aste
and depart from the land, else we will give you such answer as Lars
Tolumnius gave to your fellows."

Now the story of Lars Tolumnius is this. Fidenae, that was a colony of
Rome, revolted to Veii, of which city Lars Tolumnius was king in those
days. And when the Romans sent ambassadors enquiring of the men of the
city why they had done this thing, the ambassadors were put to death;
and this was done, it was said, at the bidding of Tolumnius. But some
have sought to excuse Tolumnius in this fashion. They say that he was
playing at dice, and that when the men of Fidenae came to him
asking, "Shall we do well to slay these ambassadors of Rome?" he
said, "Excellently," not hearing what they said, but thinking only of
the dice and of his game, for he had at the very moment thrown most
fortunately. But it cannot be believed that in so great a matter he
should have been so careless. This Lars Tolumnius was slain afterwards
by Cornelius Cossus in single combat, and his spoils were dedicated in
the temple of Jupiter, hard by the spoils which King Romulus won from
the King of Caere.

When this answer was brought back to Rome, the Senate would have war
declared against Veii without delay; but the people murmured, saying,
"We have enough to do already with the Volscians, and why will ye have
another war with the men of Veii, who will stir up all the Etrurians
against you?" The tribunes took occasion by this to hinder the matter,
and the war was delayed.

The next year there was war with the Volscians, and Anxur, one of their
chief cities, was taken, and the spoil was given to the soldiers. They
were greatly pleased with this bounty, and yet more when it was ordained
that thereafter the soldiers should have pay from the public treasury.
And now it was resolved, none opposing, that war should be declared
against Veii, for which war a great army was levied forthwith, the
greater part of the soldiers offering themselves of their own free will.
Thus it came to pass that in the three hundred and fiftieth year after
the building of the city, Veii was shut in.

In the third year of the siege the men of Veii, being weary of the
strife which troubled them year by year in the choosing of their
magistrates, made for themselves a king. But this thing was a grievous
offence to the other Etrurians, who hated not so much kingship as the
man who had been chosen to be king. The cause of which hatred was this,
that the man, being angry becau