their general? Behold the
general himself calling them with a loud voice to battle, and advancing
in arms before the front of the line. Would any of those now follow him,
who were just now to have led the way; fierce in the camp, but cowards
in the field?" What they heard was all true; wherefore shame applied
such strong incentives, that they rushed upon the weapons of the enemy,
their attention being turned away from the thought of danger. This
onset, which was almost frantic at first, threw the enemy into disorder;
then the cavalry charging them whilst thus disordered, made them turn
their backs. The dictator himself, when he saw their line wavering in
one direction, carries round some troops to the left wing, where he saw
a crowd of the enemy collected, and gave to those who were on the
mountain the signal which had been agreed on. When a new shout arose
from that quarter also, and they seemed to make their way in an oblique
direction, down the mountain to the camp of the Gauls; then through fear
lest they should be cut off from it, the fight was given up, and they
were carried towards the camp with precipitate speed. Where when Marcus
Valerius, master of the horse, who, after having routed their left wing,
was riding towards the enemies' entrenchment, met them, they turn their
flight to the mountains and woods: and the greater part of them were
there intercepted by the fallacious show of horsemen, and the muleteers,
and of those whom panic had carried into the woods, a dreadful slaughter
took place after the battle was ended. Nor did any one since Camillus
obtain a more complete triumph over the Gauls than Caius Sulpicius. A
considerable weight of gold taken from the Gallic spoils, which he
enclosed in hewn stone, he consecrated in the Capitol. The same year the
consuls also were engaged in fighting with various success. For the
Hernicians were vanquished and subdued by Cneius Plautius. His colleague
Fabius fought against the Tarquinians without caution or prudence; nor
was the loss sustained in the field so much [a subject of regret] as
that the Tarquinians put to death three hundred and seven Roman
soldiers, their prisoners, by which barbarous mode of punishment the
disgrace of the Roman people was rendered considerably more remarkable.
To this disaster moreover was added, the laying waste of the Roman
territory, which the Privernatians, and afterwards the people of
Velitrae, committed by a sudden incursion. The sam