ons.--Titus Tatius.--Preparations
of the Romans.--Final negotiations.--The Roman herdsmen.--Flocks and
herds called in.--The citadel.--Tarpeia.--The Campus Martius.--Parley
with Tarpeia.--Agreement made with Tarpeia.--The Sabines
admitted.--Tarpeia killed.--The two armies meet on the plain.--A truce
to bury the dead.--Fresh combats.--Romulus in great personal
danger.--The story of Curtius.--The lake.--Distress of the Sabine
women.--Their perplexity.--The plan of Hersilia.--The women admitted to
the senate house.--Arrangements for the intercession of the women.--The
address of Hersilia.--Effect of it.--Conditions and terms of peace.

While the negotiations with the Sabines were still pending, Romulus
became involved in another difficulty, which for a time assumed a very
threatening aspect. This difficulty was a war which broke out,
somewhat suddenly, in consequence of the invasion of the Roman
territories by a neighboring chieftain named Acron. Acron was the
sovereign of a small state, whose capital was a town called Caenina.[F]
This Caenina is supposed to have been only four or five miles distant
from Romulus's city,--a fact which shows very clearly on how small a
scale the deeds and exploits connected with the first foundation of
the great empire, which afterward became so extended and so renowned,
were originally performed, and how intrinsically insignificant they
were, in themselves, though momentous in the extreme in respect to the
consequences that flowed from them.

[Footnote F: See Map of Latium, page 134.]

Acron was a bold, energetic, and determined man, who had already
acquired great fame by his warlike exploits, and who had long been
watching the progress of the new colony with an evil eye. He thought
that if it were allowed to take root, and to grow, it might, at some
future day, become a formidable enemy, both to him, and also to the
other states in that part of Italy. He had been very desirous,
therefore, of finding some pretext for attacking the new city, and
when he heard of the seizure of the Sabine women, he thought that the
time had arrived. He, therefore, urged the Sabines to make war at once
upon the Romans, and promised, if they would do so, to assist them
with all the forces that he could command. The Sabines, however, were
so unwilling to proceed to extremities, and spent so much time in
negotiations and embassies, that Acron's patience was at length wholly
exhausted by the delays, and he re