Some time after, engaging in a war against _Mezen'tius_, one of the petty kings of the country, he was vanquished in turn, and died in battle, after a reign of four years.
3.

Asca'nius his son, succeeded to the kingdom; and to him Sil'vius, a second son, whom he had by Lavin'ia.

It would be tedious and uninteresting to recite a dry catalogue of the kings that followed, of whom we know little more than the names; it will be sufficient to say, that the succession continued for nearly four hundred years in the same family, and that Nu'mitor, the fifteenth from AEne'as, was the last king of Alba.
Nu'mitor, who took possession of the kingdom in consequence of his father's will, had a brother named Amu'lius, to whom were left the treasures which had been brought from Troy.4.As riches too generally prevail against right, Amu'lius made use of his wealth to supplant his brother, and soon found means to possess himself of the kingdom.

Not contented with the crime of usurpation, he added that of murder also.
Nu'mitor's sons first fell a sacrifice to his suspicions; and to remove all apprehensions of being one day disturbed in his ill-gotten power, he caused Rhe'a Sil'via, his brother's only daughter, to become a vestal.
5.

His precautions, however, were all frusrtrated in the event.