from the god, while if he lost, he undertook to provide the god with a
bountiful feast and a fair woman to take his pleasure with. Upon these
conditions he cast the dice, first for the god, and then for himself,
and was beaten. Wishing to settle his wager properly, and making a point
of keeping his word, he prepared a feast for the god, and hired
Laurentia, then in the pride of her beauty, though not yet famous. He
feasted her in the temple, where he had prepared a couch, and after
supper he locked her in, that the god might possess her. And, indeed,
the god is said to have appeared to the lady, and to have bidden her go
early in the morning into the market-place, and to embrace the first man
she met, and make him her friend. There met her a citizen far advanced
in years, possessing a fair income, childless, and unmarried. His name
was Tarrutius. He took Laurentia to himself, and loved her, and upon his
death left her heiress to a large and valuable property, the greater
part of which she left by will to the city. It is related of her, that
after she had become famous, and was thought to enjoy the favour of
Heaven, she vanished near the very same spot where the other Laurentia
lay buried. This place is now called Velabrum, because during the
frequent overflowings of the river, people used there to be ferried over
to the market-place; now they call ferrying _velatura_. Some say that
the road from the market-place to the circus, starting from this point,
used to be covered with sails or awnings by those who treated the people
to a spectacle; and in the Latin tongue a sail is called _velum_. This
is why the second Laurentia is honoured by the Romans.

VI. Now Faustulus, the swineherd of Amulius, kept the children concealed
from every one, though some say that Numitor knew of it, and shared the
expense of their education. They were sent to Gabii to learn their
letters, and everything else that well-born children should know; and
they were called Romulus and Remus, because they were first seen sucking