United States or Marshall Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
As they did so, each called out "Talasia," a word which means spinning, and which afterwards became the refrain of a Roman marriage song. The games at once broke up in rage and confusion. But the visitors were unarmed and helpless. Their anger could be displayed only in words, and Romulus told them boldly that they owed their misfortune to their pride.
Sextius Sulla of Carthage, a man neither deficient in learning or taste, told me that this word was given by Romulus as the signal for the rape, and so that all those who carried off maidens cried "Talasio." But if this be true, and the Romans at that time really used this word "talasia" for wool-spinning, as we do, we might make another more plausible conjecture about it.
It is said that as the men made the siezure, they cried out, "Talasia!" which means spinning, and that at all marriages in Rome afterwards, that word formed the refrain of a song, sung as the bride was approaching her husband's house.
But if this be the case, and if the Romans did at that time use the word talasia as we do, a man might fancy a more probable reason of the custom.
Word Of The Day