They, however, either
mistaking her meaning, or willing to punish her perfidy, threw their
bucklers upon her as they entered, and crushed her to death. 14. The
Sab'ines being thus possessed of the Capit'oline, after some time a
general engagement ensued, which was renewed for several days, with
almost equal success, and neither army could think of submitting; it
was in the valley between the Capit'oline and Quiri'nal hills that the
last engagement was fought between the Romans and the Sab'ines. 15.
The battle was now become general, and the slaughter prodigious; when
the attention of both sides was suddenly turned from the scene of
horror before them to another. The Sab'ine women, who had been carried
off by the Romans, flew in between the combatants, with their hair
loose, and their ornaments neglected, regardless of their own danger;
and, with loud outcries, implored their husbands and their fathers to
desist. Upon this the combatants, as if by natural impulse, let fall
their weapons. 16. An accommodation ensued, by which it was agreed,
that Rom'ulus and Ta'tius should reign jointly in Rome, with equal
power and prerogative; that a hundred Sab'ines should be admitted into
the senate; that the city should retain its former name, but the
citizens, should be called Qui'rites, after Cu'res, the principal town
of the Sab'ines; and that both nations being thus united, such of the
Sab'ines as chose it, should be admitted to live in and enjoy all the
privileges of citizens of Rome. 17. The conquest of Came'ria was the
only military achievement under the two kings, and Ta'tius was killed
about five years after by the Lavin'ians, for having protected some of
his servants who had plundered them and slain their ambassadors; so
that, by this accident, Rom'ulus once more saw himself sole monarch of
Rome. 18. Soon after the death of Ta'tius, a cruel plague and famine
having broken out at Rome, the Camerini embraced the opportunity to
lay waste the Roman territory. But Rom'ulus gave them battle,
killed six thousand on the spot, and returned in triumph to Rome. He
took likewise Fidenae, a city about forty furlongs distant from his
capital, and reduced the Veien'tes to submission.

19. Successes like these produced an equal share of pride in the
conqueror. From being contented with those limits which had been
wisely assigned to his power, he began to affect absolute sway, and to
controul those laws to which he had himself formerly pro