It may also have been
necessary, as many slaves and fugitives had gathered round them, either
that they should disperse these men and so lose their entire power, or
else go and dwell alone amongst them. It is clear, from the rape of the
Sabine women, that the citizens of Alba would not admit these outcasts
into their own body, since that deed was caused, not by wanton
insolence, but by necessity, as they could not obtain wives by fair
means; for after carrying the women off they treated them with the
greatest respect. Afterwards, when the city was once founded, they made
it a sanctuary for people in distress to take refuge in, saying that it
belonged to the god Asylus; and they received in it all sorts of
persons, not giving up slaves to their masters, debtors to their
creditors, or murderers to their judges, but saying that, in accordance
with a Pythian oracle, the sanctuary was free to all; so that the city
soon became full of men, for they say that at first it contained no less
than a thousand hearths. Of this more hereafter. When they were
proceeding to found the city, they at once quarrelled about its site.
Romulus fixed upon what is now called Roma Quadrata, a square piece of
ground, and wished the city to be built in that place; but Remus
preferred a strong position on Mount Aventino, which, in memory of him,
was called the Remonium, and now is called Rignarium.
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