Ab urbe condita

He was not a false prophet. It[*](Defeat of the Romans.) happened to be the turn of L. Sergius to hold command, and the enemy by a pretended flight had drawn his troops on to unfavourable ground close to their camp, in the vain hope of storming it. Then the Aequi made a sudden charge and drove them down a steep valley where numbers were overtaken and killed in what was not so much a flight as a tumbling over each other.

It was with difficulty that they held their camp that day; the next day, after the enemy had surrounded a considerable part of it, they evacuated it in a disgraceful flight through the rear gate.

The commanders and lieutenants-general and as much of the army as remained with the standards made for Tusculum, the others, straggling in all directions through the fields, hurried on to Rome and spread the news of a more serious defeat than had been actually incurred.

There was less consternation felt because the result was what every one had feared and the reinforcements which they could look to in the hour of danger had been got ready beforehand by the consular tribune.

By his orders, after the excitement had been allayed by the inferior magistrates, scouting parties were promptly sent out to reconnoitre, and they reported that the generals and the army were at Tusculum, and that the enemy had not shifted his camp.

What did most to restore confidence was the nomination, by a senatorial decree, of Q. Servilius Priscus as Dictator. The citizens had had previous experience of his political foresight in many stormy crises, and the issue of this war afforded a fresh proof, for he alone suspected danger from the differences of the tribunes before the disaster occurred.

He appointed as his Master of the Horse the tribune by whom he had been nominated Dictator, namely, his own son.

This at least is the statement of some authorities, others say that Ahala Servilius was Master of the Horse that year. With his fresh army he proceeded to the seat of war, and after recalling the troops who were at Tusculum, he selected a position for his camp two miles distant from the enemy.

The[*](Capture of Labici.) arrogance and carelessness which the Roman generals had shown had now passed over to the Aequi in the hour of their success.

The result appeared in the very first battle. After shaking the enemies' front with a cavalry charge, the Dictator ordered the standards of the legions to be rapidly advanced, and as one of his standard-bearers hesitated, he slew him.

So eager were the Romans to engage that the Aequi did not stand the shock. Driven from the field in headlong flight they made for their camp; the storming of the camp took less time and involved less fighting than the actual battle.

The spoils of the captured camp the Dictator gave up to the soldiers. The cavalry who had pursued the enemy as they fled from the camp brought back intelligence that the whole of the defeated

Labicans and a large proportion of the Aequi had fled to Labici.

On the morrow the army marched to Labici, and after the town was completely invested it was captured and plundered. After leading his victorious army home, the Dictator laid down his office just a week after he had been appointed. Before the tribunes of the plebs had time to get up an agitation about the division of the Labican territory, the senate in a full meeting passed a resolution that a body of colonists should be settled at Labici.

One thousand five hundred colonists were sent, and each received two jugera [*](jugera. —One and a quarter acres, nearly. The jugerum=nearly 5/8 of an acre.) of land. In the year following the capture of Labici the consular tribunes were Menenius Lanatus, L. Servilius Structus, P. Lucretius Tricipitinus-each for the second time- and Spurius Veturius

Crassus. For the next year they were A. Sempronius Atratinus-for the third time- and M. Papirius Mugilanus and Sp. Nautius Rutilus- each for the second time. During these two years foreign affairs were quiet, but at home there were contentions over the agrarian laws.