rs neither had had it
turned over to them for pillage nor were awarded a share of the
plunder when they requested it. Therefore they surrounded and slew the
quaestor who was disposing of it, and when Postumius reprimanded them
for this and strove to find the assassins, they killed him also. And
they assigned to their own use not only the captive territory but all
that at the time happened to be found in the public treasury. The
uprising would have assumed even greater dimensions but for the fact
that war against the Romans was renewed by the AEqui. Alarmed by this
situation they became quiet, endured the punishment for the murders,
which touched only a few, and took the field against their opponents,
whom they engaged and conquered. For this achievement the nobles
distributed the plunder among them, and voted pay first to the
infantry and later also to the cavalry. Up to that time they were used
to undertaking campaigns without pay and lived at their own expense;
now for the first time they began to draw pay.

[Sidenote: B.C. 408 (_a.u._ 346)] A war arising between them and Veii,
the Romans won frequent victories and reduced the foe to a state of
siege as long as the latter fought with merely their own contingent:
but when allies had been added to their force they came out against
the Romans and defeated them. Meanwhile the lake situated close to the
Alban Mount, which was shut in by the surrounding ridges and had no
outlet, overflowed its banks during the siege of Veii to such an
extent that it actually poured over the crests of the hills and went
rushing down to the sea. The Romans deeming that something
supernatural was certainly signified by this event sent to Delphi to
consult the oracle about the matter. There was also among the
population of Veii an Etruscan who was a soothsayer. The Pythian
interpretation coincided with his; and both declared that the city
would be captured when the overflowing water should not fall into the
sea but be used up differently. The Romans consequently ordered
several religious services to be performed. But the Pythian god did
not specify to which of the divinities nor in what way they should
offer these, and the Etruscan appeared to have the knowledge but would
explain nothing. So the Romans who were stationed about the wall from
which he was wont to issue to consort with them pretended friendliness
toward him, permitted him to make himself at ease in every way, and
allowed him to c