Ab urbe condita

Such a precipitate flight is contradictory to all that we know of Fabius; for it was his reputation as a soldier that more than anything else justified his epithet of Maximus, and he never forgot the severity of Papirius towards him, and could never have been tempted to fight without the Dictator's orders.

The news of this defeat created a quite unnecessary alarm in Rome. Measures were adopted as though an army had been annihilated;

all legal business was suspended, guards were stationed at the gates, watches were set in the different wards of the City, armour and weapons were stored in readiness on the walls, and every man within the military age was embodied.

When the Dictator returned to the camp he found that, owing to the careful arrangements which the Master of the Horse had made, everything was quieter than he had expected.