Now the story of Lars Tolumnius is this. Fidenæ, that was a colony of Rome, revolted to Veii, of which city Lars Tolumnius was king in those days. And when the Romans sent ambassadors enquiring of the men of the city why they had done this thing, the ambassadors were put to death; and this was done, it was said, at the bidding of Tolumnius. But some have sought to excuse Tolumnius in this fashion. They say that he was playing at dice, and that when the men of Fidenæ came to him asking, "Shall we do well to slay these ambassadors of Rome?" he said, "Excellently," not hearing what they said, but thinking only of the dice and of his game, for he had at the very moment thrown most fortunately. But it cannot be believed that in so great a matter he should have been so careless. This Lars Tolumnius was slain afterwards by Cornelius Cossus in single combat, and his spoils were dedicated in the temple of Jupiter, hard by the spoils which King Romulus won from the King of Cære.
When this answer was brought back to Rome, the Senate would have war declared against Veii without delay; but the people murmured, saying, "We have enough to do already with the Volscians, and why will ye have another war with the men of Veii, who will stir up all the Etrurians against you?" The tribunes took occasion by this to hinder the matter, and the war was delayed.
The next year there was war with the Volscians, and Anxur, one of their chief cities, was taken, and the spoil was given to the soldiers. They were greatly pleased with this bounty, and yet more when it was ordained that thereafter the soldiers should have pay from the public treasury. And now it was resolved, none opposing, that war should be declared against Veii, for which war a great army was levied forthwith, the greater part of the soldiers offering themselves of their own free will. Thus it came to pass that in the three hundred and fiftieth year after the building of the city, Veii was shut in.
In the third year of the siege the men of Veii, being weary of the strife which troubled them year by year in the choosing of their magistrates, made for themselves a king. But this thing was a grievous offence to the other Etrurians, who hated not so much kingship as the man who had been chosen to be king. The cause of which hatred was this, that the man, being angry because, by the vote of the twelve nations of the Etrurians, another had been preferred before him to be high priest, had caused their yearly festival to be broken off in the midst, a thing which the Etrurians, than whom was never a people more scrupulous in matters of religion, judged to be most impious. This thing he did by taking away the actors of plays, who were for the most part his own slaves. And now the whole nation, being assembled in council, decreed that no help should be given to the men of Veii so long as they should be under the rule of a king. But of this decree no mention was made in Veii, for the King gave out that if any man talked of such matters he should be held guilty of sedition. Nevertheless the Romans, fearing lest the purpose of the Etrurians might suffer a change, made the fortifications wherewith they had shut in the city to be double, having one face against such sallies as the townsmen might make, and the other turned towards Etruria, if perchance help should come thence to the city.