2.46
The battle-line was
formed; neither the Veientines nor the legions of
Etruria declined the contest. They were almost
certain that the Romans would no more fight with
them than they fought with the Aequi, and they did
not despair of something still more serious
happening, considering the state of irritation they
were in and the double opportunity which now
presented itself. Things took a very different
course, for in no previous war had the Romans gone
into action with more grim determination, so
exasperated were they by the insults of the enemy
and the procrastination of the consuls. The
Etruscans had scarcely time to form their ranks
when, after the javelins had in the first confusion
been flung at random rather than thrown regularly,
the combatants came to a hand-to-hand encounter with
swords, the most desperate kind of fighting. Amongst
the foremost were the Fabii, who set a splendid
example for their countrymen to behold. Quintus
Fabius -the one who had been consul two years
previously -charged, regardless of danger, the
massed Veientines, and whilst he was engaged with
vast numbers of the enemy, a Tuscan of vast strength
and splendidly armed plunged his sword into his
breast, and as he drew it out Fabius fell forward on
the wound. Both armies felt the fall of this one
man, and the Romans were beginning to give ground,
when M. Fabius, the consul, sprang over the body as
it lay, and holding up his buckler, shouted, "Is
this what you swore, soldiers, that you would go
back to camp as fugitives? Are you more afraid of
this cowardly foe than of Jupiter and Mars, by whom
you swore? I, who did not swear, will either go back
victorious, or will fall fighting by you, Quintus
Fabius." Then Caeso Fabius, the consul of the
previous year, said to the consul, "Is it by words
like these, my brother, that you think you will make
them fight? The gods, by whom they swore, will do
that; our duty as chiefs, if we are to be worthy of
the Fabian name, is to kindle our soldiers' courage
by fighting rather than haranguing." So the two
Fabii dashed forward with levelled spears, and
carried the whole line with them.