1.15
The contagion of the
war-spirit in Fidenae infected the Veientes. This
people were connected by ties of blood with the
Fidenates, who were also Etruscans, and an
additional incentive was supplied by the mere
proximity of the place, should the arms of Rome be
turned against all her neighbours. They made an
incursion into Roman territory, rather for the sake
of plunder than as an act of regular war. After
securing their booty they returned with it to Veii,
without entrenching a camp or waiting for the enemy.
The Romans, on the other hand, not finding the enemy
on their soil, crossed the Tiber, prepared and
determined to fight a decisive battle. On hearing
that they had formed an entrenched camp and were
preparing to advance on their city, the Veientes
went out against them, preferring a combat in the
open to being shut up and having to fight from
houses and walls. Romulus gained the victory, not
through stratagem, but through the prowess of his
veteran army. He drove the routed enemy up to their
walls, but in view of the strong position and
fortifications of the city, he abstained from
assaulting it. On his march homewards, he devastated
their fields more out of revenge than for the sake
of plunder. The loss thus sustained, no less than
the previous defeat, broke the spirit of the
Veientes, and they sent envoys to Rome to sue for
peace. On condition of a cession of territory a
truce was granted to them for a hundred years. These
were the principal events at home and in the field
that marked the reign of Romulus. Throughout -whether we consider the courage he showed in
recovering his ancestral throne, or the wisdom he
displayed in founding the City and adding to its
strength through war and peace alike -we find
nothing incompatible with the belief in his divine
origin and his admission to divine immortality after
death. It was, in fact, through the strength given
by him that the City was powerful enough to enjoy an
assured peace for forty years after his departure.
He was, however, more acceptable to the populace
than to the patricians, but most of all was he the
idol of his soldiers. He kept a bodyguard of three
hundred men round him in peace as well as in war.
These he called the "Celeres."