Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
27.
_What is the reason that they esteeme all the walles of the citie sacred and inviolable, but not the gates._ IS it (as _Varro_ saith) because we ought to thinke the walles holie, to the end that we may fight valiantly, and die generously in the defence of them? for it seemeth that this was the cause, why _Romulus_ killed his owne brother _Remus_, for that he presumed to leape over an holy and inviolable place: whereas contrariwise, it was not possible to consecrate and hallow the gates, thorow which there must needs be transported many things necessary, and namely, the bodies of the dead. And therefore, they who begin to found a citie, environ and compasse first with a plough all that pourprise and precinct wherein they meant to build, drawing the said plough with an oxe and a cow coupled together in one yoke: afterwards, when they have traced out all the said place where the walles should stand, they measure out as much ground as will serve for the gates, but take out the plough-share, and so passe over that space with the bare plough, as if they meant thereby, that all the furrow which they cast up and eared, should be sacred and inviolable.
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