, either that they employed, as is now practised in the
Roman levies, successive generations of their young men one after the
other, during the intervals between the wars; or that the armies were
not always recruited out of the same states, though the same nation may
have made war; or that there was an innumerable multitude of free-men in
those places, which, at the present day, Roman slaves save from being a
desert, a scanty seminary of soldiers being scarcely left. Certain it
is, (as is agreed upon among all authors,) although their power was very
much impaired under the guidance and auspices of Camillus, the forces of
the Volscians were strong: besides, the Latins and Hernicians had been
added, and some of the Circeians, and some Roman colonists also from
Velitrae. The dictator, having pitched his camp on that day, and on
coming forth on the day following after taking the auspices, and having,
by sacrificing a victim, implored the favour of the gods, with joyful
countenance presented himself to the soldiers, who were now taking arms
at day-break, according to orders, on the signal for battle being
displayed. "Soldiers," says he, "the victory is ours, if the gods and
their prophets see aught into futurity. Accordingly, as it becomes men
full of well-grounded hope, and who are about to engage with their
inferiors, let us place our spears at our feet, and arm our right hands
only with our swords. I would not even wish that any should push forward
beyond the line; but that, standing firm, you receive the enemy's charge
in a steady posture. When they shall have discharged their ineffective
missives, and, breaking their ranks, they shall rush on you as you stand
firm, then let your swords glitter, and let each man recollect, that
there are gods who aid the Roman; those gods, who have sent us into
battle with favourable omens. Do you, Titus Quinctius, keep back the
cavalry, attentively observing the very commencement of the contest; as
soon as you observe the armies closed foot to foot, then, whilst they
are taken up with another panic, strike terror into them with your
cavalry, and by making a charge on them, disperse the ranks of those
engaged in the fight." The cavalry, the infantry conduct the fight, just
as he had ordered them. Nor did either the general disappoint the
legions, nor fortune the general.

13. The army of the enemy, relying on nothing but on their number, and
measuring both armies merely by the eye, entere