14
When the Carthaginians and Siceliots were negotiating an alliance against the Romans, Vesta was the only divinity to whom Metellus, the general, did not sacrifice. She, accordingly, sent a contrary wind against his ships. Gaius Julius, the augur, said that it would abate if Metellus should sacrifice his daughter. Forced by necessity, he brought forward his daughter Metella. But Vesta took pity, substituted a heifer, transported the maiden to Lanuvium, Cf. Propertius, iv. 8. 3. and appointed her priestess of the serpent that is worshipped by the people there. So Pythocles in the third book of his Italian History.
14
The like fate of Iphigeneia at Aulis in Boeotia Menyllus relates in the first book of his Boeotian History.
15
Brennus, king of the Gauls, when he was ravaging Asia, came to Ephesus and fell in love with a maiden Demonice. She promised to satisfy his desires and also to betray Ephesus, if he would give her the Gauls’ bracelets and feminine ornaments. But Brennus required his soldiers to throw into the lap of the avaricious woman the gold which they were wearing. This they did, and she was buried alive by the abundance of gold. Cf. Stobaeus, Florilegium, x. 70 (iii. p. 426 Hense). This Cleitophon relates in the first book of his Gallic History.
15
Tarpeia, one of the maidens of honourable estate, was the guardian of the Capitol when the Romans were warring against the Sabines. She promised Tatius that she would give him entry to the Tarpeian Rock if she received as pay the necklacesThe usual specification was what they bore on their left arms (cf. Life of Romulus, xvii. (27 f-28 d); Livy, i. 11), but, to judge from Stobaeus’s version of the preceding paragraph, its source probably contained necklaces, and so a strict parallelism requires necklace here! which the Sabines wore for adornment. The Sabines understood the import and buried her alive. So Aristeides the Milesian in his Italian History.
