HKB
the fates and the gods would of themselves manage the rest. These hopes had armed the Etruscans, who by many changes of fortune had been vanquished and victors in turn.
The Roman consuls also dreaded nothing else but their own strength and their own arms. The recollection of the most mischievous precedent set in the last war was a terrible warning to them not to let matters go so far that they would have two armies to fear at the same time. Accordingly, they kept within their camp, avoiding battle, owing to the two-fold danger that threatened them, thinking that length of time and circumstances themselves would perchance soften down resentment, and bring them to a healthy frame of mind. The Veientine enemy and the Etruscans proceeded with proportionately greater precipitation; they provoked them to battle, at first by riding up to the camp and challenging them; at length when they produced no effect, by reviling the consuls and the army alike, they declared that the pretence of internal dissension was assumed as a cloak for cowardice: and that the consuls rather distrusted the courage than disbelieved the sincerity of their soldiers: that inaction and idleness among men in arms were a novel form of sedition. Besides this they uttered insinuations, partly true and partly false, as to the upstart nature of their race and origin. While they loudly proclaimed this close to the very rampart and gates, the consuls bore it without impatience: but at one time indignation, at another shame, agitated the breasts of the ignorant multitude, and diverted their attention from intestine evils; they were unwilling that the enemy should remain unpunished; they did not wish success either to the patricians or the consuls; foreign and domestic hatred struggled for the mastery in their minds: at length the former prevailed, so haughty and insolent were the jeers of the enemy; they crowded in a body to the general's tent; they desired battle, they demanded that the signal should be given. The consuls conferred together as if to deliberate; they continued the conference for a long time: they were desirous of fighting, but that desire they considered should be checked and concealed, that by opposition and delay they might increase the ardour of the soldiery now that it was once roused. The answer was returned that the matter in question was premature, that it was not yet time for fighting: let them keep within their camp. They then issued a proclamation that they should abstain from fighting: if any one fought without orders, they would punish him as an enemy. When they were thus dismissed, their eagerness for fighting increased in proportion as they believed the consuls were less disposed for it; the enemy, moreover, who now showed themselves with greater boldness, as soon as it was known that the consuls had determined not to fight, further kindled their ardour. For they supposed that they could insult them with impunity; that the soldiers were not trusted with arms; that the affair would explode in a violent mutiny; that an end had come to the Roman Empire. Relying on these hopes, they ran up to the gates, heaped abuse on the Romans, and with difficulty refrained from assaulting the camp. Then indeed the Romans could no longer endure their insults: they ran from every quarter of the camp to the consuls: they no longer, as formerly, put forth their demands with reserve, through the mediation of the centurions of the first rank, but all proceeded indiscriminately with loud clamours. The affair was now ripe; yet still they hesitated. Then Fabius, as his colleague was now inclined to give way in consequence of his dread of mutiny in face of the increasing uproar, having commanded silence by sound of trumpet, said: "I know that those soldiers are able to conquer, Gneius Manlius: by their own conduct they themselves have prevented me from knowing that they are willing. Accordingly, I have resolved and determined not to give the signal, unless they swear that they will return from this battle victorious. The soldier has once deceived the Roman consul in the field, the gods he will never deceive." There was a centurion, Marcus Flavoleius, one of the foremost in demanding battle: said he, "Marcus Fabius, I will return victorious from the field." He invoked upon himself, should he deceive them, the wrath of Father Jove, Mars Gradivus, and the other gods. After him in succession the whole army severally took the same oath. After they had been sworn, the signal was given: they took up arms and marched into battle, full of rage and of hope. They bade the Etruscans now utter their reproaches: now severally demanded that the enemy, so ready of tongue, should face them, now that they were armed. On that day, both commons and patricians alike showed distinguished bravery: the Fabian family shone forth most conspicuous: they were determined to recover in that battle the affections of the commons, estranged by many civil contests.