tle was made up. The dictator ordered
Lucius Quintius Capitolinus and Marcus Fabius Vibulanus to attend him as
his lieutenants-general. Both the higher powers, and the man suitable to
such powers, caused the enemy to move from the Roman territory to the
other side of the Anio, and continuing their retrograde movement, they
took possession of the hills between Fidenae and the Anio, nor did they
descend into the plains until the troops of the Faliscians came to their
aid; then at length the camp of the Etrurians was pitched before the
walls of Fidenae. The Roman dictator took his post at no great distance
from thence at the conflux on the banks of both rivers, lines being run
across between them, as far as he was able to follow by a fortification.
Next day he marched out his army into the field.

18. Among the enemy there was a diversity of opinion. The Faliscians,
impatient of the hardships of war at a distance from home, and
sufficiently confident of their own strength, earnestly demanded
battle; the Veientians and Fidenatians placed more hope in protracting
the war. Tolumnius, though the measures of his own subjects were more
agreeable to him, proclaims that he would give battle on the following
day, lest the Faliscians might not brook the service at so great a
distance from their home. The dictator and the Romans took additional
courage from the fact of the enemy having declined giving battle: and on
the following day, the soldiers exclaiming that they would attack the
camp and the city, if an opportunity of fighting were not afforded them,
the armies advance on both sides into the middle of a plain between the
two camps. The Veientians, having the advantage in numbers, sent around
a party behind the mountains to attack the Roman camp during the heat of
the battle. The army of the three states stood drawn up in such a
manner, that the Veientians occupied the right wing, the Faliscians the
left, whilst the Fidenatians constituted the centre. The dictator
charged on the right wing against the Faliscians, Quintius Capitolinus
on the left against the Veientians, and the master of the horse with the
cavalry advanced in the centre. For a short time all was silence and
quiet, the Etrurians being determined not to engage unless they were
compelled, and the dictator looking back towards a Roman fort, until a
signal should be raised, as had been agreed on, by the augurs, as soon
as the birds had given a favourable omen. As soon