a plan was not readily struck out of
ordering the people to refund the spoil, so that the due proportion
might be set aside out of it for sacred purposes. At length they had
recourse to this which seemed the easiest course, that, whoever wished
to acquit himself and his family of the religious obligation, after he
had made his own estimate of his portion of the plunder, should pay into
the treasury the value of the tenth part, so that out of it a golden
offering worthy of the grandeur of the temple and the divinity of the
god might be made, suitable to the dignity of the Roman people. This
contribution also tended to alienate the affections of the commons from
Camillus. During these transactions ambassadors came from the Volscians
and AEquans to sue for peace; and peace was obtained, rather that the
state wearied by so tedious a war might obtain repose, than that the
petitioners were deserving of it.

24. After the capture of Veii, the following year had six military
tribunes with consular power, the two Publii Cornelii, Cossus and
Scipio, Marcus Valerius Maximus a second time, Kaeso Fabius Ambustus a
third time, Lucius Furius Medullinus a fifth time, Quintus Servilius a
third time. To the Cornelii the Faliscian war, to Valerius and Servilius
the Capenatian war, fell by lot. By them no cities were attempted by
storm or by siege, but the country was laid waste, and the plunder of
the effects on the lands was driven off; not a single fruit tree, not a
vegetable was left on the land. These losses reduced the people of
Capena; peace was granted to them on their suing for it. The war among
the Faliscians still continued. At Rome in the mean time sedition became
multiplied; and for the purpose of assuaging this they resolved that a
colony should be sent off to the Volscian country, for which three
thousand Roman citizens should be enrolled; and the triumvirs appointed
for the purpose, distributed three acres and seven-twelfths to each man.
This donation began to be scorned, because they thought that it was
offered as a solace for the disappointment of higher hopes. For why were
the commons to be sent into exile to the Volscians, when the magnificent
city of Veii was still in view, and the Veientian territory, more
fertile and extensive than the Roman territor? The city also they
extolled as preferable to the city of Rome, both in situation, in the
grandeur of its enclosures, and buildings, both public and private. Nay,
even t