Aulus Verginius and Spurius Servilius were next chosen consuls. After
the defeat sustained in the last battle, the Veientines declined an
engagement.[67] Ravages were committed, and they made repeated attacks
in every direction upon the Roman territory from the Janiculum, as if
from a fortress: nowhere were cattle or husbandmen safe. They were
afterward entrapped by the same stratagem as that by which they
had entrapped the Fabii: having pursued cattle which had been
intentionally driven on in all directions to decoy them, they fell
into an ambuscade; in proportion as they were more numerous,[68] the
slaughter was greater. The violent resentment resulting from this
disaster was the cause and beginning of one still greater: for having
crossed the Tiber by night, they attempted to assault the camp of the
consul Servilius; being repulsed from thence with great slaughter,
they with difficulty made good their retreat to the Janiculum. The
consul himself also immediately crossed the Tiber, and fortified
his camp at the foot of the Janiculum: at daybreak on the following
morning, being both somewhat elated by the success of the battle of
the day before, more, however, because the scarcity of corn forced him
to adopt measures, however dangerous, provided only they were more
expeditious, he rashly marched his army up the steep of the Janiculum
to the camp of the enemy, and, being repulsed from thence with more
disgrace than when he had repulsed them on the preceding day, he
was saved, both himself and his army, by the intervention of his
colleague. The Etruscans, hemmed in between the two armies, and
presenting their rear to the one and the other by turns, were
completely destroyed. Thus the Veientine war was crushed by a
successful piece of audacity. [69]
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