History of Rome

​Camillus, distinguished by far greater glory than when white horses had drawn him through the city in his triumph, having conquered the enemy by justice and good faith, when he had returned to the city, the senate could not bear his modest silence without releasing him from his vow without delay.

​And the ambassadors sent to carry a golden bowl as a gift to Apollo at Delphi, L. Valerius, L. Sergius, and A. Manlius, sailing in a single warship, were captured by Liparaean pirates not far from the Sicilian Strait and carried to Lipara.

​It was the custom of that state to divide booty acquired by what was virtually public piracy. By chance, in that year, a certain Timasitheus was in the highest magistracy, a man more like the Romans than his own people, ​who, respecting the name of ambassadors, the gift, the god to whom it was sent, and the reason for the gift, filled the multitude also (who are almost always like their ruler) with a proper sense of religion, and having entertained the ambassadors with public hospitality and escorted them to Delphi even with a guard of ships, restored them safe from there to Rome.

​By decree of the senate, a treaty of hospitality was made with him, and gifts were presented at public expense. In the same year, the war with the Aequi was waged with varying fortune, so that it was uncertain both among the armies themselves and at Rome whether they had conquered or been conquered. The Roman commanders were C. Aemilius and Sp. Postumius, from among the military tribunes.

​At first they conducted operations jointly; then, the enemy having been routed in battle, it was decided that Aemilius should hold Verrugo with a garrison, and Postumius should ravage the territory.

​There, as he was marching somewhat carelessly with his column in disorder because of his success, the Aequi attacked him, and throwing them into panic, drove them onto the nearest hills; and the panic was carried from there even to Verrugo, to the other garrison.

​Postumius, having brought his men into a safe position, called an assembly and rebuked their panic and flight, saying that they had been routed by a most cowardly and fugitive enemy. Thereupon the whole army cried out together that they deserved to hear those words and confessed that they had committed a disgraceful act, but that they themselves would correct it, and that the enemy’s joy would not be long-lived.

​Demanding that he lead them immediately from there to the enemy’s camp—which was in sight, pitched in the plain—they refused no punishment if they did not capture it before nightfall.

​Having praised them, he ordered them to refresh themselves and be ready at the fourth watch. The enemy also, in order to cut off a nightly escape of the Romans from the hill by the road that led to Verrugo, came to meet them, and the battle was joined before dawn—though there was a full moon all night. The battle was no less decisive than one fought by day;

​but the clamor carried to Verrugo, since they believed that the Roman camp was being attacked, inspired so much fear that, despite Aemilius’s vain attempts to hold and entreat them, they fled in disorder to Tusculum.

​From there, the rumor was carried to Rome that Postumius and his army had been slain. But he, as soon as the first light removed the fear of ambush from those who had been pursuing in disorder, having ridden along the line, demanding the fulfillment of their promises, inspired so much enthusiasm that the Aequi could no longer withstand their onset. Thereupon, the slaughter of the fugitives, ​such as occurs when an affair is conducted with anger rather than valor, was carried out to the destruction of the enemy; and the gloomy message from Tusculum, which had terrified the state in vain, was followed by laurel-decked letters from Postumius, announcing that the victory belonged to the Roman people, and that the army of the Aequi had been destroyed.