[3,28] Ἄνδρες Ῥωμαῖοί τε καὶ ἄλλοι φίλοι καὶ σύμμαχοι, τοὺς μὲν ἐκ τοῦ φανεροῦ τολμήσαντας εἰς πόλεμον ἡμῖν καταστῆναι Φιδηναίους καὶ τοὺς συμμάχους αὐτῶν ἐτιμωρησάμεθα σὺν θεοῖς, καὶ δυεῖν θάτερον ἢ παύσονται τὸ λοιπὸν ἐνοχλοῦντες ἡμῖν ἢ δίκας τίσουσιν ἔτι τούτων χείρονας. ἀπαιτεῖ δὲ ὁ καιρός, ἐπεὶ τὰ πρῶτα ἡμῖν κατ´ εὐχὴν κεχώρηκε, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους τιμωρήσασθαι πολεμίους, ὅσοι φίλων μὲν ἔχουσιν ὀνόματα καὶ παρελήφθησαν εἰς τόνδε τὸν πόλεμον ὡς κακῶς τοὺς κοινοὺς ἐχθροὺς μεθ´ ἡμῶν ποιήσοντες, ἐγκατέλιπον δὲ τὸ πρὸς ἡμᾶς πιστὸν καὶ μετὰ τῶν πολεμίων ἀπορρήτους ποιησάμενοι συνθήκας διαφθεῖραι πάντας ἡμᾶς ἐπεβάλοντο. πολὺ γὰρ οὗτοι κακίους τῶν ἐκ τοῦ φανεροῦ πολεμίων εἰσὶ καὶ μείζονος τιμωρίας ἄξιοι· τοὺς μὲν γὰρ καὶ φυλάξασθαι ῥᾴδιον τοῖς ἐπιβουλευομένοις καὶ συμπλακέντας ὡς ἐχθροὺς ἀμύνασθαι δυνατόν, φίλους δ´ ἐχθρῶν ἔργα ποιοῦντας οὔτε φυλάξασθαι ῥᾴδιον οὔτε ἀμύνασθαι τοῖς προκαταληφθεῖσι δυνατόν. οὗτοι δ´ εἰσὶν οἱ πεμφθέντες ἡμῖν ὑπὸ τῆς Ἀλβανῶν πόλεως ἐπὶ δόλῳ σύμμαχοι κακὸν μὲν οὐθὲν ὑφ´ ἡμῶν παθόντες, ἀγαθὰ δὲ πολλὰ καὶ μεγάλα. ἄποικοι μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν ὄντες οὐθὲν τῆς τούτων ἀρχῆς παρασπάσαντες ἰδίαν ἰσχὺν καὶ δύναμιν ἀπὸ τῶν ἰδίων πολέμων ἐκτησάμεθα, ἔθνεσι δὲ μεγίστοις καὶ πολεμικωτάτοις ἐπιτειχίσαντες τὴν ἡμῶν αὐτῶν πόλιν πολλὴν ἀσφάλειαν τούτοις τοῦ τε ἀπὸ Τυρρηνῶν καὶ ἀπὸ Σαβίνων πολέμου παρειχόμεθα· ἧς δὴ πόλεως εὖ τε πραττούσης ἁπάντων μάλιστα χαίρειν αὐτοὺς ἔδει καὶ σφαλλομένης μηδὲν ἐνδεέστερον ἢ περὶ τῆς αὐτῶν ἄχθεσθαι. οἱ δὲ ἄρα φθονοῦντες οὐχ ἡμῖν μόνον τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑαυτοῖς τῆς δι´ ἡμᾶς εὐτυχίας διετέλουν καὶ τελευτῶντες ὡς οὐκέτι κατέχειν τὴν ὕπουλον ἔχθραν ἐδύναντο πόλεμον ἡμῖν προεῖπον. μαθόντες δ´ ἡμᾶς εὖ πρὸς τὸν ἀγῶνα παρεσκευασμένους, ὡς οὐθὲν οἷοίτ´ ἦσαν ἐργάσασθαι κακόν, εἰς διαλλαγὰς ἐκάλουν καὶ φιλίαν καὶ τὸ περὶ τῆς ἡγεμονίας νεῖκος ἐν τρισὶν ἀφ´ ἑκατέρας πόλεως σώμασιν ἠξίουν κριθῆναι. ἐδεξάμεθα καὶ ταύτας τὰς προκλήσεις καὶ νικήσαντες τῇ μάχῃ τὴν πόλιν αὐτῶν ἔσχομεν ὑποχείριον. φέρε δὴ τί μετὰ ταῦτα ἐποιήσαμεν; ἐξὸν ἡμῖν ὅμηρά τε αὐτῶν λαβεῖν καὶ φρουρὰν ἐν τῇ πόλει καταλιπεῖν καὶ τοὺς κορυφαιοτάτους τῶν διαστησάντων τὰς πόλεις τοὺς μὲν ἀνελεῖν, τοὺς δ´ ἐκβαλεῖν πολιτείας τε αὐτῶν κόσμον μεταστῆσαι πρὸς τὸ ἡμῖν συμφέρον καὶ χώρας καὶ χρημάτων ἀποδασμῷ ζημιῶσαι καί, ὃ πάντων ῥᾷστον ἦν, ἀφελέσθαι τὰ ὅπλα αὐτούς, ἐξ ὧν ἐγκρατεστέραν ἂν τὴν ἀρχὴν κατεστησάμεθα, τούτων μὲν οὐδὲν ἠξιώσαμεν ποιῆσαι, τῷ δ´ εὐσεβεῖ μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ ἀσφαλεῖ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐπετρέψαμεν καὶ τὸ εὐπρεπὲς τὸ πρὸς ἅπαντας τοῦ λυσιτελοῦντος ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς ἰδίᾳ κρεῖττον ἡγησάμενοι συνεχωρήσαμεν αὐτοῖς ἅπαντα τὰ σφέτερα καρποῦσθαι, Μέττιον δὲ Φουφέττιον, ὃν αὐτοὶ τῇ μεγίστῃ ἀρχῇ ἐκόσμησαν, ὡς δὴ κράτιστον Ἀλβανῶν διοικεῖν τὰ κοινὰ μέχρι τοῦ παρόντος εἰάσαμεν. ἀνθ´ ὧν τίνας ἡμῖν χάριτας ἀπέδοσαν, ἡνίκα μᾶλλον φίλων τε καὶ συμμάχων εὐνοίας ἔδει, ἀκούσατε· ἀπορρήτους ποιησάμενοι συνθήκας πρὸς τοὺς κοινοὺς πολεμίους, ὡς ἐν τῷ ἀγῶνι συνεπιθησόμενοι ἡμῖν μετ´ αὐτῶν, ἐπειδὴ πλησίον ἀλλήλων ἐγινόμεθα καταλιπόντες τὴν τάξιν ἐφ´ ἣν ἐτάχθησαν ᾤχοντο πρὸς τὰ πλησίον ὄρη δρόμῳ προκαταλαβέσθαι σπεύδοντες τὰ ὀχυρά. εἰ μὲν οὖν κατὰ νοῦν ἡ πεῖρα αὐτοῖς ἐχώρει, οὐδὲν ἂν τὸ κωλῦον ἦν ἅπαντας ἡμᾶς ἀπολωλέναι κυκλωθέντας ὑπό τε πολεμίων καὶ φίλων, καὶ τοὺς πολλοὺς τῆς πόλεως ἡμῶν ἀγῶνας, οὓς ὑπὲρ τῆς ἡγεμονίας ἠγωνισάμεθα, ἐν ἡμέρᾳ διαφθαρῆναι μιᾷ. ἐπειδὴ δὲ διέπεσεν αὐτῶν τὸ βούλευμα θεῶν μὲν εὐνοίας προηγησαμένης (ἁπάσας γὰρ ἔγωγε τὰς καλὰς καὶ ἀγαθὰς πράξεις ἐκείνοις ἀνατίθημι), ἔπειτα καὶ τῆς ἐμῆς στρατηγίας οὐκ ἐλαχίστην μοῖραν εἴς τε τὸ δέος τῶν πολεμίων καὶ εἰς τὸ θάρσος τὸ ὑμέτερον παρασχομένης (ἃ γὰρ ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ τότε ἀγῶνι ἔφην, ὡς ὑπ´ ἐμοῦ κελευσθέντες Ἀλβανοὶ προκαταλαμβάνονται τὰ ὄρη κυκλώσεως τῶν πολεμίων ἕνεκα, πλάσματα καὶ στρατηγήματα ἦν ἐμά), κεχωρηκότων δ´ ἡμῖν τῶν πραγμάτων ὡς ἡμῖν συνέφερεν οὐκ ἂν εἴημεν ἄνδρες οἵους ἡμᾶς προσῆκεν εἶναι, εἰ μὴ τιμωρησαίμεθα τοὺς προδότας, οἵ γε χωρὶς τῆς ἄλλης ἀναγκαιότητος, ἣν διὰ τὸ συγγενὲς ἐχρῆν αὐτοὺς φυλάσσειν, σπονδὰς καὶ ὅρκια ποιησάμενοι πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἔναγχος οὔτε θεοὺς δείσαντες, οὓς τῶν ὁμολογιῶν ἐποιήσαντο μάρτυρας, οὔτε τὸ δίκαιον αὐτὸ καὶ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην νέμεσιν ἐντραπέντες, οὔτε τὸ τοῦ κινδύνου μέγεθος εἰ μὴ κατὰ νοῦν αὐτοῖς ἡ προδοσία χωρήσειεν ὑπολογιζόμενοι, τὸν οἴκτιστον τρόπον ἡμᾶς ἐπεχείρησαν ἀπολέσαι τοὺς ἀποίκους τε καὶ εὐεργέτας, οἱ κτίσται μετὰ τῶν ἐχθίστων τε καὶ πολεμιωτάτων στάντες.

[3,28] "Romans and you others, both friends and allies, those who dared openly to make war against us, the Fidenates and their allies, have been punished by us with the aid of the gods, and either will cease for the future to trouble us or will receive an even severer chastisement than that they have just experienced. It is now time, since our first enterprise has succeeded to our wish, to punish those other enemies also who ear the name of friends and were taken into this war to assist us in harrying our common foes, but have broken faith with us, and entering into secret treaties with those enemies, have attempted to destroy us all. For these are much worse than open enemies and deserve a severer punishment, since it is both easy to guard against the latter when one is treacherously attacked and possible to repulse them when they are at grips as enemies, but when friends act the part of enemies it is neither easy to guard against them nor possible for those who are taken by surprise to repulse them. And such are the allies sent us by the city of Alba with treacherous intent, although they have received no injury from us but many considerable benefits. For, as we are their colony, we have not wrested away any (p123) part of their dominion but have acquired our own strength and power from our own wars; and by making our city a bulwark against the greatest and most warlike nations we have effectually secured them from a war with the Tyrrhenians and Sabines. In the prosperity, therefore, of our city they above all others should have rejoiced, and have grieved at its adversity no less than at their own. But they, it appears, continued not only to begrudge us the advantages we had but also to begrudge themselves the good fortune they enjoyed because of us, and at last, unable any longer to contain their festering hatred, they declared war against us. But finding us well prepared for the struggle and themselves, therefore, in no condition to do any harm, they invited us to a reconciliation and friendship and asked that our strife over the supremacy should be decided by three men from each city. These proposals also we accepted, and after winning in the combat became masters of their city. Well, then, what did we do after that?Though it was in our power to take hostages from them, to leave a garrison in their city, to destroy some of the principal authors of the war between the two cities and to banish others, to change the form of their government according to our own interest, to punish them with the forfeiture of a part of their lands and effects, and — the thing that was easiest of all — to disarm them, by which means we should have strengthened our rule, we did not see fit to do any of these things, but, consulting our filial obligations to our mother-city rather than the security of our power and considering the good opinion of all the world as more important than our (p125) own private advantage, we allowed them to enjoy all that was theirs and permitted Mettius Fufetius, as being supposedly the best of the Albans — since they themselves had honoured him with the chief magistracy — to administer their affairs up to the present time. "For which favours hear now what gratitude they showed, at a time when we needed the goodwill of our friends and allies more than ever. They made a secret compact with our common enemies by which they engaged to fall upon us in conjunction with them in the course of the battle; and when the two armies approached each other they deserted the post to which they had been assigned and made off for the hills near by at a run, eager to occupy the strong positions ahead of anyone else. And if their attempt had succeeded according to their wish, nothing could have prevented us, surrounded at once by our enemies and by our friends, from being all destroyed, and the fruit of the many battles we had fought for the sovereignty of our city from being lost in a single day. But since their plan has miscarried, owing, in the first place, to the goodwill of the gods (for I at any rate ascribe all worthy achievements to them), and, second, to the stratagem I made use of, which contributed not a little to inspire the enemy with fear and you with confidence (for the statement I made during the battle, that the Albans were taking possession of the heights by my orders with a view of surrounding the enemy, was all a fiction and a stratagem contrived by myself), since, I say, things have turned out to our advantage, we should not be (p127) the men we ought to be if we did not take revenge on these traitors. For, apart from the other ties which, by reason of their kinship to us, they ought to have preserved inviolate, they recently made a treaty with us confirmed by oaths, and then, without either fearing the gods whom they had made witnesses of the treaty or showing any regard for justice itself and the condemnation of men, or considering the greatness of the concerning if their treachery should not succeed according to their wish, endeavoured to destroy us, who are both their colony and their benefactors, in the most miserable fashion, thus arraying themselves, though our founders, on the side of our most deadly foes and our greatest enemies."