med much inclined to yield to their fate. Their
resentment gradually subsided. It has been, in fact, in all ages,
characteristic of women to be easily led to excuse and forgive any
wrong on the part of another which is prompted by love for herself:
and these injured maidens seemed gradually to come to the conclusion,
that considering all the circumstances of the case their abductors
were not so much in fault after all. In a short time an excellent
understanding was established, and they were all married. There were,
it is said, about five or six hundred of them, and it proved that most
of them were from the nation of the Sabines, a nation which inhabited
a territory north of the colony of the Romans. The capital of the
Sabines was a city called Cures. Cures was about twenty miles from
Rome.[E]

[Footnote E: See map of Latium, page 134.]

The Sabines, in deliberating on the course which they should pursue in
the emergency, found themselves in a situation of great perplexity. In
the first place the impulse which urged them to immediate acts of
retaliation and hostility was restrained by the fact that so many of
their beloved daughters were wholly in the power of their enemies, and
they could not tell what cruel fate might await the captives if they
were themselves to resort to any measures that would exasperate or
provoke the captors. Then again their own territory was very much
exposed and they were by no means certain, in case a war should be
commenced between them and the Romans, how it would end. Their own
population was much divided, being scattered over the territory, or
settled in various cities and towns which were but slightly fortified,
and consequently were much exposed to assault in case the Romans were
to make an incursion into their country. In view of all these
considerations the Sabines concluded that it would be best for them on
the whole, to try the influence of gentle measures, before resorting
to open war.

They therefore sent an embassy to Romulus, to remonstrate in strong
terms against the wrong which the Romans had done them by their
treacherous violence, and to demand that the young women should be
restored. "If you will restore them to us now," said they, "we will
overlook the affront which you have put upon us, and make peace with
you; and we will enter into an alliance with you so that hereafter
your people and ours may be at liberty to intermarry in a fair and
honorable way, but we can not