ow Tarpeia was treated by Tatius. He ordered
the Sabines to remember their agreement, and not to grudge her what was
on their left arms. He himself first of all took off his gold armlet,
and with it flung his great oblong shield. As all the rest did the like,
she perished, being pelted with the gold bracelets and crushed by the
number and weight of the shields. Tarpeius also was convicted of
treachery by Romulus, according to Juba's version of the history of
Sulpicius Galba. The other legends about Tarpeia are improbable; amongst
them that which is told by Antigonus, that she was the daughter of
Tatius the Sabine leader, abducted by Romulus, and treated by her father
as is related above. Simylus the poet talks utter nonsense when he says
that it was not the Sabines but the Gauls to whom Tarpeia betrayed the
Capitol, because she was in love with their king. His verses run as
follows:

"And near Tarpeia, by the Capitol
That dwelt, betrayer of the walls of Rome.
She loved the chieftain of the Gauls too well,
To guard from treachery her father's home."

And a little afterwards he speaks of her death.

"Her did the Boians and the Celtic tribes
Bury, but not beside the stream of Po;
From off their warlike arms their shields they flung,
And what the damsel longed for laid her low."

XVIII. However, as Tarpeia was buried there, the hill was called the
Tarpeian hill until King Tarquinius, when he dedicated the place to
Jupiter, removed her remains and abolished the name of Tarpeia. But even
to this day they call the rock in the Capitol the Tarpeian Rock, down
which malefactors used to be flung. When the Sabines held the citadel,
Romulus in fury challenged them to come down and fight. Tatius accepted
his challenge with confidence, as he saw that if overpowered his men
would have a strong place of refuge to retreat to. All the intermediate
space, in which they were about to engage, was surrounded by hills, and
so seemed to make a desperate battle necessary, as there were but narrow
outlets for flight or pursuit. It chanced, also, that the river had been
in flood a few days before, and had left a deep muddy pool of water upon
the level ground where the Forum now stands; so that men's footing was
not certain, but difficult and treacherous. Here a piece of good fortune
befell the Sabines as they heedlessly pressed forward. Curtius, one of
their chiefs, a man with a reputation for dashing c