Ardea

on.

Erosius tells us simply that Tarquin captured the mighty settlements of Suecia, Pomatia, Oricolum, and Ardea in Latium.

Now, we'll get to Ardea later, by the way.

It's relevant.

I'll hold you to that.

That's the moment the Romans couldn't live with, and you can watch them trying to rewrite it in real time.

In Livy and Plutarch, the dictator Marcus Furius Camillus, recalled from a politically motivated exile in Ardea, arrives with an army just as the gold is being weighed.

He declares the deal void because it was made without his authority, and orders the Romans to take their city back with iron instead.

He proceeds to absolutely destroy the Gauls, and Rome hails him as a second Romulus and a second founder of the city.