Ab urbe condita

The citizens, suddenly aroused from sleep, were alarmed by the danger of a nocturnal attack and one quite unlooked for, and the alarm was heightened by their ignorance as to who the enemies were and whence they came.

However, the word quickly passed “To arms”; the gates were protected by pickets and the walls manned. When the early dawn revealed a comparatively small force before the walls and the enemy turned out to be none other than the Tiburtines, the consuls decided upon an immediate attack. They issued from two separate gates and attacked the enemy, as they were advancing to the walls, on both flanks.

It soon became obvious that they had been trusting more to the chances of a surprise than to their own courage, so little resistance did they offer to the very first onset of the Romans.