dership and
auspices of the decemvirs, suffered themselves to be beaten, to their
own disgrace and that of their generals. Their armies were routed both
by the Sabines at Eretum, and by the AEquans in Algidum. Fleeing from
Eretum during the silence of the night, they fortified their camp
nearer the city, on an elevated position between Fidenae and
Crustumeria; nowhere encountering on equal ground the enemy who
pursued them, they protected themselves by the nature of the ground
and a rampart, not by valour or arms. Their conduct was more
disgraceful, and greater loss also was sustained in Algidum; their
camp too was lost, and the soldiers, stripped of all their arms,
munitions, and supplies, betook themselves to Tusculum, determined to
procure the means of subsistence from the good faith and compassion of
their hosts, and in these, notwithstanding their conduct, they were
not disappointed. Such alarming accounts were brought to Rome, that
the patricians, having now laid aside their hatred of the decemvirs,
passed an order that watches should be held in the city, and commanded
that all who were not hindered by reason of their age from carrying
arms, should mount guard on the walls, and form outposts before the
gates; they also voted that arms should be sent to Tusculum, besides
a re-enforcement; and that the decemvirs should come down from the
citadel of Tusculum and keep their troops encamped; that the other
camp should be removed from Fidenas into Sabine territory, and the
enemy, by their thus attacking them first, should be deterred from
entertaining any idea of assaulting the city.

In addition to the reverses sustained at the hands of the enemy, the
decemvirs were guilty of two monstrous deeds, one abroad, and the
other in the city. They sent Lucius Siccius, who was quartered among
the Sabines, to take observations for the purpose of selecting a site
for a camp: he, availing himself of the unpopularity of the decemvirs,
was introducing, in his secret conversations with the common soldiers,
suggestions of a secession and the election of tribunes: the soldiers,
whom they had sent to accompany him in that expedition, were
commissioned to attack him in a convenient place and slay him. They
did not kill him with impunity; several of the assassins fell around
him, as he offered resistance, since, possessing great personal
strength and displaying courage equal to that strength, he defended
himself against them, although su