.

46. An almost certain hope was entertained that they would no more fight
with them than they had done with the AEqui; that even some more serious
attempt was not to be despaired of, considering the irritated state of
their feelings, and the very critical occasion. The affair turned out
altogether differently; for never before in any other war did the Roman
soldiers enter the field with more determined minds (so much had the
enemy exasperated them by taunts on the one hand, and the consuls by
delay on the other). The Etrurians had scarcely time to form their
ranks, when the javelins having been thrown away at random, in the first
hurry, rather than discharged with aim, the battle had now come to close
fighting, even to swords, where the fury of war is most desperate. Among
the foremost the Fabian family was distinguished for the sight it
afforded and the example it presented to their fellow citizens; one of
these, Q. Fabius, (he had been consul two years before,) as he was
advancing at the head of his men against a dense body of Veientians, and
whilst engaged amid numerous parties of the enemy, and therefore not
prepared for it, was transfixed with a sword through the breast by a
Tuscan who presumed on his bodily strength and skill in arms: on the
weapon being extracted, Fabius fell forward on the wound. Both armies
felt the fall of this one man, and the Roman began in consequence to
give way, when the consul Marcus Fabius leaped over the body as it lay,
and holding up his buckler, said, "Is this what you swore, soldiers,
that you would return to the camp in flight? are you thus more afraid of
your most dastardly enemies, than of Jupiter and Mars, by whom you have
sworn? But I who have not sworn will either return victorious, or will
fall fighting here beside thee, Q. Fabius." Then Kaeso Fabius, the consul
of the preceding year, says to the consul, "Brother, is it by these
words you think you will prevail on them to fight? the gods by whom they
have sworn will prevail on them. Let us also, as men of noble birth, as
is worthy of the Fabian name, enkindle the courage of the soldiers by
fighting rather than by exhorting." Thus the two Fabii rush forward to
the front with presented spears, and brought on with them the whole
line.

47. The battle being restored on one side, Cn. Manlius, the consul, with
no less ardour, encouraged the fight on the other wing. Where an almost
similar result took place; for as the soldiers u