my or to a son;
whether I am in your camp a captive or a mother? Has length of life and
a hapless old age reserved me for this--to behold you an exile, then an
enemy? Could you lay waste this land, which gave you birth and nurtured
you? Though you had come with an incensed and vengeful mind, did not
your resentment subside when you entered its frontiers? When Rome came
within view, did it not occur to you, within these walls my house and
guardian gods are, my mother, wife, and children? So then, had I not
been a mother, Rome would not be besieged: had I not a son, I might have
died free in a free country. But I can now suffer nothing that is not
more discreditable to you than distressing to me; nor however wretched I
may be, shall I be so long. Look to these, whom, if you persist, either
an untimely death or lengthened slavery awaits." Then his wife and
children embraced him: and the lamentation proceeding from the entire
crowd of women, and their bemoaning themselves and their country, at
length overcame the man; then, after embracing his family, he sends them
away; he moved his camp farther back from the city. Then, after he had
drawn off his troops from the Roman territory, they say that he lost his
life, overwhelmed by the odium of the proceeding: different writers say
by different modes of death: I find in Fabius, far the most ancient
writer, that he lived even to old age; he states positively, that
advanced in years he made use of this phrase, "That exile bore much
heavier on the old man." The men of Rome were not remiss in awarding
their praises to the women, so truly did they live without detracting
from the merit of others; a temple was built also and dedicated to
female Fortune, to serve as a monument. The Volscians afterwards
returned in conjunction with the AEqui into the Roman territory: but the
AEqui would no longer have Attius Tullus as their leader; hence from
dispute, whether the Volscians or the AEqui should give a general to the
allied army, a sedition, and afterwards a furious battle arose. There
the good fortune of the Roman people destroyed the two armies of the
enemy, by a contest no less bloody than obstinate. T. Sicinius and C.
Aquillius were made consuls. The Volsci fell as a province to Sicinius;
the Hernici (for they too were in arms) to Aquillius. That year the
Hernici were defeated; they came off with respect to the Volscians on
equal terms.

41. Sp. Cassius and Proculus Virginius were next