AEquians. About this
time they planted several colonies in the districts which they
conquered. These Roman colonies differed widely from those of ancient
Greece and of modern Europe. They were of the nature of garrisons
established in conquered towns, and served both to strengthen and extend
the power of Rome. The colonists received a portion of the conquered
territory, and lived as a ruling class among the old inhabitants, who
retained the use of the land.

The Romans now renewed their wars with the Etruscans; and the capture of
the important city of Veii was the first decisive advantage gained by
the Republic. The hero of this period was Camillus, who stands out
prominently as the greatest general of the infant Republic, who saved
Rome from the Gauls, and whom later ages honored as a second Romulus.

Veii, however, was only taken after a long and severe struggle. It was
closely allied with Fidenae, a town of Latium, not more than five or six
miles from Rome. The two cities frequently united their arms against
Rome, and in one of these wars Lars Tolumnius, the king of Veii, was
slain in single combat by A. Cornelius Cossus, one of the Military
Tribunes, and his arms dedicated to Jupiter, the second of the three
instances in which the _Spolia Opima_ were won (B.C. 437). A few years
afterward Fidenae was taken and destroyed (B.C. 426), and at the same
time a truce was granted to the Veientines for twenty years. At the
expiration of this truce the war was renewed, and the Romans resolved to
subdue Veii as they had done Fidenae. The siege of Veii, like that of
Troy, lasted ten years, and the means of its capture was almost as
marvelous as the wooden horse by which Troy was taken. The waters of the
Alban Lake rose to such a height as to deluge the neighboring country.
An oracle declared that Veii could not be taken until the waters of the
lake found a passage to the sea. This reached the ears of the Romans,
who thereupon constructed a tunnel to carry off its superfluous
waters.[19] The formation of this tunnel is said to have suggested to
the Romans the means of taking Veii. M. Furius Camillus, who was
appointed Dictator, commenced digging a mine beneath the city, which was
to have its outlet in the citadel, in the temple of Juno, the guardian
deity of Veii. When the mine was finished, the attention of the
inhabitants was diverted by feigned assaults against the walls.
Camillus led the way into the mine at the head of a p