§1.15.1belli Fidenatis contagione inritati Veientium animi et consanguinitate — nam Fidenates quoque Etrusci fuerunt —, et quod ipsa propinquitas loci, si Romana arma omnibus infesta finitimis essent, stimulabat, in fines Romanos excucurrerunt populabundi magis quam iusti more belli.
The minds of the Veientes, excited by the contagion of the Fidenate war and by their kinship—for the Fidenates also were Etruscans—and because the very proximity of the place stimulated them, if the Roman arms were to be hostile to all their neighbors, made an incursion into Roman territory, more in the manner of plunderers than of a regular war.
§1.15.2itaque non castris positis, non expectato hostium exercitu raptam ex agris praedam portantes Veios rediere.
Therefore, without pitching camp or waiting for the enemy's army, they returned to Veii carrying the booty seized from the fields.
Romanus contra, postquam hostem in agris non invenit, dimicationi ultimae instructus intentusque Tiberim transit.
The Roman, on the other hand, after he did not find the enemy in the fields, crossed the Tiber, prepared and intent upon a decisive struggle.
§1.15.3quem postquam castra ponere et ad urbem accessurum Veientes audivere, obviam egressi, ut potius acie decernerent, quam inclusi de tectis moenibusque dimicarent.
When the Veientes heard that he was pitching camp and would approach the city, they marched out to meet him, so that they might decide the issue in a regular battle rather than, shut up within, fight from their roofs and walls.
§1.15.4ibi viribus nulla arte adiutis tantum veterani robore exercitus rex Romanus vicit persecutusque fusos ad moenia hostes urbe valida muris ac situ ipso munita abstinuit; agros rediens vastat ulciscendi magis quam praedae studio.
There, the Roman king conquered by pure strength unaided by any art, merely by the vigor of his veteran army; and having pursued the routed enemy to their walls, he abstained from the city, which was strong in its walls and fortified by its very situation; returning, he devastated the fields, more from a desire for vengeance than for plunder.
§1.15.5eaque clade haud minus quam adversa pugna subacti Veientes pacem petitum oratores Romam mittunt.
And the Veientes, subdued by this disaster no less than by the adverse battle, sent ambassadors to Rome to ask for peace.
agri parte multatis in centum annos indutiae datae.
Having been punished by the loss of a part of their land, a truce for a hundred years was granted to them.
§1.15.6haec ferme Romulo regnante domi militiaeque gesta, quorum nihil absonum fidei divinae originis divinitatisque post mortem creditae fuit, non animus in regno avito recuperando, non condendae urbis consilium, non bello ac pace firmandae.
These were the things done at home and in war during the reign of Romulus, none of which was inconsistent with the belief in his divine origin and his divinity believed in after death; neither his spirit in recovering his ancestral kingdom, nor his plan of founding the city, nor of establishing it by war and peace.
§1.15.7ab illo enim profecto viribus datis tantum valuit, ut in quadraginta deinde annos tutam pacem haberet.
For from the strength assuredly given by him, it became so powerful that it had a secure peace for forty years thereafter.
§1.15.8multitudini tamen gratior fuit quam patribus, longe ante alios acceptissimus militum animis; trecentosque armatos ad custodiam corporis, quos Celeres appellavit, non in bello solum sed etiam in pace habuit.
He was, however, more pleasing to the multitude than to the fathers, and by far most acceptable to the minds of the soldiers before all others; and he kept three hundred armed men for the guard of his body, whom he called Celeres, not only in war but also in peace.