4.32
Very great was the alarm
in Rome. The army, demoralised by its ill-success,
was recalled from Veii; an entrenched camp was
formed in front of the Colline gate, the walls were
manned, the shops and law courts closed, and a
cessation of all business in the Forum ordered. The
whole City wore the appearance of a camp. The
Dictator despatched criers through the streets to
summon the anxious citizens to an Assembly. When
they were gathered together he reproached them for
allowing their feelings to be so swayed by slight
changes of fortune that, after meeting with an
insignificant reverse, due not to the courage of the
enemy or the cowardice of the Roman army, but simply
to want of harmony amongst the generals, they should
be in a state of panic over the Veientines, who had
been defeated six times, and Fidenae, which had been
captured almost more frequently than it had been
attacked. Both the Romans and the enemy were the
same that they had been for so many centuries, their
courage, their prowess, their arms were what they
had always been. They had as Dictator the same
Mamercus Aemilius who at Nomentum defeated the
combined forces of Veii and Fidenae supported by the
Faliscans; the Master of the Horse would in future
battles be the same A. Cornelius who killed Lars
Tolumnius, king of Veii, before the eyes of the two
armies and carried the spolia opima to the temple of
Jupiter Feretrius. They must take up arms,
remembering that on their side were triumphs and the
spoils of victory, on the side of the enemy, the
crime against the law of nations in the
assassination of the ambassadors and the massacre of
the colonists at Fidenae in a time of peace, a
broken truce, a seventh unsuccessful revolt -remembering all this, they must take up arms. When
once they were in touch with their enemy, he was
confident that the guilt-stained foe would not long
rejoice over the disgrace that had overtaken the
Roman army, and the people of Rome would see how
much better service was rendered to the republic by
those who had, for the third time nominated him
Dictator, than by those who had cast a slur upon his
second dictatorship because he had deprived the
censors of their autocratic power.
After reciting the usual vows, he marched out
and fixed his camp a mile and a half on this side of
Fidenae, with the hills on his right and the Tiber
on his left. He ordered T. Quinctius to secure the
hills and to seize, by a concealed movement, the
ridge in the enemies' rear. On the following day,
the Etruscans advanced to battle in high spirits at
their success the previous day, which had been due
rather to good luck than good fighting. After
waiting a short time till the scouts reported that
Quinctius had gained the height near the citadel of
Fidenae, the Dictator ordered the attack and led the
infantry at a quick double against the enemy. He
gave instructions to the Master of the Horse not to
begin fighting till he got orders; when he needed
the assistance of the cavalry he would give him the
signal, then he must take his part in the action,
inspired by the memory of his combat with Tolumnius,
of the spolia opima, and of Romulus and Jupiter
Feretrius. The legions charged with great
impetuosity. The Romans expressed their burning
hatred in words as much as in deeds; they called the
Fidenates "traitors," the Veientines "brigands,"
"breakers of truces," "stained with the horrible
murder of the ambassadors and the blood of Roman
colonists," "faithless as allies, cowardly as
soldiers."