The History of Rome, Books 09 to 26. Livy

against any danger to himself, or the public. "But if they chose," he said, "to give him an assistant in the war, and associate in command, how could he overlook Publius Decius the consul, whom he had tried during so many associations in office? There was no man living whom he would rather wish to be joined in commission with him: with Publius Decius he should have forces sufficient, and never too many enemies. If, however, his colleague preferred any other employment, let them then give him Lucius Volumnius as an assistant." The disposal of every particular was left entirely to Fabius by the people and the senate, and even by his colleague. And when Decius declared that he was ready to go either to Etruria or Samnium, such general congratulation and satisfaction took place, that victory was anticipated, and it seemed as if a triumph, not a war, had been decreed to the consuls. I find in some writers, that Fabius and Decius, immediately on their entering into office, set out together for Etruria, without any mention of the casting of lots for the provinces, or of the disputes which I have related. Others, not satisfied with relating those disputes, have added charges of misconduct, laid by Appius before the people against Fabius, when absent; and a stubborn opposition, maintained by the praetor against the consul, when present; and also another contention between the colleagues, Decius insisting that each consul should attend to the care of his own separate province. Certainty, however, begins to appear from the time when both consuls set out for the campaign. Now, before the consuls arrived in Etruria, the Senonian Gauls came in a vast body to Clusium, to attack the Roman legion and the camp. Scipio, who commanded the camp, wishing to remedy the deficiency of his numbers by an advantage in the ground, led his men up a hill, which stood between the camp and the city but having, in his haste, neglected to examine the place, he reached near the summit, which he found already possessed by the enemy, who had ascended on the other side. The legion was consequently attacked on the rear, and surrounded in the middle, when the enemy pressed it on all sides. Some writers say, that the whole were cut off, so that not one survived to give an account of it, and that no information of the misfortune reached the consuls, who were, at the time, not far from Clusium, until the Gallic horsemen came within sight, carrying the heads of the slain, some hanging before their horses' breasts, others on the points of their spears, and expressing their triumph in songs according to their custom. Others affirm, that the defeat was by Umbrians, not Gauls, and that the loss sustained was not so great. That a party of foragers, under Lucius Manlius Torquatus, lieutenant-general, being surrounded, Scipio, the propraetor, brought up relief from the camp, and the battle being renewed, that the Umbrians, lately victorious, were defeated, and the prisoners and spoil retaken. But it is more probable that this blow was suffered from a Gallic than an Umbrian enemy, because during that year, as was often the case at other times, the danger principally apprehended by the public, was that of a Gallic tumult, for which reason, notwithstanding that both the consuls had marched against the enemy, with four legions, and a large body of Roman cavalry, joined by a thousand chosen horsemen of Campania, supplied on the occasion, and a body of the allies and Latin confederates, superior in number to the Romans, two other armies were posted near the city, on the side facing Etruria, one in the Faliscian, the other in the Vatican territory. Cneius Fulvius and Lucius Postumius Megellus, both propraetors, were ordered to keep the troops stationed in those places.

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      The consuls, having crossed the Apennines, came up with the enemy in the territory of Sentinum, their camp was pitched there at the distance of about four miles. Several councils were then held by the enemy, and their plan of operations was thus settled: that they should not encamp together, nor go out together to battle; the Gauls were united to the Samnites, the Umbrians to the Etrurians. The day of battle was fixed. The part of maintaining the fight was committed to the Samnites and Gauls; and the Etrurians and Umbrians were ordered to attack the Roman camp during the heat of the engagement. This plan was frustrated by three Clusian deserters, who came over by night to Fabius, and after disclosing the above designs, were sent back with presents, in order that they might discover, and bring intelligence of, any new scheme which should be determined on. The consuls then wrote to Flavius and Postumius to move their armies, the one from the Faliscian, the other from the Vatican country, towards Clusium; and to ruin the enemy's territory by every means in their power. The news of these depredations drew the Etrurians from Sentinum to protect their own region. The consuls, in their absence, practised every means to bring on an engagement. For two days they endeavoured, by several attacks, to provoke the enemy to fight; in which time, however, nothing worth mention was performed. A few fell on each side, but still the minds [of the Romans] were irritated to wish for a general engagement; yet nothing decisive was hazarded. On the third day, both parties marched out their whole force to the field: here, while the armies stood in order of battle, a hind, chased by a wolf from the mountains, ran through the plain between the two lines: there the animals taking different directions, the hind bent its course towards the Gauls, the wolf towards the Romans: way was made between the ranks for the wolf, the Gauls slew the hind with their javelins; on which one of the Roman soldiers in the van said, "To that side, where you see an animal, sacred to Diana, lying prostrate, flight and slaughter are directed; on this side the victorious wolf of Mars, safe and untouched, reminds us of our founder, and of our descent from that deity." The Gauls were posted on the right wing, the Samnites on the left: against the latter, Fabius drew up, as his right wing, the first and third legions: against the Gauls, Decius formed the left wing of the fifth and sixth. The second and fourth were employed in the war in Samnium, under the proconsul, Lucius Volumnius. In the first encounter the action was supported with strength so equal on both sides, that had the Etrurians and Umbrians been present, either in the field or at the camp, in whichever place they might have employed their force, the Romans must have been defeated.

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      However, although the victory was still undecided, fortune not having declared in favour of either party, yet the course of the fight was by no means similar on both right and left wings. The Romans, under Fabius, rather repelled than offered assault, and the contest was protracted until very late in the day, for their general knew very well, that both Samnites and Gauls were furious in the first onset, so that, to withstand them would be sufficient. It was known, too, that in a protracted contest the spirits of the Samnites gradually flagged, and even the bodies of the Gauls, remarkably ill able to bear labour and heat, became quite relaxed, and although, in their first efforts, they were more than men, yet in their last they were less than women. He, therefore, reserved the strength of his men as unimpaired as possible, until the time when the enemy were the more likely to be worsted. Decius, more impetuous, as being in the prime of life and full flow of spirits, exerted whatever force he had to the utmost in the first encounter, and thinking the infantry not sufficiently energetic, brought up the cavalry to the fight. Putting himself at the head of a troop of young horsemen of distinguished bravery, he besought those youths, the flower of the army, to charge the enemy with him, [telling them] "they would reap a double share of glory, if the victory should commence on the left wing, and through their means." Twice they compelled the Gallic cavalry to give way. At the second charge, when they advanced farther and were briskly engaged in the midst of the enemy's squadrons, by a method of fighting new to them, they were thrown into dismay. A number of the enemy, mounted on chariots and cars, made towards them with such a prodigious clatter from the trampling of the cattle and rolling of wheels, as affrighted the horses of the Romans, unaccustomed to such tumultuous operations. By this means the victorious cavalry were dispersed, through a panic, and men and horses, in their headlong flight, were tumbled promiscuously on the ground. Hence also the battalions of the legions were thrown into disorder, through the impetuosity of the horses, and of the carriages which they dragged through the ranks, many of the soldiers in the van were trodden or bruised to death, while the Gallic line, as soon as they saw their enemy in confusion, pursued the advantage, nor allowed them time to take breath or recover themselves. Decius, calling aloud, "Whither were they flying, or what hope could they have in running away?" strove to stop them as they turned their backs, but finding that he could not, by any efforts, prevail on them to keep their posts, so thoroughly were they dismayed, he called on his father, Publius Decius, by name. He said, "Why do I any longer defer the fate entailed on my family? It is destined to our race, that we should serve as expiatory victims to avert the public danger. I will now offer the legions of the enemy, together with myself, to be immolated to Earth, and the infernal