their walls but thinly attended, and
dispersed over the country in precipitate flight. Nor was the victory an
unbloody one to the Romans; a fourth part of the soldiers perished; and,
where there was no less of loss, several Roman horsemen fell.

9. On the following year, when the consuls Caius Sulpicius and Caius
Licinius Calvus led an army against the Hernicians, and finding no enemy
in the country took their city Ferentinum by storm, as they were
returning thence, the Tiburtians shut their gates against them. Though
many complaints had been made on both sides before this, this was the
determining cause why war was declared against the Tiburtian people,
restitution having been demanded through heralds. It is sufficiently
ascertained that Titus Quinctius Pennus was dictator that year, and that
Servius Cornelius Maluginensis was his master of the horse. Macer
Licinius writes, that he was named by the consul for the purpose of
holding the elections, because his colleague hastening to have the
elections over before undertaking the war, that he might continue the
consulship, he thought it right to thwart his ambitious designs. This
being designed as a compliment to his own family, renders the authority
of Licinius of the less weight. As I find no mention of that
circumstance in the more ancient annals, my mind inclines me to consider
that the dictator was appointed on account of the Gallic war. On that
year, certainly, the Gauls pitched their camp at the third stone on the
Salarian road, at the further side of the bridge of the Anio. The
dictator, after he had proclaimed a cessation of civil business on
account of the Gallic tumult, bound all the younger citizens by the
military oath; and having set forth from the city with a great army,
pitched his camp on the hither bank of the Anio. The bridge lay between
both armies, neither side attempting to break it down, lest it should be
an indication of fear. There were frequent skirmishes for the possession
of the bridge; nor could it be clearly determined who were masters of
it, the superiority being so indecisive. A Gaul of very large stature
advanced on the bridge, then unoccupied, and says with as loud a voice
as he could exert, "Let the bravest man that Rome now possesses come
forward here to battle, that the event of an engagement between us both
may show which nation is superior in war."

10. There was for a long time silence among the young Roman nobility, as
they were