Ab urbe condita

The enemy had appeared so suddenly that he had had no time to reconnoitre the ground, and he went on towards the summit after the enemy had already seized it, having approached it from the other side.

So the legion was attacked in front and rear and completely surrounded. Some authors say that the entire legion was wiped out there, not a man being

left to carry the tidings, and that though the consuls were not far from Clusium at the time, no report of the disaster reached them until Gaulish horsemen appeared with the heads of the slain hanging from their horses' chests and fixed on the points of their spears, whilst they chanted war-songs after their manner.

According to another tradition they were not Gauls at all, but Umbrians, nor was there a great disaster; a foraging party commanded by L. Manlius Torquatus, a staff officer, was surrounded, but Scipio sent assistance from the camp, and in the end the Umbrians were defeated and the prisoners and booty recovered.

It is more probable that this defeat was inflicted by Gauls and not by Umbrians, for the fears of an irruption of Gauls which had been so often aroused were especially present to the minds of the citizens this year, and every precaution was taken to meet it.

The force with which the consuls had taken the field consisted of four legions and a large body of cavalry, in addition to 1000 picked Campanian troopers detailed for this war, whilst the contingents furnished by the allies and the Latin League formed an even larger army than the Roman army.

But in addition to this large force two other armies were stationed not far from the City, confronting Etruria; one in the Faliscan district, another in the neighbourhood of the Vatican. The propraetors, Cnaeus Fulvius and L. Postumius Megellus, had been instructed to fix their standing camps in those positions.

After[*](The Battle of Sentinum.) crossing the Apennines, the consuls descended into the district of Sentinum and fixed their camp about four miles distance from the enemy.

The four nations consulted together as to their plan of action, [*](This was a commanding position to take up, as Sentinum lay in Umbrian territory but close to the frontiers of the Gauls and Etruscans, and would therefore enable the consul to to strike, if opportunity offered, at any of the three.) and it was decided that they should not all be mixed up in one camp nor go into battle at the some