ear, and pressing them in places of
difficult passage, considerably delayed their march. Meanwhile their
infantry overtook the cavalry; and now the Samnites pursued close with
their entire force. The dictator then, finding that he could no longer
go forward without great inconvenience, ordered the spot where he stood
to be measured out for a camp. But it was impossible, while the enemy's
horse were spread about on every side, that palisades could be brought,
and the work be begun: seeing it, therefore, impracticable, either to
march forward or to settle himself there, he drew up his troops for
battle, removing the baggage out of the line. The enemy likewise formed
their line opposite to his; fully equal both in spirit and in strength.
Their courage was chiefly improved from not knowing that the motive of
the Romans' retreat was the incommodiousness of the ground, so that they
imagined themselves objects of terror, and supposed that they were
pursuing men who fled through fear. This kept the balance of the fight
equal for a considerable time; though, of late, it had been unusual with
the Samnites to stand even the shout of a Roman army. Certain it is,
that the contest, on this day, continued so very doubtful from the third
hour to the eighth, that neither was the shout repeated, after being
raised at the first onset, nor the standards moved either forward or
backward; nor any ground lost on either side. They fought without taking
breath or looking behind them, every man in his post, and pushing
against their opponents with their shields. The noise continuing equal,
and the terror of the fight the same, seemed to denote, that the
decision would be effected either by fatigue or by the night. The men
had now exhausted their strength, the sword its power, and the leaders
their skill; when, on a sudden, the Samnite cavalry, having learned from
a single troop which had advanced beyond the rest, that the baggage of
the Romans lay at a distance from their army, without any guard or
defence; through eagerness for booty, they attack it: of which the
dictator being informed by a hasty messenger, said, "Let them only
encumber themselves with spoils." Afterwards came several, one after
another, crying out, that they were plundering and carrying off all the
effects of the soldiers: he then called to him the master of the horse,
and said, "Do you see, Marcus Fabius, that the fight has been forsaken
by the enemy's cavalry? They are entang