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Question 69. Why, upon the festival called Septimontium, did they observe to abstain from the use of chariots
drawn by a pair of horses; and even until now, do they
that regard antiquity still abstain? They do observe the
Septimontium feast in honor of the addition of the seventh
hill to the city, upon which it became Septicollis, seven-hilled Rome.
[p. 241]
Solution. What if it be (as some of the Romans conjecture) because the parts of the city are not as yet everywhere connected? Or if this conceit be nothing to the purpose, what if it be that, when the great work of building
the city was finished and they determined to cease the increasing of the city any further, they rested themselves
and rested the cattle that bore a share in the labor with
them, and provided accordingly that they might participate
of the holiday by rest from labor? Or was it that they
would have all the citizens always present for the solemnity
and return of a festival, especially that which was observed
in remembrance of the compact uniting the parts of the
city; and that none should desert the city for whose sake
the feast is kept, they were not allowed to use their yoke
chariots that day?
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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