es. This caused great delay in
the Sabines' preparations for attacking the Romans, and Poplicola,
feeling it to be his duty not merely to watch but to assist Clausus,
sent envoys, who spoke to him as follows: "Poplicola feels that you are
a man of honour, who would be unwilling to take vengeance upon your
countrymen, although you have been shamefully treated by them. But if
you choose to put yourself in safety by leaving your country and a
people that hates you, he will receive you, both in his public and his
private capacity, in a manner worthy of your own high character and of
the dignity of Rome." After much deliberation, Clausus decided that he
could not do better than accept this offer, and assembled all his
friends. They in their turn influenced many others, so that he was able
to transplant to Rome five thousand of the most peaceful and respectable
families of the Sabine nation. Poplicola, who had notice of their
arrival, welcomed them kindly and graciously. He made them all citizens
of Rome, and gave each of them two acres of land along the river Anio.
He gave Clausus twenty-five acres, and enrolled him among the Senators.
Clausus afterwards became one of the first men in Rome for wisdom and
power, and his descendants, the Claudian family, was one of the most
illustrious in history.

XXII. Though the disputes of the Sabines were settled by this migration,
yet their popular orators would not let them rest, but vehemently urged
that they ought not to let Appius, a deserter and an enemy, prevail upon
them to let the Romans go unpunished--a thing which he could not
persuade them to do when he was present among them. They proceeded to
Fidenae with a great army and encamped there, and laid two thousand men
in ambush before Rome, in wooded and broken ground, meaning in the
morning to send out a few horsemen to plunder ostentatiously. These men
were ordered to ride up close to Rome, and then to retire till their
pursuers were drawn into the snare. Poplicola heard of this plan the
same day from deserters, and quickly made all necessary arrangements. At
evening he sent Postumius Balbus, his son-in-law, with three thousand
men to occupy the tops of the hills under which the Sabine ambush was
placed. His colleague, Lucretius, was ordered to take the
swiftest-footed and noblest youth of the city, and pursue the plundering
horsemen, while he himself with the rest of the forces made a circuitous
march and outflanked the enemy.