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MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER
The flowers of history, especially such as relate to the affairs of Britain. Vol. I. B.C. 4004 to A.D. 1066.
page 63
the ten tribes were carried off. to the mountains of thé Medea,1 by Sennacherib, king of the Chaldeans. When then he had built the city, which he called Roma, after his own name, and from which name the citizens were called Romani, he acted in the following manner. Having built a temple, which he called Asylum, he promised freedom from punishment to all who fled to it ; by which means he collected a multitude of people from the neighbouring nations, who had got into any trouble in their own country, and who now fled to him, and were received as citizens in his new city. The Latin and Etruscan shepherds, and the Iriges from across the sea, who had come to Italy under JEneas, and the Arcadians, who had come with Ëvander, ali flocked to that place, and in this way, as it were, composed one body out of various elements, and made one Roman people.
He chose a hundred of the elders as a council, whose advice he might take on every matter, and whom he called Senators, by reason of their age (Seneetus), and Fathers, from the resemblance of their care to that of a father. He also chose a thousand (mille) fighting men, whom he called Milites (soldiers), from their number. Then, as neither he nor his people had any wives, he invited all the nations which were neighbours to the city of Rome, to a spectacle of games. And he carried off all their virgins, in the fourth year after the building of Rome. And one of the virgins, who was the most beautiful of all, is given bv acclamation on the part of all the ravishers, and by the gift of Romulus, to the general Thalaesus : on which account, at the nuptial solemnities they commonly cry out " for Thalas-Bus," meaning that the bride is beautiful enough to be worthy of Thalassus. As war was stirred up on account of the injury done by carrying off the virgins, he conquered the people of Cœcina, of Antennas, of Crustumium, the Sabines, the people of Fidene, and the Brizantes, all which tribes surround the city. Then also, the virgin Tarpeia was crushed by the shields of the Sabines, on the hill, which from her name was called the Tarpeian Mount, and on which the Capitol was subsequently built.
However, the Romans made a treaty with the Sabines,
This is not quite correct ; it was Shalmaneser, and not Sennacherib, who defeated Ho*ea, took Samaria, and carried the Israelites away to Assyria,
B.C. 724.
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