y policy, and at the same
time to add some ornament to the city. [56]The temple of Diana at
Ephesus was at that time in high renown; fame represented it to have
been built by all the states of Asia, in common. When Servius, amid some
grandees of the Latins with whom he had taken pains to form connexions
of hospitality and friendship, extolled in high terms such concord and
association of their gods, by frequently insisting on the same subject,
he at length prevailed so far as that the Latin states agreed to build a
temple to Diana at Rome, in conjunction with the Roman people. This was
an acknowledgment that Rome was the head of both nations, concerning
which they had so often disputed in arms. Though that object seemed to
have been left out of consideration by all the Latins, in consequence of
the matter having been so often attempted unsuccessfully by arms,
fortune seemed to present one of the Sabines with an opportunity of
recovering the superiority to his country by his own address. A cow is
said to have been calved to a certain person, the head of a family among
the Sabines, of surprising size and beauty. Her horns, which were hung
up in the porch of the temple of Diana, remained, for many ages, a
monument of this wonder. The thing was looked upon as a prodigy, as it
was, and the soothsayers declared, that sovereignty would reside in that
state of which a citizen should immolate this heifer to Diana. This
prediction had also reached the ears of the high priest of Diana. The
Sabine, when he thought the proper time for offering the sacrifice was
come, drove the cow to Rome, led her to the temple of that goddess, and
set her before the altar. The Roman priest, struck with the uncommon
size of the victim, so much celebrated by fame, thus accosted the
Sabine: "What intendest thou to do, stranger?" says he. "Is it with
impure hands to offer a sacrifice to Diana? Why dost not thou first wash
thyself in running water? The Tiber runs along in the bottom of that
valley." The stranger, being seized with a scruple of conscience, and
desirous of having every thing done in due form, that the event might
answer the prediction, from the temple went down to the Tiber. In the
mean time the priest sacrificed the cow to Diana, which gave great
satisfaction to the king, and to the whole state.

[Footnote 56: _Temple of Diana_. Built on the summit of the Aventine
mount towards the Tiber. On its brazen pillar were engraved the laws of
th