whose cowardice they were likely to depart
with greater disgrace than they came. They had employed no guide
through the country, nor scouts; but were sent out blindly, like
beasts into a pitfall" They cast looks on each other, viewed earnestly
the arms which they must presently surrender; while their persons
would be subject to the whim of the enemy: figured to themselves the
hostile yoke, the scoffs of the conquerors, their haughty looks, and
finally, thus disarmed, their march through the midst of an armed foe.
In a word, they saw with horror the miserable journey of their
dishonoured band through the cities of the allies; and their return
into their own country, to their parents, whither themselves, and
their ancestors, had so often come in triumph. Observing, that "they
alone had been conquered without a fight, without a weapon thrown,
without a wound; that they had not been permitted to draw their
swords, nor to engage the enemy. In vain had arms, in vain had
strength, in vain had courage been given them." While they were giving
vent to such grievous reflections, the fatal hour of their disgrace
arrived, which was to render every circumstance still more shocking in
fact, than they had preconceived it in their imaginations. First, they
were ordered to go out, beyond the rampart, unarmed, and with single
garments; then the hostages were surrendered, and carried into
custody. The lictors were next commanded to depart from the consuls,
and the robes of the latter were stripped off. This excited such a
degree of commiseration in the breasts of those very men, who a little
before, pouring execrations upon them, had proposed that they should
be delivered up and torn to pieces, that every one, forgetting his own
condition, turned away his eyes from that degradation of so high a
dignity, as from a spectacle too horrid to behold.

6. First, the consuls, nearly half naked, were sent under the yoke;
then each officer, according to his rank, was exposed to disgrace, and
the legions successively. The enemy stood on each side under arms,
reviling and mocking them; swords were pointed at most of them,
several were wounded and some even slain, when their looks, rendered
too fierce by the indignity to which they were subjected, gave offence
to the conquerors. Thus were they led under the yoke; and what was
still more intolerable, under the eyes of the enemy. When they had got
clear of the defile, they seemed as if they had been dra