e twelve gods should feast in splendour, temples were vowed, to Venus
Erycina by the dictator himself, to Mens by Titus Otacilius, the
praetor.

But with all, and, as Fabius put it, that the immortal gods should not
be overburdened with the petty affairs of mortals, every care that
human prudence and warcraft could suggest was taken. Walls and towers
were strengthened, and bridges were broken down; the inhabitants of
open towns were driven into places of security, and their houses and
crops destroyed. Amid all, the rumour came that Servilius was
hastening back from Gaul; then, that he was close at hand, and,
finally, Fabius set out to meet him, sending orders in advance that the
consul should come without lictors, so that the dignity of the
dictatorship might stand high before the people. And when Servilius
had come, in all respects as commanded, then he, the consul, after
first delivering up his legions which he had left at Ariminum, was
ordered to Ostia and the fleet to keep watch and ward over the Italian
coast and to protect the corn ships. So all the armies of the Republic
went to the pro-dictator, together with authority to raise such more as
he should consider needful; two new legions in the place of those dead
on the shores of Trasimenus, and some thousands of poorer citizens from
the tribes, to man the quinqueremes of Servilius and the walls of Rome.

Amid these days of bustle and preparation, Sergius had found little
difficulty in keeping his footsteps from Marcia's threshold. After the
first grief of the conviction that she did not love him, pride came to
his rescue. Should he, the head of the noblest house of the noble
Sergian gens, should he abase himself and submit to scornful words even
from a daughter of Torquatus? or, yet, should he, as a man, desire to
bear the torch before an unwilling bride? These were simple questions,
and there was but one word that could answer them; so Sergius struggled
to put Marcia from his heart, until he flattered himself that the
difficult task had at last been accomplished.

During this internal struggle, there came, also, to help him, word that
he had been named as one of the military tribunes in the new Fourth
Legion, and, his wound being now almost well, he threw himself headlong
into the work of the levy and of exercising his men, striving to bring
them to such a degree of efficiency as might win honour for himself and
advantage to the Republic. Now and again