The Alban had no more courage than loyalty.  Therefore neither daring to keep his ground, nor to desert openly, he filed off slowly to the mountains.  After this, when he supposed he had advanced far enough, he led his entire army uphill, and still wavering in mind, in order to waste time, opened his ranks.  His design was, to direct his forces to that side on which fortune should give success.  At first the Romans who stood nearest were astonished, when they perceived their flanks were exposed by the departure of their allies; then a horseman at full gallop announced to the king that the Albans were moving off.  Tullus, in this perilous juncture, vowed twelve Salii and temples to Paleness and Panic.  Rebuking the horseman in a loud voice, so that the enemy might hear him plainly, he ordered him to return to the ranks, that there was no occasion for alarm; that it was by his order that the Alban army was being led round to fall on the unprotected rear of the Fidenates.  He likewise commanded him to order the cavalry to raise their spears aloft; the execution of this order shut out the view of the retreating Alban army from a great part of the Roman infantry.  Those who saw it, believing that it was even so, as they had heard from the king, fought with all the greater valour.  The alarm was transferred to the enemy; they had both heard what had been uttered so loudly, and a great part of the Fidenates, as men who had mixed as colonists with the Romans, understood Latin.  Therefore, that they might not be cut off from the town by a sudden descent of the Albans from the hills, they took to flight.  Tullus pressed forward, and having routed the wing of the Fidenates, returned with greater fury against the Veientes, who were disheartened by the panic of the others:  they did not even sustain his charge; but the river, opposed to them in the rear, prevented a disordered flight.  When their flight led thither, some, shamefully throwing down their arms, rushed blindly into the river; others, while lingering on the banks, undecided whether to fight or flee, were overpowered.  Never before was a more desperate battle fought by the Romans.

Then the Alban army, which had been a mere spectator of the fight, was marched down into the plains.  Mettius congratulated Tullus on his victory over the enemy; Tullus on his part addressed Mettius with courtesy.  He ordered the Albans to unite their camp with that of the Romans, which he prayed heaven might prove beneficial to both; and prepared a purificatory sacrifice for the next day.  As soon as it was daylight, all things being in readiness, according to custom, he commanded both armies to be summoned to an assembly.  The heralds, beginning at the farthest part of the camp, summoned the Albans first.  They, struck also with the novelty of the thing, in order to hear the Roman king deliver a speech, crowded next to him.  The Roman forces, under arms, according to previous arrangement, surrounded them; the centurions had been