Camillus

This business dispatched, he left his son Lucius in command of the camp to guard the captives and the booty, while he himself invaded the enemy’s country. He captured the city of the Aequians, brought the Volscians to terms, and straightway led his army towards Sutrium. He was not yet apprised of the fate of the Sutrians, but thought they were still in peril of siege by the Tuscans, and so hastened to relieve them.

But they had already surrendered their city to the enemy, and been sent off in utter destitution, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. As Camillus came marching along they met him, with their wives and children, all lamenting their misfortunes. Camillus himself was filled with compassion at the sight, and noticed that his Romans too, with the Sutrians hanging upon their necks in supplication, were moved to tears and anger at their lot. He therefore determined to make no postponement of his vengeance,

but to march straight upon Sutrium that very day. He reasoned that men who had just taken a prosperous and opulent city, leaving none of their enemies in it, and expecting none from without, would be found wholly relaxed in discipline and off their guard; and he reasoned correctly. He not only passed unnoticed through the city’s territory, but was actually at its gates and in command of its walls before the enemy knew it. For not a man of them was on guard, but they were all scattered among the houses of the city drinking and feasting.

And even when they perceived that their enemies already had the mastery, they were so sluggishly disposed by reason of satiety and drunkenness that many did not so much as try to flee, but awaited there in the houses the most shameful of all deaths, or gave themselves up to their enemies. The city of Sutrium was thus twice captured in a single day, and it came to pass that those who had won it, lost it, and those who had first lost it, won it back, and all by reason of Camillus.