he 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 gods." Having thus said, he
commanded Marcus Livius, a pontiff, whom, at his coming out to the
field, he had charged not to stir from him, to dictate the form of
words in which he was to devote himself, and the legions of the enemy,
for the army of the Roman people, the Quirites. He was accordingly
devoted with the same imprecations, and in the same habit, in which
his father, Publius Decius, had ordered himself to be devoted at the
Veseris in the Latin war. When, immediately after the solemn
imprecation, he added, that "he drove before him dismay a