ed, that the Volscians were the first
that took up arms, but the Romans would be the last to lay them down.
This answer being brought back, Tullus called a general assembly of the
Volscians; and the voted passing for a war, he then proposed that they
should call in Marcius, laying aside the remembrance of former grudges,
and assuring themselves that the services they should now receive from
him as friend and associate, would abundantly outweigh any harm or
damage he had done them when he was their enemy. Marcius was accordingly
summoned, and having made his entrance, and spoken tot he people, won
their good opinion of his capacity, his skill, counsel, and boldness,
not less by his present words than by his past actions. They joined him
in commission with Tullus, to have full power as general of their forces
in all that related to the war. And he, fearing lest the time that would
be requisite to bring all the Volscians together in full preparation
might be so long as to lose him the opportunity of action, left order
with the chief persons and magistrates for the city to provide other
things, while he himself, prevailing upon the readiest to assemble and
march out with him as volunteers without staying to be enrolled, made
a sudden inroad into the Roman confines, when nobody expected him, and
possessed himself of so much booty, that the Volscians found they had
more than they could either carry away or use in the camp. The abundance
of provision which he gained, and the waste and havoc of the country
which he made, were, however, the smallest results of that invasion;
the great mischief he intended, and his special object in all, was to
increase at Rome the suspicions entertained of the patricians, and
to make them upon worse terms with the people. With this view, while
despoiling all the fields and destroying the property of other men, he
took special care to preserve their farms and lands untouched, and would
not allow his soldiers to ravage there, or seize upon any thing which
belonged to them. Hence the quarrels broke out afresh, and rose to
a greater height than ever; the senators reproaching those of the
commonalty with their late injustice to Marcius; while the plebeians, on
their side, did not hesitate to accuse them of having, out of spite and
revenge, solicited him to this enterprise, and thus, when others
were involved in the miseries of a war by their means, they sat like
unconcerned spectators furnished with a