ye not open a sanctuary for women also that so ye may find fit wives for
your people?" Also they feared for themselves and their children what this
new city might grow to. Now when the ambassadors brought back this answer
the Romans were greatly wroth, and would take by force that which their
neighbors would not give of their free will. And to the end that they
might do this more easily, King Romulus appointed certain days whereon he
and his people would hold a festival with games to Neptune; and to this
festival he called all them that dwelt in the cities round about. But when
many were gathered together (for they were fain to see what this new city
might be), and were now wholly bent on the spectacle of the games, the
young men of the Romans ran in upon them, and carried off all such as were
unwedded among the women. To these King Romulus spake kindly, saying, "The
fault is not with us but with your fathers, who dealt proudly with us, and
would not give you to us in marriage. But now ye shall be held in all
honor as our wives, and shall have your portion of all that we possess.
Put away therefore your anger, for ye shall find us so much the better
husbands than other men, as we must be to you not for husbands only but
parents also and native country."

In the meanwhile the parents of them that had been carried off put on
sackcloth, and went about through the cities crying out for vengeance upon
the Romans. And chiefly they sought for help from Titus Tatius, that was
king of the Sabines in those days, and of great power and renown. But when
the Sabines seemed to be tardy in the matter, the men of Caere first
gathered together their army and marched into the country of the Romans.
Against these King Romulus led forth his men and put them to flight
without much ado, having first slain their king with his own hand. Then,
after returning to Rome, he carried the arms which he had taken from the
body of the king to the hill of the Capitol, and laid them down at the
shepherds' oak that stood thereon in those days. And when he had measured
out the length and breadth of a temple that he would build to Jupiter upon
the hill, he said, "O Jupiter, I, King Romulus, offer to thee these arms
of a king, and dedicate therewith a temple in this place, in which temple
they that come after me shall offer to thee like spoils in like manner,
when it shall chance that the leader of our host shall himself slay with
his own hands the leader of