Rape of the Sabine
Women - part 2
War with the Sabines
Many neighboring towns went to
war against Romulus and the
Romans because of the wrong
against the Sabines but all were
defeated.
The Sabines were led by their king,
Titus Tatius, who almost succeeded
in capturing Rome due to the
treason of Tarpeia, daughter of
Spurius Tarpeius, governor of the
citadel on the Capitoline Hill.
She opened the gates to the Sabines in
return for “what they bore on their arms;”
she believed she would receive their golden
bracelets.
Instead, the Sabines
crushed her with their
shields and she was
thrown from the rock,
which has since born
her name, the Tarpeian Rock.
The battle went back and forth
between the Romans and Sabines.
At which time the women
intervened to reconcile the warring
parties.
“They went boldly into the flying
missiles with disheleved hair and rent
clothing. Running across the armies
appealing to their fathers in one army
and their husbands in the other to not
bring a curse upon themselves by
killing father-in-laws and son-in-laws.
Better for us to perish than to live
without one of you.”
Following the reconciliation, the
Sabines and Romans agreed to
form one nation with the Romans
and the Sabine king, Titus Tatius,
jointly ruled Rome with Romulus
until his death five years later.