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Updated: June 19, 2025
In that year, because the term of the truce with the Veientian nation was expired, restitution began to be demanded through ambassadors and heralds, who on coming to the frontiers were met by an embassy from the Veientians. They requested that they would not proceed to Veii, until they should first have access to the Roman senate.
Commissioners were sent to the Delphic oracle to inquire what the gods portended by this prodigy; but an interpreter of the fates was presented to them nearer home in a certain aged Veientian, who, amid the scoffs thrown out by the Roman and Etrurian soldiers from the out-posts and guards, declared, after the manner of one delivering a prophecy, that until the water should be discharged from the Alban lake, the Romans should never become masters of Veii.
Do ye mean to make them Veientian instead of Roman priests? And shall the virgins forsake thee, O Vesta? And shall the flamen by living abroad draw on himself and on his country such a weight of guilt every night? What of the other things, all of which we transact under auspices within the Pomærium, to what oblivion, to what neglect do we consign them?
Then the Fabian family addressed the senate; the consul speaks in the name of the family: "Conscript fathers, the Veientian war requires, as you know, a constant rather than a strong force. Do you attend to other wars: assign the Fabii as enemies to the Veientians. We pledge ourselves that the majesty of the Roman name shall be safe in that quarter.
When the greater part of the following year was wasted in contentions by the new tribunes of the commons and some interreges, the tribunes at one time hindering the patricians from assembling to declare an interrex, at another time preventing the interrex from passing a decree regarding the election of consuls; at length Lucius Papirius Mugillanus, being nominated interrex, censuring now the patricians, now the tribunes of the people, asserted "that the state, deserted and forsaken by man, being taken up by the providence and care of the gods, subsisted by the Veientian truce and the dilatoriness of the Æquans.
The following year, on which Publius Cornelius Cossus, Caius Valerius Potitus, Quintus Quintius Cincinnatus, Numerius Fabius Vibulanus were military tribunes with consular power, would have brought with it two continual wars, had not the Veientian campaign been deferred by the religious scruples of the leaders, whose lands were destroyed, chiefly by the ruin of the country-seats, in consequence of the Tiber having overflowed its banks.
The Æqui retired into the towns, and kept themselves within the walls: on that account no battle worth mentioning was fought. But a blow was received from the Veientian foe through the temerity of the other consul; and the army would have been all cut off, had not Kæso Fabius come to their assistance in time.
Whilst these affairs are going on in the forum for the purpose of appeasing the disturbances, the consuls in the mean time had armed the several gates and the walls, lest the Sabines or the Veientian enemy should make any move. On the same night, messengers come to Tusculum announcing that the citadel was taken, and the Capitol seized, and the other state of disturbance in the city.
The Romans who were in the secret passage below heard these words. Instantly the earth was heaved up above them, and they sprang, arms in hand, from the tunnel. The entrails were snatched from the hands of those who were sacrificing, and Camillus, the Roman dictator, not the Veientian king, offered them upon the altar.
On this account the matter was neither taken up with great preparation, nor was it delayed for any length of time. Two days were allowed to the owners to reclaim their effects. The other wars, and more especially the Veientian, were of doubtful issue.
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