CHAPTER XI.
CAMILLUS' BANISHMENT.
B.C.

390.
The wars with the Etruscans went on, and chiefly with the city of Veii, which stood on a hill twelve miles from Rome, and was altogether thirty years at war with it.

At last the Romans made up their minds that, instead of going home every harvest-time to gather in their crops, they must watch the city constantly till they could take it, and thus, as the besiegers were unable to do their own work, pay was raised for them to enable them to get it done, and this was the beginning of paying armies.
[Illustration: ARROW MACHINE.] The siege of Veii lasted ten years, and during the last the Alban lake filled to an unusual height, although the summer was very dry.

One of the Veian soldiers cried out to the Romans half in jest, "You will never take Veii till the Alban lake is dry." It turned out that there was an old tradition that Veii should fall when the lake was drained.

On this the senate sent orders to have canals dug to carry the waters to the sea, and these still remain.