length the other mouth of the cave being found, for it was pervious, both the openings were filled up with wood, which being set on fire, there perished by means of the smoke and heat, no less than two thousand men; many of whom, at the last, in attempting to make their way out, rushed into the very flames. The two Marci, Livius Denter and Aemilius, succeeding to the consulship, war was renewed with the Aequans; who, being highly displeased at the colony established within their territory, as if it were a fortress, having made an attempt, with their whole force, to seize it, were repulsed by the colonists themselves. They caused, however, such an alarm at Rome, that, to quell this insurrection, Caius Junius Bubulcus was nominated dictator: for it was scarcely credible that the Aequans, after being reduced to such a degree of weakness, should by themselves alone have ventured to engage in a war. The dictator, taking the field, with Marcus Titinius, master of the horse, in the first engagement reduced the Aequans to submission; and returning into the city in triumph, on the eighth day, dedicated, in the character of dictator, the temple of Health, which he had vowed when consul, and contracted for when censor.
2
During this year a fleet of Grecians, under the command of Cleonymus, a Lacedaemonian, arrived on the coast of Italy, and took Thuriae, a city in the territory of the Sallentines. Against this enemy the consul Aemilius was sent, who, in one battle, completely defeated them, and drove them on board their ships. Thuriae was then restored to its old inhabitants, and peace re-established in the country of the Sallentines. In some annals, I find that Junius Bubulcus was sent dictator into that country, and that Cleonymus, without hazarding an engagement with the Romans, retired out of Italy. He then sailed round the promontory of Brundusium, and, steering down the middle of the Adriatic gulf, because he dreaded, on the left hand, the coasts of Italy destitute of harbours, and, on the right, the Illyrians, Liburnians, and Istrians, nations of savages, and noted in general for piracy, he passed on to the coasts of the Venetians. Here, having landed a small party to explore the country, and being informed that a narrow beach stretched along the shore, beyond which were marshes, overflowed by the tides; that dry land was seen at no great distance, level in the nearest part, and rising behind into hills, beyond which was the mouth of a very deep river, into which they had seen ships brought round and moored in safety, (this was the river Meduacus,) he ordered his fleet to sail into it and go up against the stream. As the channel would not admit the heavy ships, the troops, removing into the lighter vessels, arrived at a part of the country occupied by three maritime cantons of the Patavians, settled on that coast. Here they made a descent, leaving a small guard with the ships, made themselves masters of these cantons, set fire to the houses, drove off a considerable booty of men and cattle, and, allured by the sweets of plunder, proceeded still further from the shore. When news of this was brought to Patavium, where the contiguity of the Gauls kept the inhabitants constantly in arms, they divided their young men into two bands, one of which was led towards the quarter where the marauders were said to be busy; the other by a different route, to avoid meeting any of the pirates, towards the station of the ships, fifteen miles distant from the town. An attack was made on the small craft, and the guards being killed, the affrighted mariners were obliged to remove their ships to the other bank of the river. By land, also, the attack on the dispersed plunderers was equally successful; and the Grecians, flying back towards their ships, were opposed in their way by the Venetians. Thus they were enclosed on both sides, and cut to pieces; and some, who were made prisoners, gave information that the fleet, with their king, Cleonymus, was but three miles distant. Sending the captives into the nearest canton, to be kept under a guard, some soldiers got on board the flat-bottomed vessels, so constructed for the purpose of passing the shoals with ease; others embarked in those which had been lately taken from the enemy, and proceeding down the river, surrounded their unwieldy ships, which dreaded the unknown sands and flats more than they did the Romans, and which showed a greater eagerness to escape into the deep than to make resistance. The soldiers pursued them as far as the mouth of the river; and having taken and burned a part of the fleet, which in the hurry and confusion had been stranded, returned victorious. Cleonymus, having met success in no part of the Adriatic sea, departed with scarce a fifth part of his navy remaining. Many, now alive, have seen the beaks of his ships, and the spoils of the Lacedaemonians, hanging in the old temple of Juno. In commemoration of this event, there is exhibited at Patavium, every year, on its anniversary day, a naval combat on the river in the middle of the town.
3
A treaty was this year concluded at Rome with the Vestinians, who solicited friendship. Various causes of apprehension afterwards sprung up. News arrived, that Etruria was in rebellion; the insurrection having arisen from the dissensions of the Arretians; for the Cilnian family having grown exorbitantly powerful, a party, out of envy of their wealth, had attempted to expel them by force of arms. [Accounts were also received] that the Marsians held forcible possession of the lands to which the colony of Carseoli, consisting of four thousand men, had been sent. By reason, therefore, of these commotions, Marcus Valerius Maximus was nominated dictator, and chose for his master of the horse Marcus Aemilius Paullus. This I am inclined to believe, rather than that Quintus Fabius, at such an age as he then was, and after enjoying many honours, was placed in a station subordinate to Valerius: but I think it not unlikely that the mistake arose from the surname Maximus. The dictator, having set out at the head of an army, in one battle utterly defeated the Marsians, drove them into their fortified towns, and afterwards, in the course of a few days, took Milionia, Plestina, and Fresilia; and then finding Marsians in a part of their lands, granted them a renewal of the treaty. The war was then directed against the Etrurians; and when the dictator had gone to Rome, for the purpose of renewing the auspices, the master of the horse, going out to forage, was surrounded by an ambuscade, and obliged to fly shamefully into his camp, after losing several standards and many of his men. The occurrence of which discomfiture to Fabius is exceedingly improbable; not only because, if in any particular, certainly, above all, in the qualifications of a commander, he fully merited his surname; but besides, mindful of Papirius's severity, he never could have been tempted to fight, without the dictator's orders.
4
The news of this disaster excited at Rome an alarm greater than suited the importance of the affair; for, as if the army had been destroyed, a justitium was proclaimed, guards mounted at the gates, and watches set in every street: and armour and weapons were heaped on the walls. All the younger citizens being compelled to enlist, the dictator was ordered to join the army. There he found every thing in a more tranquil state than he expected, and regularity established through the care of the master of the horse, the camp removed to a place of greater safety, the cohorts, which had lost their standards, left without tents on the outside of the ramparts and the troops ardently impatient for battle, that their disgrace might be the sooner obliterated. He therefore immediately advanced his camp into the territory of Rusella. Thither the enemy also followed, and although, since their late success, they entertained the most sanguine hopes from an open trial of strength, yet they endeavoured to circumvent the enemy by a stratagem which they had before practised with success. There were, at a small distance from the Roman camp, the half-ruined houses of a town which had been burnt in the devastation of the country. A body of troops being concealed there, some cattle was driven on, within view of a Roman post, commanded by a lieutenant-general, Cneius Fulvius. When no one was induced by this temptation to stir from his post, one of the herdsmen, advancing close to the works, called out, that others were driving out those cattle at their leisure from the ruins of the town, why did they remain idle, when they might safely drive them through the middle of the Roman camp? When this was interpreted to the lieutenant-general, by some natives of Caere, and great impatience prevailed through every company of the soldiers, who, nevertheless, dared not to move without orders, he commanded some who were skilled in the language to observe attentively, whether the dialect of the herdsmen resembled that of rustics or of citizens. When these reported, that their accent in speaking, their manner and appearance, were all of a more polished cast than suited shepherds, "Go then," said he, "tell them that they may uncover the ambush which they vainly conceal, that the Romans understand all their devices, and can now
