both ashamed to decline the contest, and unwilling to claim
the principal post of danger. Then Titus Manlius, son of Lucius, the
same who had freed his father from the vexatious persecution of the
tribune, proceeds from his station to the dictator: "Without your
commands, general, I would never fight out of the ordinary course, not
though I should see certain victory before me. If you permit me, I wish
to show that brute, who insolently makes such a parade before the
enemy's line, that I am sprung from that family which dislodged a body
of Gauls from the Tarpeian rock." Then the dictator says, "Titus
Manlius, may you prosper for your valour and dutiful affection to your
father and your country. Go on, and make good the invincibility of the
Roman name with the aid of the gods." His companions then arm the youth;
he takes a footman's shield, girds himself with a Spanish sword, fit for
a close fight. When armed and equipped, they lead him out against the
Gaul, who exhibited stolid exultation, and (for the ancients thought
that also worthy of mention) thrust out his tongue in derision. They
then retire to their station; and the two being armed, are left in the
middle space, more after the manner of a spectacle, than according to
the law of combat, by no means well matched, according to those who
judged by sight and appearance. The one had a body enormous in size,
glittering in a vest of various colours, and in armour painted and
inlaid with gold; the other had a middle stature, as is seen among
soldiers, and a mien unostentatious, in arms fit for ready use rather
than adapted for show. He had no song, no capering, nor idle flourishing
of arms, but his breast, teeming with courage and silent rage, had
reserved all its ferocity for the decision of the contest. When they
took their stand between the two armies, the minds of so many
individuals around them suspended between hope and fear, the Gaul, like
a huge mass threatening to fall on that which was beneath it, stretching
forward his shield with his left hand, discharged an ineffectual cut of
his sword with a great noise on the armour of his foe as he advanced
towards him. The Roman, raising the point of his sword, after he had
pushed aside the lower part of the enemy's shield with his own, and
closing on him so as to be exempt from the danger of a wound, insinuated
himself with his entire body between the body and arms of the foe, with
one and immediately with another thrust