(one of the
consuls of that year) to be his master of the horse. So they led out the
Roman army against the Latins, and they met at the Lake Regillus, in the
land of the Tusculans. King Tarquin and all his family were in the host
of the Latins; and that day it was to be determined whether Rome should
be again subject to the tyrant and whether or not she was to be chief of
the Latin cities.

King Tarquin himself, old as he was, rode in front of the Latins in full
armor; and when he descried the Roman dictator marshalling his men, he
rode at him; but Postumius wounded him in the side, and he was rescued
by the Latins. Then also AEbutius, the master of the horse, and Oct.
Mamilius, the dictator of the Latins, charged one another, and AEbutius
was pierced through the arm, and Mamilius wounded in the breast. But the
Latin chief, nothing daunted, returned to battle, followed by Titus, the
king's son, with his band of exiles. These charged the Romans furiously,
so that they gave way; but when M. Valerius, brother of the great
Poplicola, saw this, he spurred his horse against Titus, and rode at him
with spear in rest; and when Titus turned away and fled, Valerius rode
furiously after him into the midst of the Latin host, and a certain
Latin smote him in the side as he was riding past, so that he fell dead,
and his horse galloped on without a rider. So the band of exiles pressed
still more fiercely upon the Romans, and they began to flee.

Then Postumius the dictator lifted up his voice and vowed a temple to
Castor and Pollux, the great twin heroes of the Greeks, if they would
aid him; and behold there appeared on his right two horsemen, taller and
fairer than the sons of men, and their horses were as white as snow. And
they led the dictator and his guard against the exiles and the Latins,
and the Romans prevailed against them; and T. Herminius the Titian, the
friend of Horatius Cocles, ran Mamilius, the dictator of the Latins,
through the body, so that he died; but when he was stripping the arms
from his foe, another ran him through, and he was carried back to the
camp, and he also died. Then also Titus, the king's son, was slain, and
the Latins fled, and the Romans pursued them with great slaughter, and
took their camp and all that was in it. Now Postumius had promised great
rewards to those who first broke into the camp of the Latins, and the
first who broke in were the two horsemen on white horses; but after the
battle the