C.). Like
Evander, he went, no one knew where, though one of his friends
presented himself in the forum and assured the people under oath that
one day, as he was going along the road, he met Romulus coming toward
him, dressed in shining armor, and looking comelier than ever.
Proculus, for that was the friend's name, was struck with awe and
filled with religious dread, but asked the king why he had left the
people to bereavement, endless sorrow, and wicked surmises, for it had
been rumored that the senators had made away with him. Romulus replied
that it pleased the gods that, after having built a city destined to be
the greatest in the world for empire and glory, he should return to
heaven, but that Proculus might tell the Romans that they would attain
the height of power by exercising temperance and fortitude, in which
effort he would sustain them and remain their propitious god Quirinus.
An altar was accordingly erected to the king's honor, and a festival
called the Quirinalia was annually celebrated on the seventeenth of
February, the day on which he is said to have been received into the
number of the gods.
Romulus left the people organized into two great divisions, Patricians
and Clients: the former being the _Populus Romanus_, or Roman People,
and possessing the only political rights; and the others being entirely
dependent upon them.
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