The other account is this, that the Fabii had been enticed by means of herds which were grazing in the neighbourhood, to go farther and farther; and that they had then been slain in a woodland glade by the countless host of the Etruscans. Nothing more is said about the clients; but the stronghold on the banks of the Cremera is taken by the Veientines. One might feel inclined to see some treason in this, even that the rulers of Rome had betrayed them into the hands of the Etruscans: one of the Roman consuls, T. Menenius, is said to have been near, and to have been afterwards capitally arraigned on that account. Yet this is hardly to be supposed. If the consul behaved with treachery, we can only see in it a private hatred of his own. The same consul was defeated: he fled to Rome, and the fugitives came into the town without even being able to maintain the Janiculum. The garrison of that place escaped with them; the other consul Horatius appeared just in time to ward off the greatest danger, and it was all they could do to break up the bridge. There was yet a wall, it is true, extending from the Capitol to the Aventine, which protected the city on that side of the river; but it was necessary to break up the bridge, in order to isolate the suburb. The Veientines were now masters of the whole field; they encamped on the Janiculum, crossed the river and pillaged the whole of the Roman territory on the left bank of the Tiber. This was in the midst of summer, the first of August being the period of the change of consuls, in which the new ones entered into office. The enemy had unexpectedly passed over the river on rafts; and thus the harvest may also have been to a great extent destroyed, the farm-houses burnt down, and man and beast have fallen into the hands of the enemy. The distress in the city was extreme. The Roman armies were encamped before the town, and the Veientines pressed upon them hard; on which, in despair, they resolved to venture on a piece of daring which must end either in the ruin of Rome, or in its deliverance. They crossed the river, and defeated the Etruscans; part of them stormed the Janiculum, others made an attack higher up the river. They indeed suffered an immense loss in men, but they drove off the enemy by this means. In this story, as we have remarked before, there is a striking similarity to that of the wars of Porsena. A year after, an armistice was concluded for forty years of ten months, which was also actually kept.