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. 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