(BOOK 2, BOISSEVAIN.)

[Sidenote:  B.C. 672 (a.u. 82)] VII, 6.—­When Numa died leaving no successor, Tullus Hostilius was chosen by the people and the senate.  He followed in the footsteps of Romulus, and both welcomed combats himself and encouraged the people to do the same.  The Albanians having become the victims of a marauding expedition on the part of the the Romans, both sides proceeded into battle; before they came into actual conflict, however, they effected a reconciliation and both races decided to dwell together in one city. [Sidenote:  FRAG. 6^2] BUT AS EACH CLUNG TO HIS OWN TOWN AND INSISTED THAT THE OTHER RACE SHOULD REMOVE TO IT, THEY FAILED OF THEIR OBJECT.  NEXT THEY DISPUTED ABOUT THE LEADERSHIP.  As neither one would yield it to the other, [Sidenote:  FRAG. 6^2] THEY ARRANGED TO HAVE A CONTEST FOR THE SOVEREIGNTY.  They did not care to fight with entire armies nor yet to let the decision be made by a duel of champions.  But there were on both sides brethren born three at a birth, the offspring of twin mothers, of like age and alike in strength:  the Roman brethren were called Publihoratii and the Albanian Curiatii.  These they set into battle over against one another, paying no heed to their relationship.  So they, having armed themselves and having arrayed themselves in opposing files in the vacant space between the camps, called upon the same family gods and cast repeated glances upward at the sun.  Having joined issue they fought now in groups, now in pairs.  Finally, when two of the Romans had fallen and all of the Albanians had been wounded, the remaining Horatius, because he could not withstand the three at once, even were he unwounded, gave way in order that in pursuing him they might be scattered.  And when they had become separated in the pursuit, [Sidenote:  FRAG. 6^2] ATTACKING EACH ONE he despatched them all.  Then he was given honors.  But because he further killed his sister when she lamented on seeing Horatius carrying the spoils of her cousins, he was tried for murder; and having taken an appeal to the people he was released.

The Albanians now became subjects of the Romans, but later they disregarded the compact; and having been summoned, in their capacity of subjects, to serve as allies, they attempted at the crisis of the battle to desert to the enemy and to join in the attack upon the Romans.  They were detected, however, and punished:  many (including their leader, Mettius) were put to death, and the rest suffered deportation; their city Alba was razed to the ground, after being deemed for five hundred years the mother city of the Romans.

[Sidenote:  FRAG. 6^4] NOW AGAINST THE ENEMY TULLUS WAS THOUGHT TO BE VERY EFFICIENT, BUT HE NEGLECTED RELIGION.  WHEN, HOWEVER, A PESTILENCE WAS INCURRED AND HE HIMSELF FELL SICK, HE TURNED ASIDE TO A GODFEARING COURSE.  He is said to have reached the end of his life by being consumed by lightning[5] or else as the result of a plot formed by Ancus Marcius, who happened to be (as has been stated) a son of Numa’s daughter.  He was king of the Romans thirty-two years.