Ab urbe condita

Volumnius replied that all was going on satisfactorily and that he had come because he had been asked to do so by letter. If it was a forgery and there was nothing for him to do in Etruria he would at once countermarch his troops and depart.

“Well then,” said Appius, “go, let nobody keep you here for it is by no means right that whilst perhaps you are hardly able to cope with your own war you should boast of having come to the assistance of others.”

“May Hercules guide all for the best,” replied Volumnius. “I would rather have taken all this trouble in vain than that anything should happen which would make one consular army insufficient for Etruria.”

As the consuls were parting from each other, the staffofficers and military tribunes stood round them; some of them implored their own commander not to reject the assistance of his colleague, assistance which he himself ought to have invited and which was now spontaneously offered;