the Etrurians, now surrounded, in front and rear, and there was now no
means of flight back to their camp, nor to the mountains, where new
enemies were ready to oppose them, and the horses, now freed from their
bridles, had scattered their riders in every direction, the principal
part of the Veientians make precipitately for the Tiber. Such of the
Fidenatians as survived, bend their course to the city of Fidenæ. Their
flight hurries them in their state of panic into the midst of slaughter;
they are cut to pieces on the banks; others, when driven into the water,
were carried off by the eddies; even those who could swim were weighed
down by fatigue, by their wounds, and by fright; a few out of the many
make their way across. The other party make their way through the camp
into the city. In the same direction their impetuosity carries the
Romans in pursuit; Quintius more especially, and with him those who had
just come down from the mountain, being the soldiers who were freshest
for labour, because they had come up towards the close of the
engagement.
34. These, after they entered the gate mixed with the enemy, make their
way to the walls, and raise from their summit a signal to their friends
of the town being taken. When the dictator saw this, (for he had now
made his way into the deserted camp of the enemy,) he leads on the
soldiers, who were now anxious to disperse themselves in quest of booty,
entertaining a hope of a greater spoil in the city, to the gate; and
being admitted within the walls, he proceeds to the citadel, whither he
saw the crowds of fugitives hurrying. Nor was the slaughter in the city
less than in the battle; until, throwing down their arms, begging
nothing but their life, they surrendered to the dictator. The city and
camp are plundered. On the following day, one captive being allotted to
each horseman and centurion, and two to those whose valour had been
conspicuous, and the rest being sold by auction, the dictator in triumph
led back to Rome his army victorious and enriched with spoil; and having
ordered the master of the horse to resign his office, he immediately
resigned his own on the sixteenth day (after he had obtained it);
surrendering in peace that authority which he had received during war
and trepidations. Some annals have reported that there was a naval
engagement with the Veientians at Fidenæ, a thing as difficult as it was
incredible, the river even now not being broad enough for such a
purpose; and at that time, as we learn from old writers, being
considerably narrower: except that perhaps in disputing the passage of
the river, magnifying, as will happen, the scuffle of a few ships, they
sought the empty honour of a naval victory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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