It was the first occasion on which the community paid the levy from the resources of the state.
But it was also the first occasion on which the Romans attempted to subdue a nation of alien stock, and carried their arms beyond the ancient northern boundary of the Latin land.

The struggle was vehement, but the issue was scarcely doubtful.

The Romans were supported by the Latins and Hernici, to whom the overthrow of their dreaded neighbour was productive of scarcely less satisfaction and advantage than to the Romans themselves; whereas Veii was abandoned by its own nation, and only the adjacent towns of Capena and Falerii, along with Tarquinii, furnished contingents to its help.

The contemporary attacks of the Celts would alone suffice to explain the nonintervention of the northern communities; it is affirmed however, and there is no reason to doubt, that this inaction of the other Etruscans was primarily occasioned by internal factions in the league of the Etruscan cities, and particularly by the opposition which the regal form of government retained or restored by the Veientes encountered from the aristocratic governments of the other cities.

Had the Etruscan nation been able or willing to take part in the conflict, the Roman community would hardly have been able -- undeveloped as was the art of besieging at that time--to accomplish the gigantic task of subduing a large and strong city.