no time for examining into excuses, that all the young men should attend
on the following morning at the first dawn in the Campus Martius; that
when the war was over, they should afford time for inquiring into the
excuses of those who had not given in their names; that the man should
be held as a deserter, with whose excuse they might not be satisfied;"
the entire youth attended on the following day. The cohorts chose each
their centurions: two senators were placed at the head of each cohort.
We have heard that all these measures were perfected with such
expedition, that the standards, having been brought forth from the
treasury on that very day by the quæstors and conveyed to the Campus,
began to move from thence at the fourth hour; and the newly raised army
halted at the tenth stone, followed by a few cohorts of veteran soldiers
as volunteers. The following day brought the enemy within view, and camp
was joined to camp near Corbio. On the third day, when resentment urged
on the Romans, a consciousness of guilt for having so often rebelled,
and despair (of pardon) urged them on the other side, there was no delay
made in coming to an engagement.
70. In the Roman army, though the two consuls were invested with equal
authority, the supreme command was by the concession of Agrippa resigned
to his colleague, a thing which is most salutary in the management of
matters of great importance; and he who was preferred politely
responded to the ready condescension of him who lowered himself, by
communicating to him all his measures and sharing with him his honours,
and by equalizing himself to him no longer his equal. On the field of
battle Quintius commanded the right, Agrippa the left wing; the command
of the central line is intrusted to Spurius Postumius Albus, as
lieutenant-general. Servius Sulpicius, the other lieutenant-general,
they place over the cavalry. The infantry on the right wing fought with
distinguished valour, with stout resistance from the Volscians. Servius
Sulpicius broke with his cavalry through the centre of the enemy's line;
whence though he might have returned in the same way to his own party,
before the enemy could have restored their broken ranks, it seemed more
advisable to attack the enemy's rear, and by attacking the rear he would
in a moment have dispersed the enemy by the twofold attack, had not the
cavalry of the Volscians and Æquans intercepted him and kept him engaged
by a mode of fighting similar to his own. Then indeed Sulpicius asserted
that "there was no time for delaying," crying out that "they were
surrounded and cut off from their own friends, unless they united all
their efforts and despatched the engagement with the cavalry. Nor was it
enough to rout the enemy without disabling them; that they should slay
horses and men, lest any might return to the fight or renew the battle;
that they could not resist them, before whom a compact body of infantry
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