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Notes Do not display Latin text | Translated by Rev. Canon Roberts Book I Chapter 29: Destruction of Alba. | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Meanwhile the cavalry had been sent on in advance to conduct the population to Rome; they were followed by the legions, who were marched thither to destroy the city. When they entered the gates there was not that noise and panic which are usually found in captured cities, where, after the gates have been shattered or the walls levelled by the battering-ram or the citadel stormed the shouts of the enemy and the rushing of the soldiers through the streets throw everything into universal confusion with fire and sword. Here, on the contrary, gloomy silence and a grief beyond words so petrified the minds of all, that, forgetting in their terror what to leave behind, what to take with them, incapable of thinking for themselves and asking one another's advice, at one moment they would stand on their thresholds, at another wander aimlessly through their houses, which they were seeing then for the last time. But now they were roused by the shouts of the cavalry ordering their instant departure, now by the crash of the houses undergoing demolition, heard in the furthest corners of the city, and the dust, rising in different places, which covered everything like a cloud. Seizing hastily what they could carry, they went out of the city, and left behind their hearths and household gods and the homes in which they had been born and brought up. Soon an unbroken line of emigrants filled the streets, and as they recognised one another the sense of their common misery led to fresh outbursts of tears. Cries of grief, especially from the women, began to make themselves heard, as they walked past the venerable temples and saw them occupied by troops, and felt that they were leaving their gods as prisoners in an enemy's hands. When the Albans had left their city the Romans levelled to the ground all the public and private edifices in every direction, and a single hour gave over to destruction and ruin the work of those four centuries during which Alba had stood. The temples of the gods, however, were spared, in accordance with the king's proclamation. Event: War of Rome with Alba Longa | Inter haec iam praemissi Albam erant equites qui multitudinem traducerent Romam. Legiones deinde ductae ad diruendam urbem. Quae ubi intravere portas, non quidem fuit tumultus ille nec pavor qualis captarum esse urbium solet, cum effractis portis stratisue ariete muris aut arce vi capta clamor hostilis et cursus per urbem armatorum omnia ferro flammaque miscet; sed silentium triste ac tacita maestitia ita defixit omnium animos, ut prae metu obliti quid relinquerent, quid secum ferrent deficiente consilio rogitantesque alii alios, nunc in liminibus starent, nunc errabundi domos suas ultimum illud visuri peruagarentur. Vt vero iam equitum clamor exire iubentium instabat, iam fragor tectorum quae diruebantur ultimis urbis partibus audiebatur puluisque ex distantibus locis ortus velut nube inducta omnia impleverat, raptim quibus quisque poterat elatis, cum larem ac penates tectaque in quibus natus quisque educatusque esset relinquentes exirent, iam continens agmen migrantium impleverat vias, et conspectus aliorum mutua miseratione integrabat lacrimas, vocesque etiam miserabiles exaudiebantur, mulierum praecipue, cum obsessa ab armatis templa augusta praeterirent ac velut captos relinquerent deos. Egressis urbe Albanis Romanus passim publica priuataque omnia tecta adaequat solo, unaque hora quadringentorum annorum opus quibus Alba steterat excidio ac ruinis dedit. Templis tamen deum—ita enim edictum ab rege fuerat—temperatum est. |