the common names of the country, such as Caius, Marcus, or Lucius, in
imitation of their hurried calling for each other on that occasion.
Next, female slaves splendidly dressed walk round laughing and romping
with all whom they meet. These girls also perform a sort of fight among
themselves, like those who on that day took their share in the fight
with the Latins: and afterwards they sit down to a feast, under the
shade of fig-tree boughs. They call this day the _nonae caprotinae_,
probably from the wild fig-tree from which the slave girl waved the
torch; for in Latin a wild fig-tree is called _caprificus_. Others say
that most of these things were said and done when Romulus disappeared,
for on this very day he was snatched away, outside the city gates, in a
sudden storm and darkness, or as some think during an eclipse of the
sun: and they say that the day is called _nonae caprotiae_ from the
place, because Romulus was carried off while holding a meeting of the
entire people at the place called the Goat's Marsh, as is written in his
life.

XXXIV. The other story is approved by most writers, who relate it as
follows:--Camillus, after being appointed dictator for the third time,
and learning that the army under the command of the military tribunes
was being besieged by the Latins and Volscians, was compelled to arm
even those citizens who were past the age for service in the field. He
marched by a long circuit to the Marcian heights unnoticed by the enemy,
and established his army behind them. By lighting fires he announced his
arrival to the Romans in the camp, who took courage, and began to
meditate sallying out of their camp and attacking the enemy. But the
Latins and Volscians kept close within the rampart of their camp, which
they fortified with many additional palisades, on all sides, for they
now were between two hostile armies, and intended to await succour from
home, while they also expected a force from Etruria to come to their