The townsmen with their wives and children took refuge in the citadel, and sent messengers to Rome, to inform the senate of their situation.

An army was led to Tusculum with no less expedition than was worthy of the honour of the Roman people.

Lucius Quinctius and Servius Sulpicius, military tribunes, commanded it.

They beheld the gates of Tusculum shut, and the Latins, with the feelings of besiegers and besieged, on the one side defending the walls of Tusculum, on the other hand attacking the citadel; they struck terror and felt it at the same time.

The arrival of the Romans produced a change in the minds of both parties: it turned the Tusculans from great alarm into the utmost alacrity, and the Latins from almost assured confidence of soon taking the citadel, as they were masters of the town, to very slender hope of even their own safety.