Curiosities & wonders > Titus Livius' Roman history

Chap. 5.
ROMAN HISTORY.
209
having sold his life as dear as possible. Upon the news
of his brother’s disaster, the consul returned to the en¬
gagement, and rushing with more haste than caution,
among the thickest of the enemy, he was wounded, and
with difficulty carried off the field by those about him ;
a circumstance which dispirited the Roman army not a
little, and inspired the enemy with a greater degree of
confidence, who, proud that they had dispatched the
lieutenant, and wounded the consul, carried all before
them, drove the Romans back to their camp, and there
besieged them again, inferior in strength, and without
the least ray of hope to support them.
Such was their miserable situation, when Quinctius
came to their relief with an army of the Latins, Her-
nici, and other foreign troops. Whilst the iEqui di¬
rected all their force against the Roman camp, and in¬
sulting the besieged, by exposing to their view the head
of their lieutenant-general, Quinctius attacked them in
rear, whilst, upon a signal from him at a distance, a
sally was made from the camp, so that the enemy was
in a great measure surrounded. No great slaughter en¬
sued, as they fled in straggling parties, through the Ro¬
man territories.
Whilst they were straggling thus, and plundering
by the way, Posthumius, with some detachments, which
he had posted in proper places, gave them a very warm,
reception : and, after they had escaped the fury of Post¬
humius, they fell in with Quinctius, who, after his victory,
was returning with the wounded consul. Here the con¬
sular army took full revenge for their lieutenant-general
and his cohorts, as well as the wound received by the
consul. The slaughter was great on both sides, for
those times.
It is indeed, next to impossible, to ascertain with pre¬
cision, at this distance of time, what numbers were en¬
gaged, or fell: although Antias Valerius finds no dif¬
ficulty in condescending on the exact number. Accord¬
ing to his account, there fell of the Romans, in the coun¬
try of the Hernici, five thousand three hundred. Of
those ALqui, who in scattered parties, pillaged the Ro¬
man territories, Posthumius dispatched two thousand four
hundred : but it was Quinctius who gave them the fatal