Writing the History of Rape in Wartime

Abstract

This is how Livy narrated the origins of Rome. Without the desired marriages, Romulus therefore organised games in honour of Neptune the Horse-god. As Livy continued, All the Sabines came, with their women and children. Roman households were opened to them, and as they saw the city, with its pleasing position, its ramparts, and its many houses, they were amazed at its rapid growth. The day came for the games and as all eyes and minds were concentrated on them, the plan was carried out as prepared: at the agreed signal, the youth of Rome rose up on all sides to seize the young girls. Most of them fell victim to the first abductor. Some of the most beautiful, reserved for the principal senators, were carried off into their houses by citizens charged to undertake this task. One among the others, far superior to her companions in height and beauty was, it seems, taken by the senator Talassius’s group; as they were repeatedly asked where they were taking her, to protect her from all insults they cried out as they marched: “to Talassius” — hence the time-honoured phrase in the marriage ceremony. Terror threw the celebration into disarray, the parents of the young girls fled, stricken with grief; and as they cried out against this violation of the laws of hospitality, they invoked the god whose name had drawn them to the solemnisation of the games, as cover for treachery and sacrilege.