ut that they would proceed in front of the first
line. While the consul hesitated, relying on the valour of his men,
yet having little confidence in the nature of the ground, they all
cried out that they would proceed; and execution followed the shout.
Fixing their spears in the ground, in order that they might be lighter
to mount the heights, they advanced uphill at a run. The Volscians,
having discharged their missile weapons at the first onset, hurled
down the stones that lay at their feet upon the Romans as they
were making their way up, and having thrown them into confusion by
incessant blows, strove to drive them from the higher ground: thus
the left wing of the Romans was nearly overborne, had not the consul
dispelled their fear by rousing them to a sense of shame as they were
on the point of retreating, chiding at the same time their temerity
and their cowardice. At first they stood their ground with determined
firmness; then, as they recovered their strength by still holding
their position, they ventured to advance of themselves, and, renewing
their shouts, they encouraged the whole body to advance: then having
made a fresh attack, they forced their way up and surmounted the
unfavourable ground. They were now on the point of gaining the summit
of the hill, when the enemy turned their backs, and pursued and
pursuer at full speed rushed into the camp almost in one body. During
this panic the camp was taken; such of the Volscians as were able to
make good their escape, made for Antium. The Roman army also was
led thither; after having been invested for a few days, the town
surrendered, not in consequence of any new efforts on the part of the
besiegers, but because the spirits of the inhabitants had sunk ever
since the unsuccessful battle and the loss of their camp.

[Footnote 1: The functions of the old priest-king were divided, the
political being assigned to the consuls, the duty of sacrificing
to the newly-created rex sacrificulus, who was chosen from the
patricians: he was, nevertheless, subject to the control of the
Pontifex Maximus, by whom he was chosen from several nominees of the
college of priests.]

[Footnote 2: This, of course applied only to patricians. Plebians were
accounted nobodies.--D.O.]

[Footnote 3: The insula Tiberina between Rome and the Janiculum.]

[Footnote 4: Vindicta was properly the rod which was laid on the head
of a slave by the magistrate who emancipated him, or by one of his