Ab urbe condita

The consuls were too much depressed and unnerved even to summon a council of war, for there was no place for either counsel or help, but the staff-officers and tribunes gathered round them, and the men with their faces turned towards their tents sought from their leaders a succour which the gods themselves could hardly render them.

Night surprised them while they were lamenting over their situation rather than consulting how to meet it The different temperaments of the men came out; some exclaimed: “Let us break through the barricades, scale the mountain slopes, force our way through the forest, try every way where we can carry arms.

Only let us get at the enemy whom we have beaten for now nearly thirty years; all places will he smooth and easy to a Roman fighting against the perfidious Samnite.”