to their country. But that it was their
wish that their pay should go on for those who had, out of their turn,
undertaken voluntary service." To the horsemen also a certain stipend
was assigned. Then for the first time the cavalry began to serve on
their own horses. This army of volunteers being led to Veii, not only
restored the works which had been lost, but also erected new ones.
Supplies were conveyed from the city with greater care than before; lest
any thing should be wanting for the accommodation of an army who
deserved so well.

8. The following year had military tribunes with consular authority,
Caius Servilius Ahala a third time, Quintus Servilius, Lucius Virginius,
Quintus Sulpicius, Aulus Manlius a second time, Manius Sergius a second
time. During their tribuneship, whilst the solicitude of all was
directed to the Veientian war, the garrison at Anxur was neglected in
consequence of the absence of the soldiers on leave, and from the
indiscriminate admission of Volscian traders was overpowered, the guards
at the gates being suddenly betrayed. Less of the soldiers perished,
because they were all trafficking through the country and city like
suttlers. Nor were matters conducted more successfully at Veii, which
was then the chief object of all public solicitude. For both the Roman
commanders had more quarrels among themselves, than spirit against the
enemy; and the severity of the war was exaggerated by the sudden arrival
of the Capenatians and the Faliscians. These two states of Etruria,
because they were contiguous in situation, judging that in case Veii was
conquered, they should be next to the attacks of the Romans in war; the
Faliscians also, incensed from a cause affecting themselves, because
they had already on a former occasion mixed themselves up in a
Fidenatian war, being bound together by an oath by reciprocal embassies,
marched unexpectedly with their armies to Veii. It so happened, they
attacked the camp in that quarter where Manius Sergius, military
tribune, commanded, and occasioned great alarm; because the Romans
imagined that all Etruria was aroused and were advancing in a great
mass. The same opinion aroused the Veientians in the city. Thus the
Roman camp was attacked on both sides; and crowding together, whilst
they wheeled round their battalions from one post to another, they were
unable either to confine the Veientians within their fortifications, or
repel the assault from their own works, an