Diodorus of Halicarnussus states the following.
"I shall come to the Roman historians. The Romans, to be sure, have not so
much as one single historian or chronicler who is ancient; however, each of
their historians has taken something out of ancient accounts that are
preserved on sacred tablets."
2 Some of these say that Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were the
sons of Aeneas, others say that they were the sons of a daughter of Aeneas,
without going on to determine who was their father; that they were delivered
as hostages by Aeneas to Latinus, the king of the Aborigines, when the
treaty was made between the inhabitants and the new-comers, and that
Latinus, after giving them a kindly welcome, not only did them might good
offices, but, upon dying without male issue, left them his successors to
some part of his kingdom. 3 Others say that after the death of Aeneas
Ascanius, having succeeded to the entire sovereignty of the Latins, divided
both the country and the forces of the Latins into three parts, two of which
he gave to his brothers, Romulus and Remus. He himself, they say, built Alba
and some other towns; Remus built cities which he named Capuas, after Capys,
his great-grandfather, Anchisa, after his grandfather Anchises, Aeneia
(which was afterwards called Janiculum), after his father, and Rome, after
himself.192 This last city was for some time deserted, but upon the arrival
of another colony, which the Albans sent out under the leadership of Romulus
and Remus, it received again its ancient name. So that, according to this
account, there were two settlements of Rome, one a little after the Trojan
war, and the other fifteen generations after the first.193
"And if anyone desires to look into the remoter past, even a third Rome will
be found, more ancient than these, one that was founded before Aeneas and
the Trojans came into Italy. This is related by no ordinary or modern
historian, but by Antiochus of Syracuse, whom I have mentioned before.194 He
says that when Morges reigned in Italy (which at that time comprehended all
the seacoast from Tarentum to Posidonia),195 a man came to him who had been
banished from Rome. His words are these: "When Italus was growing old,
Morges reigned. In his reign there came a man who had been banished from
Rome; his name was Seicelus." 5 According to the Syracusan historian,
therefore, an ancient Rome is found even earlier than the Trojan war."
"That the canons of Eratosthenes are sound I have shown in another
treatise,202 where I have also shown how the Roman chronology is to be
synchronized with that of the Greeks. 3 For I did not think it sufficient,
like Polybius of Megalopolis,203 to say merely that I believe Rome was built
in the second year of the seventh Olympiad,204 nor to let my belief rest
without further examination upon the single tablet preserved by the high
priests, the only one of its kind, but I determined to set forth the reasons
that had appealed to me, so that all might examine them who so desired. 4 In
that treatise, therefore, the detailed exposition is given; but in the
course of the present work also the most essential of the conclusions there
reached will be mentioned. The matter stands thus: It is generally agreed
that the invasion of the Gauls,205 during which the city of Rome was taken,
happened during the archonship of Pyrgion at Athens, in the first year of
the ninety-eighth Olympiad.206 Now if the time before the taking of the city
is reckoned back to Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus,
the first consuls at Rome after the overthrow of the kings, it comprehends
one hundred and twenty years. 5 This is proved in many other ways, but
particularly by the records of the censors, which receives in succession
from the father and takes great care to transmit to posterity, like family
rites; and there are many illustrious men of censorian families who preserve
these records. In them I find that in the second year before the taking of
the city there was a census of the Roman people, to which, as to the rest of
them, there is affixed the date, as follows: "In the consulship of Lucius
Valerius Potitus and Titus Manlius Capitolinus, in the one hundred and
nineteenth year after the expulsion of the kings." 6 So that the Gallic
invasion, which we find to have occurred in the second year after the
census, happened when the hundred and twenty years were completed. If, now,
this interval of time is found to consist of thirty Olympiads, it must be
allowed that the first consuls to be chosen entered upon their magistracy in
the first year of the sixty-eighth Olympiad, the same year that Isagoras was
archon at Athens.207
75 And, again, if from the expulsion of the kings the time is reckoned back
to Romulus, the first ruler of the city, it amounts to two hundred and
forty-four years. This is known from the order in which the kings succeeded
one another and the number of years each of them ruled. For Romulus, the
founder of Rome, reigned thirty-seven years, it is said, and after his death
the city was a year without a king. 2 Then Numa Pompilius, who was chosen by
the people, reigned forty-three years; after Numa, Tullus Hostilius
thirty-two; and his successor, Ancus Marcius, twenty-four; after Marcius,
Lucius Tarquinius, called Priscus, thirty-eight; Servius Tullius, who
succeeded him, forty-four. And the slayer of Servius, Lucius Tarquinius, the
tyrannical prince who, from his contempt of justice, was called Superbus,
extended his reign to the twenty-fifth year. 3 As the reigns, therefore, of
the kings amount to two hundred and forty-four years or sixty-one Olympiads,
it follows necessarily that Romulus, the first ruler of the city, began his
reign in the first year of the seventh Olympiad, when Charops at Athens was
in the first year of his ten-year term as archon.208 For the count of the
years requires this; and that each king reigned the number of years is shown
in that treatise of mine to which I have referred.
4 This, therefore, is the account given by those who lived before me and
adopted by me concerning the time of the settlement of the city which now
rules supreme."
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