the tribunician power was directed against the author of this proceeding: and even his own colleagues rose up against him as vigorously as the consuls; and by their assistance the consuls held the levy. An army was raised for the two wars simultaneously; one was intrusted to Fabius to be led against the Veientines, the other to Furius to operate against the Æquans. In regard to the latter, indeed, nothing took place worthy of mention. Fabius had considerably more trouble with his countrymen than with the enemy: that one man alone, as consul, sustained the commonwealth, which the army was doing its best to betray, as far as in it lay, from hatred of the consul. For when the consul, in addition to his other military talents, of which he had exhibited abundant instances in his preparations for and in his conduct of war, had so drawn up his line that he routed the enemy's army solely by a charge of his cavalry, the infantry refused to pursue them when routed; nor, although the exhortation of their general, whom they hated, had no effect upon them, could even their own infamy, and the immediate public disgrace and subsequent danger likely to arise, if the enemy recovered their courage, induce them to quicken their pace, or even, if nothing else, to stand in order of battle. Without orders they faced about, and with a sorrowful air (one would have thought them defeated) they returned to camp, execrating at one time their general, at another the vigour displayed by the cavalry. Nor did the general know where to look for any remedies for so harmful a precedent: so true is it that the most distinguished talents will be more likely found deficient in the art of managing a countryman, than in that of conquering an enemy. The consul returned to Rome, not having so much increased his military glory as irritated and exasperated the hatred of his soldiers toward him. The patricians, however, succeeded in keeping the consulship in the Fabian family. They elected Marcus Fabius consul; Gnaeus Manlius was assigned as a colleague to Fabius.