Titus Tatius

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Titus Tatius" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Two Roman Republican denarii, minted by Lucius Titurius Sabinus in 89 BC. The Sabine king Titus Tatius is portrayed on both obverses.^[1]

According to the Roman foundation myth, Titus Tatius, also called Tatius Sabinus, was king of the Sabines from Cures and joint-ruler of the Kingdom of Rome for several years.^[2]

During the reign of Romulus, the first king of Rome, Tatius declared war on Rome in response to the incident known as The Rape of the Sabine Women.^[3] After he captured the stronghold atop the Capitoline Hill through the treachery of Tarpeia, the Sabines and Romans fought an epic battle that concluded when the abducted Sabine women intervened to convince the two sides to reconcile and end the war. The two kingdoms were joined and the two kings ruled jointly until Tatius' murder five years later.^[4] The joint kingdom was still called Rome and the citizens of the city were still called Romans, but as a community, they were to be called Quirites.^[2] The Sabines were integrated into the existing tribes and curies,^{[clarification needed]} yet Tatius is not counted as one of the traditional "Seven Kings of Rome".

Tatius had one daughter, Tatia, who married Numa Pompilius (Romulus' successor), and one son, who was the ancestor of the patrician Tatii family.