is the second, but that he who neither himself is
capable of counselling, and knows not how to obey another, is of the
lowest order of mind. Since the first place of mind and talent has
been denied us, let us strive to obtain the second and intermediate
kind, and while we are learning to command, let us prevail upon
ourselves to submit to a man of prudence. Let us join camps with
Fabius, and, carrying our standards to his pavilion, when I have
saluted him as my parent, which he deserves on account of the service
he has rendered us and of his dignity; you, my soldiers, shall salute
those men as patrons, whose arms and right-hands just now protected
you: and if this day has conferred nothing else upon us, it hath at
least conferred upon us the glory of possessing grateful hearts."

30. The signal being given, there was a general call to collect the
baggage: then setting out, and proceeding in order of march to the
dictator's camp, they excited at once the surprise of the dictator
himself and all around him. When the standards were planted before the
tribunal, the master of the horse, advancing before the rest, having
saluted Fabius as father, and the whole body of his troops having,
with one voice, saluted the soldiers who surrounded him as patrons,
said, "To my parents, dictator, to whom I have just now equalled you,
only in name, as far as I could express myself, I am indebted for my
life only; to you I owe both my own preservation and that of all these
soldiers. That order of the people, therefore, with which I have been
oppressed rather than honoured, I first cancel and annul, and (may it
be auspicious to me and you, and to these your armies, to the
preserved and the preserver,) I return to your authority and auspices,
and restore to you these standards and these legions, and I entreat
you that, being reconciled, you would order that I may retain the
mastership of the horse, and that these soldiers may each of them
retain their ranks." After that hands were joined, and when the
assembly was dismissed, the soldiers were kindly and hospitably
invited by those known to them and unknown: and that day, from having
been a little while ago gloomy in the extreme, and almost accursed,
was turned into a day of joy. At Rome, the report of the action was
conveyed thither, and was afterwards confirmed, not less by letters
from the common soldiers of both armies, than from the generals
themselves, all men individually extolled Maxi