who remained inactive no longer than was necessary, to allow the recent smart of their late disaster to pass away, or at no distant date, as it was evident that the Sabines, ever hostile, and all Etruria would soon begin to stir up war:  but the Veientines, a constant rather than a formidable enemy, kept their minds in a state of perpetual uneasiness by petty annoyances more frequently than by any real danger to be apprehended from them, because they could at no time be neglected, and did not suffer the Romans to turn their attention elsewhere.  Then the Fabian family approached the senate:  the consul spoke in the name of the family:  “Conscript fathers, the Veientine war requires, as you know, an unremitting rather than a strong defence.  Do you attend to other wars:  assign the Fabii as enemies to the Veientines.  We pledge ourselves that the majesty of the Roman name shall be safe in that quarter.  That war, as if it were a family matter, it is our determination to conduct at our own private expense.  In regard to it let the republic be spared the expense of soldiers and money.”  The warmest thanks were returned to them.  The consul, leaving the senate-house, accompanied by the Fabii in a body, who had been standing in the porch of the senate-house, awaiting the decree of the senate, returned home.  They were ordered to attend on the following day in arms at the consul’s gate:  they then retired to their homes.

The report spread through the entire city; they extolled the Fabii to the skies:  that a single family had undertaken the burden of the state; that the Veientine war had now become a private concern, a private quarrel.  If there were two families of the same strength in the city, let them demand, the one the Volscians for itself, the other the Aequans; that all the neighbouring states could be subdued, while the Roman people all the time enjoyed profound peace.  The day following, the Fabii took up arms; they assembled where they had been ordered.  The consul, coming forth in his military robe, beheld the whole family in the porch drawn up in order of march; being received into the centre, he ordered the standards to be advanced.  Never did an army march through the city, either smaller in number, or more distinguished in renown and more admired by all.  Three hundred and six soldiers, all patricians, all of one family, not one of whom an honest senate would reject as a leader under any circumstances whatever, proceeded on their march, threatening the Veientine state with destruction by the might of a single family.  A crowd followed, one part belonging to themselves, consisting of their kinsmen and comrades, who contemplated no half measures, either as to their hope or anxiety, but everything on a grand scale:[60] the other aroused by solicitude for the public weal, unable to express their esteem and admiration.  They bade them proceed in their brave resolve, proceed with happy omens, and render the issue proportionate to the undertaking:  thence