9.39
The
following day, after fresh auspices had been taken, the Dictator was invested
with his official powers. He took command of the legions which were raised
during the scare connected with the expedition through the Ciminian forest,
and led them to Longula. Here he took over the consul's troops, and with the
united force went into the field. The enemy showed no disposition to shirk
battle, but while the two armies stood facing each other fully prepared for
action, yet neither anxious to begin, they were overtaken by night. Their
standing camps were within a short distance of each other, and for some
days they remained quiet, not, however, through any distrust of their own
strength or any feeling of contempt for the enemy. Meantime the Romans
were meeting with success in Etruria, for in an engagement with the
Umbrians the enemy were unable to keep up the fight with the spirit with
which they began it, and, without any great loss, were completely routed. An
engagement also took place at Lake Vadimonis, where the Etruscans had
concentrated an army raised under a lex sacrata, in which each man chose his
comrade. As their army was more numerous than any they had previously
raised, so they exhibited a higher courage than they had ever shown before.
So savage was the feeling on both sides that, without discharging a single
missile, they began the fight at once with swords. The fury displayed in the
combat, which long hung in the balance, was such that it seemed as though it
was not the Etruscans who had been so often defeated that we were fighting
with, but some new, unknown people. There was not the slightest sign of
yielding anywhere; as the men in the first line fell, those in the second took
their places, to defend the standards. At length the last reserves had to be
brought up, and to such an extremity of toil and danger had matters come
that the Roman cavalry dismounted, and, leaving their horses in charge,
made their way over piles of armour and heaps of slain to the front ranks of
the infantry. They appeared like a fresh army amongst the exhausted
combatants, and at once threw the Etruscan standards into confusion. The
rest of the men, worn out as they were, nevertheless followed up the cavalry
attack, and at last broke through the enemy's ranks. Their determined
resistance was now overcome, and when once their maniples began to give
way, they soon took to actual flight. That day broke for the first time the
power of the Etruscans after their long-continued and abundant prosperity.
The main strength of their army was left on the field, and their camp was
taken and plundered.