There was a man of Antium, called Tullus Aufidius, who, for his
wealth and bravery and the splendor of his family, had the respect
and privilege of a king among the Volscians, but whom Marcius knew
to have a particular hostility to himself, above all other Romans.
Frequent menaces and challenges had passed in battle between them,
and those exchanges of defiance to which their hot and eager
emulation is apt to prompt young soldiers had added private
animosity to their national feelings of opposition. Yet for all
this, considering Tullus to have a certain generosity of temper,
and knowing that no Volscian, so much as he, desired an occasion
to requite upon the Romans the evils they had done, he put on a
dress which completely disguised him and thus, like Ulysses,--
He entered the town of his mortal foes.
His arrival at Antium was about evening, and though several met
him in the streets, yet he passed along without recognition, and
went directly to the house of Tullus, and entering undiscovered,
went up to the fire-hearth, and seated himself there without
speaking a work, covering up his head. Those of the family could
not but wonder, and yet they were afraid either to raise or
question him, for there was a certain air of majesty both in his
posture and silence, but they recounted to Tullus, then at supper,
the strangeness of this accident.
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