1Porsenna, repulsed in his first attempt, turned his plans from storming the city to besieging it, and having placed a garrison on the Janiculum he himself pitched camp on the plain and the banks of the Tiber, summoning boats from all sides both to keep guard, so as to let no grain be brought up to Rome, and to ferry his soldiers across the river to plunder, as opportunities arose, at one place after another; 3and in a short time he made the whole Roman countryside so unsafe that not only everything else from the fields but even all the livestock was driven into the city, and no one dared to drive them out beyond the gates.
4This great licence was allowed to the Etruscans not so much from fear as from design. 4For the consul Valerius, intent on a chance to attack them unexpectedly when they were many together and scattered, was careless in avenging small matters, saving himself as a stern avenger for greater ones. 5So, to lure out the raiders, he orders his men to drive out their cattle in large numbers on the next day by the Esquiline Gate, which was the furthest from the enemy, believing that the enemy would learn of it, because in the siege and famine untrustworthy slaves were deserting. 6And they did learn of it, through the report of a deserter, and many more of them than usual cross the river, in hope of seizing the whole of the plunder.
7Then Publius Valerius orders Titus Herminius to take up a hidden position with a moderate force at the second milestone on the Gabine road, and Spurius Larcius to stand with the light-armed youth at the Colline Gate until the enemy should pass, and then to throw himself in their way so that they had no return to the river. 8The other consul, Titus Lucretius, went out by the Naevian Gate with several maniples of soldiers; Valerius himself leads picked cohorts down from the Caelian hill. 9These were the first to be seen by the enemy; 9Herminius, when he perceived the uproar, rises from his ambush and, the Etruscans having turned towards Lucretius, cuts down their rear; 9right and left, from the Colline Gate on one side and from the Naevian on the other, the shout was answered: so the raiders were cut down in the middle, neither equal in strength for fighting nor able to flee, since every road was blocked.
10And that was the end of the Etruscans' roaming so freely.