and a Sabine, though at first Romulus and Tatius ruled jointly. The
women became thus dearer to the whole community, and the feast called
Matronalia was established in their honor, when wives received presents
from their husbands and girls from their lovers.

Romulus continued to live on the Palatine among the Romans, and Tatius
on the Quirinal, where the Sabines also lived. Each people adopted some
of the fashions and customs of the other, and they all met for the
transaction of business in the Forum Romanum, which was in the valley
of the Curtian Lake, between the hills. For a time this arrangement was
carried on in peace, and the united nation grew in numbers and power.
After five years, however, Tatius was slain by some of the inhabitants
of Lavinium, and Romulus was left sole ruler until his death.

Under him the nation grew still more rapidly, and others were made
subject to it, all of which good fortune was attributed to his prowess
and skill. Romulus became after a while somewhat arrogant. He dressed
in scarlet, received his people lying on a couch of state, and
surrounded himself with a body of young soldiers called _Celeres_,
from the swiftness with which they executed his orders. It was a
suspicious fact that all at once, at a time when the people had become
dissatisfied with his actions, Romulus disappeared (717 B.C.). Like
Evander, he went, no one knew where, though one of his friends
presented himself in the forum and assured the people under oath that
one day, as he was going along the road, he met Romulus coming toward
him, dressed in shining armor, and looking comelier than ever.
Proculus, for that was the friend's name, was struck with awe and
filled with religious dread, but asked the king why he had left the
people to bereavement, endless sorrow, and wicked surmises, for it had
been rumored that the senators had made away with him. Romulus replied