Ab urbe condita

As it was near Rome, the nature of the ground was well known, and the Dictator was aware that the side of the city remote from his camp was weakly fortified owing to its natural strength. He determined to carry a mine through from that side to the citadel.

He formed his army into four divisions, to take turns in the fighting, and by keeping up a constant attack upon the walls in all directions, day and night, he prevented the enemy from noticing the work.

At last the hill was tunnelled through and the way lay open from the Roman camp up to the citadel. Whilst the attention of the Etruscans was being diverted by feigned attacks from their real danger, the shouts of the enemy above their

heads showed them that the city was taken. In that year the censors C. Furius Pacilus and M. Geganius Macerinus passed[*](Public works were let out to contractors, and it was the duty of the censors, after satisfying themselves that they were constructed according to specifications, to take them over for the State.) the government building on the Campus Martius, and the census of the people was made there for the first time.

[*](Matters in Etruria)I find in Macer Licinius that the same consuls were re-elected for the following year-Julius for the third time and Verginius for the second. Valerius Antias and Q. Tubero give M. Manlius and Q. Sulpicius as the consuls for that year.

In spite of this discrepancy Tubero and Macer both claim the authority of the “Linen Rolls”; both admit that in the ancient historians it was asserted that there were military tribunes that year.

Licinius considers that we ought unhesitatingly to follow the “Linen Rolls”; Tubero has not made up his mind. But amongst the many points obscure through lapse of time, this also is left unsettled. The capture of Fidenae created alarm in Etruria.

Not only were the Veientines apprehensive of a similar fate, but the Faliscans too had not forgotten the war which they had commenced in alliance with them, though they had taken no part in its renewal.

The two States sent round envoys to the twelve cantons, and in compliance with their request a meeting was proclaimed of the national council of Etruria, to be held at the temple of Voltumna. As a great struggle seemed imminent, the senate ordered that Mamercus Aemilius should be again nominated Dictator.

A. Postumius Tubertus was appointed Master of the Horse. Preparations for war were made with all the greater energy now than on the last occasion, as the danger to be apprehended from the whole of Etruria was greater than from only two of its towns

The[*](Limitation of the Censorship.) occasion passed off more quietly than anybody expected.

Information was brought by traders that help had been refused to the Veientines; they were told to prosecute with their own resources a war which they had commenced on their own initiative, and not, now that they were in difficulties, to look for allies amongst those whom in their prosperity they refused to take into their confidence.

The Dictator was now deprived of any opportunity of acquiring fame in war, but he was anxious to achieve some work which might be a memorial of his dictatorship and prevent it from appearing an unnecessary appointment, so he made preparations for abridging the censorship, either because he considered its power excessive, or because he objected not so much to the greatness as the length of

duration of the office. Accordingly he convened the Assembly and said that as the gods had undertaken the conduct of the State in external affairs and made everything safe, he would do what required to be done within the walls, and take counsel for the liberties of the Roman people. Those liberties were most securely guarded when those who held great powers did not hold them long, and when offices which could not be limited in their jurisdiction were limited in their tenure.