de on both
sides, the Gallic army is at length worsted. In their flight they make
for Tibur, as being the main stay of the war; and being intercepted
whilst straggling by the consul Paetelius not far from Tibur, and the
Tiburtians having come out to bring them aid, they are with the latter
driven within the gates. Matters were managed with distinguished success
both by the dictator and the consul. And the other consul, Fabius, at
first in slight skirmishes, and at length in one single battle, defeated
the Hernicians, when they attacked him with all their forces. The
dictator, after passing the highest encomiums on the consuls in the
senate and before the people, and yielding up the honour of his own
exploits to them, resigned his dictatorship. Paetelius enjoyed a double
triumph, over the Gauls and the Tiburtians. Fabius was satisfied with
entering the city in ovation. The Tiburtians derided the triumph of
Paetelius; "for where," they said, "had he encountered them in the field?
that a few of their people having gone outside the gates to witness the
flight and confusion of the Gauls, on seeing an attack made on
themselves, and that those who came in the way were slaughtered without
distinction, had retired within the city. Did that seem to the Romans
worthy of a triumph? They should not consider it an extraordinary and
wondrous feat to raise a tumult at the enemy's gates, as they should
soon see greater confusion before their own walls."

12. Accordingly in the year following, Marcus Popilius Laenas and Cneius
Manlius being consuls, during the first silence of the night having set
out from Tibur with an army prepared for action, they came to the city
of Rome. The suddenness of the thing, and the panic occurring at night,
occasioned some terror among them on being suddenly aroused from sleep;
further, the ignorance of many as to who the enemy were or whence they
had come. However they quickly ran to arms, and guards were posted at
the gates, and the walls were secured with troops; and when daylight
showed but an inconsiderable force before the walls, and that the enemy
were none other than the Tiburtines, the consuls, having gone forth from
the two gates, attack on either side the army of these now advancing up
to the walls; and it became obvious that they had come relying rather on
the opportunity than on their valour, for they hardly sustained the
first charge of the Romans. Nay more, it was evident that their coming
pr