ith the treaty. The general of the
Aequans commanded them to deliver to the oak the message they brought
from the Roman senate; that he in the meantime would attend to
other matters. An oak, a mighty tree, whose shade formed a cool
resting-place, overhung the general's tent. Then one of the
ambassadors, when departing, cried out: "Let both this consecrated oak
and all the gods hear that the treaty has been broken by you, and
both lend a favourable ear to our complaints now, and assist our arms
presently, when we shall avenge the rights of gods and men that have
been violated simultaneously." As soon as the ambassadors returned
to Rome, the senate ordered one of the consuls to lead his army into
Algidum against Gracchus, to the other they assigned as his sphere of
action the devastation of the country of the Aequans. The tribunes,
after their usual manner, attempted to obstruct the levy, and probably
would have eventually succeeded in doing so, had not a new and
additional cause of alarm suddenly arisen.

A large force of Sabines, committing dreadful devastation advanced
almost up to the walls of the city. The fields were laid waste, the
city was smitten with terror. Then the commons cheerfully took up
arms; two large armies were raised, the remonstrance of the tribunes
being of no avail. Nautius led one against the Sabines, and, having
pitched his camp at Eretum,[36] by trifling incursions, mostly by
night, he so desolated the Sabine territory that, in comparison with
it, the Roman borders seemed almost undamaged by the war. Minucius
neither had the same good fortune nor displayed the same energy in
conducting his operations: for after he had pitched his camp at no
great distance from the enemy, without having experienced any reverse
of importance, he kept himself through fear within the camp. When the
enemy perceived this, their boldness increased, as usually happens,
from the fears of others; and, having attacked his camp by night, when
open force availed little, they drew lines of circumvallation around
it on the following day. Before these could close the means of egress,
by a rampart thrown up on all sides, five horsemen, despatched between
the enemies' posts, brought news to Rome, that the consul and his
army were besieged. Nothing could have happened so unexpected nor so
unlooked-for. Accordingly, the panic and the alarm were as great as
if the enemy were besieging the city, not the camp. They summoned
the consu