The main narratives of the Rape of the Sabines have recently been studied by Gary Miles, who discusses common elements and variations in the versions of Cicero (De Republica 2.12-14), Livy (1.9-13), Dionysius of Halicamassus (Antiquitates Romanae 2.30-47), Ovid (Fasti 3.167-258; cf. Ars Amatoria 1.10134), and Plutarch (Romulus 14-20). Miles interprets the legend as an epitome of the practices and ideology of Roman marriage, seeing it as an exaggerated reflection of the stages whereby a bride was transferred from the authority of her father to that of her husband and from one family to another. The theft of the women, the resulting war, and the final reconciliation effected by the women themselves correspond to the initial separation of the bride from her home and family, the transferral of authority from her father to her husband, and her incorporation into the new family. From a political perspective, the story also acknowledges the important role of intermarriage between the Romans and other peoples in forming the alliances that facilitated the spread of the Roman community throughout Italy. In the first part of this interesting study, Miles plays down the differences between the separate narratives in order to uncover their essential similarity, but in the second and third parts he addresses some of these differences with a view toward assessing the authors' individual responses to the ideology of marriage and gender relations embedded in the basic story. Focussing on the liminal, or transitional, stage of the story, he finds that Cicero, Dionysius, and Plutarch show little or no interest in the details of the women's initiation into their new status, thus taking it for granted and apparently finding it unproblematic, both at a narrative level and also by extension in contemporary society. Livy and Ovid, however, both evince strong, though opposed, reactions. Ovid consistently adopts an insensitive male perspective and effaces the individuality and role of the women to the point where they become * I am very grateful to Rachel Kitzinger and the anonymous referees for their helpful criticisms and suggestions. I shall follow common usage in applying the epithet Sabine to all the abducted women, including those from the neighboring towns of Caenina, Crustumerium, and Antemnae as well as the Sabines. Note, however, that Livy scrupulously distinguishes between raptae, his term for the whole group, and Sabinae.