One who was born on the day on which the building of the city was begun was chosen to be king after Romulus. Numa was his name. At the time when the Romans and the Sabines took him to be king over them Numa had no mortal wife--a Goddess was his companion. By a spring of clear water she would meet him and converse with him, instructing him in all affairs that lay between mortals and the immortal Gods. Egeria she was named.
And by a clear spring of water she would meet him and converse with him after he had become king in Rome. Now at that time a plague ravaged all Italy; the Roman people were made despondent by all the deaths they saw around them; their city, so lately built, would not last, they thought, for the folk in it would dwindle away through this plague. Then a sign was given to Numa. A brazen shield fell from Heaven. It was revealed to the king that as long as this shield was amongst them the fortunes of the Roman people would be prosperous. He had eleven other shields made, each in the likeness of the one that had fallen from Heaven: when the twelve shields were left together no one, not Numa himself, could tell one from the other. No single enemy, then, could slip in and take away the shield on which the fortunes of Rome depended. And the Romans, knowing that amongst them was a token of prosperity and that that token was secure, ceased to be despondent. Soon the plague left the land.
"Thou shalt not make libation of wine made from an unpruned vine. Thou shalt not make sacrifice without grain." These were two of the commandments that Numa, instructed by Egeria, gave to the people. And by these commandments he showed the Romans that they were to be cultivators, subduing the earth, and growing grain and pruning their vines. He gave the people arts and crafts; he formed companies of musicians, goldsmiths, metal-workers, carpenters, dyers, shoemakers,
No more is heard the trumpet's brazen roar;
Sweet sleep is banished from our eyes no more.
Numa then arranged the months of the year. He put January, which is the month of the God of Peace, Ianus, first; he put March, which is the month of the War God, third; between, he put February, which is the month of purification: in February the Romans make offerings to their dead, and the festival of Lupercalia, a festival of purification, is held in February.
Iuppiter, the great God of the sky and of thunder, was brought down to earth by Numa. "If you would bespell the lighting and thunder so that they will do no harm, you must bespell them with heads," Iuppiter said, repeating an ancient doom. "With heads of onions," Numa answered. "Of men," Iuppiter said. "Hair of men's heads," Numa said. "With living------" "With living pilchards," said Numa.