r and wider circle every year, until in the
course of some centuries after Romulus's day, she made herself the
arbiter of the world.

Titus Tatius shared the supreme power with Romulus at Rome for several
years, and the two monarchs continued during this time to exercise
their joint power in a much more harmonious manner than would have
been supposed possible. At length, however, causes of disagreement
began to occur, and in the end open dissension took place, in the
course of which Tatius came to his end in a very sudden and remarkable
manner. A party of soldiers from Rome, it seems, had been committing
some deed of violence at Lavinium, the ancient city which AEneas had
built when he first arrived in Latium. The people of Lavinium
complained to Romulus against these marauders. It happened, however,
that the guilty men were chiefly Sabines, and in the discussions which
took place at Rome afterward in relation to the affair, Tatius took
their part, and endeavored to shield them, while Romulus seemed
disposed to give them up to the Lavinians for punishment. "They are
robbers and murderers," said Romulus, "and we ought not to shield them
from the penalty due to their crimes." "They are Roman citizens," said
Tatius, "and we must not give them up to a foreign state." The
controversy became warm; parties were formed; and at last the
exasperation became so great that when the Lavinian envoys, who had
come to Rome to demand the punishment of the robbers, were returning
home, a gang of Tatius's men intercepted them on the way and killed
them.

This of course increased the excitement and the difficulty in a
tenfold degree. Romulus immediately sent to Lavinium to express his
deep regret at what had occurred, and his readiness to do every thing
in his power to expiate the offense which his countrymen had
committed. He would arrest these murderers, he said, and send them to
Lavinium, and he would come himself, with Tatius, to Lavinium, and
there make an expiatory offering to the gods, in attestation of the
abhorrence which they both felt for so atrocious a crime as waylaying
and murdering the embassadors of a friendly city. Tatius was compelled
to assent to these measures, though he yielded very reluctantly. He
could not openly defend such a deed as the murder of the envoys; and
so he consented to accompany Romulus to Lavinium, to make the
offering, but he secretly arranged a plan for rescuing the murderers
from the Lavinians, a