,
afterwards very many, when the army became increased; they have raised
defenders not only towards the city, but towards Etruria also, against
any succours which may come from thence. What need I mention towers,
vineae, and testudines, and the other apparatus used in attacking towns?
When so much labour has been expended, and they have now at length
reached the end of the work, do you think that all these preparations
should be abandoned that, next summer, the same course of toil may have
to be undergone again in forming them anew? How much less trouble to
support the works already done, and to press on and persevere, and to
get rid of our task! For certainly the matter is of short duration, if
it be conducted with a uniform course of exertions; nor do we by these
intermissions and interruptions expedite the attainment of our hopes. I
am now speaking of labour and of loss of time. What? do these such
frequent meetings in Etruria on the subject of sending aid to Veii
suffer us to disregard the danger which we encounter by procrastinating
the war? As matters stand now, they are incensed, they dislike them,
they refuse to send any; as far as they are concerned, we are at liberty
to take Veii. Who can promise that their temper will be the same
hereafter, if the war is suspended? when, if you suffer any relaxation,
more respectable and more frequent embassies will go; when that which
now displeases the Etrurians, the establishment of a king at Veii, may,
after an interval, be done away with, either by the joint determination
of the state that they may recover the good will of the Etrurians, or by
a voluntary act of the king, who may be unwilling that his reign should
stand in the way of the welfare of his countrymen. See how many
circumstances, and how detrimental, follow that line of conduct: the
loss of works formed with so great labour; the threatening devastation
of our frontiers; an Etruscan excited instead of a Veientian war. These,
tribunes, are your measures, pretty much the same, in truth, as if a
person should render a disease tedious, and perhaps incurable, for the
sake of present meat or drink, in a patient who, by resolutely suffering
himself to be treated, might soon recover his health.

6. "If, by Jove, it were of no consequence with respect to the present
war, yet it certainly would be of the utmost importance to military
discipline, that our soldiers should be accustomed not only to enjoy the
victory obtain