Ab urbe condita

No precaution was omitted, no exertion spared; detachments were posted in the City, bodies of troops before the gates, veterans manned the walls, and as a necessary measure in a time of such disturbance, a cessation of public business was ordered for some days.

In the camp, meanwhile, the consul Furius, after remaining inactive during the first days of the siege, made a sortie from the “decuman” [*](decuman gate —See plan of Roman camp in Class. Dict. The decuman gate was always on the rear side of the camp, the praetorian gate on the side fronting the enemy.) gate and surprised the enemy, and though he could have pursued him, he refrained from doing so, fearing lest the camp might be attacked from the other

side. Furius, a staff officer and brother of the consul, was carried too far in the charge, and did not notice, in the excitement of the pursuit, that his own men were returning and that the enemy were coming upon him from behind. Finding himself cut off, after many fruitless attempts to cut his way back to camp, he fell fighting

desperately. The consul, hearing that his brother was surrounded, returned to the fight, and whilst he plunged into the thick of the fray was wounded, and with difficulty rescued by those round him. This incident damped the courage of his own men and raised that of the enemy, who were so inspirited by the death of a staff officer and the wound of the consul that the Romans, who had been driven back to their camp and again besieged, were no longer a match for them either in spirits or fighting

strength. Their utmost efforts failed to keep the enemy in check, and they would have been in extreme danger had not T. Quinctius come to their assistance with foreign troops, an army composed of Latin and Hernican

contingents. As the Aequi were directing their whole attention to the Roman camp and exultingly displaying the staff officer's head he attacked them in rear, whilst at a signal given by him a sortie was made simultaneously from the camp and a large body of the enemy were