Ab urbe condita

Fortunately the consul Quinctius had returned to Rome from Algidus. This relieved their fears, and after allaying the excitement and rebuking them for being afraid of a defeated enemy, he stationed troops to guard the gates.

The senate was then convened, and on their authority he proclaimed a suspension of all business; after which he set out to protect the frontier, leaving Q. Servilius as prefect of the City.

He did not, however, find the enemy. The other consul achieved a brilliant success. He ascertained by what routes the parties of the enemy would come, attacked each while laden with plunder and therefore hampered in their movements, and made their plundering expeditions fatal to them.

Few of the enemy escaped; all the plunder was recovered. The consul's return put an end to the suspension of business, which lasted four days.

Then the census was made and the “lustrum” closed by Quinctius.[*](Lustrum, or expiation (see note 9, Book I). The last act of the censors during their period of office was to offer an expiatory sacrifice for the whole people. On the appointed day the citizens assembled in military formation in the Campus Martius. The victims, a boar, a ram, and a bull —hence the name of the sacrifice, “ suovetaurilia ” —were carried thrice round the assembled host, who were then declared “purified,” and whilst the animals were being offered on the altar, the censor to whom the lot had fallen of conducting the ceremony recited a traditional form of prayer for the strengthening and extension of the might of the Roman people. As the censor's office was originally fixed for five years, “ lustrum ” was used to denote that period of time.) The numbers of the census are stated to have been one hundred and four thousand seven hundred and fourteen, exclusive of widows