Ab urbe condita

No one made any preparation for war, but each did his utmost to urge the despatch of an embassy to Rome to beg pardon for their offence. When the deputation came before the senate they were referred by the senate to the people.

They besought the gods whose sacred things they had taken charge of and made due provision for in the Gaulish war [*](The incident is recorded in Vol. I. pp. 335-6.) that the Romans in their day of prosperity might feel the same pity for them that they had shown for Rome in her hour of distress. Then turning to the temple of Vesta they invoked the bond of hospitality which they formed in all purity and reverence with the Flamens and the

Vestals. “Could any one believe,” they asked, “that men who had rendered such services would all of a sudden, without any reason, have become enemies, or if they had been guilty of any hostile act that they had committed it deliberately rather than in a fit of