5.40
Thus they sought to
comfort one another -these aged men doomed to
death. Then they turned with words of encouragement
to the younger men on their way to the Citadel and
Capitol, and solemnly commended to their strength
and courage all that was left of the fortunes of a
City which for 360 years had been victorious in all
its wars. As those who were carrying with them all
hope and succour finally separated from those who
had resolved not to survive the fall of the City the
misery of the scene was heightened by the distress
of the women. Their tears, their distracted running
about as they followed first their husbands then
their sons, their imploring appeals to them not to
leave them to their fate, made up a picture in which
no element of human misery was wanting. A great many
of them actually followed their sons into the
Capitol, none forbidding or inviting them, for
though to diminish the number of non-combatants
would have helped the besieged, it was too inhuman a
step to take. Another crowd, mainly of plebeians,
for whom there was not room on so small a hill or
food enough in the scanty store of corn, poured out
of the City in one continuous line and made for the
Janiculum. From there they dispersed, some over the
country, others towards the neighbouring cities,
without any leader or concerted action, each
following his own aims, his own ideas. and all
despairing of the public safety. While all this was
going on, the Flamen of Quirinus and the Vestal
virgins, without giving a thought to their own
property, were deliberating as to which of the
sacred things they ought to take with them, and
which to leave behind, since they had not strength
enough to carry all, and also what place would be
the safest for their custody. They thought best to
conceal what they could not take in earthen jars and
bury them under the chapel next to the Flamen's
house, where spitting is now forbidden. The rest
they divided amongst them and carried off, taking
the road which leads by the Pons Sublicius to the
Janiculum. Whilst ascending that hill they were seen
by L. Albinius, a Roman plebeian who with the rest
of the crowd who were unfit for war was leaving the
City. Even in that critical hour the distinction
between sacred and profane was not forgotten. He had
his wife and children with him in a wagon, and it
seemed to him an act of impiety for him and his
family to be seen in a vehicle whilst the national
priests should be trudging along on foot, bearing
the sacred vessels of Rome. He ordered his wife and
children to get down, put the virgins and their
sacred burden in the wagon, and drove them to Caere,
their destination.