ROMA, rd'-ma, a famous city of Italy, for centuries the mistress of the civilized world, situated about sixteen miles from the sea, in N.W. Latium, on the left bank of the Tiber, on the far-famed seven in the N., S. of it the Pell:HM:1s, S. of the latter, and nearly touching the river, the Aventinus, S.E. of the Palatine the aegis's (originally Querquetukinus), and W. of the Cwlian, going from W. to N., the Esquillnus, and QuirineVis. The Vatican= lay E. of the Tiber, the 7aniciilunz S. of it in the bend of the river. The Collis Her:Mann:, afterwards Mons Pi 'Leila, was N. of the Quirinal. The Campus Martins was between the river and the two mounts, Capitoline and Quirinal. The original city, as founded by Romulus (q.v.), 753 B.c., comprised only the Palatine, and being of a square form, walled, was called Rims Quan'rata, while the Sabine colony (Quiriles), under Titus Tatius, occupied the Quirinal and Capitoline, and the Etruscans the Ccelian mount. In the reign of Romulus these were amalgamated into one people, divided by him into three tribes, Ramnes (Romans), Titles (Sabines), and Lucires (Etruscans); and after the death of his colleague, Titus Tatius, Romulus reigned as sole king. Tullus Hos tilius, 673-641, increased the population of Rome by the removal to it of the people of Alba Longa ; and King Ancus Marcius, 64o-6/6, again increased the Plebs by his Latin wars, and inclosed the Aventine within the city for the new population, and fortified the Janicillum, in connection with which he built the Pans Sublicius. Under Tarquinius Priscus, 616-578, the buildings and population increased ; and Servius Tullius, 578-534, made Rome Sefilicallis (seven-hilled) by the addition of the Viminal and Esquiline ; and under the last king, Tarquinius Superbus, 534-510, be yond the Capitoline temple, little was done to improve the city. Rome was at first one of the cities of the great confederacy of Latium. It was probably originally a colony of Alba Longa —an origin to which the legend of Romulus seems to point ; but it overthrew its mother city, and attained considerable power under the 'i'arquins. Its power declined after the expulsion of the kings (510 B.c.), but again revived rapidly, and in 272 the whole of Italy was subjugated by Rome. The order of her foreign conquests is given under PROVINCIA. For the long internal contest for political equality on the part of the Plebs against the Patricians, see PLEBS, and for the political organization see CENTURIA, ComrriB, SENA TUS, CONSUL, PR,ETOR, FEDILES, CENSOR, QUiESTOR, TRIBUNI PLEBIS, DICTATOR, DE. CEMVIRI, PRASFECTUS URBI, PROVINCIA. ROMANI, rd-nu2'-ni, the inhabitants of Roma (q. v. ).
Romlicus, 1. The mythical founder and first king of Rome, was, according to the common legend, twin-brother of Remus and son of King Numitor's daughter Ilia (or Rhea Silvia) and the god Mars. When their mother (see ILIA) was thrown with them into the Tiber, the twins, the river being in flood, were floated ashore, and were suckled by a she wolf, which took them to her lair, where they were found by the king's shepherd Faustiilus, whose wife, Acca Larentia, adopted and reared them. A contest about flocks led to the twin brothers, now grown up, being led before the deposed Numitor, who recognized their features. Their real origin being now known to them, they slew Amulius, and placed their grandfather Numitor on his rightful throne.
Romulus and Remus then went to found a city, 753 B.c., on the Tiber, and agreed to give the name to it according to the auguries, to observe which Romulus went to the Palatine and Remus to the Aventine. Remus saw first six, and Romulus afterwards twelve, vultures; whereon the former claimed the right of founding the city from having first seen the birds, and the latter from having seen double the number. A quarrel ensued, and Remus, in derision, jumped over the sacred lomeerium, or sacred city boundary, which Romulus had traced with his plough. To appease the manes of his murdered brother, Romulus instituted the Ralnria (see LEMURIA). To obtain a population for his city, Romulus made an asylum, or place of refuge, for fugitive slaves and homicides ; and to obtain wives for these, he invited to the festival of the god Consus his Latin and Sabine neighbours. His armed followers rushed in during the festival, and seized the virgins. From this Rape of the Sabine Women a war resulted with the Sabines ; but in a desperate struggle with them for the citadel, the Sabine women rushed between the combatants, and appealed to their Roman husbands and Sabine fathers and brothers to stay the combat. A peace was made, and a union of the peoples effected. The Sabine king, Titus Tatius, became joint king with Romulus, but was soon after killed at Lavinium by some Laurentines, and Romulus became sole king, and reigned till 716, when he was carried in a storm up to heaven in a fiery chariot by his father Mars, and soon after appeared, with divine beauty, to a senator, Julius Procillus, and ordered his worship under the name Quit-inns. According to the later tale, he was murdered in the storm oy the senators, who cut his body to pieces, and carried away the fragments under their robes. The popular belief ascribed to Romulus the organization of the Pot fibs into Patricii, and Clientes (the Plebs being yet non-existent), the division of the Patricii into three tribes, Ravines, Lveires, Titles, the subdivision of each tribe into thirty curia, and each curia into ten genies, the establishment of the Comities Curieita and the Senatus, and the Legit, of 3,00o foot and 30o Equites. 2. SILVIUS, 'Cif-VI-us, the son of Ascanius. 3. AUGUSTULUS, au-guse-ii-lus, the last Roman emperor of the West, was conquered by the Herali under Odoacer, A.D. 476.
Roscius, ros'-a-us. 1. Q., a celebrated Roman comic actor, born at Solonium, near Lanuvium, enjoyed the favour of many patri cians, including Sulla, who gave him the golden ring (annulus aurius) of the Equites. 2. SEXTUS, see-tus, a rich citizen of Ameria, in Umbria, was murdered temii. Sulla. His son, of the same name, was accused of the murder, and eloquently defended by Cicero, 8o ti.c. 3. L., OTHO, o/M-0, tribune of the plebs 67 B.c., by his Rose/a Lex assigned the Equites the fourteen rows or seats behind the senators in the orchestra at public festivals.
Ruin, rh1/4, the town of the Rribiteni in .Apulia.
Ru BICON (-anis), riib'-I-con, a river separating Cisapline Gaul from Italy proper, falls into the Adriatic north of Ariminum ; the crossing of it by Julius Cxsar, who thus stepped out of his province without orders to do so, constituted a declaration of war against the Republic of Rome.