Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 10
Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.

25. nearly all the younger men now flocked about the consul, and each gave in his name, so eager were they to serve under such a captain. [2] surrounded by this throng he said, “i have in mind to enrol no more than four thousand foot and six hundred horse; I will take with me those of you who give in your names to —day and to —morrow. [3] Iam more concerned to bring all my men back with their purses filled than to wage war with many soldiers.” [4] marching out with a fit army, which was [p. 453]all the more confident and hopeful because he had¹ not desired a great host, he took his way towards the town of Aharna,² from which the enemy were not far distant, to the camp of Appius the praetor. [5] a few miles this side the camp he encountered some men who had come out with an armed escort to gather wood. These people, seeing the lictors in the van and learning that Fabius was consul, with lively manifestations of satisfaction gave thanks to the gods and to the Roman People for having sent him to be their general. [6] then, as they trooped about him and hailed him consul, Fabius asked whither they were bound, and they answered that they were come out to get wood. [7] “is it possible,” he cried, “that you have no rampart round your camp?” and, on their shouting back that they had a double rampart and a trench and yet were in mortal fear, “then you have quite wood enough,” said he; “go back and pull up your stockade.”³ [8] Returning to camp they began pulling up the palings, to the terror of their comrades who had stayed behind, as [9??] well as of Appius himself, till the news was spread, as each talked with his neighbours, that they were acting under orders of the consul Quintus Fabius. on the morrow the camp was removed and the praetor Appius was sent away to Rome. [10] thenceforward the Romans had no permanent camp anywhere. it was of no use, Fabius maintained, for the army to sit down in one place: by marching and shifting its position it grew more mobile and more healthy. [11] The marches, of course, were such as could be made at a season when winter was not yet over.

in the early spring, leaving the second legion in [p. 455]the neighbourhood of Clusium —which they used of⁴ old to call Camars —and [12] putting Lucius Scipio, as propraetor, in charge of the camp, Fabius himself returned to Rome to consult about the war, either voluntarily, because he had a task in prospect that was greater than he had believed the reports to signify, or, it may be, summoned by the senate; for both accounts are vouched for. [13] some would have it appear that he was compelled to return by Appius Claudius the praetor, who continued to exaggerate the perils of the Etruscan war in the senate and before the people, as he had done persistently in his dispatches. [14] it was not enough, he said, to have one commander and one army against four nations: the danger was —whether they united to overwhelm him or campaigned separately —that one man would be incapable of meeting simultaneously all emergencies. [15] he himself had left on the ground two Roman legions, and less than five thousand infantry and cavalry had come with Fabius. [16] it was his opinion that Publius Decius the consul should march at the very earliest moment to Etruria, to join his colleague, and that Lucius Volumnius should be given the command in Samnium; or, if the consul preferred to go out to his own province, that Volumnius should set out for Etruria with a regular consular army.⁵ [17] The majority were moved by the praetor's speech, but Publius Decius —so they say —advised that all be left to the free and unhampered judgment of Quintus Fabius, until Fabius should either come to Rome himself —if this were compatible with public policy —or [18] send some one of his lieutenants, to inform the senate how great a war was on foot [p. 457]in Etruria, and with what forces, commanded by⁶ how many generals, it ought to be conducted.