approved of her proposal, chose such girls as she thought suitable, and having dressed them in fine clothes and jewellery, handed them over to the Latins, who were encamped at no great distance from the city.  At night the girls stole the daggers of the enemies, and Tutula or Philotis climbed up a wild fig-tree, stretched out her cloak behind her, and raised a torch as a signal, which had been agreed upon between her and the magistrates, though no other citizen knew of it.  Wherefore, the soldiers rushed out of the gates with a great clamour and disturbance, calling to one another and scarcely able to keep their ranks as their chiefs hurried them along.  When they reached the enemy’s camp, they found them asleep and not expecting an attack, so that they took their camp and slew most of them.  This took place on the nones of the month Quintilis, now called July, and the festival which then takes place is in memory of the events of that day.  First they march out of the gates in a mass, calling out the common names of the country, such as Caius, Marcus, or Lucius, in imitation of their hurried calling for each other on that occasion.  Next, female slaves splendidly dressed walk round laughing and romping with all whom they meet.  These girls also perform a sort of fight among themselves, like those who on that day took their share in the fight with the Latins:  and afterwards they sit down to a feast, under the shade of fig-tree boughs.  They call this day the nonae caprotinae, probably from the wild fig-tree from which the slave girl waved the torch; for in Latin a wild fig-tree is called caprificus.  Others say that most of these things were said and done when Romulus disappeared, for on this very day he was snatched away, outside the city gates, in a sudden storm and darkness, or as some think during an eclipse of the sun:  and they say that the day is called nonae caprotiae from the place, because Romulus was carried off while holding a meeting of the entire people at the place called the Goat’s Marsh, as is written in his life.

XXXIV.  The other story is approved by most writers, who relate it as follows:—­Camillus, after being appointed dictator for the third time, and learning that the army under the command of the military tribunes was being besieged by the Latins and Volscians, was compelled to arm even those citizens who were past the age for service in the field.  He marched by a long circuit to the Marcian heights unnoticed by the enemy, and established his army behind them.  By lighting fires he announced his arrival to the Romans in the camp, who took courage, and began to meditate sallying out of their camp and attacking the enemy.  But the Latins and Volscians kept close within the rampart of their camp, which they fortified with many additional palisades, on all sides, for they now were between two hostile armies, and intended to await succour from home, while they also expected a force from Etruria to come to their aid.  Camillus,