How is it that neither Juno, who with her husband Jupiter even then cherished "Rome's sons, the nation of the gown,"(5)nor Venus herself, could assist the children of the loved AEneas to find wives by some right and equitable means? For the lack of this entailed upon the Romans the lamentable necessity of stealing their wives, and then waging war with their fathers-in-law;so that the wretched women, before they had recovered from the wrong done them by their husbands, were dowried with the blood of their fathers."But the Romans conquered their neighbors."Yes; but with what wounds on both sides, and with what sad slaughter of relatives and neighbors! The war of Caesar and Pompey was the contest of only one father-in-law with one son-in-law; and before it began, the daughter of Caesar, Pompey's wife, was already dead.But with how keen and just an accent of grief does Lucan(1) exclaim: "I sing that worse than civil war waged in the plains of Emathia, and in which the crime was justified by the victory!"The Romans, then, conquered that they might, with hands stained in the blood of their fathers-in-law, wrench the miserable girls from their embrace,--girls who dared not weep for their slain parents, for fear of offending their victorious husbands; and while yet the battle was raging, stood with their prayers on their lips, and knew not for whom to utter them.Such nuptials were certainly prepared for the Roman people not by Venus, but Bellona;or possibly that infernal fury Alecto had more liberty to injure them now that Juno was aiding them, than when the prayers of that goddess had excited her against AEneas.
Andromache in captivity was happier than these Roman brides.For though she was a slave, yet, after she had become the wife of Pyrrhus, no more Trojans fell by his hand but the Romans slew in battle the very fathers of the brides they fondled.
Andromache, the victor's captive, could only mourn, not fear, the death of her people.The Sabine women, related to men still combatants, feared the death of their fathers when their husbands went out to battle, and mourned their death as they returned, while neither their grief nor their fear could be freely expressed.
For the victories of their husbands, involving the destruction of fellow-townsmen, relatives, brothers, fathers, caused either pious agony or cruel exultation.Moreover, as the fortune of war is capricious, some of them lost their husbands by the sword of their parents, while others lost husband and father together in mutual destruction.For the Romans by no means escaped with impunity, but they were driven back within their walls, and defended themselves behind closed gates; and when the gates were opened by guile, and the enemy admitted into the town, the Forum itself was the field of a hateful and fierce engagement of fathers-in-law and sons-in-law.The ravishers were indeed quite defeated, and, flying on all sides to their houses, sullied with new shame their original shameful and lamentable triumph.It was at this juncture that Romulus, hoping no more from the valor of his citizens, prayed Jupiter that they might stand their ground;and from this occasion the god gained the name of Stator.But not even thus would the mischief have been finished, had not the ravished women themselves flashed out with dishevelled hair, and cast themselves before their parents, and thus disarmed their just rage, not with the arms of victory, but with the supplications of filial affection.Then Romulus, who could not brook his own brother as a colleague, was compelled to accept Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines, as his partner on the throne.But how long would he who misliked the fellowship of his own twin-brother endure a stranger? So, Tatius being slain, Romulus remained sole king, that he might be the greater god.See what rights of marriage these were that fomented unnatural wars.These were the Roman leagues of kindred, relationship, alliance, religion.This was the life of the city so abundantly protected by the gods.You see how many severe things might be said on this theme; but our purpose carries us past them, and requires our discourse for other matters.
CHAP.14.--OF THE WICKEDNESS OF THE WAR WAGED BY THE ROMANS AGAINSTTHE ALBANS, AND OF THE VICTORIES WON BY THE LUST OF POWER.
But what happened after Numa's reign, and under the other kings, when the Albans were provoked into war, with sad results not to themselves alone, but also to the Romans? The long peace of Numa had become tedious; and with what endless slaughter and detriment of both states did the Roman and Alban armies bring it to an end! For Alba, which had been rounded by Ascanius, son of AEneas, and which was more properly the mother of Rome than Troy herself, was provoked to battle by Tullus Hostilius, king of Rome, and in the conflict both inflicted and received such damage, that at length both parties wearied of the struggle.It was then devised that the war should be decided by the combat of three twin-brothers from each army: from the Romans the three Horatii stood forward, from the Albans the three Curiatii.Two of the Horatii were overcome and disposed of by the Curiatii; but by the remaining Horatius the three Curiatii were slain.Thus Rome remained victorious, but with such a sacrifice that only one survivor returned to his home.