th Alba continue long. The dissatisfaction of
the populace, because the fortune of the state had been hazarded on
three soldiers, perverted the weak mind of the dictator; and because
honourable measures had not turned out well, he began to conciliate
their affections by perfidious means. Accordingly, as one formerly
seeking peace in war, so now seeking war in peace, because he perceived
that his own state possessed more courage than strength, he stirs up
other nations to make war openly and by proclamation:[41] for his own
people he reserves treachery under the mask of alliance. The Fidenates,
a Roman colony, having gained over the Veientes as partisans in the
confederacy, are instigated to declare war and take up arms under a
compact of desertion on the part of the Albans. When Fidenae had openly
[42]revolted, Tullus, after summoning Mettus and his army from Alba,
marches against the enemy. When he crossed the Anio, he pitches his camp
at the [43]conflux of the rivers. Between that place and Fidenae, the
army of the Veientes had crossed the Tiber. These, in line of battle,
occupied the right wing near the river; the Fidenates are posted on the
left nearer the mountains. Tullus stations his own men opposite the
Veientian foe; the Albans he opposes to the legion of the Fidenates. The
Alban had not more courage than fidelity. Neither daring therefore to
keep his ground, nor to desert openly, he files off slowly to the
mountains. After this, when he supposed he had gone far enough, he
[44]halts his entire army; and being still irresolute in mind, in order
to waste time, he opens his ranks. His design was, to turn his forces to
that side to which fortune should give success. At first the Romans who
stood nearest were astonished, when they perceived their flanks were
uncovered by the departure of their allies; then a horseman in full
gallop announces to the king that the Albans were moving off. Tullus, in
this perilous juncture, vowed twelve Salii, and temples to Paleness and
Panic. Rebuking the horseman in a loud voice, so that the enemy might
hear him, he orders him to return to the fight, "that there was no
occasion for alarm; that by his order the Alban army was marching round
to fall on the unprotected rear of the Fidenates." He likewise commands
him to order the cavalry to raise their spears aloft; this expedient
intercepted from a great part of the Roman infantry the view of the
Alban army retreating. Those who saw it,