10. Meanwhile Rome was engaged in wars, insignificant but almost uninterrupted, arising out of the oppression, either real or imaginary, which she exercised as head of the neighbouring federate cities, (_socii_,) comprising not only those of the Latins, but likewise, after the victory of lake Regillus, those of the other nations: the cities embraced every opportunity of asserting their independence, and the consequent struggles must have depopulated Rome, had not that evil been diverted by the maxim of increasing the complement of citizens by admitting the freedmen, and not unfrequently even the conquered, to the enjoyment of civic privileges. Little as these feuds, abstractedly considered, deserve our attention, they become of high interest, inasmuch as they were not only the means by which the nation was trained to war, but also led to the foundation of that senatorial power, whose important consequences will be exhibited hereafter. Among these wars attention must be directed to the last, that against Veii, the richest city in Etruria; the siege of that place, which lasted very nearly ten years, 404-395, gave rise to the introduction among the Roman military of winter campaigning, and of pay; thus, on the one hand, the prosecution of wars more distant and protracted became possible, while on the other the consequences must have been the levy of higher taxes, (_tributa_). 11. Not long after, however, a tempest from the north had nearly destroyed Rome. The Sennonian Gauls, pressed out of northern Italy through Etruria, possessed themselves of the city, the capitol excepted, and reduced it to ashes; an event which made so deep an impression on the minds of the Romans, that few other occurrences in their history have been more frequently the object of traditional detail. Camillus, then the deliverer of Rome, and in every respect one of the chief heroes of that period, laid a double claim to the gratitude of his native city, by overruling, after his victory, the proposal of a general migration to Veii.