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Hal. l. 3. Where what remains Of Alba, still her ancient rights retains, Still worships Vesta, though an humbler way, Nor lets the hallow'd Trojan fire decay. Juvenal. After an interregnum, as in the former case, Ancus Mar'tius, the grandson of Numa, was elected king by the people, and their choice was afterwards confirmed by the senate.
Cam'pus is the Latin word for field; and this field or plain was called Mar'tius, because it was dedicated to Mars, the god of war. The blood of the good old king is said to have dyed the chariot wheels, and even the clothes of the inhuman daughter; from that time the street where it happened was called vicus sceleratus, the wicked or accursed street.
Eight thousand men, who had escaped the general carnage, surrendered themselves to the conqueror; he ordered them to be put into the Villa Pub'lica, a large house in the Campus Mar'tius; and, at the same time, convoked the senate: there, without discovering the least emotion, he spoke with great fluency of his own exploits, and, in the mean time, gave private directions that all those wretches whom he had confined, should be slain. 26.
But this order was not always observed; the number of divisions in the legion made it extremely flexible, and the commander-in-chief could always adapt the form of his line to circumstances. The levies of troops were made in the Cam'pus Mar'tius, by the tribunes appointed to command the legions.
The Cam'pus Mar'tius, or field of Mars, was originally the estate of Tarquin the Proud, and was, with his other property, confiscated after the expulsion of that monarch. It was a large space, where armies were mustered, general assemblies of the people held, and the young nobility trained in martial exercises.
By this, all the citizens were to assemble in the Cam'pus Mar'tius, in complete armour, and in their respective classes, once in five years, and there to give an exact account of their families and fortune.
While these ceremonies were performing, in the midst of a mighty concourse of people in the Cam'pus Mar'tius, it is said that an eagle flew round the emperor several times, and, directing its flight to a neighbouring temple, perched over the name of Agrippa: this omen was, by the augurs, conceived to portend the death of the emperor. 15.
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