[3,2] πολεμικαὶ δὲ πράξεις πολλαὶ μὲν καὶ ἄλλαι μνημονεύονται, μέγισται δὲ περὶ ὧν ἔρχομαι λέξων τὴν ἀρχὴν ποιησάμενος ἀπὸ τοῦ πρὸς Ἀλβανοὺς πολέμου. αἴτιος δὲ τοῦ διαστῆναι τὰς πόλεις καὶ λῦσαι τὸ συγγενὲς ἀνὴρ Ἀλβανὸς ἐγένετο Κλοίλιος ὄνομα τῆς μεγίστης ἀρχῆς ἀξιωθείς, ὃς ἀχθόμενος ἐπὶ τοῖς Ῥωμαίων ἀγαθοῖς καὶ κατέχειν τὸν φθόνον οὐ δυνάμενος φύσει τε αὐθάδης καὶ ὑπομαργότερος ὢν ἐκπολεμῶσαι τὰς πόλεις ἔγνω πρὸς ἀλλήλας. οὐχ ὁρῶν δὲ ὅπως ἂν πείσειε τοὺς Ἀλβανοὺς στρατὸν αὑτῷ κατὰ Ῥωμαίων ἄγειν ἐπιτρέψαι μήτε δικαίας ἔχοντι προφάσεις μήτε ἀναγκαίας, μηχανᾶται δή τι τοιόνδε· τοῖς ἀπορωτάτοις Ἀλβανῶν καὶ θρασυτάτοις ἐφῆκε λῃστεύειν τοὺς Ῥωμαίων ἀγροὺς ἄδειαν ὑπισχνούμενος καὶ παρεσκεύασε πολλοὺς ἀκίνδυνα κέρδη διώκοντας, ὧν οὐδὲ κωλυόμενοι ὑπὸ τοῦ δέους ἀποστήσεσθαι ἔμελλον, ἐμπλῆσαι πολέμου λῃστρικοῦ τὴν ὅμορον. τοῦτο δ´ ἔπραττε κατὰ λογισμὸν οὐκ ἀπεικότα, ὡς τὸ ἔργον ἐμαρτύρησε. Ῥωμαίους μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἀνέξεσθαι τὰς ἁρπαγὰς ὑπελάμβανεν, ἀλλ´ ἐπὶ τὰ ὅπλα χωρήσειν, αὑτῷ δ´ ἐξουσίαν ἔσεσθαι κατηγορεῖν αὐτῶν πρὸς τὸν δῆμον ὡς ἀρχόντων πολέμου, Ἀλβανῶν δὲ τοὺς πλείστους φθονοῦντας τοῖς ἀποίκοις τῆς εὐτυχίας δέξεσθαι τὰς διαβολὰς ἀσμένους καὶ τὸν κατ´ αὐτῶν πόλεμον ἐξοίσειν, ὅπερ καὶ συνέβη. ἀγόντων γὰρ καὶ φερόντων ἀλλήλους τῶν κακουργοτάτων ἐξ ἑκατέρας πόλεως καὶ στρατιᾶς ποτε Ῥωμαϊκῆς ἐμβαλούσης εἰς τὴν Ἀλβανῶν, ὑφ´ ἧς πολλοὶ τῶν λῃστῶν οἱ μὲν ἀνῃρέθησαν, οἱ δὲ συνελήφθησαν, συγκαλέσας τὸ πλῆθος εἰς ἐκκλησίαν ὁ Κλοίλιος, ἐν ᾗ πολλὴν ἐποιήσατο τῶν Ῥωμαίων κατηγορίαν, τραυματίας τε συχνοὺς ἐπιδεικνύμενος καὶ τοὺς προσήκοντας τοῖς ἡρπασμένοις ἢ τεθνηκόσι παράγων καὶ πλείω τῶν γεγονότων ἐπικαταψευδόμενος, πρεσβείαν πέμπειν πρῶτον ἐψηφίσατο δίκας αἰτήσουσαν τῶν γεγονότων· ἐὰν δὲ ἀγνωμονῶσι Ῥωμαῖοι τότε τὸν πόλεμον ἐπ´ αὐτοὺς ἐκφέρειν.

[3,2] Many military exploits are related of him, but the greatest are those which I shall now narrate, beginning with the war against the Albans. The man responsible for the quarrel between the two cities and the severing of their bond of kinship was an Alban named Cluilius,6 who had been honoured with the chief magistracy; this man, vexed at the prosperity of the Romans and unable to contain his envy, and being by nature headstrong and somewhat inclined to madness, resolved to involve the cities in war with each other. But not seeing how he could persuade the Albans to permit him to lead an army against the Romans without just and urgent reasons, he contrived a plan of the following sort: (p9) he permitted the poorest and boldest of the Albans to pillage the fields of the Romans, promising them immunity, and so caused many to overrun the neighbouring territory in a series of plundering raids, as they would now be pursuing without danger gains from which they would never desist even under the constraint of fear. In doing this he was following a very natural line of reasoning, as the event bore witness. For he assumed that the Romans would not submit to being plundered but would rush to arms, and he would thus have an opportunity of accusing them to his people as the aggressors in the war; and he also believed that the majority of the Albans, envying the prosperity of their colony, would gladly listen to these false accusations and would begin war against the Romans. And that is just what happened. For when the worst elements of each city fell to robbing and plundering each other and at last a Roman army made an incursion into the territory of the Albans and killed or took prisoner many of the bandits, Cluilius assembled the people and inveighed against the Romans at great length, showed them many who were wounded, produced the relations of those who had been seized or slain, and at the same time added other circumstances of his own invention; whereupon it was voted on his motion to send an embassy first of all to demand satisfaction for what had happened, and then, if the Romans refused it, to begin war against them.