called Pila Horatia,[25] “Quirites,” said he, “can you bear to see bound beneath the gallows, amid scourgings and tortures, the man whom you just now beheld marching decorated with spoils and exulting in victory—­a sight so shocking that even the eyes of the Albans could scarcely endure it?  Go then, lictor, bind those hands, which but a little while since, armed, won sovereignty for the Roman people.  Go, cover the head of the liberator of this city:  hang him on the accursed tree:  scourge him, either within the pomerium, so it be only amid those javelins and spoils of the enemy, or without the pomerium, so it be only amid the graves of the Curiatii.  For whither can you lead this youth, where his own noble deeds will not redeem him from such disgraceful punishment?” The people could not withstand either the tears of the father, or the spirit of the son, the same in every danger, and acquitted him more from admiration of his bravery, than on account of the justice of his cause.  But that so clear a murder might be at least atoned for by some expiation, the father was commanded to expiate the son’s guilt at the public charge.  He, having offered certain expiatory sacrifices, which were ever after continued in the Horatian family, and laid a beam across the street, made the youth pass under it, as under the yoke, with his head covered.  This beam remains even to this day, being constantly repaired at the public expense; it is called Sororium Tigillum (Sister’s Beam).  A tomb of square stone was erected to Horatia in the spot where she was stabbed and fell.

However, the peace with Alba did not long continue.  The dissatisfaction of the populace at the fortune of the state having been intrusted to three soldiers, perverted the wavering mind of the dictator; and since straightforward measures had not turned out well, he began to conciliate the affections of the populace by treacherous means.  Accordingly, as one who had formerly sought peace in time of war, and was now seeking war in time of peace, because he perceived that his own state possessed more courage than strength, he stirred up other nations to make war openly and by proclamation:  for his own people he reserved the work of treachery under the show of allegiance.  The Fidenates, a Roman colony,[26] having taken the Veientes into partnership in the plot, were instigated to declare war and take up arms under a compact of desertion on the part of the Albans.  When Fidenae had openly revolted, Tullus, after summoning Mettius and his army from Alba, marched against the enemy.  When he crossed the Anio, he pitched his camp at the conflux of the rivers.[27] Between that place and Fidenae, the army of the Veientes had crossed the Tiber.  These, in the line of battle, also occupied the right wing near the river; the Fidenates were posted on the left nearer the mountains.  Tullus stationed his own men opposite the Veientine foe; the Albans he posted to face the legion of the Fidenates.