Ab urbe condita

He then rushed forward and his men followed him, raising again their battle-shout, and flung the weight of their charge where Postumius Albus had interposed his cohorts. They forced the victors back, until the Dictator came up to his retreating men, and all the battle rolled to this part of the field.

The fortunes of the enemy rested solely on Messius. Many were wounded, many killed in all directions. By this time even the Roman generals were not unhurt.

Postumius, whose skull was fractured by a stone, was the only one who left the field. The Dictator was wounded in the shoulder, Fabius had his thigh almost pinned to his horse, the consul had his arm cut off, but they refused to retire while the battle was undecided.

Messius with a body of their bravest troops charged through heaps of slain and was carried on to the Volscian camp, which was not yet taken; the entire army followed.

The consul followed them up in their disordered flight as far as the stockade and began to attack the camp, whilst the Dictator brought up his troops to the other side of it.

The storming of the camp was just as furious as the battle had been. It is recorded that the consul actually threw a standard inside the stockade to make the soldiers more eager to assault it, and in endeavouring to recover it the first breach was made. When the stockade was torn down and the Dictator had now carried the fighting into the camp, the enemy began everywhere to throw away their arms and surrender.

After the capture of this camp, the enemy, with the exception of the senators, were all sold as slaves. A part of the booty comprised the plundered property of the Latins and Hernicans, and after being identified, was restored to them, the rest the Dictator sold “under the spear”.[*](under the spear. The sale of property captured in war was conducted by the general commanding, with a spear fixed upright beside him, as a sign that it had been won by the spear. The usage was after-wards extended to all sales of government property. The mode of selling corresponded to our sale by auction.) After placing the consul in command of the camp, he entered the City in triumph and then laid down his dictatorship.

Some writers have cast a gloom over the memory of this glorious dictatorship by handing down a tradition that the Dictator's son, who, seeing an opportunity for fighting to advantage, had left his post against orders, was beheaded by his father, though victorious.

I prefer to disbelieve the story, and am at liberty to do so, as opinions differ. An argument against it is that such cruel displays of authority are called “Manlian” not “Postumian,” for it is the first man who practiced such severity to whom the stigma would have been affixed. Moreover, Manlius received the soubriquet of “Imperiosus”; Postumius was not distinguished by any invidious epithet.[*](Manlius. The incident alluded to is recorded by Livy in his eighth book. Titus Manlius, in his war with the Latins, gave strict injunctions that none should leave his station or fight without orders. His son, who was also called Titus Manlius, provoked by the challenge of a Tusculan officer, engaged him in single combat and slew him. In spite of this brilliant display of courage his father ordered him, as a punishment for his disobedience, to be beheaded. “Manlian orders” became subsequently a proverbial expression for intolerably harsh military discipline.) The other consul, C. Julius, dedicated the temple of Apollo in his colleague's absence, without waiting to draw lots with him as to who should do it.