.

“And now,” his father went on, “they plan to encircle a good portion of Roma with a wall, even higher and stronger than the pickets that surrounded the great house of Amulius at Alba.”

“But surely, Father, a wall is a good thing. Roma will become a proper city. If we’re attacked, people can find safety inside the walls.”

“And why should anyone wish to attack the good, honest people of Roma-except for the fact that the twins have wrought bloodshed and misery on others, and brought home more loot than they have any need for? There are two ways of making a way in the world, my son. One is the way that your ancestors pursued-trading with others peacefully and fairly, offering hospitality to strangers, accumulating no more wealth then is needed to live comfortably, and diligently seeking to offend neither men nor gods. People must barter for the things they need; Roma provided a safe, honest place to do so, and thus it was to everyone’s advantage to leave Roma unmolested. And because we did not pile up riches, we did not attract the envy of greedy, violent men.

“But there is another way of living, the way of men like Amulius, and of Romulus and Remus-to take by force that which other men have accumulated by hard work. Yes, their way leads quickly to great wealth-and just as surely to bloodshed and ruin. It is all very well to bully and rob your neighbors, then use the treasure you’ve stolen to pay strangers to help you bully and rob yet more neighbors. But what will happen when those neighbors unite and come looking for vengeance, or a stronger bully appears on the scene and comes looking to steal the twins’ treasure?

“Ah, but if that happens, you say, there will be a wall to keep us safe. What nonsense! Did the twins learn nothing from their victory over Amulius? Did walls keep Amulius safe? Did his mercenary warriors save him? Did all his treasure buy him even a single breath when Romulus cut his throat?”

Potitius shook his head. “All you say would make perfect sense, Father, except for one great difference between Amulius and the twins. Amulius lost the favor of the gods; fortune turned against him. But the gods love Romulus and Remus.”

“You mean to say that you love them, my son!”

“No, father. I speak not as their friend, but as a priest and a haruspex. The gods love the twins. It is a manifest fact. In every battle, especially a battle to the death, there must be a winner and a loser. Romulus and Remus always win. That could not happen unless the gods willed it to be so. You speak with scorn of the path they’ve chosen, but I tell you that their path is blessed by the gods. How else can you account for their success? That is why I follow them, and why I use all the skills I possess to shed light on the way ahead of them.”

His father, unable to refute these words, fell silent.

The twins agreed that a wall should be built, but they did not agree about its location.

Romulus favored a wall that would encircle the Palatine. Remus thought the wall should be built around the Aventine, further south. Day after day, Potitius listened to them argue.

“Your reasons are purely sentimental, brother” said Remus. “We were raised here on the Palatine, therefore you wish to make it the center of Roma. But no one lives on the Palatine except a few herders and their livestock. Why build a wall around a city of sheep? Or do you intend to drive away the herders and cover the Palatine with buildings? I say, leave this hill wild and open, as it was when we were boys, and build up the city elsewhere. South of the Spinon is the natural place to expand, close to the riverfront. The marketplace, the salt bins, and the slaughtering yards are already pushing against the foot of the Aventine. That is the hill we should encircle with a wall, upon which we should begin to build a proper city.”

“How perfectly reasonable you sound, brother!” Romulus laughed. The two brothers, along with Potitius and Pinarius, were strolling across the Palatine. The sky was dazzling blue with white clouds heaped against the horizon. The hill was covered with green grass and spangled with spring flowers, but there was not a single grazing sheep to be seen; the sheep had all been gathered into their pens, which were adorned with juniper boughs and wreaths of laurel leaves. This was the day of the Palilia, the festival of the goddess Pales. Here and there, streamers of smoke trailed into the sky. Each family had set up its own altar to Pales, and upon these raised stones they were burning various substances: for purification, handfuls of sulfur, which emitted sky-blue smoke, followed by twigs of fragrant rosemary, laurel, and Sabine juniper, then an offering compounded of beanstalks mixed with the ashes of calves already burned, sprinkled with horse blood. With juniper branches, the shepherds wafted the smoke across the penned animals; the sacred smoke of Pales would keep the herd healthy and fertile. Afterward, the shepherds would feast on millet cakes and drink bowls of warm milk sprinkled with purple must.

“Perfectly reasonable,” Romulus said again. “But this is not about reason, brother. It’s about creating a city fit for two kings. You say I favor the Palatine because I’m sentimental. Indeed, I am! How can you walk across this hill on the day of the Palilia and not feel the specialness of this place? There was a reason the gods left our cradle on the slope of the Palatine. Truly, this is the very heart of Roma! It’s around the Palatine that we must build a wall, to honor the home that nurtured us. The gods will bless our enterprise.”

“Ridiculous!” snapped Remus, with a harshness that startled them all. “If you can’t listen to reason, how do you expect to rule a city?”

Romulus strained to keep an even tone. “I’ve done a good enough job so far, brother, building an army and leading them in battle.”

“Running a city will be a different matter. Are you such a fool you can’t see that?”

“You dare to call me a fool, Remus? I wasn’t the fool who got himself captured by Amulius and needed rescuing-”

“How dare you throw that in my face! Or do you enjoy reminding me of the hours I spent suffering, needlessly, because you wasted time here in Roma-”

“Unfair, brother! Untrue!”

“And because you strangled Amulius, you wear the crown every day, even though you promised it would be shared equally between us.”

“Is that what this is about? Take it! Wear it!” Romulus lifted the iron crown from his head, cast it to the ground, and stalked away. Pinarius ran after him.

When they were boys, the twins had never argued. Now they seemed to argue all the time, and their arguments grew more and more heated. From childhood, Romulus had been the more headstrong and impulsive, and Remus had been the one to restrain his brother. But the torture he had received at the hands of Amulius had wrought changes in Remus. His body had never fully recovered; he still walked with a slight limp. More than that, his even temper had deserted him; he had become as quick to anger as his brother. Romulus had changed as well since Alba. He remained as high-spirited as before but was more disciplined and purposeful, and more self-assured and arrogant than ever.

At Alba, Remus had suffered the tortures of Amulius; Romulus had enjoyed the glow of triumph and the