es,
cried out, that it was not mere plundering, nor small parties of
depredators, but, exaggerating every thing through groundless fear, that
whole armies and legions of the enemy were advancing, and that they were
pushing forward to the city determined for an assault. Those who were
nearest (the gates) carried to others the accounts heard from these,
uncertain as they were, and therefore the more groundless; and the hurry
and confused clamour of those calling to arms bore no distant
resemblance to the panic of a city taken by storm. It so happened that
the consul Quintius had returned to Rome from Algidum; this was some
relief for their terror; and the tumult being calmed, and after chiding
them for being in dread of a vanquished enemy, he posted a guard on the
gates. Then having convened the senate, when he set out to defend the
frontiers, a suspension[106] of civil business having been proclaimed by
a decree of the senate, leaving Quintus Servilius behind as prefect of
the city, he found no enemy in the country. Matters were conducted with
distinguished success by the other consul; who having attacked the
enemy, wherever he knew that they were to come, laden with booty, and
proceeding therefore with their army the more encumbered, made their
depredation prove fatal to them. Few of the enemy escaped from the
ambuscade; all the booty was recovered; thus the return of the consul
Quintius to the city put a termination to the justitium, which lasted
only four days. A census was then held, and the lustrum was closed by
Quintius: the number of citizens rated are said to have been one hundred
and twenty-four thousand two hundred and fourteen, besides orphans of
both sexes. Nothing memorable occurred afterwards among the AEquans; they
betook themselves into their towns, suffering their possessions to be
consumed by fire and to be devastated. The consul, after he had
repeatedly carried depredation through the entire country of the enemy,
returned to Rome with great glory and booty.

[Footnote 106: _Justitium_--a jure sistendo.]

4. Then Aulus Posthumius Albus and Spurius Furius Fusus were consuls.
Furii some writers have written Fusii; this I mention, lest any one may
imagine that the change, which is only in the names, may be in the
persons themselves. There was no doubt but that one of the consuls would
commence hostilities against the AEquans. The AEquans accordingly sought
aid from the Volscians of Ecetra; which being gra