ntry. When intelligence was brought by them of the number and
situation of the enemy, he ordered the baggage to be heaped together
in the centre, and the veterans to throw up a rampart round it;
and then, with the rest of the army in order of battle, he advanced
towards the enemy. The Gauls did the same, when they found that their
stratagem was detected, and that they were to engage in a fair and
regular battle, where success must depend on valour alone.

5. The battle began about the second hour. The left brigade of the
allies, and the Extraordinaries, fought in the first line, and were
commanded by two lieutenant-generals of consular dignity, Marcus
Marcellus and Tiberius Sempronius, who had been consul the year
before. The present consul was sometimes employed in the front of
the line, sometimes in keeping back the legions in reserve, that they
might not, through eagerness for fighting, come up to the attack until
the signal was given. He ordered the two Minucii, Quintus and Publius,
military tribunes, to lead off the cavalry on the legions into open
ground, at some distance from the line; and "when he should give them
the signal, to charge the enemy through the clear space." While he was
thus employed, a message came from Tiberius Sempronius Longus, that
the Extraordinaries could not support the onset of the Gauls; that
great numbers had already fallen; and that partly through weariness,
partly through fear, the ardour of the survivors was much abated. He
recommended it therefore to the consul, if he thought proper, to send
up one or other of the two legions, before the army suffered disgrace.
The second legion was accordingly sent, and the Extraordinaries were
ordered to retire. By the legion coming up, with its men fresh,
and the ranks complete in their numbers, the fight was renewed with
vigour. The left wing was withdrawn out of the action, and the right
took its place in the van. The intense heat of the sun discomposed
the Gauls, whose bodies were very ill qualified to endure it:
nevertheless, keeping their ranks close, and leaning sometimes on each
other, sometimes on their bucklers, they withstood the attack of
the Romans; which, when the consul observed, in order to break their
ranks, he ordered Caius Livius Salinator, commander of the allied
cavalry, to charge them at full speed, and the legionary cavalry
to remain in reserve. This tempest of cavalry first confused and
disordered, and at length entirely bro