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That notwithstanding, if it was the wish of the Etrurians, they were still willing to engage in the war, but on no other condition than that of being allowed a share of their lands, and obtaining at length some permanent settlement."
They themselves crossed the Alps through the Taurinian and pathless forests; and having defeated the Etrurians not far from the Ticinus, on hearing that the land in which they had posted themselves was called Insubria, the same name as the Insubres, a canton of the Ædui: embracing the omen of the place, they built a city there, and called it Mediolanum.
And when the mournful crowd prostrated themselves at his feet, and the address of the leading men, wrung from them by extreme necessity, was followed by the weeping of women and boys, who were dragged along by the companions of their exile, he bade the Sutrians to give over their lamentations: that he brought with him grief and tears to the Etrurians.
The Veientian enemy and the Etrurians proceeded with so much the greater precipitation; they provoked them to battle, first riding up to the camp and challenging them; at length, when they produced no effect by reviling as well the consuls themselves as the army, they stated, "that the pretence of internal dissension was assumed as a cloak for this cowardice; and that the consuls distrusted as much the courage as the obedience of their soldiers.
Notwithstanding which, the business respecting Etruria would have been prosecuted with less vigour, had not information been received, that the Faliscians likewise, who had for many years lived in friendship with Rome, had united their arms with those of the Etrurians.
Quinctius and Horatius were sent against the Volscians, as successors to Valerius. Furius and Valerius, having set out from the city to Sutrium, found one part of the town already taken by the Etrurians, and on the other part, the approaches to which were barricaded, the townsmen with difficulty repelling the assault of the enemy.
Etruria could boast of arts, legislation, scientific knowledge, a fanciful mythology, and a form of dramatic spectacle, before the foundations of Rome were laid. But, like the ancient Egyptians, the Etrurians made no progress in composition. Verses of an irregular structure and rude in sense and harmony appear to have formed the highest limit of their literary achievements.
In this place sacrifices were performed, according to directions read out of an old linen book, the priest being a very old man, called Ovius Paccius, who affirmed, that he took these ceremonials from the ancient ritual of the Samnites, being the same which their ancestors used, when they had formed the secret design of wresting Capua from the Etrurians.
Scipio, while he expected a tedious campaign, like that of the preceding year, was met near Volaterra by the Etrurians, in order of battle. The fight lasted through the greater part of the day, while very many fell on both sides, and night came on while it was uncertain to which side victory inclined.
And when there was but a small part remaining, and they that brake it down called to the three that they should come back, Horatius bade Lartius and Herminius return, but he himself remained on the further side, turning his eyes full of wrath in threatening fashion on the princes of the Etrurians, and crying, "Dare ye now to fight with me? or why are ye thus come at the bidding of your master, King Porsenna, to rob others of the freedom that ye care not to have for yourselves?"
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