Tullus Hostilius

, the third king of Rome after the death of Numa. He was of a warlike and active disposition, and signalized himself by his expedition against the people of Alba, whom he conquered, and whose city he destroyed after the famous battle of the Horatii and Curiatii. He afterwards carried his arms against the Latins and the neighbouring states with succe , and enforced reverence for majesty among his subjects. He died with all his family, about 640 years before the christian era, after a reign of 32 years. The manner of his death is not precisely known. Some suppose that he was killed by lightning, while he was performing some magical ceremonies in his own house; or, according to the more probable accounts of others, he was murdered by Ancus Martius, who set fire to the palace, to make it be believed that the impiety of Tullus had been punished by heaven. Florus , bk. 1 , ch. 3 .— Dionysius of Halicarna us , bk. 3 , ch. 1 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 814 .— Livy , bk. 1 , ch. 22 .— Pausanias. ――A consul, A.U.C. 686. Horace , bk. 3 , ode 8, li. 12 .