4.47
The arrogance and
carelessness which the Roman generals had shown had
now passed over to the Aequi in the hour of their
success. The result appeared in the very first
battle. After shaking the enemies' front with a
cavalry charge, the Dictator ordered the standards
of the legions to be rapidly advanced, and as one of
his standard-bearers hesitated, he slew him. So
eager were the Romans to engage that the Aequi did
not stand the shock. Driven from the field in
headlong flight they made for their camp; the
storming of the camp took less time and involved
less fighting than the actual battle. The spoils of
the captured camp the Dictator gave up to the
soldiers. The cavalry who had pursued the enemy as
they fled from the camp brought back intelligence
that the whole of the defeated Labicans and a large
proportion of the Aequi had fled to Labici. On the
morrow the army marched to Labici, and after the
town was completely invested it was captured and
plundered. After leading his victorious army home,
the Dictator laid down his office just a week after
he had been appointed. Before the tribunes of the
plebs had time to get up an agitation about the
division of the Labican territory, the senate in a
full meeting passed a resolution that a body of
colonists should be settled at Labici. One thousand
five hundred colonists were sent, and each received
two jugera of land. In the year following the
capture of Labici the consular tribunes were
Menenius Lanatus, L. Servilius Structus, P.
Lucretius Tricipitinus -each for the second time -and Spurius Veturius Crassus. For the next year they
were A. Sempronius Atratinus -for the third time -and M. Papirius Mugilanus and Sp. Nautius Rutilus -each for the second time. During these two years
foreign affairs were quiet, but at home there were
contentions over the agrarian laws.
