The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End: with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost BooksLivy
History
The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End: with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books
Livy
Rome -- History
Presently all the rest, thinking no more of fighting or
of the enemy, did the same; and being unaccustomed to any sort of rich
food, they greedily gorged themselves with meat and wine.
3. The appearance of affairs among the Romans was by no means the same.
There was confusion both on land and sea; the mariners struck their
tents, and hastily conveyed on board the provisions which had been sent
on shore; the soldiers in a panic rushed into the boats, and even into
the water. Some of the seamen, in fear lest their vessels should be
overcrowded, opposed the entrance of the multitude, while others pushed
off from the shore into the deep. Hence arose a dispute, and in a short
time a fight, accompanied by wounds and loss of lives, both of soldiers
and seamen; until by order of the consul, the fleet was removed to a
distance from the shore. He next set about separating the armed from the
unarmed; out of so large a number, there were scarcely found twelve
hundred who had preserved their arms; very few horsemen who had brought
their horses with them; while the rest were an ill-looking throng, like
servants and sutlers, and would certainly have fallen a prey, if the
enemy had not neglected the war. At length an express was despatched to
call in the third legion and the out-post of the Gauls; and at the same
time the troops began to march back from all parts in order to retake
the camp, and wipe off their disgrace. The military tribunes of the
third legion ordered their men to throw away the forage and wood, and
commanded the centurions to mount two elderly soldiers on horses from
which the loads were thrown down, and each of the cavalry to take a
young foot soldier with him on his horse. He told them, “it would be a
great honour to their legion, if they should recover, by bravery, the
camp which had been lost by the cowardice of the second; and that this
might be easily effected, if the barbarians were surprised while busied
in plundering. In like manner as they had taken it, so might it be
retaken.” His exhortation was received by the army with the utmost
alacrity; they eagerly bear on the standards, nor do the soldiers delay
the standard-bearers. However the consul, and the troops which were led
back from the shore, reached the rampart first. Lucius Atius, first
tribune of the second legion, not only urged on his men, but informed
them also, that “if the Istrians meant to retain the camp, which they
had taken, by the same arms by which they took it, they would, in the
first place, have pursued their enemy driven from his camp to the sea;
and, in the next place, they would certainly have stationed guards
outside the rampart; and that it was very likely that they were lying in
sleep, or drowned in wine.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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