commanded that they should build him a palace. Also the chief houses of Alba, as the house of Julius and of Servilius, were chosen into the Senate; and that there might be a place of meeting for the Senate being thus multiplied, the King built a temple and called it Hostilia, after his own name. Also ten squadrons of horsemen were chosen out of the men of Alba. But after certain days, when the Romans had now conquered the Sabines, and had made treaties of peace with the Etrurians, and were in great peace and prosperity, they and their King, there was brought tidings to Rome that there had fallen a shower of stones on Mount Alba. Which when men could scarce believe, they sent messengers to learn if these things were true, who having come to Alba, found the stones lying on the ground, even as it had been hail. Also there was heard a voice from the grove that was on the top of the hill, saying, "Let the men of Alba do worship after the manner of their fathers;" for they having left their country, had left also their gods, and did worship after the manner of the Romans, or for wrath at that which had befallen them, as is wont to be with men in such case, had ceased from worship altogether. The Romans also, by reason of this same voice that was heard on Mount Alba, or by warning of the soothsayers, kept a festival of nine days. And this became a custom for the time to come, that when there came tidings of such marvels to Rome, there was kept a like festival. Now the end of King Tullus was this. There came a pestilence upon the land. And when for this cause the people were wearied of war, nevertheless the King, both because he delighted in war, and because he believed that the young men should have better health if they went abroad than if they tarried at home, gave them no rest But after a while he also fell into a tedious sickness, which so brake him both in body and mind that, whereas in time past he thought it unworthy of a King to busy himself with matters of religion, now he gave himself up wholly to superstition, and filled the minds of his people also with the like thoughts, so that they regarded nothing but this, how they should make atonement to the Gods, and so be rid of their present distress. As for the King himself, men say that reading the sacred book of King Numa he found therein certain sacrifices, very secret and solemn, that should be done to Jupiter by such as would bring him down from heaven, and that he shut himself up to do these sacrifices; but because he set not about them rightly or did them not in due form, there appeared to him no similitude of the immortal gods (for such he had hoped to see); but Jupiter, having great wrath at such unlawful dealings, struck him with lightning, and consumed both him and his house.