They fought for about three hours, and everywhere with desperation. Around the consul, however, the fight was peculiarly keen and vehement. He had the toughest troops with him; and he himself, whenever he saw that his men were hard pressed, was indefatigable in coming to the rescue. Distinguished by his equipment, he was a target for the enemy and a rallying-point for the Romans. At last a Lombard trooper, named Ducario, recognising the person as well as the guise of the consul, cried out to his people, ‘Here is the man who cut our legions to pieces and sacked our city--now I will give this victim to the shades of our murdered countrymen.’ Putting spurs to his horse, he dashed through the thick of the foe. First he cut down the armour-bearer, who had thrown himself in the way of the onset. Then he drove his lance through the consul. He was trying to despoil the corpse, when some veterans screened it with their shields. APPENDIX VI SHORT LIVES OF ROMAN AUTHORS DECIMUS MAGNUS AUSONIUS, 309-392 A.D. 1. Life. [Sidenote: AUSONIUS.] Born at Burdigala (_Bordeaux_), and carefully educated. At the age of thirty appointed professor of rhetoric in his native University, where he became so famous that he was appointed tutor to Gratian, son of the Emperor Valentinian (364-375 A.D.), and was afterwards raised to the highest honours of the State (Consul, 379 A.D.). Theodosius (Emperor of the East, 378-395 A.D.) gave him leave to retire from court to his native country, where he closed his days in an honoured literary retirement. 2. Works. A very voluminous writer both in prose and verse. 1. Prose: The only extant specimen is his _Gratiarum Actio_ to Gratianus for the Consulship. 2. Verse: Of this we have much: it has little value as poetry, but in point of contents and diction it is interesting and valuable. Some of his _Epigrammata_ and _Epitaphia_ are worth preserving, but his claim to rank as a poet rests on his _Mosella_, a beautiful description of the R. Moselle, which is worthy to be compared with Pliny’s description of the R. Clitumnus (_Ep._ viii. 8). ‘In virtue of this poem Ausonius ranks not merely as the last, or all but the last, of Latin, but as the first of French poets.’ --Mackail. GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR, 102 (or 100?)-44 B.C. 1. Important Events in Caesar’s Life. [Sidenote: CAESAR.]