§2.50.1rursus cum Fabiis erat Veienti populo sine ullo maioris belli apparatu certamen, nec erant incursiones modo in agros aut subiti impetus in incursantes, sed aliquotiens aequo campo conlatisque signis certatum, gensque una populi Romani saepe ex opulentissima, §2.50.2ut tum res erant, Etrusca civitate victoriam tulit.
Again, the Veientine people had a contest with the Fabii without any preparation for a major war; nor were there only incursions into the fields or sudden attacks on the invaders, but several times they fought in the open plain with opposed standards, and a single clan of the Roman people often won the victory over the most opulent, as matters then stood, Etruscan state.
§2.50.3id primo acerbum indignumque Veientibus est visum; inde consilium ex re natum insidiis ferocem hostem captandi; gaudere etiam multo successu Fabiis audaciam crescere.
This at first seemed bitter and unworthy to the Veientines; then, a plan arose from the circumstances of trapping the fierce enemy by an ambush; they even rejoiced that the audacity of the Fabii was increasing with their multiple success.
§2.50.4itaque et pecora praedantibus aliquotiens, velut casu incidissent, obviam acta, et agrestium fuga vasti relicti agri, et subsidia armatorum ad arcendas populationes missa saepius simulato quam vero pavore refugerunt.
And so, both cattle were driven in the way of the plunderers several times as if they had fallen in by chance, and the fields were left deserted by the flight of the peasants, and the reinforcements of armed men sent to ward off the plundering retreated more often from feigned than from real fear.
§2.50.5iamque Fabii adeo contempserant hostem, ut sua invicta arma neque loco neque tempore ullo crederent sustineri posse.
And now the Fabii had so despised the enemy that they believed their own invincible arms could not be withstood in any place or at any time.
haec spes provexit, ut ad conspecta procul a Cremera magno campi intervallo pecora, quamquam rara hostium apparebant arma, decurrerent.
This hope drove them to run down to the cattle seen far off from Cremera across a great interval of the plain, although only scattered arms of the enemy appeared.
§2.50.6et cum inprovidi effuso cursu insidias circa ipsum iter locatas superassent palatique passim vaga, ut fit pavore iniecto, raperent pecora, subito ex insidiis consurgitur, et adversi et undique hostes erant.
And when, off their guard and in a headlong run, they had passed the ambush placed around the road itself, and, dispersing here and there, were seizing the wandering cattle, as happens when fear is struck, suddenly the enemy rose from the ambush, and they were facing them both in front and on all sides.
§2.50.7primo clamor circumlatus exterruit, dein tela ab omni parte accidebant; coeuntibusque Etruscis iam continenti agmine armatorum saepti, quo magis se hostis inferebat, cogebantur breviore spatio et ipsi orbem colligere, quae res §2.50.8et paucitatem eorum insignem et multitudinem Etruscorum multiplicatis in arto ordinibus faciebat.
At first, the shout raised around them terrified them, then weapons began to fall from every side; and as the Etruscans assembled, now hemmed in by a continuous line of armed men, the more the enemy pressed in, the more they themselves were forced to collect into a circle in a narrower space, a thing which made both their own small number remarkable and the multitude of the Etruscans greater, with their ranks multiplied in the narrow space.
tum omissa pugna, §2.50.9quam in omnes partes parem intenderant, in unum locum se omnes inclinant.
Then, abandoning the battle which they had directed equally in all directions, they all turned toward one place.
eo nisi corporibus armisque rupere cuneo viam.
There, relying on their bodies and arms, they forced a way with a wedge.
§2.50.10duxit via in editum leniter collem.
The way led to a gently rising hill.
inde primo restitere; mox, ut respirandi superior locus spatium dedit recipiendique a pavore tanto animum, pepulere etiam subeuntes; vincebatque auxilio loci paucitas, ni iugo circummissus Veiens in verticem collis evasisset.
There at first they stood firm; soon, when the higher ground gave space for breathing and recovering their spirits from so great a terror, they even repulsed those who were coming up; and the small number was winning by the help of the place, if the Veientine, sent around by the ridge, had not emerged onto the summit of the hill.
§2.50.11ita superior rursus hostis factus.
Thus the enemy again became superior.
Fabii caesi ad unum omnes praesidiumque expugnatum.
The Fabii were slain to a man, and the fort was stormed.
trecentos sex perisse satis convenit, unum prope puberem aetate relictum, stirpem genti Fabiae dubiisque rebus populi Romani saepe domi bellique vel maximum futurum auxilium.
It is well agreed that three hundred and six perished, and that only one, near the age of puberty, was left as the offspring of the Fabian clan, destined to be often the greatest help to the Roman people in doubtful times both at home and in war.