Those cities, however, which voluntarily came to his side he
treated with the utmost consideration, even pitching his camp at a
distance, for fear they might be injured by the soldiery against his
will, and never plundering their territory.
XXIX. When at last he took Bollae, a town not more than twelve miles
from Rome, obtaining immense booty and putting nearly all the adult
inhabitants to the sword, then not even those Volscians who had been
appointed to garrison the cities would any longer remain at their posts,
but seized their arms and joined the army of Marcius, declaring that he
was their only general, and that they would recognise no other leader.
His renown and glory spread throughout all Italy, and all men were
astonished that one man by changing sides should have produced so great
a change. The affairs of Rome were in the last disorder, the people
refusing to fight, while internal quarrels and seditious speeches took
place daily, until news came that Lavinium was being invested by the
enemy. This town contains the most ancient images and sacred things of
the tutelary deities of Rome, and is the origin of the Roman people,
being the first town founded by Aeneas.
Upon this a very singular change of opinions befel both the people and
the Senate. The people were eager to annul their sentence against
Marcius, and to beg him to return, but the Senate, after meeting and
considering this proposal, finally rejected it, either out of a mere
spirit of opposition to anything proposed by the people, or because they
did not wish him to return by favour of the people; or it may be because
they themselves were now angry with him for having shown himself the
enemy of all classes alike, although he had only been injured by one,
and for having become the avowed enemy of his country, in which he knew
that the best and noblest all sympathised with him, and had suffered
along with him.
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