Romulus

Wherein, pray (they said), have we done you wrong or harm, that we must suffer in the past, and must still suffer now, such cruel evils? We were violently and lawlessly ravished away by those to whom we now belong, but though thus ravished, we were neglected by our brethren and fathers and kinsmen until time had united us by the strongest ties with those whom we had most hated, and made us now fear for those who had treated us with violence and lawlessness, when they go to battle, and mourn for them when they are slain.

For ye did not come to avenge us upon our ravishers while we were still maidens, but now ye would tear wives from their husbands and mothers from their children, and the succour wherewith ye would now succour us, wretched women that we are, is more pitiful than your former neglect and abandonment of us. Such is the love which we have here enjoyed, such the compassion shown to us by you. Even if ye were fighting on other grounds, it were meet that ye should cease for our sakes, now that ye are become fathers-in-law and grandsires and have family ties among your enemies.

If, however, the war is on our behalf, carry us away with your sons-in-law and their children, and so restore to us our fathers and kindred, but do not rob us of our children and husbands. Let us not, we beseech you, become prisoners of war again. Many such appeals were made by Hersilia, and the other women added their entreaties, until a truce was made and the leaders held a conference.

Meanwhile the women brought their husbands and their children and presented them to their fathers and brothers; they also carried food and drink to those that wanted, and bore the wounded to their homes for tender nursing; here they also made it evident that they were mistresses of their own households, and that their husbands were attentive to them and showed them all honour with good will.

Thereupon agreements were made that such women as wished to do so might continue to live with their husbands, exempt, as aforesaid,[*](Cf. chapter xv. 4.) from all labour and all drudgery except spinning; also that the city should be inhabited by Romans and Sabines in common; and that the city should be called Rome, from Romulus, but all its citizens Quirites, from the native city of Tatius[*](Cures, a Sabine town.); and that Romulus and Tatius should be joint kings and leaders of the army. The place where these agreements were made is to this day called Comitium, from the Roman word conire, or coire, to come together.

The city thus doubled in its numbers, a hundred of the Sabines were added by election to the Patricii,[*](Cf. chapter xiii. 1.) and the legions were enlarged to six thousand footmen and six hundred horsemen.[*](Cf. chapter xiii. 1.) The people, too, were arranged in three bodies, the first called Ramnenses, from Romulus; the second Tatienses, from Tatius; and the third Lucerenses, from the grove into which many betook themselves for refuge, when a general asylum was offered,[*](Cf. chapter ix. 3.) and then became citizens. Now the Roman word for grove is lucus.

That these bodies were three in number, their very name testifies, for to this day they call them tribes, and their chief officers, tribunes. And each tribe had ten phratries, or brotherhoods, which, as some say, were named after the thirty Sabine women;[*](Cf. chapter xiv. 6.) but this seems to be false, since many of them bear the names of places.

However, they did make many other concessions to the women, to do them honour, some of which are as follow: to give them the right of way when walking; not to utter any indecent word in the presence of a woman; that no man should be seen naked by them, or else that he be liable to prosecution before the judges of homicide; and that their children should wear a sort of necklace, the bulla, so called from its shape (which was that of a bubble), and a robe bordered with purple.