Forlong - Rivers of Life

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Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
and holy shrines, and must here call attention to the details of the sacred mounts of
Rome, especially the three foremost—the Pala-tine, situated between the Capit-o-linus and
Aven-tinus, at the re-entering angle which the sacred stream here makes. The Pala-tine
represented Romulus or the great Male Ancestor, and the Capit-o-line the Sabines, the
reputed mothers of the race. Romulus was here the Pala-tiun or Pala-dium; his Mount
Fig. 160.—NATURAL TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF ANCIENT ROME. 1
was sacred from the earliest times, and long before his supposed day, to the god Pala
or Pallas; whilst the Capitoline, on which rested the sacred “Sabine Ark,” 2 was the
representation of the passive or female energies; and between the two was what the
people significantly called “The Sacred Way,” where was a bridge (Pons which
existed long before the great river itself was spanned. It led to the temple of Concord,
called “the Seat of the Gods;” also a most expressive name for an Omphe, or Umboshaped
summit. I have elsewhere explained that tine or line attaching to words like
Pala, Capit, &c., signifies “place,” and being a holy place, therefore an altar or shrine.
This hill was shaped like a skull (Caput), and natumlly became the centre of the social
and political world with a people so addicted to the worship of the female energy as the
Romans ever were. It was the “head” only in this sense, and not in that which our
1 In this plan for Latius read Latins, and for Esquilus, Esquilianus.
2 Smith’s G. and R. Ants.