1.29
Meanwhile the cavalry had
been sent on in advance to conduct the population to
Rome; they were followed by the legions, who were
marched thither to destroy the city. When they
entered the gates there was not that noise and panic
which are usually found in captured cities, where,
after the gates have been shattered or the walls
levelled by the battering-ram or the citadel
stormed, the shouts of the enemy and the rushing of
the soldiers through the streets throw everything
into universal confusion with fire and sword. Here,
on the contrary, gloomy silence and a grief beyond
words so petrified the minds of all, that,
forgetting in their terror what to leave behind,
what to take with them, incapable of thinking for
themselves and asking one another's advice, at one
moment they would stand on their thresholds, at
another wander aimlessly through their houses, which
they were seeing then for the last time. But now
they were roused by the shouts of the cavalry
ordering their instant departure, now by the crash
of the houses undergoing demolition, heard in the
furthest corners of the city, and the dust, rising
in different places, which covered everything like a
cloud. Seizing hastily what they could carry, they
went out of the city, and left behind their hearths
and household gods and the homes in which they had
been born and brought up. Soon an unbroken line of
emigrants filled the streets, and as they recognised
one another the sense of their common misery led to
fresh outbursts of tears. Cries of grief, especially
from the women, began to make themselves heard, as
they walked past the venerable temples and saw them
occupied by troops, and felt that they were leaving
their gods as prisoners in an enemy's hands. When
the Albans had left their city the Romans levelled
to the ground all the public and private edifices in
every direction, and a single hour gave over to
destruction and ruin the work of those four
centuries during which Alba had stood. The temples
of the gods, however, were spared, in accordance
with the king's proclamation.