yesterday's battle. For the struggle was not so much with enemies as
with the treachery and perfidy of allies, a struggle which is more
serious and more dangerous. For--that you may not be under a mistaken
opinion--know that it was without my orders that the Albans retired to
the mountains, nor was that my command, but a stratagem and the mere
pretence of a command: that you, being kept in ignorance that you were
deserted, your attention might not be drawn away from the fight, and
that the enemy might be inspired with terror and dismay, conceiving
themselves to be surrounded on the rear. Nor is that guilt, which I
now complain of, shared by all the Albans. They merely followed their
leader, as you too would have done, had I wished to turn my army away
to any other point from thence. It is Mettius there who is the leader
of this march: it is Mettius also who the contriver of this war is: it
is Mettius who is the violator of the treaty between Rome and Alba.
Let another hereafter venture to do the like, if I do not presently
make of him a signal example to mankind." The centurions in arms stood
around Mettius: the king proceeded with the rest of his speech as he
had commenced: "It is my intention, and may it prove fortunate, happy,
and auspicious to the Roman people, to myself, and to you, O Albans,
to transplant all the inhabitants of Alba to Rome, to grant your
commons the rights of citizenship, to admit your nobles into the body
of senators, to make one city, one state: as the Alban state after
being one people was formerly divided into two, so let it now again
become one." On hearing this the Alban youth, unarmed, surrounded by
armed men, although divided in their sentiments, yet under pressure of
the general apprehension maintained silence. Then Tullus proceeded:
"If, Mettius Fufetius, you were capable of learning fidelity, and how
to observe treaties, I would have suffered you to live and have given
you such a lesson. But as it is, since your disposition is incurable,
do you at any rate by your punishment teach mankind to consider those
obligations sacred, which have been violated by you? As therefore a
little while since you kept your mind divided between the interests of
Fidenae and of Rome, so shall you now surrender your body to be torn
asunder in different directions." Upon this, two chariots drawn by
four horses being brought up, he bound Mettius stretched at full
length to their carriages: then the horses were