about its early history. They relate how the city was founded by two
brothers, Romulus and Remus; how Horatius defended the bridge across the
Tiber against the hosts of the exiled Tarquin king; how the farmer
Cincinnatus, having been made leader or dictator, in sixteen days drove
off the neighboring tribes which were attacking the Romans and then went
back to his plough.

THE GAULS BURN ROME, 390 B.C. The Romans told stories of their
defeats as well as of their victories. One of these tells how hosts of
Gauls, a people of the same race as the forefathers of the French,
streamed southward from the valley of the Po. The Romans were alarmed by
such tall men, with fierce eyes, and fair, flowing hair, whose swords
crashed through the frail Roman helmets. They sent a large army to stop
the invaders, but in the battle, which was fought only twelve miles from
Rome, this army was destroyed.

The few defenders that were left withdrew to the Capitoline, the
steepest of the hills over which the city had spread. Some of the older
senators and several priests scorned to seek a refuge from the fury of
the barbarians, and took their seats quietly in ivory chairs in the
market place or Forum at the foot of the Capitoline hill. The Gauls at
first gazed in wonder at the strange sight of the motionless figures.
When one of them attempted to stroke the white beard of a senator, the
senator struck him with his staff; then the Gauls fell upon senators and
priests and slew them.

[Illustration: CLIFF OF THE CAPITOLINE HILL]

The sides of the Capitoline hill were so steep that for a long time the
Gauls were baffled in their attempts to seize it. At last they