THE DIVINE TWINS
Tarquin the Proud was an old man now, but he was not yet ready to
believe that he would never again reign in Rome.
Once more he prepared for battle, invoking the aid of the Latins, for
he believed that the Romans would quail before this fierce and warlike
people.
The Romans did not quail, but they knew that they would need brave
men to lead their army. So they appointed a Dictator, who was to have
supreme command of the army and power as though he was king in Rome,
for six months.
Aulus Postumius was the name of the Roman who was chosen for this great
trust.
Tarquin, his cruel son Sextus, and a band of Roman exiles marched to
the battlefield, near Lake Regillus in the region of Tusculum. With
them was their ally the King of the Latins, leading a great army.
The Romans, with Aulus at their head, advanced against the foe, and a
great battle was fought.
Valerius, the Consul was on the field, and when he saw Sextus anger
filled his heart, and he dashed forward to slay him. But the prince
retreated, and Valerius followed until he was drawn into the lines of
the enemy, and perished by the thrust of a spear.
Fiercely as the Romans fought, the day began to go against them. Then
Aulus vowed that he would build a temple to the twin brothers, Castor
and Pollux, if they would but come to his aid and give to the Romans
victory.
Scarcely had the Dictator ended his prayer, when lo! two youths of more
than human height and majesty appeared, clad in shining armour, and
riding upon white horses.
Going to the head of the army, they led it afresh against the Latins.
The enemy, terrified by the splendour of the strangers, and startled at
the suddenness of the new attack, were seized with panic, and fled.
On rushed the Romans in pursuit of the foe, on until they reached the
camp of the Latins, which the strange horsemen were the first to enter.
The Latin army was now in utter confusion, while a great victory had
been won by the Romans.
Aulus wished to reward the strangers to whom the victory was really
due, but they were nowhere to be seen. Neither in the field nor in the
camp was there any trace of the riders or their steeds.
But in Rome, where old men and women awaited, with anxious hearts, news
of the battle, there appeared in the Forum, as the sun went down, two
horsemen. They were mounted on pure white steeds, and they themselves
were ‘exceeding beautiful and tall above the stature of men.’ But they
bore upon them the stains of battle.
When they reached the spring that rises close to the temple of Vesta,
they dismounted, and washed the foam from their horses, the stains from
their clothes.
Men and women crowded around the strangers, eager to hear their
tidings. Then the brothers told them of the glorious victory that had
been won, after which they mounted their white steeds, and riding away,
were seen no more.
When the Dictator returned to Rome, he told how he had prayed to the
Divine Twins Castor and Pollux, and how he believed that they had
indeed come to his aid.
Moreover, he was sure that it was they who had ridden to Rome with more
than mortal speed to tell of the victory that had been won.
Then Aulus, with a glad heart, began to build the temple he had vowed
to the Divine Twins, and the Romans kept a festival each year in honour
of Castor and Pollux.
At this festival, sacrifices were offered in the temple, while a solemn
procession of knights, clad in purple and crowned with olive, rode from
the temple of Mars without the city wall to the temple dedicated by the
Dictator to the Divine Twins. This temple is now being excavated in the
Forum of Rome.
The Latins, after their defeat, refused any longer to fight for
Tarquin, while they hastened to make peace with his enemies.
Alone and childless, for Sextus had fallen in battle, Tarquin went away
to Cumæ, and there he, the last of the Kings of Rome, died.
Soon after this, Rome regained her dominions on the right bank of the
Tiber. She had already ceased to regard the treaty which had forbidden
her the use of arms.