But Tarquin roughly
answered that he would submit his claims to no judge, and least of all
to Porsena, who had been his ally and now seemed inclined to desert him.
Porsena was angered at this, and, as his son Aruns also pleaded hard for
the Romans, put an end to the war upon condition that they should give
up the portion of Etruscan territory which they had seized, restore
their prisoners, and receive back their deserters. Upon this, ten youths
of the noblest families were given as hostages, and as many maidens,
among whom was Valeria, the daughter of Poplicola.
XIX. While these negotiations were going on, and Porsena, through his
confidence in the good faith of the Romans, had relaxed the discipline
of his camp, these Roman maidens came down to bathe in the river at a
place where a bank, in the form of a crescent, makes the water smooth
and undisturbed. As they saw no guards, nor any one passing except in
boats, they determined to swim across, although the stream was strong
and deep. Some say that one of them, by name Cloelia, rode on a horse
across the river, encouraging the others as they swam. When they had got
safe across they went to Poplicola, but he was displeased with them
because it made him seem more faithless than Porsena, and he feared lest
this daring feat of the maidens might be suspected of being a
preconcerted plot of the Romans. For these reasons he sent them back to
Porsena.
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