[56]The temple of Diana at Ephesus was at that time in high renown; fame represented it to have been built by all the states of Asia, in common.

When Servius, amid some grandees of the Latins with whom he had taken pains to form connexions of hospitality and friendship, extolled in high terms such concord and association of their gods, by frequently insisting on the same subject, he at length prevailed so far as that the Latin states agreed to build a temple to Diana at Rome, in conjunction with the Roman people.

This was an acknowledgment that Rome was the head of both nations, concerning which they had so often disputed in arms.

Though that object seemed to have been left out of consideration by all the Latins, in consequence of the matter having been so often attempted unsuccessfully by arms, fortune seemed to present one of the Sabines with an opportunity of recovering the superiority to his country by his own address.

A cow is said to have been calved to a certain person, the head of a family among the Sabines, of surprising size and beauty.