sets of brothers
were chosen as champions, and it was agreed that the people to whom the
conquerors belonged should rule the other. Two of the Horatii were
slain, but the three Curiatii were wounded, and the surviving Horatius,
who was unhurt, had recourse to stratagem. He was unable to contend with
the Curiatii united, but was more than a match for each of them
separately. Taking to flight, he was followed by his three opponents at
unequal distances. Suddenly turning round, he slew, first one, then the
second, and finally the third. The Romans were declared the conquerors,
and the Albans their subjects. But a tragical event followed. As
Horatius was entering Rome, bearing his threefold spoils, his sister met
him, and recognized on his shoulders the cloak of one of the Curiatii,
her betrothed lover. She burst into such passionate grief that the anger
of her brother was kindled, and, stabbing her with his sword, he
exclaimed, "So perish every Roman woman who bewails a foe." For this
murder he was condemned by the two judges of blood to be hanged upon the
fatal tree, but he appealed to the people, and they gave him his life.

Shortly afterward Tullus Hostilius made war against the Etruscans of
Fidenae and Veii. The Albans, under their dictator Mettius Fuffetius,
followed him to the war as the subjects of Rome. In the battle against
the Etruscans, the Alban dictator, faithless and insolent, withdrew to
the hills, but when the Etruscans were defeated he descended to the
plain, and congratulated the Roman king. Tullus pretended to be
deceived. On the following day he summoned the two armies to receive
their praises and rewards. The Albans came without arms, and were
surrounded by the Roman troops. They then heard their sentence. Their
dictator was to be torn in pieces by horses driven opposite ways; their
city was to be razed to the ground; and they themselves, with their
wives and children, transported to Rome. Tullus assigned to them the
Caelian Hill for their habitation. Some of the noble families of Alba
were enrolled among the Roman patricians, but the great mass of the
Alban people were not admitted to the privileges of the ruling class.
They were the origin of the Roman _Plebs_, who were thus quite distinct
from the Patricians and their Clients. The Patricians still formed
exclusively the Populus, or Roman people, properly so called. The Plebs
were a subject-class without any share in the government.

After carrying