p." Having offered up his vows and set out on his
march, he pitches his camp fifteen hundred paces on this side of Fidenae,
covered on his right by mountains, on his left by the river Tiber. He
orders Titus Quintius Pennus to take possession of the mountains, and to
post himself secretly on some eminence which might be in the enemy's
rear. On the following day, when the Etrurians had marched out to the
field, full of confidence in consequence of their accidental success of
the preceding day, rather than of their good fighting, he himself,
having delayed a little until the senate brought back word that Quintius
had gained an eminence nigh to the citadel of Fidenae, puts his troops
into motion and led on his line of infantry in order of battle in their
quickest pace against the enemy: the master of the horse he directs not
to commence the fight without orders; that, when it would be necessary,
he would give the signal for the aid of the cavalry; then that he would
conduct the action, mindful of his fight with the king, mindful of the
rich oblation, and of Romulus and Jupiter Feretrius. The legions begin
the conflict with impetuosity. The Romans, fired with hatred, gratified
that feeling both with deeds and words, calling the Fidenatian impious,
the Veientian robbers, truce-breakers, stained with the horrid murder of
ambassadors, sprinkled with the blood of their own brother-colonists,
treacherous allies, and dastardly enemies.

33. In the very first onset they had made an impression on the enemy;
when on a sudden, the gates of Fidenae flying open, a strange sort of
army sallies forth, unheard of and unseen before that time. An immense
multitude armed with fire and all blazing with fire-brands, as if urged
on by fanatical rage, rush on the enemy: and the form of this unusual
mode of fighting frightened the Romans for the moment. Then the
dictator, having called to him the master of the horse and the cavalry,
and also Quintius from the mountains animating the fight, hastens
himself to the left wing, which, more nearly resembling a conflagration
than a battle, had from terror given way to the flames, and exclaims
with a loud voice, "Vanquished by smoke, driven from your ground as if a
swarm of bees, will ye yield to an unarmed enemy? will ye not extinguish
the fires with the sword? or if it is with fire, not with weapons, we
are to fight, will ye not, each in his post, snatch those brands, and
hurl them on them? Come, mindful