History of Rome

​But the mind of the commander was intent on a greater matter, namely, Antium:

​that was the capital of the Volscians, and had been the origin of the recent war. But because so strong a city could not be taken except with great preparation, artillery and engines, leaving his colleague with the army, he set out for Rome to urge the senate to destroy Antium.

​During his discourse — I believe it was pleasing to the gods that the power of Antium should remain longer — ambassadors from Nepete and Sutrium arrived, seeking aid against the Etruscans, and mentioning that the opportunity for bringing help was short.

​By this, fortune averted the force of Camillus from Antium. For since those places were opposed to Etruria and were, as it were, the barriers and gates from that direction, there was a care both for those people to occupy them whenever they attempted any new enterprise, and for the Romans to recover and protect them. Therefore, it pleased the senate to negotiate with Camillus, ​that, letting Antium go, he should undertake the Etruscan war. The city legions, which Quinctius had commanded, were assigned to him.

​Although he would have preferred the experienced army accustomed to his command, which was among the Volscians, he refused nothing. He only demanded Valerius as his partner in command. Quinctius and Horatius were sent to the Volscians as successors to Valerius. Setting out from the city to Sutrium, Furius ​and Valerius found a part of the town already captured by the Etruscans; on the other side, the townspeople, with the streets barricaded, were with difficulty keeping off the force of the enemy from themselves.

​Both the arrival of the Roman aid and the name of Camillus, highly celebrated among enemies and allies alike, both sustained the leaning fortune for the present and gave time for bringing help.

​Therefore, having divided the army, Camillus ordered his colleague, having led his troops around, to attack the walls in that part which the enemy held, not so much from a hope that the city could be taken by escalade, as that, the enemy being turned in that direction and the labor being eased for the townspeople who were already weary from fighting, he himself might have room to enter the walls without a contest.

​When this had been done on both sides at the same time, and a double terror surrounded the Etruscans — seeing both the walls attacked with the utmost force and the enemy inside the walls — they threw themselves out in fear in a single column through a gate which by chance was the only one not blockaded.

​A great slaughter of the fugitives was made both in the city and through the fields; more were slain inside the walls by Furius’ men; Valerius’ men were more unencumbered for pursuing, and they did not make an end of the slaughter before the night, which took away their sight.

​Sutrium having been recovered and restored to the allies, the army was led to Nepete, which, having been accepted through surrender, the Etruscans now held entirely.