Ab urbe condita

Sp. and L. Papirius, the new consular tribunes, marched with the legions to Velitrae. Their four colleagues, Ser. Cornelius Maluginensis, Q. Servilius, C. Sulpicius, and L. Aemilius were left to defend the City and to meet any fresh movement in Etruria, for danger was suspected everywhere on that side.

At Velitrae, where the auxiliaries from Praeneste were almost more numerous than the colonists themselves, an engagement took place in which the Romans soon won the day, for as the city was so near, the enemy took to flight early in the battle and made for the city as their one refuge. The tribunes abstained from storming the place, for they were doubtful of success and did not think it right to reduce the colony to ruin.

The dispatches to the senate announcing the victory were more severe on the Praenestines than on the Veliternians. Accordingly, by a decree of the senate confirmed by the people, war was declared against Praeneste The Praenestines joined forces with the Volscians and in the following year took by storm the Roman colony of Satricum, after an obstinate defence, and made a brutal use of their victory.

This incident exasperated the Romans.

They elected M. Furius Camillus as consular tribune for the sixth time, and gave him four colleagues, A. and L. Postumius Regillensis, L. Furius, L. Lucretius, and M. Fabius Ambustus . By a special decree of the senate the war with the Volscians was entrusted to M. Furius Camillus; the tribune chosen by lot as his coadjutor was L. Furius, not so much, as it turned out, in the interest of the State, as in the interest of his colleague, for whom he served as the means of gaining fresh renown.

He gained it on public grounds by restoring the fortunes of the State which had been brought low by the other's rashness, and on private grounds, because he was more anxious to win the other's gratitude after retrieving his error than to win glory for himself.

Camillus was now advanced in age, and after being elected was prepared to make the usual affidavit declining office on the grounds of health, but the people refused to allow him. His vigorous breast was still animated by an energy unweakened by age, his senses were unimpaired, and his interest in political affairs was lost in the prospect of war. Four legions were enrolled, each consisting of 4000 men The army was ordered to muster the next day at the Esquiline Gate and at once marched for Satricum.

Here the captors of the colony awaited him, their decided superiority of numbers inspiring them with complete confidence. When they found that the Romans were approaching they advanced at once to battle, anxious to bring matters to a decisive issue as soon as possible.

They imagined that this would prevent the inferiority in numbers of their opponents from being in any way aided by the skill of their commander, which they looked upon as the sole ground of confidence for the Romans.

The same eagerness for battle was felt by the Roman army and by Camillus' colleague. Nothing stood in the way of their hazarding an immediate engagement except the prudence and authority of one man, who was seeking an opportunity, by protracting the war, for aiding the strength of his force by strategy.

This made the enemy more insistent; they not only deployed their lines in front of their camp, but even marched forward in the middle of the plain and showed their supercilious confidence in their numbers by advancing their standards close to the Roman intrenchments.

This made the Romans indignant, still more so L. Furius. Young and naturally hightempered, he was now infected with the hopefulness of the rank and file whose spirits were rising with very little to justify their confidence.

He increased their excitement by belittling the authority of his colleague on the score of his age, the only possible reason he had for doing so; he declared that wars were the province of the younger men, for courage grows and decays in correspondence with the bodily powers.

“Camillus,” he said, “once a most active warrior, had now become a laggard; he, whose habit it had been, immediately on arriving at camps or cities, to take them at the first assault, was now wasting time and stagnating inside his lines. What accession to his own strength or diminution of the enemy's strength was he hoping for?

What favourable chance, what opportune moment, what ground on which to employ his strategy? The old man's plans had lost all fire and life.

Camillus had had his share of life as well as glory. What was gained by letting the strength of a State which ought to be immortal share in the senile decay of one mortal frame?”