HOW ROME BECAME RULER OF ITALY 47
the commands of the senate," they said , " for we are its am bassadors. Cincinnatus wiped off the dust and sweat, his wife brought his toga , and when he had put it on , the ambas sadors saluted him with reverence as dictator . A vessel was moored at the river bank , waiting to carry him across to the city . On the opposite shore stood his three sons , his rela tives , and friends, and nearly all the patricians of Rome . They were in grievous trouble , for the Æquians had shut up the consul and his troops in a narrow valley , and no one could form any plan for rescuing them . The Romans believed that Cincinnatus was the one man who would know what to do , and therefore they had made him dictator . Cincinnatus knew how to think fast, and before night he had decided upon a plan. He ordered every man in Rome to come to the Campus Martius , with his weapons , food for five days , and twelve long , sharp stakes. At sunset they set out on a rapid march and reached the enemy at midnight. Cincinnatus arranged his men in a line around the camp . When the signal is given , he said , " let each man dig a trench in front of him and also drive down his stakes . In the morning the Æquians found that they were shut in by a ditch , a palisade , and a line a of valiant soldiers, and they were forced to surrender. The dictator set up two spears in the ground and tied a third spear across their tops. This was called a yoke, and under it the whole Æquian army was made to march to show that they had become subject to the Roman people. The consul and his men saluted Cincinnatus and voted him a golden crown of a pound's weight . Then they set off for the city. First came the Æquian leaders , led as captives; then the mili
48 STORY OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE
tary standards , and Cincinnatus in his chariot. Behind him marched the army with the spoils of the enemy . There was great rejoicing in Rome . Before every house along the way was a table spread with food ; and as the soldiers marched through the city , they feasted and sang songs of victory . Honors were showered upon Cincinnatus ; but just as soon as he was free, he laid down the dictatorship and went back quietly to his little farm across the Tiber .
From the wars with the Etruscans comes another good story , that of Ca - mil'lus . These Etruscans were an interesting nation . They built strong walls and dikes and handsome temples . They owned many ships and traded with the peoples who lived about the Med -i -ter ra'ne-an Sea . They made statue and paintings and jewelry . They were rich and powerful; but their power was growing less, for they had been beaten at sea by the Greeks and attacked on land by the Gauls .
GATE OF AN OLD ETRUSCAN CITY
HOW ROME BECAME RULER OF ITALY 49
These Gauls had come into Italy from what is now France, and had taken possession of the country to the north of the Etruscans. Now was the chance for the Romans . The patri cians were eager to make war upon the Etruscans , for this was not long after Spurius Cassius had proposed the Agra rian Law , which has been mentioned before, and they were afraid the plebeians would insist upon its being carried out . If they were making war , they would have no time to think about land laws; therefore the Romans laid siege to Ve'i-i , one of the twelve Etruscan cities. They knew how to fight in the field, but they were not wise in conducting sieges, and year after year passed without the capture of the city . Men had to be kept in service the year round , and for the first time wages were given to Roman soldiers. Toward the end of one summer , so the legend runs , the waters of the Al ban Lake suddenly began to rise , though no rain had fallen . The Romans were alarmed , for they feared this was a sign that the gods were angry with them . They prayed and they offered sacrifices, but the waters continued to rise . Finally some one heard that a soothsayer of Veii had laughed at the labors of the Romans , and declared it to be decreed by the Fates that Veii should not fall until the Alban Lake was drained . The Romans sent to the Greek oracle at Delphi to ask the god A -pol'lo if this was true , and there they received the same answer . Let the water out," commanded the oracle , but not to flow into the sea . Rather make courses for it in your fields until it is spent." Then the Romans bored through the side of the hill and let the water out . They cut through hard rock for three miles and made a tunnel about
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