1At odds with this so peaceful departure of the Etruscan king from the city is a custom, handed down from the ancients to our own day and still surviving among other formal observances, of selling the goods of King Porsenna. 2The origin of this custom must either have arisen during the war and not been dropped in peacetime, or have grown from a milder beginning than this title, of selling goods as from an enemy, suggests. 3The most likely of the accounts handed down is that Porsenna, on leaving the Janiculum, made a gift to the Romans of his camp, rich with supplies brought in from the nearby and fertile fields of Etruria, the city then being in want after the long siege; 4that these were then sold, so that they should not be plundered as from an enemy by the people being let loose on them, and were called the goods of Porsenna, the title indicating gratitude for the gift rather than an auction of the king's possessions, which were not even in the power of the Roman people.
5Having given up the Roman war, Porsenna, so that his army should not seem to have been led into those parts for nothing, sends his son Arruns with part of his forces to attack Aricia. 6At first the unexpected event had struck the Aricians with dismay; 6then help summoned both from the Latin peoples and from Cumae gave them so much hope that they dared to decide the matter in pitched battle. 6When battle was joined, the Etruscans had charged with such a furious onset that they routed the Aricians by the very attack; 7the Cumaean cohorts, using skill against force, swerved aside a little and, when the enemy had rushed past in disorder, wheeled about and attacked them from behind: so the Etruscans, all but victorious, were cut down in the middle.
8A very small part of them, having lost their leader, because there was no nearer refuge, came to Rome without weapons, suppliants both in fortune and in appearance. 9There they were kindly received and distributed among people's homes as guests. 9When their wounds had been tended, some set off home to tell of the kindness of their hosts; 9many were kept at Rome by affection for their hosts and for the city. 9To these a place was given to live in, which was afterwards called the Etruscan Quarter.