2.49
News of what had happened
spread through the whole City, the Fabii were
praised up to the skies; people said, "One family
had taken up the burden of the State, the Veientine
war had become a private concern, a private quarrel.
If there were two houses of the same strength in the
City, and the one claimed the Volscians for
themselves, the other the Aequi, then all the
neighbouring states could be subjugated while Rome
itself remained in profound tranquillity." The next
day the Fabii took their arms and assembled at the
appointed place. The consul, wearing his
"paludamentum," went out into the vestibule and saw
the whole of his house drawn up in order of march.
Taking his place in the centre, he gave the word of
advance. Never has an army marched through the City
smaller in numbers or with a more brilliant
reputation or more universally admired. Three
hundred and six soldiers, all patricians, all
members of one house, not a single man of whom the
senate even in its palmiest days would deem unfitted
for high command, went forth, threatening ruin to
the Veientines through the strength of a single
family. They were followed by a crowd; made up
partly of their own relatives and friends, whose
minds were not occupied with ordinary hope and
anxiety, but filled with the loftiest anticipations;
partly of those who shared the public anxiety, and
could not find words to express their affection and
admiration. "Go on," they cried, "you gallant band,
go on, and may you be fortunate; bring back results
equal to this beginning, then look to us for
consulships and triumphs and every possible reward."
As they passed the Citadel and the Capitol and other
temples, their friends prayed to each deity, whose
statue or whose shrine they saw, that they would
send that band with all favourable omens to success,
and in a short time restore them safe to their
country and their kindred. In vain were those
prayers sent up! They proceeded on their ill-starred
way by the right postern of the Carmental gate, and
reached the banks of the Cremera. This seemed to
them a suitable position for a fortified post. L.
Aemilius and C. Servilius were the next consuls. As
long as it was only a question of forays and raids,
the Fabii were quite strong enough not only to
protect their own fortified post, but, by patrolling
both sides of the border-line between the Roman and
Tuscan territories, to make the whole district safe
for themselves and dangerous for the enemy. There
was a brief interruption to these raids, when the
Veientines, after summoning an army from Etruria,
assaulted the fortified post at the Cremera. The
Roman legions were brought up by the consul L.
Aemilius and fought a regular engagement with the
Etruscan troops. The Veientines, however, had not
time to complete their formation, and during the
confusion, whilst the men were getting into line and
the reserves were being stationed, a squadron of
Roman cavalry suddenly made a flank attack, and gave
them no chance of commencing a battle or even of
standing their ground. They were driven back to
their camp at the Saxa Rubra, and sued for peace.
They obtained it, but their natural inconstancy made
them regret it before the Roman garrison was
recalled from the Cremera.