50 STORY OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE
three feet wide and five feet high . Through this the water flowed , then into courses in the fields until it had been spent . The Romans pressed in through this tunnel , and Veii was taken .
Camillus took one town after another in E -tru'ri-a, the country of the Etruscans , until at length he stood before Fa - le'ri -i. There was every reason to fear that this city would be as hard to cap ture as Veii had been , for it was built high upon an emi nence between two great ravines. One day, however, a man appeared at the tent of Camillus with a little band of school boys. These boys are the sons of the chief men of Fale rii , he said , and I am their tutor . I deliver them up to you , and with them in your power, you can easily force their fathers to surrender . The treacherous man expected to
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RAVINEABOVE WHICH STOOD FALERII
HOW ROME BECAME RULER OF ITALY 51
receive a great reward ; but Camillus replied indignantly, We do not make war with boys . When I win , I win by bravery , labor, and arms. Then he stripped the wicked tutor , tied his hands behind his back , and giving the boys rods , told them to drive him back to the town .
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On learning of this , the Fa-le'ri-ans declared that they were willing to surrender to so just and honorable a com mander . So it was that Falerii fell into the hands of the Ro mans. The senate paid special honors to Camillus, because he had taken the city of the Etruscans less by warfare than by justice and good faith . Other cities of Etruria were taken by the Romans , and finally they made a peace of twenty years with the Etruscans.
When the people of Veii had seen that their city was about to fall, they had sent messengers to Rome to ask for peace . The senate had refused . Then one of the messengers had said , " In the Book of the Fates it is written that our city shall fall; but it is also written that if Veii falls , Rome , too , shall be de stroyed . The senators had paid no attention to this pro phecy, but theywere soon to rememberit ; for Rome was about to fall . The fierce and barbarous Gauls , as has been said , were coming down upon Etruria from the north . The Romans be came the allies of the Etruscans ; but they did not prove to be especially valuable allies, for when they reached the river Al'li-a , a sudden fright seized upon them and they ran away so fast as to get into one another's way . Some of them lost their heads so completely that they ran to some hostile town rather than toward Rome . This defeat at the river Allia in 390 B.C. was the worst that the Romans had ever known.
52 STORY OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE
The Gauls pushed on to Rome . So few Roman soldiers remained that there was not a hope of saving the city. Most of the people fled ; but a few of the strongest young men and senators and their families shut themselves up in the citadel, to hold that if possible , and carry on the Roman name. The old men would not go with them to use up the scanty food . They put on their richest robes , and those who had held office arrayed themselves in the handsome garments worn by vic tors riding in triumph , and seated themselves in the Sen ate Chamber on their ivory chairs . The enemy pressed into the forum , and there they saw these silent , dignified old men , as calm and motionless as statues . The Gauls stood gazing half in reverence and half in fear . Then one of them stroked the long white beard of a senator, and the old Roman struck him with his ivory sceptre. At this the Gauls struck blow after blow . They killed every one that could be found, plun dered the houses and set them afire.
But the brave young warriors held the citadel , and seven months later, they still held it , for it stood on a steep rock .and the Gauls had not found the way to it . At length they discovered the path , and one dark night they climbed up in single file so quietly that the foremost man succeeded in reaching the top without being heard by the sentinels . The Romans , however , had watchmen with keener ears than the sentinels , for a flock of geese had been spared by the hungry people because they were sacred to Juno , and they now set up a cackling . Mar'cus Man'li -us, the commander, sprang from his bed , snatched up his arms, and struck with his shield the foremost Gaul . The Gaul fell headlong , carrying
