For the Faliscans, like the Greeks,
had one common school, as they wished all their children to be brought
up together. The schoolmaster determined to betray these boys to the
enemy, and led them outside the walls for exercise every day, and then
led them back again. By this means he gradually accustomed them to going
out as if there was no danger, until finally he took all the boys and
handed them over to the Roman pickets, bidding them bring him to
Camillus. When he was brought before him he said that he was a
schoolmaster, that he preferred the favour of Camillus to his duty, and
that he came to hand over to him the city of Falerii in the persons of
these boys.
Camillus was very much shocked. He said that war is indeed harsh, and is
carried on by savage and unrighteous means, but yet there are laws of
war which are observed by good men, and one ought not so much to strive
for victory, as to forego advantages gained by wicked and villainous
means: thus a truly great general ought to succeed by his own warlike
virtues, not by the baseness of others.
Having spoken thus, he ordered his slaves to tear the schoolmaster's
clothes, tie his hands behind his back, and give the boys sticks and
scourges with which to drive him back to the city. The Faliscans had
just discovered the treachery of their schoolmaster, and, as may be
expected, the whole city was filled with mourning at such a calamity,
men and women together running in confusion to the gates and walls of
the city, when the boys drove in their schoolmaster with blows and
insults, calling Camillus their saviour, their father, and their god.
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