§10.28.1ceterum quamquam communis adhuc Mars belli erat necdum discrimen fortuna fecerat, qua datura vires esset, haudquaquam similis pugna in dextro laevoque cornu erat. §10.28.2Romani apud Fabium arcebant magis quam inferebant pugnam extrahebaturque in quam maxime serum diei certamen, §10.28.3quia ita persuasum erat duci, et Samnites et Gallos primo impetu feroces esse, quos sustineri satis sit; longiore certamine sensim residere Samnitium animos, §10.28.4Gallorum quidem etiam corpora intolerantissima laboris atque aestus fluere primaque eorum proelia plus quam virorum, postrema minus quam feminarum esse. §10.28.5in id tempus igitur, quo vinci solebat hostis, quam integerrimas vires militi servabat. §10.28.6ferocior Decius et aetate et vigore animi quantumcumque virium habuit certamine primo effudit.
But although the Mars of war was still common and fortune had not yet made a decision on which side she would give strength, the battle on the right and left wings was by no means similar. The Romans with Fabius were keeping off rather than making an attack, and the contest was prolonged into as late a part of the day as possible, because the general was so persuaded that both the Samnites and the Gauls were fierce at the first onset, whom it was enough to withstand; that with a longer contest the spirits of the Samnites gradually subsided, and indeed the bodies of the Gauls, most intolerant of labor and heat, melted away, and their first battles were more than those of men, their last less than those of women. Therefore, for that time at which the enemy was accustomed to be conquered, he preserved the strength of his soldiers as unimpaired as possible. Decius, more fierce both in age and in vigor of mind, poured forth whatever strength he had in the first contest.
et quia lentior videbatur pedestris pugna, §10.28.7equitatum in pugnam concitat et ipse fortissimae iuvenum turmae inmixtus orat proceres iuventutis, in hostem ut secum impetum faciant: duplicem illorum gloriam fore, si ab laevo cornu et ab equite victoria incipiat. §10.28.8bis avertere Gallicum equitatum; iterum longius evectos et iam inter media peditum agmina proelium cientes novum pugnae conterruit genus: §10.28.9essedis carrisque superstans armatus hostis ingenti sonitu equorum rotarumque advenit et insolitos eius tumultus Romanorum conterruit equos. §10.28.10ita victorem equitatum velut lymphaticus pavor dissipat; §10.28.11sternit inde ruentes equos virosque inprovida fuga, turbata hinc etiam signa legionum multique impetu equorum ac vehiculorum raptorum per agmen obtriti antesignani; et insecuta, simul territos hostes vidit, Gallica acies nullum spatium respirandi recipiendique se dedit. §10.28.12vociferari Decius, quo fugerent quamve in fuga spem haberent; obsistere cedentibus ac revocare fusos; deinde, ut nulla vi perculsos sustinere poterat, patrem P. Decium nomine compellans §10.28.13“quid ultra moror” inquit “familiare fatum? datum hoc nostro generi est, ut luendis periculis publicis piacula simus;
And because the infantry battle seemed too slow, he urged the cavalry into the battle, and himself, mingled with the bravest squadron of young men, entreated the chief of the youth to make an onset on the enemy with him, saying that their glory would be twofold if victory should begin from the left wing and from the cavalry. Twice they turned the Gallic cavalry; a second time, when they had ridden further and were already stirring up the battle in the midst of the infantry ranks, a new kind of combat terrified them: the armed enemy, standing upon chariots and wagons, came on with a huge noise of horses and wheels, and terrified the horses of the Romans with this unfamiliar tumult. Thus a kind of panic dread scattered the victorious cavalry; then their headlong flight laid low both horses and men, and from this even the standards of the legions were thrown into confusion, and many of the front-rank men were trodden down by the rush of horses and vehicles swept through the line; and the Gallic line, following closely as soon as it saw the enemy terrified, gave no space for breathing and recovering themselves. Decius cried out, whither they were fleeing or what hope they had in flight; he stood in the way of those yielding and recalled those who were scattered; then, when he could withstand them, stricken by no force, by no power, calling upon his father Publius Decius by name, he said, "Why do I delay any longer the fate of our family?
iam ego mecum hostium legiones mactandas Telluri ac dis Manibus dabo. ” §10.28.14haec locutus M. Livium pontificem, quem descendens in aciem digredi vetuerat ab se, praeire iussit verba, quibus se legionesque hostium pro exercitu populi Romani Quiritium devoveret. §10.28.15devotus inde eadem precatione eodemque habitu, quo pater P. Decius ad Veserim bello Latino se iusserat devoveri, §10.28.16cum secundum sollemnes precationes adiecisset, prae se agere sese formidinem ac fugam caedemque ac cruorem, caelestium inferorum iras; §10.28.17contacturum funebribus diris signa, tela, arma hostium locumque eundem suae pestis ac Gallorum ac Samnitium fore — §10.28.18, haec exsecratus in se hostesque, qua confertissimam cernebat Gallorum aciem, concitat equum inferensque se ipse infestis telis est interfectus.
It is given to our race that we should be victims to expiate public dangers; now I will give the legions of the enemy to be sacrificed, together with myself, to Earth and to the Manes." Having said this, he ordered the pontiff Marcus Livius, whom when descending into the battle line he had forbidden to depart from him, to dictate the words in which he should devote himself and the legions of the enemy for the army of the Roman people, the Quirites. Then, devoted with the same prayer and in the same habit in which his father Publius Decius had ordered himself to be devoted at the Veseris in the Latin war, when he had added to the solemn prayers that he was driving before him dread and flight, slaughter and blood, and the wraths of the celestial and infernal gods; and that he would infect the standards, weapons, and arms of the enemy with funereal curses, and that the place of his own destruction would be the same as that of the Gauls and the Samnites —, having uttered these curses against himself and the enemy, where he saw the Gallic line most dense, he spurred on his horse and, throwing himself upon the hostile weapons, was slain.