_The +VOLSCIANS+ found that now they were severed from every other hope, there was but little in prolonging the conflict. In addition to other disadvantages they had engaged on a spot ill-adapted for fighting and worse for flight. Cut to pieces on every side they abandoned the contest and cried for quarter. After surrendering their commander and delivering up their arms, they passed under the yoke, and with one garment each +WERE SENT+ to their homes covered with disgrace and defeat._ [Footnote 4: Potts, _Hints_, p. 85.] Notice here that (1) There is only one main idea, that of _the ignominious return of the Volscians to their homes_. (2) The rest describes the attendant circumstances of the surrender and of the causes that led to it. (3) In English we should translate by at least four separate sentences. (4) The Latin contains only forty-eight words, while the English contains eighty-one. Professor Postgate (‘Sermo Latinus,’ p. 45) gives the following example of the way in which a Latin +PERIOD+ may be built up:-- +BALBUS vir optimus, dux clārissimus et multis mihi beneficiis carus, rogitantibus Arvernis ut populi Romani māiestātem ostentāret suīque simul imperi monumentum eis relinqueret, MŪRUM laterīcium, vīginti pedes lātum, sexāginta altitūdine et ita in immensum porrectum ut vix tuis ipse oculis crēderes tantum esse, nēdum aliis persuāderes, non sine adverso suo rūmore ut qui principātum adfectaret AEDIFICAVIT.+ _+BALBUS+, an excellent man and most distinguished commander, who had endeared himself to me by numerous kindnesses, was requested by the Arverni to make a display of the power and greatness of Rome, and at the same time to leave behind him a memorial of his own government. He accordingly +BUILT+ a +WALL+ of bricks, twenty feet wide, sixty high, and extending to such a prodigious length that you could hardly trust your own eyes that it was so large, still less induce others to believe it. But he did not escape the malign rumour that he had designs upon the imperial crown._ Here, as in the previous example, (1) There is only one main idea, +BALBUS MURUM AEDIFICAVIT+. (2) The rest consists of-- (a) Enlargements of +BALBUS+--+vir optimus ... carus+; placed, therefore, directly _after_ +BALBUS+. (b) Enlargements of +MURUM+--+laterīcium ... persuaderes+; placed, therefore, directly _after_ +MURUM+. (c) Enlargements of +AEDIFICAVIT+ +rogitantibus ... relinqueret+ = the _cause_ of the building of the wall. +(murum) non sine ... adfectaret+ = the _attendant circumstances_ of the building of the wall; placed, therefore, _before_ +AEDIFICAVIT+. (3) In English we must translate by at least three separate sentences, and, where necessary, translate participles as finite verbs, and change dependent clauses into independent sentences.