the enemy,) they kept two thousand men in reserve, to make an attack on
the left wing of the Romans in the heat of the battle. When these, by an
attack in flank, were overpowering that wing, now almost surrounded,
about six hundred of the cavalry of two legions leap down from their
horses, and rush forward in front of their men, now giving way; and they
at the same time both oppose the progress of the enemy, and incite the
courage of the infantry, first sharing the danger equally with them, and
then by arousing in them a sense of shame. It was a matter of shame that
the cavalry should fight in their own proper character and in that of
others; and that the infantry should not be equal to the cavalry even
when dismounted.
63. They press forward therefore to the fight, which had been suspended
on their part, and endeavour to regain the ground which they had lost,
and in a moment not only is the battle restored, but one of the wings of
the Sabines gives way. The cavalry, covered between the ranks of the
foot, return to their horses; they then gallop across to the other
division to announce their success to their party; at the same time also
they make a charge on the enemy, now disheartened by the discomfiture of
their stronger wing. The valour of none shone more conspicuous in that
battle. The consul provided for all emergencies; he applauded the brave,
rebuked wherever the battle seemed to slacken. When reproved, they
displayed immediately the energy of brave men; and a sense of shame
stimulated them as much as praises excited the others. The shout being
raised anew, and making a united effort, they drive the enemy back; nor
could the Roman power be any longer resisted. The Sabines, driven in
every direction through the country, leave behind them their camp as
plunder for the enemy. There the Roman recovers the effects not of the
allies, as at Algidum, but his own property, which had been lost by the
devastations of their lands. For this double victory, obtained in two
battles, in two different places, the senate through jealousy decreed
merely supplications in the name of the consuls for one day only. The
people went, however, on the second day also in great numbers of their
own accord to offer thanksgiving; and this unauthorized and popular
supplication was even more zealously attended. The consuls by concert
came to the city within the same two days, and called out the senate to
the Campus Martius. Where, when they were relating the services
performed by themselves, the chiefs of the patricians complained that
the senate was convened among the soldiers designedly for the purpose of
intimidation. The consuls therefore, lest there might be any foundation
for such a charge, called away the senate to the Flaminian meadows,
where the temple of Apollo now is (even then they called it
Apollinaris). Where, when a triumph was refused by a large majority of
the patricians, Lucius Icilius, tribune of the commons, proposed to the
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