es sufficient, and never
too many enemies. If, however, his colleague preferred any other
employment, let them then give him Lucius Volumnius as an assistant."
The disposal of every particular was left entirely to Fabius by the
people and the senate, and even by his colleague. And when Decius
declared that he was ready to go either to Etruria or Samnium, such
general congratulation and satisfaction took place, that victory was
anticipated, and it seemed as if a triumph, not a war, had been
decreed to the consuls. I find in some writers, that Fabius and
Decius, immediately on their entering into office, set out together
for Etruria, without any mention of the casting of lots for the
provinces, or of the disputes which I have related. Others, not
satisfied with relating those disputes, have added charges of
misconduct, laid by Appius before the people against Fabius, when
absent; and a stubborn opposition, maintained by the praetor against
the consul, when present; and also another contention between the
colleagues, Decius insisting that each consul should attend to the
care of his own separate province. Certainty, however, begins to
appear from the time when both consuls set out for the campaign. Now,
before the consuls arrived in Etruria, the Senonian Gauls came in a
vast body to Clusium, to attack the Roman legion and the camp. Scipio,
who commanded the camp, wishing to remedy the deficiency of his
numbers by an advantage in the ground, led his men up a hill, which
stood between the camp and the city but having, in his haste,
neglected to examine the place, he reached near the summit, which he
found already possessed by the enemy, who had ascended on the other
side. The legion was consequently attacked on the rear, and surrounded
in the middle, when the enemy pressed it on all sides. Some writers
say, that the whole were cut off, so that not one survived to give an
account of it, and that no information of the misfortune reached the
consuls, who were, at the time, not far from Clusium, until the Gallic
horsemen came within sight, carrying the heads of the slain, some
hanging before their horses' breasts, others on the points of their
spears, and expressing their triumph in songs according to their
custom. Others affirm, that the defeat was by Umbrians, not Gauls, and
that the loss sustained was not so great. That a party of foragers,
under Lucius Manlius Torquatus, lieutenant-general, being surrounded,
Scipio, the prop