L. Valerius, who was still in command in Gaul, fought a hotly contested action with the Insubrians and the Boii; the latter had crossed the Po in order to rouse the Insubrians to arms. [2] His colleague M. Porcius Cato celebrated his triumph over the Spaniards during this period. In the procession there were carried 25,000 pounds of unwrought silver, 12,300 silver denarii, 540 of Oscan coinage, and 1200 pounds' weighs of gold. To each of the infantry soldiers he distributed 270 ases and treble the amount to the cavalry. On arriving in his province Tiberius Sempronius marched his troops first of all into the country of the Boii. [3] Boiorix was their chief at the time, and after he and his [4??] two brothers had induced the whole nation to resume hostilities he fixed his camp in an exposed position in the open country to show that they were prepared to fight if they were invaded. When the consul became aware of the numbers and confidence of the enemy he sent to his colleague asking him, if he thought he could do so, to hasten to his assistance, and he would by one means or another delay an action till he came. [5] The same reason which led the consul to delay made the Gauls seek an early decision, for their confidence was increased by their enemy's hesitation and they determined to engage him before the two consuls united their forces. [6] For two days, however, they merely stood ready for battle in case there was any advance from the Roman camp; on the third day they went up to the rampart and attacked the camp simultaneously on all sides.
[7] The consul ordered his men instantly to seize their weapons, and for a few minutes kept them standing under arms, partly to encourage the unthinking confidence of the [8??] enemy and also to allow of his distributing the troops at the different gates from which each body was to make the sortie. [9] The two legions were ordered to advance through the principal gates, but the Gauls blocked the exits in such dense masses that they could not emerge. [10] The struggle went on for a long time in the confined space; it was not so much fighting with their right hands and swords as pushing with their shields and bodies, the Romans trying to force a way for their standards, the Gauls endeavouring to get into the camp, or at all events to keep the Romans from getting out. [11] Neither the one side nor the other could make any advance until Q. Victorius, a centurion of the first rank, [12??] and C. Atilius, a military tribune, the former belonging to the second legion, the latter to the fourth, did what had often been tried in desperate struggles, and snatching the standards from the bearers flung them amongst the enemy. [13] In their effort to recover the standards the men of the second legion were the first to force their way out of the camp.
