Ab urbe condita

Satisfied with this information he marched on and fixed his camp at such a distance from the enemy that while it was not close enough for his arrival to be detected it was sufficiently near to allow of his surprising them while they were leaving their camp.

Some time before daylight he approached their camp and sent some men familiar with the Oscan language to find out what was going on. Mingling with the enemy, an easy matter in the confusion of a nocturnal departure, they found that the standards had already gone with only a few to defend them, the booty and those who were to escort it were just leaving, the army as a whole were incapable of any military evolution, for each was looking