After the overthrow of the Ceninensians, the other Sabines still
protracting the time in preparations, the people of Fidenae,
Crustumerium, and Antemna, joined their forces against the Romans; they
in like manner were defeated in battle, and surrendered up to Romulus
their cities to be seized, their lands and territories to be divided,
and themselves to be transplanted to Rome. All the lands which Romulus
acquired he distributed among the citizens, except only what the parents
of the stolen virgins had; these he suffered to possess their own. The
rest of the Sabines, enraged thereat, choosing Tatius their captain,
marched straight against Rome. The city was almost inaccessible, having
for its fortress that which is now the Capitol, where a strong guard
was placed, and Tarpeius their captain. But Tarpeia, daughter to the
captain, coveting the golden bracelets she saw them wear, betrayed the
fort into the Sabines' hands, and asked, in reward of her treachery, the
things they wore on their left arms. Tatius conditioning thus with her,
in the night she opened one of the gates and received the Sabines in.
And truly Antigonus, it would seem, was not solitary in saying he
loved betrayers, but hated those who had betrayed; nor Caesar, who
told Rhymitalces the Thracian that he loved the treason, but hated the
traitor; but it is the general feeling of all who have occasion for
wicked men's services, as people have for the poison of venomous beasts;
they are glad of them while they are of use, and abhor their baseness
when it is over. And so did Tatius behave towards Tarpeia, for he
commanded the Sabines, in regard to their contract, not to refuse her
the least part of what they wore on their left arms; and he himself
first took his bracelet off his arm, and threw that, together with his
buckler, at her; and all the rest following, she, being borne down and
quite buried with the multitude of gold and their shields, died under
the weight and pressure of them; Tarpeius also himself, being prosecuted
by Romulus, was found guilty of treason, and that part of the Capitol
they still call the Tarpeian Rock, from which they used to cast down
malefactors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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