hastened to Rome by different roads, announcing a heavier loss than had
been sustained. There was less of consternation, because the result
corresponded to the apprehensions of persons; and because the
reinforcements, which they could look to in this distressing state of
things, had been prepared by the military tribune: and by his orders,
after the disturbance in the city was quieted by the inferior
magistrates, scouts were instantly despatched, and brought intelligence
that the generals and the army were at Tusculum; that the enemy had not
removed their camp. And, what raised their spirits most, Quintus
Servilius Priscus was created dictator in pursuance of a decree of the
senate; a man whose judgment in public affairs the state had experienced
as well on many previous occasions, as in the issue of that war, because
he alone had expressed his apprehensions of the result of the disputes
among the tribunes, before the occurrence of the misfortune; he having
appointed for his master of the horse, by whom, as military tribune, he
had been nominated dictator, his own son, as some have stated, (for
others mention that Ahala Servilius was master of the horse that year;)
and setting out to the war with his newly-raised army, after sending for
those who were at Tusculum, chose ground for his camp at the distance
of two miles from the enemy.
47. The arrogance and negligence arising from success, which had
previously existed in the Roman generals, were now transferred to the
Æquans. Accordingly, when in the very first engagement the dictator had
thrown the enemy's van into disorder by a charge of his cavalry, he
immediately ordered the infantry to advance, and slew one of his own
standard-bearers who hesitated in so doing. So great was the ardour to
fight, that the Æquans did not stand the shock; and when, vanquished in
the field, they made for their camp in a precipitate flight, the taking
of it was shorter in time and less in trouble than the battle had been.
After the camp had been taken and plundered, and the dictator had given
up the spoil to the soldiers, and the cavalry, who had pursued the enemy
in their flight, brought back intelligence that all the Lavicanians were
vanquished, and that a considerable number of the Æquans had fled to
Lavici, the army was marched to Lavici on the following day; and the
town, being invested on all sides, was taken by storm and plundered. The
dictator, having marched back his victorious army to Rome, resigned his
office on the eighth day after he had been appointed; and before
agrarian disturbances could be raised by the tribunes of the commons,
allusion having been made to a division of the Lavicanian land, the
senate very opportunely voted in full assembly that a colony should be
conducted to Lavici. One thousand five hundred colonists were sent from
the city, and received each two acres. Lavici being taken, and
subsequently Agrippa Menenius Lanatus, and Lucius Servilius Structus,
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