1The senate decreed that the games should be held on the grandest possible scale. 1To those games, at the instigation of Attius Tullius, a great number of Volsci came. 2Before the games began, Tullius, as had been arranged at home with Marcius, came to the consuls; 2he says there are matters concerning the state that he wishes to discuss in private. 2When witnesses had been sent away, he said, 'It is unwillingly that I speak about my fellow citizens in a way that may seem rather unkind; yet I come not to accuse them of anything they have done, but to take precautions that they may not do it. 4Far more than I could wish, the characters of our people are fickle.
5We have felt this through many disasters, seeing that we are safe not by our own deserving but by your forbearance. 5There is now a great multitude of Volsci here; 5there are the games; 5the city will be intent on the spectacle. 6I remember what was done in this city on a like occasion by the young men of the Sabines; 6my mind shudders lest something ill-considered and rash should be done. 6I thought these things ought to be told to you, consuls, beforehand, for our sake and yours. 7As far as I am concerned, I intend to go home from here at once, so that I may not be tainted by contact with any deed or word while I am present.' 7Having said this he departed.
8When the consuls had laid before the senators a matter that was doubtful, though on a sure authority, the authority rather than the matter, as usually happens, moved them to take precautions, even unnecessary ones; 8and a decree of the senate having been passed that the Volsci should leave the city, heralds are sent round to order them all to depart before nightfall. 9At first a great panic struck them as they ran this way and that to their lodgings to fetch their belongings; 9then, as they set out, indignation arose that they had been driven away from the games, from the festival days, from what was in a sense a gathering of men and gods, as if they were criminals and polluted.