Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/439

This page needs to be proofread.

ROMULUS AUGUSTULUS RONSARD 419 brothers, and prayed them to lay aside their quarrel. A peace was therefore made, and the two peoples became one, the Sabines living on the Saturnius or Capitoline and the Quirinal hills, and the Romans on the Palatine ; and the two kings and their counsellors met in the val- ley between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, which was therefore called comitium, " the place of meeting." Tatius not long afterward was slain by the inhabitants of Laurentum, and Romulus reigned over the whole people. These were divided into three tribes : the Ramnenses, from his own name ; the Titienses, from that of the Sabine king; and the Luceres, accord- ing to some from Lucumo, an Etruscan chief who had aided him in previous wars. Romu- lus had numerous wars, in which he was very successful. After he had reigned a long time he one day called the people together in the field of Mars. When they had assembled, a terrible storm arose, and in the midst of it Romulus disappeared. That night he showed himself to one Proculus Julius coming from Alba to Rome, and said to him : " Go and tell my people that they weep not for me any more; but bid them to be brave and war- like, and so shall they make my city the great- est on earth." From that the people judged that Romulus had become a god, and a tem- ple was built to him, and he was worshipped under the name of Quirinus. He was suc- ceeded by Numa Pompilius (about 716). ROMULUS AUGUSTULUS. See WESTERN EMPIRE. RONCESVALLES, or Roncmaux, a small ham- let in the valley of Valcarlos in Navarre, be- tween Pamplona and St. Jean Pied de Port in France. It commands the entrance to one of the passes of the Pyrenees. Charlemagne, re- turning from an invasion of Spain, was here attacked by the Basque mountaineers and lost his whole rear guard, A. D. 778. The numer- ous local ballads and romances of the middle ages, in which are related on one side the ex- ploits of the legendary Spanish hero, Bernardo del Carpio, and on the other those of Roland, Oliver, and the other "peers and paladins" of Charlemagne's court who fell in the encoun- ter, have given a character to the place which history cannot easily remove. (See ROLAND.) Through this pass the Black Prince led his army into Spain in 1367; and in July, 1813, Soult was forced from a strong position he had taken here by Wellington. Here Don Carlos was proclaimed king in 1833. RONDA (anc. Arunda), a city of Andalusia, Spain, in the province of Malaga, 86 m. W. S. W. of Granada; pop. about 19,300. It is built upon a high rock, nearly surrounded by the river Guadiaro, which separates the town by a deep chasm, crossed by two bridges, into two parts. Cotton and woollen cloth, cutlery, and other articles are manufactured, and there is an active trade in horses, mules, and especially in crucifixes, which are exported from here to all parts of Spain. The annual fair in May is one of the most animated in Spain. Ronda is of great antiquity. Under the Moors it was the principal fortress of Granada, and it is still protected by a Moorish castle. In 1485 it was conquered by Spain. RONDO (It.), in music, a composition con- sisting of three strains, the first of which, forming the burden, closes in the original key, while the others lead the ear easily and natu- rally back to it. The piece derives its name from the melody going round through the sec- ond and third strains to the first. RONDOUT. See KINGSTON, N. Y. RONGE, Johannes, a German priest, born at Bischofswalde, Prussian Silesia, Oct. 16, 1813. He completed his studies at Breslau, and was chaplain at Grottkau from 1840 to 1843 ; but for refusing to submit to the discipline of the church he was suspended and afterward ex- communicated. In 1844 he addressed a letter to Bishop Arnoldi denouncing the exhibition of the holy coat at Treves as idolatrous, and next he called upon the German Catholics to secede from Rome. His agitation led to the formation of the German Catholic denomina- tion, but most 'of its members in 1862 joined the national Protestant church. (See GERMAN CATHOLICS.) In 1847-'9 Ronge was a promi- nent democrat, and subsequently he was an exile in London till 1861, when he returned to Germany, where for some time he contin- ued active for reform. RONSARD, Pierre de, a French poet, born near Vend6aie, Sept. 11, 1524, died near Tours, Dec. 27, 1585. At the age of ten he entered the service of the duke of Orleans, son of Francis I. ; and resuming it after some years' connection with the court of James V. in Scot- land, he was employed by the duke in several confidential missions when still a boy. He was subsequently secretary of the French ambassa- dor at the diet of Spire, and of Captain Lan- gey du Bellay in Piedmont. But an illness re- sulting in deafness detained him in Paris about 1541, and he remained for several years at the college of Coqueret engaged in studies for im- proving the French language and literatvuo after classical models. His disciple Joachim du Bellay published in 1549 IS Illustration de la langue franfoise, an exposition of Ronsard's projected improvements. The works of the Pleiad (the name which Ronsard and his six friends, Du Bellay, Baif, Jamyn, Belleau, Jo- delle, and Ponthus de Thiard, gave p their literary association) appeared in rapid succes- sion, and were very popular, excepting with the adherents of the old school. The poems of Ronsard were hailed with enthusiasm, and the title of "the French poet" was bestowed on him. He became the poet laureate, and Charles IX. desired his company in all his travels, bestowing upon him pensions and gra- tuities. Many complete editions of his works were published from 1567 to 1630. Sainte- Beuve published in 1828 a select edition, with a biographical sketch and comments. See Vie de Ronsard^ appended to his (Eutres inedites,