primordia urbis

Thought for the day, from Livy's Praefatio:

Datur haec venia antiquitati ut miscendo humana divinis primordia urbium augustiora faciat; et si cui populo licere oportet consecrare origines suas et ad deos referre auctores, ea belli gloria est populo Romano ut cum suum conditorisque sui parentem Martem potissimum ferat, tam et hoc gentes humanae patiantur aequo animo quam imperium patiuntur.

This license is granted to antiquity, that by mixing together the human and the divine, it makes the origins of cities more august; and if it is acceptable for any people to consecrate its origins and ascribe them to the gods, so much martial glory is due to the Roman people that when they claim the most powerful god Mars as their parent, and the parent of their founder, other human nations accept this as contentedly as they accept Rome's rule.

Good old Livy; I guess the weight of Ennius and Vergil are as heavy to bear as the imperium Romae. Or to put it another way, I've gotta get cracking on putting together a syllabus and bibliography for that "origins of Rome" course...