ng too close, the roots were destroyed, and the tree
withered.

The Sabines adopted the Roman months, of which whatever is remarkable is
mentioned in the Life of Numa. Romulus, on the other hand, adopted their
long shields, and changed his own armor and that of all the Romans, who
before wore round targets of the Argive pattern. Feasts and sacrifices
they partook of in common, not abolishing any which either nation
observed before, and instituting several new ones. This, too, is
observable as a singular thing in Romulus, that he appointed no
punishment for real parricide, but called all murder so, thinking the
one an accursed thing, but the other a thing impossible; and for a long
time, his judgement seemed to have been right; for in almost six hundred
years together, nobody committed the like in Rome; Lucius Hostius, after
the wars of Hannibal, is recorded to have been the first parricide. Let
thus much suffice concerning these matters.

In the fifth year of the reign of Tatius, some of his friends and
kinsmen, meeting ambassadors coming from Laurentum to Rome, attempted on
the road to take away their money by force, and, upon their resistance,
killed them. So great a villany having been committed, Romulus thought
the malefactors ought at once to be punished, but Tatius shuffled off
and deferred the execution of it; and this one thing was the beginning
of an open quarrel betwixt them; in all other respects they were very
careful of their conduct, and administered affairs together with
great unanimity. The relations of the slain, being debarred of lawful
satisfaction by reason of Tatius, fell upon him as he was sacrificing
with Romulus at Lavinium, and slew him; but escorted Romulus home,
commending and extolling him for just a prince. Romulus took the body of
Tatius, and buried it very splendidly in the Aventine Mount.

The Roman cause daily gathering strength, their weaker neighbors shrunk
away, and were thankful to be left untouched; but the stronger, out of
fear or envy, thought they ought not to give away to Romulus, but
to curb and put a stop to his growing greatness. The first were the
Veientes, a people of Tuscany, who had large possessions, and dwelt in a
spacious city; they took occasion to commence a war, by claiming Fidenae
as belonging to them. But being scornfully retorted upon by Romulus
in his answers, they divided themselves into two bodies; with one they
attacked the garrison of Fidenae, the other ma