but harming him not,
though the sound of it was great. But the Roman, first thrusting aside
the shield of the enemy with his own shield, ran in close upon him, so
that the man could not strike him--his sword being over long--and so
driving his sword pointwise from beneath, smote him twice in the belly
and in the groin, so that he fell his whole length upon the ground. And
as he lay, he stripped from his body, to which he did no other harm,
a chain of twisted gold that the man wore, and threw it, covered with
blood as it was, about his own neck. Meanwhile the Gauls stood still for
fear and wonder; but the Romans running forth with joy from their ranks
to meet their champion, so led him to the Dictator. From this deed Titus
Manlius was called "Manlius of the Twisted Chain;" and this name he
handed down to his descendants after him.

About twenty years after this deed there was a great war between the
Romans and the Latins (for the Latins demanded that one consul should
always be of their nation, and, this being denied to them, made war
against Rome) and this same Manlius was consul. Now it was needful that
there should be discipline of the strictest sort in the army; and also,
because the Latins spake the same tongue as did the Romans, and had
their arms and all other things that appertained to war the same, the
Consuls issued a decree that no man should fight with the enemy, save
only at his post in the army.

Now it chanced that Titus Manlius, son of the Consul, being captain of a
squadron of horsemen, rode so far with his squadron (the horsemen being
sent out in all directions to spy out the country) that he was scarce
the length of a spear's throw from the camp of the enemy, at a certain
part where the horsemen of Tusculum had their station. The leader of
these horsemen was Metius, a certain man of noble birth and renowned
among his countrymen for his valour. This Metius, seeing the Roman
horsemen, and Manlius the Consul's son riding in the front, and knowing
him who he was (for indeed all the men of note in the two armies were
known to each other), cried out, "Are ye minded, ye men of Rome, being
but one squadron, to do battle with the Latins and their allies? What
are the Consuls doing, and their two armies?" To this Manlius made
answer, "They will come in due time; aye, one that is mightier than
they, even Jupiter, will come also: Jupiter, who is witness to the
treaties which ye have broken. If at the Lake Regill