her by L. AEmilius the consul,
come to a close engagement in the field with the Etrurians; although the
Veientians had scarcely time to draw up their line: for during the first
alarm, whilst the ranks are posting themselves behind their respective
banners and they are stationing their reserves, a brigade of Roman
cavalry charging them suddenly in flank, took away all opportunity not
only of commencing the fight, but even of standing their ground. Thus
being driven back to the Red Rocks, (there they pitched their camp,)
they suppliantly sue for peace; for the obtaining of which they were
sorry, from the natural inconsistency of their minds, before the Roman
garrison was drawn off from the Cremera.

[Footnote 97: Before a consul set out on any expedition, he offered
sacrifices and prayers in the Capitol; and then, laying aside his
consular gown, marched out of the city, dressed in a military robe of
state, called Paludamentum.]

50. Again the Veientian state had to contend with the Fabii without any
additional military armament [on either side]; and there were not merely
incursions into each other's territories, or sudden attacks on those
making the incursions, but they fought repeatedly in the open field, and
in pitched battles: and one family of the Roman people oftentimes gained
the victory over an entire Etrurian state, one of the most powerful at
that time. This at first appeared mortifying and humiliating to the
Veientians: then (they formed) a design, suggested by the circumstance,
of surprising their daring enemy by an ambuscade; they were even glad
that the confidence of the Fabii was increasing by their great success.
Wherefore cattle were frequently driven in the way of the plundering
parties, as if they had come there by mere accident, and tracts of land
were abandoned by the flight of the peasants; and troops of armed men
sent to prevent the devastations retreated more frequently from
pretended than from real fear. And now the Fabii had such a contempt for
the enemy, as to believe that their invincible arms could not be
withstood either in any place or on any occasion: this presumption
carried them so far, that at the sight of some cattle at a distance from
Cremera, with an extensive plain lying between, they ran down to it
(although few troops of the enemy were observed); and when incautious
and in disorderly haste they had passed the ambuscade placed on either
side of the very road; and when dispersed in d