[2] The consulship of Quintus Fabius and Lucius Cornelius was a stormy one from the very beginning of the year. The tribunes egged on the plebs; the Latins and the Hernici reported that a great attack was being launched by the Volsci and the Aequi, and that Volscian levies were already at Antium. There was much apprehension too lest the colony [p. 77]itself should revolt; and the tribunes were hardly2 prevailed upon to allow the war to have precedence.3 [3] Then the consuls divided the commands, appointing Fabius to take the legions to Antium, and Cornelius to defend Rome, lest some part of the enemy, in accordance with the Aequian custom, should make a foray. [4] The Hernici and the Latins were bidden to furnish soldiers, as by treaty bound; two-thirds of the army were allies, one-third citizens. When the allies had reported on the appointed day, the consul encamped outside the Porta Capena. Thence, after purifying the army, he set out for Antium, and took up a position at no great distance from the town and the standing camp of the enemy. [5] There the Volsci, not daring to give battle —for the Aequian army had not yet come up —sought to protect themselves, without fighting, behind their rampart. The next day Fabius, instead of mingling allies and citizens in one line of battle, drew up the three nations in three separate armies, about the enemy's works, taking the centre himself with the Roman legions. [6] He then commanded them all to wait for the signal, that the allies might act with the citizens in beginning the fight, and in retreating, if he should sound the recall. He also stationed the cavalry belonging to each division behind its first line. [7] Advancing thus in three sections he surrounded the camp, and attacking sharply on every side, dislodged the Volsci, who were unable to sustain his charge, from their intrenchments. Passing over these, he drove the frightened rabble before him in one direction and cleared the camp of them. [8] As they dispersed in flight, the cavalry, who had found it difficult to surmount the rampart and had hitherto been mere [p. 79]spectators of the battle, having now a clear field4 before them played their part in the victory by cutting off the fugitives. [9] Great was the slaughter inflicted on the enemy as they attempted to escape, both in the camp and outside the works; but the booty was still greater, since they had barely been able to carry away their arms. If the forests had not covered the flight, their army would have been utterly destroyed.
