trength to the new
city; multitudes of people flocked in from all the adjacent towns, and
it only seemed to want women to insure its duration. In this exigence,
Rom'ulus, by the advice of the senate, sent deputies among the
Sab'ines, his neighbours, entreating their alliance; and, upon these
terms, offering to cement the strictest confederacy with them. The
Sab'ines, who were at that time considered as the most warlike people
of Italy, rejected the proposal with disdain. 9. Rom'ulus, therefore,
proclaimed a feast, in honour of Neptune,[2] throughout all the
neighbouring villages, and made the most magnificent preparations for
celebrating it. These feasts were generally preceded by sacrifices,
and ended in shows of wrestlers, gladiators, and chariot-courses. The
Sab'ines, as he had expected, were among the foremost who came to be
spectators, bringing their wives and daughters with them, to share the
pleasures of the sight. 10. In the mean time the games began, and
while the strangers were most intent upon the spectacle, a number of
the Roman youth rushed in among them with drawn swords, seized the
youngest and most beautiful women, and carried them off by violence.
In vain the parents protested against this breach of hospitality; the
virgins were carried away and became the wives of the Romans.

11. A bloody war ensued. The cities of Cae'nina,[3] Antem'nae,[4] and
Crustumi'num,[5] were the first who resolved to avenge the common
cause, which the Sab'ines seemed too dilatory in pursuing. But all
these, by making separate inroads, became an easy conquest to
Rom'ulus, who made the most merciful use of his victories; instead of
destroying their towns, or lessening their numbers, he only placed
colonies of Romans in them, to serve as a frontier to repress more
distant invasions.

12. Ta'tius, king of Cures, a Sabine city, was the last, although the
most formidable, who undertook to revenge the disgrace his
country had suffered. He entered the Roman territories at the head of
twenty-five thousand men, and not content with a superiority of
forces, he added stratagem also. 13. Tarpe'ia, who was daughter to the
commander of the Capit'oline hill, happened to fall into his hands, as
she went without the walls of the city to fetch water. Upon her he
prevailed, by means of large promises, to betray one of the gates to
his army. The reward she engaged for, was what the soldiers wore on
their arms, by which she meant their bracelets.