The Battle Of Lake Regillus

A third time Tarquin the Proud marched against Rome, this time in

alliance with the Latins, whose thirty cities had joined together and

declared war against the Romans. But as many of the Romans had married

Latin wives, and many of the Latins had got their wives from Rome, it

was resolved that the women on both sides, who preferred their native

land to their husbands, might leave their new homes and take with them

thei virgin daughters. And, as the legend tells, all the Latin women

but two remained in Rome, while all the Roman women returned with their

daughters to their fathers' homes.



The two armies met by the side of Lake Regillus, and there was fought a

battle the story of which reads like a tale from the Iliad of Homer; for

we are told not of how the armies fought, but of how their champions met

and fought in single combats upon the field. King Tarquin was there, now

hoary with years, yet sitting his horse and bearing his lance with the

grace and strength of a young man. And there was Titus his son, leading

into battle all the banished band of the Tarquins. And with them was

Octavius Mamilius, the leader of the Latins, who swore to seat Tarquin

again on his throne and to make the Romans subjects of the Latins.



On the Roman side were many true and tried warriors, among them Titus

Herminius, one of those who fought on the bridge by the side of Horatius

Cocles, when that champion fought so well for Rome.



It is too long to tell how warrior rode against warrior with levelled

lances, and how this one was struck through the breast and that one

through the arm, and so on in true Homeric style. The battle was a

series of duels, like those fought on the plain of Troy. But at length

the Tarquin band, under the lead of Titus, charged so fiercely that the

Romans began to give way, many of their bravest having been slain.



At this juncture Aulus, the leader of the Romans, rode up with his own

chosen band, and bade them level their lances and slay all, friend or

foe, whose faces were turned towards them. There was to be no mercy for

a Roman whose face was turned from the field. This onset stopped the

flight, and Aulus charged fiercely upon the Tarquins, praying, as he did

so, to the divine warriors Castor and Pollux, to whom he vowed to

dedicate a temple if they would aid him in the fight. And he promised

the soldiers that the two who should first break into the camp of the

enemy should receive a rich reward.



Then suddenly, at the head of the chosen band, appeared two unknown

horsemen, in the first bloom of youth and taller and fairer than mortal

men, while the horses they rode were white as the driven snow. On went

the charge, led by these two noble strangers, before whom the enemy fled

in mortal terror, while Titus, the last of the sons of King Tarquin,

fell dead from his steed. The camp of the Latins being reached, these

two horsemen were the first to break into it, and soon the whole army of

the enemy was in disorderly flight and the battle won.



Aulus now sought the two strange horsemen, to give them the reward he

had promised; but he sought in vain; they were not to be found, among

either the living or the dead, and no man had set eyes upon them since

the camp was won. They had vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.

But on the hard black rock which surrounds the lake was visible the mark

of a horse's hoof, such as no earthly steed could ever have made. For

ages afterwards this mark remained.



But the strangers appeared once again. It was known in Rome that the

armies were joined in battle, and the longing for tidings from the field

grew intense. Suddenly, as the sun went down behind the city walls,

there were seen in the Forum two horsemen on milk-white steeds, taller

and fairer than the tallest and fairest of men. Their horses were bathed

in foam, and they looked like men fresh from battle.



Alighting near the Temple of Vesta, where a spring of water bubbles from

the ground, these men, whom no Romans had ever seen before, washed from

their persons the battle-stains. As they did so men crowded round and

eagerly questioned them. In reply, they told them how the battle had

been fought and won,--though in truth the battle ended only as the sun

went down over Lake Regillus. They then mounted their horses and rode

from the Forum, and were seen no more. Men sought them far and wide, but

no one set eyes on them again.



Then Aulus told the Romans how he had prayed to Castor and Pollux, the

divine twins, and said that it could be none but they who had broken so

fiercely into the enemy's camp, and had borne the news of victory with

more than mortal speed to Rome. So he built the temple he had vowed to

the hero gods, and gave there rich offerings as the rewards he had

promised to the two who should first enter the camp of the foe.



Thus ended the hopes of King Tarquin, against whom the gods had taken

arms. His sons and all his family slain, he was left ruined and

hopeless, and retired to the city of Cumae, whence formerly the Sibyl had

come to his court. Here he died, and thus passed away the last of the

Roman kings.