However, the peace with Alba did not long continue. The dissatisfaction of the populace at the fortune of the state having been intrusted to three soldiers, perverted the wavering mind of the dictator; and since straightforward measures had not turned out well, he began to conciliate the affections of the populace by treacherous means. Accordingly, as one who had formerly sought peace in time of war, and was now seeking war in time of peace, because he perceived that his own state possessed more courage than strength, he stirred up other nations to make war openly and by proclamation: for his own people he reserved the work of treachery under the show of allegiance. The Fidenates, a Roman colony,[26] having taken the Veientes into partnership in the plot, were instigated to declare war and take up arms under a compact of desertion on the part of the Albans. When Fidenae had openly revolted, Tullus, after summoning Mettius and his army from Alba, marched against the enemy. When he crossed the Anio, he pitched his camp at the conflux of the rivers.[27] Between that place and Fidenae, the army of the Veientes had crossed the Tiber. These, in the line of battle, also occupied the right wing near the river; the Fidenates were posted on the left nearer the mountains. Tullus stationed his own men opposite the Veientine foe; the Albans he posted to face the legion of the Fidenates. The Alban had no more courage than loyalty. Therefore neither daring to keep his ground, nor to desert openly, he filed off slowly to the mountains. After this, when he supposed he had advanced far enough, he led his entire army uphill, and still wavering in mind, in order to waste time, opened his ranks. His design was, to direct his forces to that side on which fortune should give success. At first the Romans who stood nearest were astonished, when they perceived their flanks were exposed by the departure of their allies; then a horseman at full gallop announced to the king that the Albans were moving off. Tullus, in this perilous juncture, vowed twelve Salii and temples to Paleness and Panic. Rebuking the horseman in a loud voice, so that the enemy might hear him plainly, he ordered him to return to the ranks, that there was no occasion for alarm; that it was by his order that the Alban army was being led round to fall on the unprotected rear of the Fidenates. He likewise commanded him to order the cavalry to raise their spears aloft; the execution of this order shut out the view of the retreating Alban army from a great part of the Roman infantry. Those who saw it, believing that it was even so, as they had heard from the king, fought with all the greater valour. The alarm was transferred to the enemy; they had both heard what had been uttered so loudly, and a great part of the Fidenates, as men who had mixed as colonists with the Romans, understood Latin. Therefore, that they might not be cut off from the town by a sudden descent of the Albans from the hills, they took to flight. Tullus pressed forward, and having routed the wing of the Fidenates, returned with greater fury against the Veientes, who were disheartened by the panic of the others: they did not even sustain his charge; but the river, opposed to them in the rear, prevented a disordered flight. When their flight led thither, some, shamefully throwing down their arms, rushed blindly into the river; others, while lingering on the banks, undecided whether to fight or flee, were overpowered. Never before was a more desperate battle fought by the Romans.
Then the Alban army, which had been a mere spectator of the fight, was marched down into the plains. Mettius congratulated Tullus on his victory over the enemy; Tullus on his part addressed Mettius with courtesy. He ordered the Albans to unite their camp with that of the Romans, which he prayed heaven might prove beneficial to both; and prepared a purificatory sacrifice for the next day. As soon as it was daylight, all things being in readiness, according to custom, he commanded both armies to be summoned to an assembly. The heralds, beginning at the farthest part of the camp, summoned the Albans first. They, struck also with the novelty of the thing, in order to hear the Roman king deliver a speech, crowded next to him. The Roman forces, under arms, according to previous arrangement, surrounded them; the centurions had been charged to execute their orders without delay. Then Tullus began as follows: "Romans, if ever before, at any other time, in any war, there was a reason that you should return thanks, first to the immortal gods, next to your own valour, it was 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 driven in different directions, carrying off his mangled body on each carriage, where the limbs had remained hanging to the cords. All turned away their eyes from so shocking a spectacle. That was the first and last instance among the Romans of a punishment which established a precedent that showed but little regard for the laws of humanity. In other cases we may boast that no other nation has approved of milder forms of punishment.[28]
Meanwhile the cavalry had already been sent on to Alba, to transplant the people to Rome. The legions were next led thither to demolish the city. When they entered the gates, there was not indeed such a tumult or panic as usually prevails in captured cities, when, after the gates have been burst open, or the walls levelled by the battering-ram, or the citadel taken by assault, the shouts of the enemy and rush of armed men through the city throws everything into confusion with fire and sword: but gloomy silence and speechless sorrow so stupefied the minds of all,