. Asellus, who was in the camp, having been informed of this, waited
only to ask the consul leave to depart from the ordinary course and
fight an enemy who had challenged him. By his permission, he
immediately put on his arms, and riding out beyond the advanced guards
called on Taurea by name, and bid him come to the encounter when he
pleased. By this time the Romans had gone out in large bodies to
witness the contest, and the Campanians had crowded not only the
rampart of the camp, but the walls of the city to get a view of it.
After a flourish of expressions of mutual defiance, they spurred on
their horses with their spears pointed. Then evading each other's
attacks, for they had free space to move in, they protracted the
battle without a wound. Upon this the Campanian observed to the Roman,
"This will be only a trial of skill between our horses and not between
horsemen, unless we ride them down from the plain into this hollow
way. There, as there will be no room for retiring, we shall come to
close quarters." Almost quicker than the word, Claudius leaped into
the hollow way. Taurea, bold in words more than in reality, said,
"Never be the ass in the ditch;" an expression which from this
circumstance became a common proverb among rustics. Claudius having
rode up and down the way to a considerable distance, and again come up
into the plain without meeting his antagonist, after reflecting in
reproachful terms on the cowardice of the enemy, returned in triumph
to the camp, amidst great rejoicing and congratulation. To the account
of this equestrian contest, some histories add a circumstance which is
certainly astonishing, how true it is, is an open matter of opinion
that Claudius, when in pursuit of Taurea, who fled back to the city,
rode in at one of the gates of the enemy which stood open and made his
escape unhurt through another, the enemy being thunderstruck at the
strangeness of the circumstance.

48. The camps were then undisturbed, the consul even moved his camp
back, that the Campanians might complete their sowing, nor did he do
any injury to the lands till the blades in the corn-fields were grown
sufficiently high to be useful for forage. This he conveyed into the
Claudian camp above Suessula, and there erected winter quarters. He
ordered Marcus Claudius, the proconsul, to retain at Nola a sufficient
force for the protection of the place, and send the rest to Rome, that
they might not be a burthen to their allie