he recollection of our
administration you are seeking an omen of concord, a thing most
important at the present time, for the ensuing year. If you re-elect the
same colleagues, improved also by experience, in me you no longer behold
the same person, but the shadow and name of Publius Licinius now left.
The powers of my body are decayed, my senses of sight and hearing are
grown dull, my memory falters, the vigour of my mind is blunted. Behold
here a youth," says he, holding his son, "the representation and image
of him whom ye formerly made a military tribune, the first from among
the commons. This youth, formed under my own discipline, I present and
dedicate to the commonwealth as a substitute for myself. And I beseech
you, Romans, that the honour readily offered by yourselves to me, you
would grant to his suit, and to my prayers added in his behalf." The
favour was granted to the request of the father, and his son, Publius
Licinius, was declared military tribune with consular power along with
those whom I have mentioned above. Titinius and Genucius, military
tribunes, proceeded against the Faliscians and Capenatians, and whilst
they conduct the war with more courage than conduct, they fall into an
ambush. Genucius, atoning for his temerity by an honourable death, fell
among the foremost in front of the standards. Titinius, having collected
his men from the great confusion [into which they were thrown] on a
rising ground, restored their order of battle; nor did he, however,
venture to engage the enemy on even ground. More of disgrace than of
loss was sustained; which was well nigh proving a great calamity; so
much alarm was excited not only at Rome, whither an exaggerated account
of it had reached, but in the camp also at Veii. There the soldiers were
with difficulty restrained from flight, as a report had spread through
the camp that, the generals and army having been cut to pieces, the
victorious Capenatians and Faliscians and all the youth of Etruria were
not far off. At Rome they gave credit to accounts still more alarming
than these, that the camp at Veii was now attacked, that a part of the
enemy was now advancing to the city prepared for an attack: they crowded
to the walls, and supplications of the matrons, which the public panic
had called forth from their houses, were offered up in the temples; and
the gods were petitioned by prayers, that they would repel destruction
from the houses and temples of the city and