Ab urbe condita

No diplomacy, no arbitration can adjust our quarrel; arms and the fortune of war can alone decide the issue. We must meet in Campania.”

To which the Roman replied: “Roman soldiers will march not whither the enemy summons them, but whither their commander leads them.” Publilius meantime had taken up a suitable position between Palaeopolis and Neapolis in order to prevent them from rendering each other the mutual assistance they had hitherto given. The time for the elections was close at hand, and it would have been most inexpedient for the public interest to recall Publilius, as he was ready to attack the place and in daily expectation of effecting its capture.

An arrangement was accordingly made with the tribunes of the plebs to propose to the people that at the expiration