CAROLE DAVIS

About 3000 years ago Rome was a new city but it had a major problem. There were a lot of men; but not a great number of women. If the city was to survive it needed a growing population but with so few women to go around this seemed extremely unlikely... The men were a pretty lawless bunch as well. The city had been founded by Romulus who was not averse to a bit of villiany himself, and his followers were mainly, to put it bluntly, more bandits than farmers. What woman would want to marry one of them? No wonder wedding insurance was not a priority!They needed to be tamed and Romulus reckoned that getting them to settle down into married life, and raise families, was a good way to do it. He sent emissaries out to the surrounding towns to see if the locals would introduce some of their marriageable women to them; not surprisingly the answer was a resounding 'no'!... Around 30 women in all were taken; legend has it that a local dignitary called Talasio got some of his henchmen to carry..

Primary location: United Kingdom