12. Ta'tius, king of Cures, a Sabine city, was the last, although the most formidable, who undertook to revenge the disgrace his country had suffered. He entered the Roman territories at the head of twenty-five thousand men, and not content with a superiority of forces, he added stratagem also. 13. Tarpe'ia, who was daughter to the commander of the Capit'oline hill, happened to fall into his hands, as she went without the walls of the city to fetch water. Upon her he prevailed, by means of large promises, to betray one of the gates to his army. The reward she engaged for, was what the soldiers wore on their arms, by which she meant their bracelets. They, however, either mistaking her meaning, or willing to punish her perfidy, threw their bucklers upon her as they entered, and crushed her to death. 14. The Sab'ines being thus possessed of the Capit'oline, after some time a general engagement ensued, which was renewed for several days, with almost equal success, and neither army could think of submitting; it was in the valley between the Capit'oline and Quiri'nal hills that the last engagement was fought between the Romans and the Sab'ines. 15. The battle was now become general, and the slaughter prodigious; when the attention of both sides was suddenly turned from the scene of horror before them to another. The Sab'ine women, who had been carried off by the Romans, flew in between the combatants, with their hair loose, and their ornaments neglected, regardless of their own danger; and, with loud outcries, implored their husbands and their fathers to desist. Upon this the combatants, as if by natural impulse, let fall their weapons. 16. An accommodation ensued, by which it was agreed, that Rom'ulus and Ta'tius should reign jointly in Rome, with equal power and prerogative; that a hundred Sab'ines should be admitted into the senate; that the city should retain its former name, but the citizens, should be called Qui'rites, after Cu'res, the principal town of the Sab'ines; and that both nations being thus united, such of the Sab'ines as chose it, should be admitted to live in and enjoy all the privileges of citizens of Rome. 17. The conquest of Came'ria was the only military achievement under the two kings, and Ta'tius was killed about five years after by the Lavin'ians, for having protected some of his servants who had plundered them and slain their ambassadors; so that, by this accident, Rom'ulus once more saw himself sole monarch of Rome. 18. Soon after the death of Ta'tius, a cruel plague and famine having broken out at Rome, the Camerini embraced the opportunity to lay waste the Roman territory. But Rom'ulus gave them battle, killed six thousand on the spot, and returned in triumph to Rome. He took likewise Fidenae, a city about forty furlongs distant from his capital, and reduced the Veien'tes to submission.