es flocked around him, recommending
him by no means to decide to put his authority to the proof, the
entire strength of which lay in unanimous obedience, saying that the
soldiers generally refused to come to the assembly, and that their
voices were heard on all sides, demanding that the camp should be
removed from the Volscian territory: that the victorious enemy were
but a little time ago almost at the very gates and rampart, and that
not merely a suspicion but the visible form of a grievous disaster
presented itself to their eyes. Yielding at last--since they gained
nothing save a respite from punishment--having prorogued the assembly,
and given orders that their march should be proclaimed for the
following day, at daybreak he gave the signal for departure by sound
of trumpet. At the very moment when the army, having got clear of the
camp, was forming itself, the Volscians, as if they had been aroused
by the same signal, fell upon those in the rear: from these the alarm
spreading to the van, threw both the battalions and companies into
such a state of consternation, that neither could the general's
orders be distinctly heard, nor the lines drawn up. No one thought
of anything but flight. In such loose order did they make their way
through heaps of dead bodies and arms, that the enemy ceased their
pursuit sooner than the Romans their flight. The soldiers having at
length rallied from their disordered flight, the consul, after he had
in vain followed his men, bidding them return, pitched his camp in a
peaceful part of the country; and having convened an assembly, after
inveighing not without good reason against the army, as traitors to
military discipline, deserters of their posts, asking them, one by one
where were their standards, where their arms, he first beat with rods
and then beheaded those soldiers who had thrown down their arms,
the standard-bearers who had lost their standards, and also the
centurions, and those who received double allowance,[76] who had
deserted their ranks. With respect to the rest of the rank and file,
every tenth man was drawn by lot for punishment.

On the other hand, the consul and soldiers among the AEquans vied with
each other in courtesy and acts of kindness: Quinctius was naturally
milder in disposition, and the ill-fated severity of his colleague had
caused him to give freer vent to his own good temper. This remarkable
agreement between the general and his army the AEquans did not v