Ab urbe condita

Postumius, whose skull was fractured by a stone, was the only one who left the field. The Dictator was wounded in the shoulder, Fabius had his thigh almost pinned to his horse, the consul had his arm cut off, but they refused to retire while the battle was undecided.

Messius with a body of their bravest troops charged through heaps of slain and was carried on to the Volscian camp, which was not yet taken; the entire army followed.

The consul followed them up in their disordered flight as far as the stockade and began to attack the camp, whilst the Dictator brought up his troops to the other side of it.

The storming of the camp was just as furious as the battle had been. It is recorded that the consul actually threw a standard inside the stockade to make the soldiers more eager to assault it, and in endeavouring to recover it the first breach was made. When the stockade was torn down and the Dictator had now carried the fighting into the camp, the enemy began everywhere to throw away their arms and surrender.

After the capture of this camp, the enemy, with the exception of the senators, were all sold as slaves. A part of the booty comprised the plundered property of the Latins and Hernicans, and after being identified, was restored to them, the rest the Dictator sold “under the spear”.[*](under the spear. The sale of property captured in war was conducted by the general commanding, with a spear fixed upright beside him, as a sign that it had been won by the spear. The usage was after-wards extended to all sales of government property. The mode of selling corresponded to our sale by auction.) After placing the consul in command of the camp, he entered the City in triumph and then laid down his dictatorship.

Some writers have cast a gloom over the memory of this glorious dictatorship by handing down a tradition that the Dictator's son, who, seeing an opportunity for fighting to advantage, had left his post against orders, was beheaded by his father, though victorious.