Numa Pompilius (753-673 BC; king of Rome, 717-673 BC), according to
legend, was the second
king of Rome, succeeding
Romulus. After Romulus died, Romans in the city elected a
Sabine man to be king, so as to make him loyal to both tribes in Rome.
In 717 BC, shortly after the death of Romulus, Numa was offered the kingship of Rome. Though at first he first refused, his father and kinsmen persuaded him to accept.
Numa was later celebrated for his natural wisdom and piety; legend says the nymph Egeria taught him to be a wise legislator. Wishing to show his favour, the god Jupiter caused a shield to fall from the sky on the Palatine Hill, which had letters of prophecy written on it, and in which the fate of Rome as a city was tied up. Recognizing the importance of this sacred shield, King Numa had eleven matching shields made. These shields were the ancilia, the sacred shields of Jupiter, which were carried each year in a procession by the Salii priests.
By tradition, Numa promulgated a calendar reform that adjusted the solar and lunar years, and he established the original constitution of the priests, called Pontifices. In other Roman institutions established by Numa, Plutarch thought he detected a Laconian influence, attributing the connection to the Sabine culture of Numa, for "Numa was descended of the Sabines, who declare themselves to be a colony of the Lacedaemonians."
