could remain in safety under regulations suitable to their condition,
and without interfering with the arrangements which he had made for
the rest. This asylum soon became a very attractive place for all the
vagabonds, outlaws, thieves and robbers of the country. Romulus
welcomed them all, and as fast as they came he busied himself with
plans to furnish them with employment and subsistence. He enlisted
some of them in his army. Some he employed to cultivate the ground in
the territory belonging to the city. Others were engaged as servants
for the people within the walls--being taken into the city, in small
numbers, from time to time, as fast as they could be safely received.
In process of time, however, the walls of the city were extended so as
to include the Capitoline hill, and thus at last the whole mass was
brought into Rome together.

CHAPTER XI.

WIVES.

B.C. 751

The rape of the Sabines.--Narrative of it.--The population of Rome
chiefly men.--Necessity of providing wives for them.--Romulus sends
embassadors to the surrounding states.--Insulting replies.--Anger of
the Romans.--Great discovery made by Romulus.--His plan.--Plans for
the festival.--Races, games, and shows.--A great concourse assembles
at the fair.--The spectacles continue several weeks.--The last day of
the fair.--Signal to be made by Romulus.--Excitement of the
Romans.--Final preparations.--The moment arrives.--The maidens
seized.--The men fly.--The Romans secure the captive maidens.--An
incident.--A captive "for Thalassius."--The phrase "for Thalassius"
becomes a proverb.--Resentment of the fathers and brothers of the
maidens.--The captives called together in the morning.--Address made
to them by Romulus.--Acquiescence of the captives.--Cures.--The Sabines
demand the restoration of the captives.--Romulus refuses to restore
them.--Ceremony in commemoration of these events.

Every reader who has made even the smallest beginning in the study of
ancient history, must be acquainted, in general, with the mode which
Romulus adopted to provide the people of his city with wives, by the
transaction which is commonly called in history the rape of the
Sabines. The deed itself, as it actually occurred, may perhaps have
been one of great rudeness, violence, and cruelty. If so, the
historians who described it contrived to soften the character of it,
and to divest it in a great measure of the repulsive features which
might have been supposed to cha