from their flight and took heart to begin the battle
afresh. But as for the Gauls, and those especially that stood about the
dead body of the Consul, they cast their javelins at random and to
no purpose, as though they were beside themselves; and some were so
stupefied with fear that they could neither fight nor fly. Then Livius
the high priest, to whom the Consul Decius had given over his lictors,
bidding him take upon himself the command, cried aloud, "The Romans have
conquered, being delivered from peril by the death of the Consul. The
Gauls and the Samnites are the possession of Mother Earth and of the
Gods of the dead. Decius is calling and drawing to him the army that he
devoted to death together with himself; and the whole host of the enemy
is full of madness and fear." And while he set the battle in order again
on this side of the field there came up two lieutenants whom Fabius the
Consul had sent from the rereward to the help of his colleague. And when
they heard that Decius was dead, and in what manner, they all addressed
themselves to the battle with fresh courage. So when the Gauls stood
in close array, with their shields set up before them, and it seemed no
easy thing to come to close combat with them, the lieutenants commanded
that they should gather together the javelins which lay on the ground in
the space between the two armies, and cast them against the shields of
the enemy. And when most of these pierced their shelter, and some that
had the longer points were even driven into their bodies, the army was
overthrown, not a few falling to the ground though their bodies were
unhurt. Such changes of fortune were there in the left wing of the
Romans.

Meanwhile, in the right wing, when Fabius perceived that the enemy
shouted not as loudly as before, nor cast their javelins with as much
strength, he commanded the captains of the horsemen to take a compass
with their squadrons and fall upon the Samnites in the rear when he
should give the signal. This done he bade the legions advance their
standards. And when he saw that the enemy were beyond all doubt wearied
with fighting, he called to him all the reserves that he had kept back
for this end, and gave the signal, so that the legions fell upon the
enemy from before and the horsemen fell upon them from behind at one and
the same time. Thereupon the Samnites turned their backs and fled with
all speed to their camp; but the Gauls, locking their shields in close