Stories from Livy

by Alfred John Church

When this answer was brought back to Rome, the Senate would have war declared against Veii without delay; but the people murmured, saying, "We have enough to do already with the Volscians, and why will ye have another war with the men of Veii, who will stir up all the Etrurians against you?" The tribunes took occasion by this to hinder the matter, and the war was delayed.

The next year there was war with the Volscians, and Anxur, one of their chief cities, was taken, and the spoil was given to the soldiers. They were greatly pleased with this bounty, and yet more when it was ordained that thereafter the soldiers should have pay from the public treasury. And now it was resolved, none opposing, that war should be declared against Veii, for which war a great army was levied forthwith, the greater part of the soldiers offering themselves of their own free will. Thus it came to pass that in the three hundred and fiftieth year after the building of the city, Veii was shut in.

In the third year of the siege the men of Veii, being weary of the strife which troubled them year by year in the choosing of their magistrates, made for themselves a king. But this thing was a grievous offence to the other Etrurians, who hated not so much kingship as the man who had been chosen to be king. The cause of which hatred was this, that the man, being angry because, by the vote of the twelve nations of the Etrurians, another had been preferred before him to be high priest, had caused their yearly festival to be broken off in the midst, a thing which the Etrurians, than whom was never a people more scrupulous in matters of religion, judged to be most impious. This thing he did by taking away the actors of plays, who were for the most part his own slaves. And now the whole nation, being assembled in council, decreed that no help should be given to the men of Veii so long as they should be under the rule of a king. But of this decree no mention was made in Veii, for the King gave out that if any man talked of such matters he should be held guilty of sedition. Nevertheless the Romans, fearing lest the purpose of the Etrurians might suffer a change, made the fortifications wherewith they had shut in the city to be double, having one face against such sallies as the townsmen might make, and the other turned towards Etruria, if perchance help should come thence to the city.

In this year also, because the Romans hoped to take the city by siege rather than by assault, winter quarters, a wholly new thing in those days, were begun to be built; and it was decreed that the army should abide before the city continually, not departing, as the custom had been, at the beginning of the winter. About this there was great debate at Rome, the tribunes protesting that the nobles had invented this device against liberty, contriving that the better part of the Commons should thus be kept away perpetually from the city; while the nobles on the other hand protested by the mouth of Appius Claudius, son of the decemvir, that in no other way could this war be brought to an end, for that it was a grievous waste of time and labour that the works which had been made with so much toil in the summer should be destroyed or suffered to perish in the winter. "The love of sport," said he, "takes them that hunt to the mountains, where they suffer frost and rain without complaint, and shall our soldiers be less enduring when they fight for their country? And if the Greeks were content, for the sake of a woman, to besiege the city of Troy for ten years without ceasing, and that far from their country and beyond the sea, shall we refuse to remain for the space of a year before a city which is not so much as twenty miles distant?"

While this matter was debated at Rome, the people inclining, for the most part, to Appius rather than to the tribunes, there came such tidings from Veii as made all men agree that the city must be attacked with all steadfastness and energy. The works of the besiegers were now pushed forward well-nigh to the walls, and the minds of all being wholly given to the finishing of them, it followed, that though they were diligently advanced in the day, they were the less carefully watched by night. The townsfolk perceiving this, a great multitude of men issued forth from the gates carrying torches in their hands, and set fire to the works, consuming in a very brief space of time that which had been finished after many months. Not a few also of them that would have stayed the burning perished either by fire or by the sword. When these tidings were brought to them the city was greatly disturbed. Nevertheless the matter turned to the public good. First they that had the dignity of horsemen in the State, but were not called to serve, came forward saying that they would serve, finding horses at their own cost; likewise a great multitude of the people offered themselves to serve as foot soldiers. Thus was there raised a great army, which, marching to Veii, not only restored that which had been destroyed by fire, but also made works that were larger and stronger by far.

In the fourth year of the siege the Romans suffered no small loss. First Anxur was lost, the garrison being surprised by the Volscians, and afterwards there followed great reverses at Veii. The men of Capena and Falerii came to the help of Veii, judging that if this city should be taken they themselves would be the next to perish. These fought against a certain part of the Romans, and at the same time the townsfolk sallied from the gates. And when help should have been given to them from the other part of the camp, because there was a strife between the generals, none such was sent; for the one said, "If my colleague be in need of help he will ask for it," and the other, for pride and jealousy, had rather be conquered by the enemy than conquer by aid of one whom he loved not. So it came to pass that Sergius (for he it was whom the men of Capena and Falerii had attacked) with his soldiers left the works and fled, some escaping to the other camp, but the greater part making escape to Rome.

In the seventh year of the siege there happened many marvels. Of these, for the most part? men took little count; but one seemed especially noteworthy, to wit, that the water of the lake of Alba rose to such a height as had never been seen before, and this without great rains or any other cause which might make the thing less to be wondered at. Messengers therefore were sent to the oracle of Delphi to enquire of the god what this might portend. But the Romans found, for so fate would have it, an interpreter of the marvel that was nearer at hand than the oracle of Apollo. As the Roman soldiers and the soldiers of Veii talked together at the outposts, a certain old man, an Etrurian, chanted in the fashion that prophets use this verse—

"Ne'er till the depths of Alba's lake be drained
Shall Veii's walls by Roman arms be gained."

Of these words none at first took any heed, but afterwards some began to doubt what they might mean. A certain Roman therefore enquired of the townsfolk (for the siege having now endured for many years there had grown up acquaintance between them) who the man might be that had chanted this prophecy. And when he heard he was a soothsayer, he spake to him, saying that he would fain have some talk with him, for that there had happened to himself a certain marvel, and he desired to know how he might rightly deal with it. So the two went to a certain place by themselves, neither of them carrying arms. Then the Roman (for he was a young man and of great strength) caught up the Etrurian in his arms and carried him away to the camp, the Etrurians not being able to hinder him. So they brought the soothsayer to the general, and the general sent him to the Senate; and when the Senate enquired of him what it was that he had prophesied concerning the lake of Alba, the old man answered, "Surely the Gods were wroth with Veii that day when they put it into my mind to betray the thing which by the ordering of fate must bring about the destruction of the city. Nevertheless I cannot recall that which I once uttered by divine inspiration so that it should be as if it were unsaid; and perchance there is no less wickedness in concealing that which the immortal Gods would have revealed than in uttering that which they would have concealed. Know therefore that in the books of fate and in the lore of the Etrurians it is written that if ever the water of the lake of Alba shall increase, the Romans, draining it off in due manner, shall prevail over the men of Veii, but that before that shall have been done, the Gods will not desert the walls of the city." And when he had said this he expounded to them what the due manner of draining off the water might be. Nevertheless because the man seemed to be of small authority, upon whom it would not be well to trust in so great a matter, the Senate determined that messengers should be sent to enquire of the god at Delphi. In the ninth year of the war these messengers returned, bringing back this answer from the god.

"Let not imprisoned chafe the Alban Lake,
Nor yet to sea its wilful passage take;
Draw high its gates, but in the boundless plain
Disperse its power, its pride of speed refrain;
Then mount the breach, for then by Heaven's decree
Long-leaguered Veii, Roman, yields to thee.
Thy warfare done, throng thankful to the shrine,
Repair thy great default, and pay me that is mine."