1.2
But after publishing my account of Lycurgus the lawgiver and Numa the king, I thought I might not unreasonably go back still farther to Romulus, now that my history had brought me near his times. And as I asked myself, With such a warrior (as Aeschylus says) who will dare to fight? The actual text in Aeschylus:τοιῷδε φωτὶ πέμπε—τίς ξυστήσεται; Whom shall I set against him? Who is competent? The actual text in Aechylus:τίνʼ ἀντιτάξεις τῷδε; τίς Προίτου πυλῶν | κλῄθρων λυθέντων προστατεῖν φερέγγυος· it seemed to me that I must make the founder of lovely and famous Athens the counterpart and parallel to the father of invincible and glorious Rome.
1.3
May I therefore succeed in purifying Fable, making her submit to reason and take on the semblance of History. But where she obstinately disdains to make herself credible, and refuses to admit any element of probability, I shall pray for kindly readers, and such as receive with indulgence the tales of antiquity.
2.1
It seemed to me, then, that many resemblances made Theseus a fit parallel to Romulus. For both were of uncertain and obscure parentage, and got the reputation of descent from gods; Both were also warriors, as surely the whole world knoweth, Iliad, vii. 281, of Aias Telemon and Hector. and with their strength, combined sagacity. Of the world’s two most illustrious cities, moreover, Rome and Athens, Romulus founded the one, and Theseus made a metropolis of the other, and each resorted to the rape of women.
