vous disaster presented itself to their eyes."
Yielding at length, (since they would gain nothing save a delay of
punishment,) having prorogued the assembly, after he had given orders
that their march should be proclaimed for the following day, he, at the
first dawn, gave the signal for departure by sound of trumpet. When the
army, having just got clear of the camp, were forming themselves, the
Volscians, as being aroused by the same signal, fall upon those in the
rear; from whom the alarm spreading to the van, confounded both the
battalions and ranks with such consternation, that neither the generals'
orders could be distinctly heard, nor the lines be drawn up, no one
thinking of any thing but flight. In such confusion did they make their
way through heaps of dead bodies and of arms, that the enemy ceased to
pursue sooner than the Romans to fly. The soldiers being at length
collected from their scattered rout, the consul, after he had in vain
followed his men for the purpose of rallying them, pitched his camp in a
peaceful part of the country; and an assembly being convened, after
inveighing not without good reason against the army, as traitors to
military discipline, deserters of their posts, frequently asking them,
one by one, where were their standards, where their arms; he first beat
with rods and then beheaded those soldiers who had thrown down their
arms, the standard-bearers who had lost their standards, and moreover
the centurions, and those with the double allowance, who had left their
ranks. With respect to the rest of the multitude, every tenth man was
drawn by lot for punishment.

60. In a contrary manner to this, the consul and soldiers in the country
of the AEquans vied with each other in courtesy and acts of kindness:
both Quintius was naturally milder in disposition, and the ill-fated
severity of his colleague caused him to indulge more in his own good
temper. This, such great cordiality between the general and his army,
the AEquans did not venture to meet; they suffered the enemy to go
through their lands committing devastations in every direction. Nor were
depredations committed more extensively in that quarter in any preceding
war. Praises were also added, in which the minds of soldiers find no
less pleasure than in rewards. The army returned more reconciled both to
their general, and also on account of the general to the patricians;
stating that a parent was assigned to them, a master to the other ar