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Updated: May 16, 2025
The Romans also, by reason of this same voice that was heard on Mount Alba, or by warning of the soothsayers, kept a festival of nine days. And this became a custom for the time to come, that when there came tidings of such marvels to Rome, there was kept a like festival. Now the end of King Tullus was this. There came a pestilence upon the land.
For of the five who reigned after him the last was deposed and ended his life in exile, and of the remaining four not one died a natural death; for three of them were assassinated and Tullus Hostilius was consumed by thunderbolts."
The force thus raised was very large; part was left to garrison the cities, as a measure of precaution, while the rest was to be used in the campaign against Rome. Marcius now left Tullus to determine which corps he would command.
Further, that all ranks might acquire some additional strength from the new people, he chose ten troops of horsemen from among the Albans: he likewise recruited the old legions, and raised new ones, by additions from the same source. Trusting to this increase of strength, Tullus declared war against the Sabines, a nation at that time the most powerful, next to the Etruscans, in men and arms.
At first the Romans who stood nearest were astonished, when they perceived their flanks were uncovered by the departure of their allies; then a horseman in full gallop announces to the king that the Albans were moving off. Tullus, in this perilous juncture, vowed twelve Salii, and temples to Paleness and Panic.
And observe how wisely our kings at that time perceived that certain rights ought to be allowed to the people, of which we shall have a good deal to say hereafter. Tullus did not even assume the ensigns of royalty without the approbation of the people; and when he appointed twelve lictors, with their axes to go before him *
XVII. After the death of King Pompilius, the people, after a short period of interregnum, chose Tullus Hostilius for their king, in the Comitia Curiata; and Tullus, after Numa's example, consulted the people in their curias to procure a sanction for his government. His excellence chiefly appeared in his military glory and great achievements in war.
This proclamation made them yet bitterer enemies to the Romans than before; and Tullus, wishing to bring the business to a climax, induced his countrymen to send ambassadors to Rome to demand back the cities and territory which the Romans had taken from the Volscians in the late war.
To this Tullus made answer, "Now do I call the Gods to witness that ye men of Alba first refused to repair the thing that has been done amiss, and I pray them that they will bring all the blood of this war upon your heads." And with this message the men of Alba went home. After this the two cities made great preparations for war.
And that the people might regard these laws and customs with the more reverence, he gave out that he had not devised them of his own wit, but that he had learnt them from a certain goddess whose name was Egeria, whom he was wont to meet in a grove that was hard by the city. King Numa died, having reigned forty and three years; and the people chose in his room one Tullus Hostilius.
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