Assumption of Romulus
The god Mars translates Romulus to the skies, where hew inrolled in the number of the gods under the name of Qurinus.
Now warrior Mars his burnish’d helm puts on, And thus addresses heaven’s imperial throne:
“Since the inferior world is now become One vassal globe, and colony to Rome, This grace, oh Jove, for Romulus I claim, Admit him to the skies, from whence he came. Long hast thou promised an ethereal state To Mars’s lineage; and thy word is fate.”
The sire, that rules the thunder with a nod, Declared the fiat, and dismiss’d the god.
Soon as the power armipotent survey’d The flashing skies, the signal he obey’d; And leaning on his lance, he mounts his car, His fiery coursers lashing through the air. Mount Palatine he gains, and finds his son Good laws enacting on a peaceful throne; The scales of heavenly justice holding high, With steady hand, and a discerning eye. Then vaults upon his car, and to the spheres, Swift, as a flying shaft, Rome’s founder bears. The parts more pure, in rising are refined, The gross and perishable lag behind. His shrine in purple vestments stands in view; He looks a god, and is Quirinus now.