XXV.  As the city was now so flourishing, the weaker of the neighbouring states made submission, and were glad to receive assurance that they would be unharmed; but the more powerful, fearing and envying Romulus, considered that they ought not to remain quiet, but ought to check the growth of Rome.  First the Etruscans of Veii, a people possessed of wide lands and a large city, began the war by demanding the surrender to them of Fidenae, which they claimed as belonging to them.  This demand was not only unjust, but absurd, seeing that they had not assisted the people of Fidenae when they were fighting and in danger, but permitted them to be destroyed, and then demanded their houses and lands, when they were in the possession of others.  Receiving a haughty answer from Romulus, they divided themselves into two bodies, with one of which they attacked Fidenae, and with the other went to meet Romulus.  At Fidenae they conquered the Romans, and slew two thousand; but they were defeated by Romulus, with a loss of eight thousand men.  A second battle now took place at Fidenae, in which all agree that Romulus took the most important part, showing the greatest skill and courage, and a strength and swiftness more than mortal.  But some accounts are altogether fabulous, such as that fourteen hundred were slain, more than half of whom Romulus slew with his own hand.  The Messenians appear to use equally inflated language about Aristomenes, when they tell us that he thrice offered sacrifice for having slain a hundred Lacedaemonians.  After the victory, Romulus did not pursue the beaten army, but marched straight to the city of Veii.  The citizens, after so great a disaster, made no resistance, but at their own request were granted a treaty and alliance for a hundred years, giving up a large portion of their territory, called the Septem Pagi, or seven districts, and their saltworks by the river, and handing over fifty of their leading men as hostages.

For his success at Veii, Romulus enjoyed another triumph, on the Ides of October, when he led in his train many captives, amongst whom was the Veientine general, an old man, who was thought to have mismanaged matters foolishly and like a boy.  On this account to this day, when a sacrifice is made for victory, they lead an old man through the Forum and up to the Capitol, dressed in a boy’s robe with wide purple border, and with a child’s bulla hung round his neck; and the herald calls out “Sardinians for sale.”  For the Tyrrhenians or Tuscans are said to be of Sardinian origin, and Veii is a Tyrrhenian city.

XXVI.  This was Romulus’s last war.  After it, he, like nearly all those who have risen to power and fame by a great and unexpected series of successes, became filled with self-confidence and arrogance, and, in place of his former popular manners, assumed the offensive style of a despot.  He wore a purple tunic, and a toga with a purple border, and did business reclining instead of sitting on a throne;