[4] Great is the glory of that day on which the battle was fought in the district of Sentinum, even if a man hold fast to truth; [5] but some writers have so exaggerated as to over —shoot the credible, and have written that in the army of the enemy —including, of course, the Umbrians and Tuscans, for these, too, were present in the battle —there were six hundred thousand infantry, forty —six thousand horse, and a thousand cars; [6] and, to enlarge in like manner the forces of the Romans, they add to the consuls as a general Lucius Volumnius the proconsul, and his army to their legions. [7] in the majority of histories this victory is reserved to the two consuls, and Volumnius is waging war at the same time in Samnium, where, having driven the Samnite army up Mount Tifernus, he routs and scatters them, undeterred by the difficulties of the ground.
[8] Quintus Fabius, leaving the Decian army on guard over Etruria, led down his own legions to Rome and triumphed over the Gauls, the Etruscans, and the [p. 477]Samnites. [9] The soldiers followed his triumphal1 chariot and in their rude verses celebrated no less the glorious death of Publius Decius than the victory of Fabius, reviving by their praise of the son the memory of the father, whose death (and its service to the commonwealth) had now been matched. [10] every soldier received from the spoils a present of eighty —two asses of bronze, with a cloak and tunic, a reward for military service in those days far from contemptible.
