5.22
The following day the
Dictator sold all freemen who had been spared, as
slaves. The money so realised was the only amount
paid into the public treasury, but even that
proceeding roused the ire of the plebs. As for the
spoil they brought home with them, they did not
acknowledge themselves under any obligation for it
either to their general, who, they thought, had
referred a matter within his own competence to the
senate in the hope of getting their authority for
his niggardliness, nor did they feel any gratitude
to the senate. It was the Licinian family to whom
they gave the credit, for it was the father who had
advocated the popular measure and the son who had
taken the opinion of the senate upon it. When all
that belonged to man had been carried away from
Veii, they began to remove from the temples the
votive gifts that had been made to the gods, and
then the gods themselves; but this they did as
worshippers rather than as plunderers. The
deportation of Queen Juno to Rome was entrusted to a
body of men selected from the whole army, who after
performing their ablutions and arraying themselves
in white vestments, reverently entered the temple
and in a spirit of holy dread placed their hands on
the statue, for it was as a rule only the priest of
one particular house who, by Etruscan usage, touched
it. Then one of them, either under a sudden
inspiration, or in a spirit of youthful mirth, said,
"Art thou willing, Juno, to go to Rome?" The rest
exclaimed that the goddess nodded assent. An
addition to the story was made to the effect that
she was heard to say, "I am willing." At all events
we have it that she was moved from her place by
appliances of little power, and proved light and
easy of transport, as though she were following of
her own accord. She was brought without mishap to
the Aventine, her everlasting seat, whither the
prayers of the Roman Dictator had called her, and
where this same Camillus afterwards dedicated the
temple which he had vowed. Such was the fall of
Veii, the most wealthy city of the Etruscan league,
showing its greatness even in its final overthrow,
since after being besieged for ten summers and
winters and inflicting more loss than it sustained,
it succumbed at last to destiny, being after all
carried by a mine and not by direct assault.