Camillus

Next, the maidservants, in gay attire, run about jesting and joking with the men they meet. They have a mock battle, too, with one another, implying that they once took a hand in the struggle with the Latins. And as they feast, they sit in the shade of a fig-tree’s branches. The day is called the Capratine Nones, from the wild fig-tree, as they suppose, from which the maid held forth her torch; this goes by the name of caprificus.

But others say that most of what is said and done at this festival has reference to the fate of Romulus. For on this same day he vanished from sight, outside the city gates, in sudden darkness and tempest, and, as some think, during an eclipse of the sun. The day, they say, is called the Capratine Nones from the spot where he thus vanished. For the she-goat goes by the name of capra, and Romulus vanished from sight while haranguing an assembly of the people at the Goat’s Marsh, as has been stated in his Life.[*](Chap. xxvii.)

But most writers adopt the other account of this war, which runs thus. Camillus, having been appointed dictator for the third time, and learning that the army under the military tribunes was besieged by the Latins and Volscians, was forced to put under arms even those of the citizens who were exempt from military duty by reason of advancing years.