falling over him.
Postumius the dictator, on seeing so distinguished a man slain, the
exiles advancing boldly in a body, and his own men disheartened and
giving ground, gives the signal to his own cohort, a chosen body of men
which he kept for the defence of his person, to treat every Roman
soldier whom they should see fly from the battle as an enemy. Upon this
the Romans, by reason of the danger on both sides, turned from their
flight against the enemy, and, the battle being restored, the dictator's
cohort now for the first time engaged in the fight, and with fresh
vigour and undaunted resolution falling on the wearied exiles, cut them
to pieces. Here another engagement took place between the leading
officers. The Latin general, on seeing the cohort of the exiles almost
surrounded by the Roman dictator, advanced in haste to the front with
some companies of the body of reserve. T. Herminius, a
lieutenant-general, having seen them moving in a body, and well knowing
Mamilius, distinguished from the rest by his armour and dress,
encountered the leader of the enemy with a force so much superior to
that wherewith the general of the horse had lately done, that at one
thrust he ran him through the side and slew him; and while stripping
the body of his enemy, he himself received a wound with a javelin; and
though brought back to the camp victorious, yet he died during the first
dressing of it. Then the dictator flies to the cavalry, entreating them
in the most pressing terms, as the foot were tired out with fighting, to
dismount from their horses and join the fight. They obeyed his orders,
dismounted, flew to the front, and taking their post at the first line,
cover themselves with their targets. The infantry immediately recovered
courage, when they saw the young noblemen sustaining a share of the
danger with them, the mode of fighting being now assimilated. Thus at
length were the Latins beaten back, and their line giving way,[82] they
retreated. The horses were then brought up to the cavalry that they
might pursue the enemy, and the infantry likewise followed. On this, the
dictator, omitting nothing (that could conciliate) divine or human aid,
is said to have vowed a temple to Castor, and likewise to have promised
rewards to the first and second of the soldiers who should enter the
enemy's camp. And such was their ardour, that the Romans took the camp
with the same impetuosity wherewith they had routed the enemy in the
field.