1When these things were reported as they had happened, Tarquinius, inflamed not only by grief at so great a hope coming to nothing but also by hatred and anger, seeing that the path of trickery was blocked, thought that war must be set in motion openly and went round the cities of Etruria as a suppliant; 2above all he begged the Veientes and the Tarquinienses not to let him, who was sprung from the Etruscans and of the same blood, an exile and destitute, cast out of so great a kingdom only lately, perish before their eyes along with his young sons. 2Others had been summoned from abroad to Rome to reign; he, the king, while he was enlarging the Roman empire by war, had been driven out by a criminal conspiracy of those closest to him.
3They had seized parts of the kingdom among themselves, because no single man seemed worthy enough of the throne; 3they had given his property to the people to plunder, so that no one should be free of the crime. 3He wanted to recover his country and his kingdom and to punish his ungrateful citizens. 3Let them bring help, let them support him; 3let them go and avenge their own old wrongs too, their legions so often slaughtered, their land taken away. 4These words moved the Veientes, and each of them for himself roars menacingly that their disgraces must be wiped away and what was lost in war won back, under a Roman leader at least.
4The Tarquinienses are moved by the name and the kinship; 4it seemed a fine thing that their own people should reign at Rome. 5So two armies of two states followed Tarquinius to recover the kingdom and to make war on the Romans. 5When they had reached Roman territory, the consuls go to meet the enemy: Valerius leads the infantry in square formation; 6Brutus went ahead with the cavalry to reconnoitre. 6In the same way the enemy's cavalry was at the head of their column; 6Arruns Tarquinius, the king's son, was in command; 6the king himself was following with the legions. 7When Arruns recognised from the lictors, at a distance, that it was a consul, and then, nearer and more clearly, by his face too that it was Brutus, blazing with anger he said, 'That is the man who drove us out of our country as exiles.
7Look, there he is himself, proudly advancing, decked in our insignia. 7Gods, avengers of kings, stand by me.' 8He spurs on his horse and drives it straight at the consul himself. 8Brutus sensed that he was being attacked. 8It was then a mark of honour for the leaders themselves to join battle; 8so he eagerly offers himself for the fight, and they charged with such hostile spirit, neither thinking of protecting his own body so long as he could wound his enemy, that each, pierced through his shield by the other's blow, slid dying from his horse, held fast by the two spears. 10At the same time the rest of the cavalry battle began as well, and not much later the infantry too arrive.
10There they fought with shifting success and, as it were, on equal terms: the right wings won on both sides, the left were beaten. 11The Veientes, used to being beaten by the Roman soldier, were routed and put to flight; 11the Tarquinienses, a new enemy, not only stood their ground but even drove back the Romans on their side.