figured by the calamities
of war, and all those objects which they were solemnly bound to defend,
to recover, and to revenge. He then draws up his army, as the nature of
the place admitted, on the site of the half-demolished city, and which
was uneven by nature, and he secured all those advantages for his own
men, which could be prepared or selected by military skill. The Gauls,
thrown into confusion by the unexpected event, take up arms, and with
rage, rather than good judgment, rushed upon the Romans. Fortune had now
changed; now the aid of the gods and human prudence assisted the Roman
cause. At the first encounter, therefore, the Gauls were routed with no
greater difficulty than they had found in gaining the victory at Allia.
They were afterwards beaten under the conduct and auspices of the same
Camillus, in a more regular engagement, at the eighth stone on the
Gabine road, whither they had betaken themselves after their defeat.
There the slaughter was universal: their camp was taken, and not even
one person was left to carry news of the defeat. The dictator, after
having recovered his country from the enemy, returns into the city in
triumph; and among the rough military jests which they throw out [on
such occasions] he is styled, with praises by no means undeserved,
Romulus, and parent of his country, and a second founder of the city.
His country, thus preserved by arms, he unquestionably saved a second
time in peace, when he hindered the people from removing to Veii, both
the tribunes pressing the matter with greater earnestness after the
burning of the city, and the commons of themselves being more inclined
to that measure; and that was the cause of his not resigning his
dictatorship after the triumph, the senate entreating him not to leave
the commonwealth in so unsettled a state.

50. First of all, he proposed matters appertaining to the immortal gods;
for he was a most scrupulous observer of religious duties; and he
procures a decree of the senate, "that all the temples, as the enemy had
possessed them, should be restored, their bounds traced, and expiations
made for them, and that the form of expiation should be sought in the
books by the decemvirs; that a league of hospitality should be entered
into by public authority with the people of Caere, because they had
afforded a reception to the sacred utensils of the Roman people and to
their priests; and because, by the kindness of that people, the worship
of the