he foundation of Rome, the Sabines were widely diffused. It is said
that, guided by a bull, they penetrated into Opica, and thus occupied
the country of the Samnites. It was perhaps at an earlier time that they
migrated down the Tiber, whence we there find Sabine towns mixed with
Latin ones; some of their places also existed on the Anio. The country
afterward inhabited by the Sabines was probably not occupied by them
till a later period, for Falerii is a Tuscan town, and its population
was certainly at one time thoroughly Tyrrhenian.

As the Sabines advanced, some Latin towns maintained their independence,
others were subdued; Fidenae belonged to the former, but north of it all
the country was Sabine. Now by the side of the ancient Roma we find a
Sabine town on the Quirinal and Capitoline close to the Latin town; but
its existence is all that we know about it. A tradition states that
there previously existed on the Capitoline a Siculian town of the name
of Saturnia, which, in this case, must have been conquered by the
Sabines. But whatever we may think of this, as well as of the existence
of another ancient town on the Janiculum, it is certain that there were
a number of small towns in that district. The two towns could exist
perfectly well side by side, as there was a deep marsh between them.

The town on the Palatine may for a long time have been in a state of
dependence on the Sabine conqueror whom tradition calls Titus Tatius;
hence he was slain during the Laurentine sacrifice, and hence also his
memory was hateful. The existence of a Sabine town on the Quirinal is
attested by the undoubted occurrence there of a number of Sabine
chapels, which were known as late as the time of Varro, and from which
he proved that the Sabine ritual was adopted by the Romans. This Sabine
element in the worship of the Romans has almost always been overlooked,
in consequence of the prevailing desire to look upon everything as
Etruscan; but, I repeat, there is no doubt of the Sabine settlement, and
that it was the result of a great commotion among the tribes of middle
Italy.

The tradition that the Sabine women were carried off because there
existed no _connubium_, and that the rape was followed by a war, is
undoubtedly a symbolical representation of the relation between the two
towns, previous to the establishment of the right of intermarriage; the
Sabines had the ascendancy and refused that right, but the Romans gained
it by force of