[7,12] Ἐπὶ τοῦτον δὴ τὸν Ἀριστόδημον ἔτος ὁμοῦ τι τεσσαρεσκαιδέκατον ἤδη τυραννοῦντα Κύμης οἱ σὺν Ταρκυνίῳ φυγάδες καθιστάμενοι τὴν κατὰ τῆς πατρίδος ἐβούλοντο συντελέσασθαι δίκην. οἱ δὲ πρέσβεις τῶν Ῥωμαίων τέως μὲν ἀντέλεγον, ὡς οὔτ´ ἐπὶ τοῦτον ἥκοντες τὸν ἀγῶνα οὔτ´ ἐξουσίαν ἔχοντες, ἣν οὐκ ἐπέτρεψεν αὐτοῖς ἡ βουλὴ περὶ τῆς πόλεως ἀπολογήσασθαι {δίκην}. ὡς δ´ οὐθὲν ἐπέραινον, ἀλλ´ ἐγκεκλικότα τὸν τύραννον ἑώρων ἐπὶ θάτερα μέρη διὰ τὰς σπουδὰς καὶ τὰς παρακλήσεις τῶν φυγάδων, αἰτησάμενοι χρόνον εἰς ἀπολογίαν, καὶ διεγγυήσαντες τὰ σώματα χρημάτων ἐν τῷ διὰ μέσου τῆς δίκης οὐθενὸς ἔτι φυλάττοντος αὐτοὺς ἀποδράντες ᾤχοντο. θεράποντας δ´ αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ ὑποζύγια καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τῇ σιτωνίᾳ κομισθέντα χρήματα ὁ τύραννος κατέσχε. ταύταις μὲν οὖν ταῖς πρεσβείαις τοιαῦτα παθούσαις ἀπράκτοις ἀναστρέψαι συνέβη, ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἐν Τυρρηνίᾳ πόλεων οἱ πεμφθέντες κέγχρους τε καὶ ζέας συνωνησάμενοι ταῖς ποταμηγοῖς σκάφαις κατεκόμισαν εἰς τὴν πόλιν. αὕτη βραχύν τινα χρόνον ἡ ἀγορὰ Ῥωμαίους διέθρεψεν· ἔπειτ´ ἐξαναλωθεῖσα εἰς τὰς αὐτὰς ἀπορίας κατέστησεν αὐτούς. ἦν δ´ οὐθὲν εἶδος ἀναγκαίας τροφῆς, ὃ οὐκ ἐπείραζον ἔτι, συνέβαινέ τ´ οὐκ ὀλίγοις αὐτῶν, τὰ μὲν διὰ τὴν σπάνιν, τὰ δὲ διὰ τὴν ἀτοπίαν τῆς οὐκ εἰωθυίας ἐδωδῆς, τοῖς μὲν ἀρρώστως διακεῖσθαι τὰ σώματα, τοῖς δὲ παρημελημένοις διὰ πενίαν καὶ παντάπασιν ἀδυνάτως· ὡς δὲ τοῦτ´ ἔγνωσαν οἱ νεωστὶ κεκρατημένοι τῷ πολέμῳ Οὐολοῦσκοι, πρεσβειῶν ἀπορρήτοις διαποστολαῖς ἐνῆγον ἀλλήλους εἰς τὸν κατ´ αὐτῶν πόλεμον, ὡς ἀδυνάτων ἐσομένων, εἴ τις αὐτοῖς ἐπίθοιτο κεκακωμένοις πολέμῳ τε καὶ λιμῷ ἀντέχειν. θεῶν δέ τις εὔνοια, οἷς φροντὶς ἦν μὴ περιιδεῖν ὑπὸ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς Ῥωμαίους γενομένους, ἐκφανέστατα καὶ τότε τὴν ἑαυτῆς δύναμιν ἀπεδείξατο. τοσοῦτος γάρ τις ἄφνω εἰς τὰς πόλεις τῶν Οὐολούσκων φθόρος λοιμικὸς ἐνέσκηψεν, ὅσος ἐν οὐδενὶ ἄλλῳ τόπῳ μνημονεύεται γενόμενος οὔθ´ Ἑλλάδος οὔτε βαρβάρου γῆς, πᾶσαν ἡλικίαν καὶ τύχην καὶ φύσιν ἐρρωμένων τε καὶ ἀσθενῶν σωμάτων ὁμοίως διεργαζόμενος. ἐδήλωσε δὲ τὴν ὑπερβολὴν τῆς συμφορᾶς πόλις ἐπιφανὴς τῶν Οὐολούσκων, Οὐέλιτραι ὄνομα αὐτῇ, μεγάλη τε καὶ πολυάνθρωπος οὖσα τέως, ἧς ὁ λοιμὸς μίαν ὑπελείπετο μοῖραν ἐκ τῶν δέκα, τὰς δ´ ἄλλας ὑπολαβὼν ἀπήνεγκε. τελευτῶντες δ´ οὖν ὅσοι περιῆσαν ἐκ τῆς συμφορᾶς πρεσβευσάμενοι Ῥωμαίοις ἔφρασαν τὴν ἐρημίαν καὶ παρέδοσαν τὴν πόλιν. ἔτυχον δὲ καὶ πρότερον ἐποίκους ἐκ τῆς Ῥώμης εἰληφότες, ἀφ´ ἧς αἰτίας καὶ τὸ δεύτερον {τοὺς} κληρούχους παρ´ αὐτῶν ᾔτουν.

[7,12] It was before this Aristodemus, then, when he had already reigned as tyrant of Cumae close to fourteen years, that the Roman exiles with Tarquinius presented themselves, asking him to decide (p181) their cause against the country. The Roman ambassadors opposed this for some time, alleging that they had not come to enter into a contest of this sort and had no authority to plead the cause for the commonwealth since the senate had entrusted no such power to them. But when they availed naught with their plea and they saw the tyrant inclined to the other side because of the earnestness and entreaties of the exiles, they desired time to prepare a defence. And having deposited a sum of money as a pledge for their appearance, in the interval while the suit was pending and they were no longer guarded, they fled; whereupon the tyrant seized their servants, their pack-animals, and the money they had brought with them to purchase corn. It was the fate of these embassies, then, after being treated in the manner I have related, to return without having accomplished anything. But the ambassadors who had been sent to the cities in Tyrrhenia bought there a quantity of millet and spelt and brought it down to Rome in river-boats. This supply sustained the Romans for a short time, but its exhaustion brought them to the same straits as before. There was no sort of food to which men have ever been reduced through necessity that they did not venture to try; and it happened that not a few of them, by reason both of the scarcity and of the strangeness of the unaccustomed food, were either weakened in body or were neglected because of their poverty and entirely helpless. When the Volscians, who had been recently conquered in war, became aware of this, they undertook by means of embassies (p183) sent out secretly to incite one another to war against the Romans, in the belief that if anyone should attack them while they were distressed both by war and famine, they would be unable to resist. But some benevolence of the gods, who were always careful not to permit the Romans to become subject to their enemies, manifested its power upon this occasion also in a most conspicuous manner. For so great a pestilence suddenly descended upon the cities of the Volscians as is not recorded to have occurred anywhere else in either the Greek or the barbarian world, destroying the people without distinction of age, condition, or sex, it mattered not whether their bodies were strong or weak. The extreme nature of the calamity was shown in the case of an important city of the Volscians named Velitrae, till then a large and populous place, of which the plague left but one person out of every ten, attacking and carrying off all the rest. At last those who survived the calamity sent ambassadors to the Romans to inform them of their desolation and to deliver up their city to them. They had even before that time received a colony from Rome, for which reason they now desired colonists to be sent to them a second time.