[12,10] Οὐιεντανοὺς πολιορκούντων Ῥωμαίων περὶ τὴν ἐπιτολὴν τοῦ κυνός, ὅτε μάλιστα λίμναι τε ἐπιλείπουσι καὶ ποταμοὶ πάντες, ὅ τι μὴ μόνος ὁ Αἰγύπτιος Νεῖλος, λίμνη τις ἀπέχουσα τῆς Ῥώμης οὐ μεῖον ρκʹ σταδίων ἐν τοῖς Ἀλβανοῖς καλουμένοις ὄρεσι, παρ´ ᾗ τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἡ τῶν Ῥωμαίων μητρόπολις ᾠκεῖτο, οὔτε ὑετῶν γενομένων οὔτε νιφετῶν οὔτ´ ἄλλης τινὸς αἰτίας ἀνθρώποις φανερᾶς, τοσαύτην ἔλαβεν ἐκ τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ ναμάτων ἐπίδοσιν, ὥστε πολλὴν μὲν ἐπικλύσαι τῆς παρορείου, πολλὰς δὲ οἰκήσεις γεωργικὰς καταβαλεῖν, τελευτῶσαν δὲ καὶ τὸν μεταξὺ τῶν ὀρῶν αὐλῶνα διασπάσαι καὶ ποταμὸν ἐκχέαι κατὰ τῶν ὑποκειμένων πεδίων ἐξαίσιον. Τοῦτο μαθόντες οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι κατ´ ἀρχὰς μέν, ὡς δαιμονίου τινὸς μηνίοντος τῇ πόλει, θυσίαις ἐξιλάσασθαι τοὺς κατέχοντας τὸν τόπον θεοὺς καὶ δαίμονας ἐψηφίσαντο καὶ τοὺς ἐπιχωρίους μάντεις ἀνέκρινον, εἴ τι λέγειν ἔχουσιν· ἐπεὶ δ´ οὔτε ἡ λίμνη τὴν ἑαυτῆς τάξιν ἀπελάμβανεν, οὔτε οἱ μάντεις ἀκριβὲς οὐδὲν ἔλεγον, ἀλλὰ τῷ θεῷ χρῆσθαι παρῄνουν, ἐπὶ τὸ Δελφικὸν μαντεῖον ἀπέστειλαν θεοπρόπους.

[12,10] When the Romans were besieging the Veientes about the time of the rising of the dog-star, the season when lakes are most apt to fail, as well as all rivers, with the single exception of the Egyptian Nile, a certain lake, distant not less than one hundred and twenty stades from Rome in the Alban mountains, as they are called, beside which in ancient times the mother-city of the Romans was situated, at a time when neither rains nor snow-storms had occurred nor any other cause perceptible to human beings, received such an increase to its waters that it inundated a large part of the region lying round the mountains, destroyed my farm houses, and finally carved out the gap between the mountains and poured a mighty river down over the plains lying below. 2 Upon learning of this, the Romans at first, in the belief that some god was angry at the commonwealth, voted to propitiate the gods and lesser divinities who presided over the region, and asked the native soothsayers if they had anything to say; but when neither the lake resumed its natural state nor the soothsayers had anything definite to say, but advised consulting the god, they sent envoys to the Delphic oracle.