Kitap 5
16.5
forward. With this they advanced by cross marches through the territory of Caere and surprised the Tarquinians as they were returning heavily laden with
16.6
booty. They slew great numbers, stripped the whole force of their baggage, and returned with the recovered possessions from their farms to Rome. Two days were allowed for the owners to identify their
16.7
property; what was unclaimed on the third day, most of it belonging to the enemy, was sold “under the spear,” See note in chap. xxix, Book IV. and the proceeds distributed amongst the
16.8
soldiers. The issues of the other wars, especially of that against Veii, were still undecided, and the Romans were already despairing of success through their own efforts, and were looking to the Fates and the gods, when the embassy returned from Delphi with the sentence of the
16.9
oracle. It was in accord with the answer given by the Veientine soothsayer, and ran as follows: — “See to it, Roman, that the rising flood At Alba flow not o'er its banks and shape Its channel
16.10
seawards. Harmless through thy fields Shalt thou disperse it, scattered into rills. Then fiercely press upon thy foeman's walls, For now the Fates have given thee victory. That city which long years thou hast besieged Shall now be
16.11
thine. And when the war hath end, Do thou, the victor, bear an ample gift Into my temple, and the ancestral rites Now in disuse, see that thou celebrate Anew with all their wonted pomp.”
