Numa Pompilius   

Thus did both parties argue and dispute their cause; but lest meanwhile
discord, in the absence of all command, should occasion general confusion,
it was agreed that the hundred and fifty senators should interchangeably
execute the office of supreme magistrate, and each in succession,
with the ensigns of royalty, should offer the solemn sacrifices and
despatch public business for the space of six hours by day and six
by night; which vicissitude and equal distribution of power would
preclude all rivalry amongst the senators and envy from the people,
when they should behold one, elevated to the degree of a king, levelled
within the space of a day to the condition of a private citizen. This
form of government is termed, by the Romans, interregnum. Nor yet
could they, by this plausible and modest way of rule, escape suspicion
and clamour of the vulgar, as though they were changing the form of
government to an oligarchy, and designing to keep the supreme power
in a sort of wardship under themselves, without ever proceeding to
choose a king. Both parties came at length to the conclusion that
the one should choose a king out of the body of the other; the Romans
make a choice of a Sabine, or the Sabines name a Roman; this was esteemed
the best expedient to put an end to all party spirit, and the prince
who should be chosen would have an equal affection to the one party
as his electors and to the other as his kinsmen. The Sabines remitted
the choice to the original Romans, and they, too, on their part, were
more inclinable to receive a Sabine king elected by themselves than
to see a Roman exalted by the Sabines. Consultations being accordingly
held, they named Numa Pompilius, of the Sabine race, a person of that
high reputation for excellence, that, though he were not actually
residing at Rome, yet he was no sooner nominated than accepted by
the Sabines, with acclamation almost greater than that of the electors
themselves.
The choice being declared and made known to the people, principal
men of both parties were appointed to visit and entreat him, that
he would accept the administration of the government. Numa resided
at a famous city of the Sabines called Cures, whence the Romans and
Sabines gave themselves the joint name of Quirites. Pomponius, an
illustrious person, was his father, and he the youngest of his four
sons, being (as it had been divinely ordered) born on the twenty-first
day of April, the day of the foundation of Rome. He was endued with
a soul rarely tempered by nature, and disposed to virtue, which he
had yet more subdued by discipline, a severe life, and the study of
philosophy; means which had not only succeeded in expelling the baser
passions, but also the violent and rapacious temper which barbarians
are apt to think highly of; true bravery, in his judgment, was regarded
as consisting in the subjugation of our passions by reason.
He banished all luxury and softness from his own home, and while citizens
alike and strangers found in him an incorruptible judge and counsellor,
in private he devoted himself not to amusement or lucre, but to the
worship of the immortal gods, and rational contemplation of their
divine power and nature. So famous was he, that Tatius, the colleague
of Romulus, chose him for his son-in-law, and gave him his only daughter,
which, however, did not stimulate his vanity to desire to dwell with
his father-in-law at Rome; he rather chose to inhabit with his Sabines,
and cherish his own father in his old age; and Tatia, also, preferred
the private conditions of her husband before the honours and splendour
she might have enjoyed with her father. She is said to have died after
she had been married thirteen years, and then Numa, leaving the conversation
of the town, betook himself to a country life, and in a solitary manner
frequented the groves and fields consecrated to the gods, passing
his life in desert places. And this in particular gave occasion to
the story about the goddess, namely, that Numa did not retire from
human society out of any melancholy or disorder of mind, but because
he had tasted the joys of more elevated intercourse, and, admitted
to celestial wedlock in the love and converse of the goddess Egeria,
had attained to blessedness, and to a divine wisdom.
The story evidently resembles those very ancient fables which the