the cult of hercules in rome stems from the story of cacus which took place during his 10th labour (the cattleofgeryon)
cacus terrorised a city near rome
hercules stopped to pasture the cattle of geryon but then cacus stole 8 of them. cacus led the cows backwards to his cave to trick hercules
one of the cows mooed which alerted hercules that the cows had been stolen. hercules was angry and headed to find cacus
cacus was the son of vulcan, the god of metalworking
cacus fled to his cave which was guarded by a huge boulder with chains on it created by vulcan, his dad. hercules couldnt move it. he circled the cave three times and tried the boulder again three times then sat down in exhaustion
hercules then noticed a pinnacle of flint at the top of the hill and usig hsi strength he lifted the top of the mountain off which exposed cacus in his cave
once in cacus' lair, hercules bombarded cacus with whatever he could find, including trees, stones and boulders. cacus fought back by blowing black smoke in hercules face to hide him. hercules was angered by this and choked him. he then brought the body out to show evander and his people