4.22
The Dictator issued an
order for all to muster outside the Colline gate by
daybreak. Every man strong enough to bear arms was
present. The standards were quickly brought to the
Dictator from the treasury. While these arrangements
were being made, the enemy withdrew to the foot of
the hills. The Dictator followed them with an army
eager for battle, and engaged them not far from
Nomentum. The Etruscan legions were routed and
driven into Fidenae; the Dictator surrounded the
place with lines of circumvallation. But, owing to
its elevated positron and strong fortifications, the
city could not be carried by assault, and a blockade
was quite ineffective, for there was not only corn
enough for their actual necessities, but even for a
lavish supply from what had been stored up
beforehand. So all hope of either storming the place
or starving it into surrender was abandoned. 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 the government building on the Campus
Martius, and the census of the people was made there
for the first time.