of an ambush, detained his men till daylight.
Then having himself descended with a few men to look about, when he
ascertained by inquiring from some of the wounded enemy that the camp of
the Volscians was deserted, he joyously calls down his men from the
eminence, and makes his way into the Roman camp: where, when he found
every thing waste and deserted, and the same unsightliness as with the
enemy, before the discovery of this mistake should bring back the
Volscians, taking with him all the wounded he could, and not knowing
what route the consul had taken, he proceeds by the shortest roads to
the city.

40. The report of the unsuccessful battle and of the abandonment of the
camp had already reached there; and, above all other objects, the
horsemen were mourned not more with private than with public grief; and
the consul Fabius, the city also being now alarmed, stationed guards
before the gates; when the horsemen, seen at a distance, not without
some degree of terror by those who doubted who they were, but soon being
recognised, from a state of dread produced such joy, that a shout
pervaded the city, of persons congratulating each other on the horsemen
having returned safe and victorious; and from the houses a little before
in mourning, as they had given up their friends for lost, persons were
seen running into the street; and the affrighted mothers and wives,
forgetful of all ceremony through joy, ran out to meet the band, each
one rushing up to her own friends, and through extravagance of delight
scarcely retaining power over body or mind. The tribunes of the people
who had appointed a day of trial for Marcus Postumius and Titus
Quintius, because of the unsuccessful battle fought near Veii by their
means, thought that an opportunity now presented itself for renewing the
public odium against them by reason of the recent displeasure felt
against the consul Sempronius. Accordingly, a meeting being convened,
when they exclaimed aloud that the commonwealth had been betrayed at
Veii by the generals, that the army was afterwards betrayed by the
consul in the country of the Volscians, because they had escaped with
impunity, that the very brave horsemen were consigned to slaughter, that
the camp was shamefully deserted; Caius Julius, one of the tribunes,
ordered the horseman Tempanius to be cited, and in presence of them he
says, "Sextus Tempanius, I ask of you, whether do you think that Caius
Sempronius the consul either comm