§4.31.1tribuni militum consulari potestate quattuor creati sunt, T. Quinctius Poenus ex consulatu, C. Furius, M. Postumius, A. Cornelius Cossus.
Four military tribunes with consular power were created: Titus Quinctius Poenus, after his consulship, Gaius Furius, Marcus Postumius, and Aulus Cornelius Cossus.
§4.31.2ex his Cossus praefuit urbi; tres dilectu habito profecti sunt Veios documentoque fuere, quam plurium imperium bello inutile esset.
Of these, Cossus had charge of the city; the other three, having held a levy, set out for Veii, and served as a proof of how useless in war is the command of several persons.
tendendo ad sua quisque consilia, cum aliud alii videretur, aperuerunt occasionem ad bene rem gerendam hosti;
By each striving for his own plans, while one thing seemed best to one and another to another, they opened an opportunity to the enemy for conducting affairs successfully.
§4.31.3incertam namque aciem signum aliis dari, receptui aliis cani iubentibus invasere opportune Veientes.
For while the line was in confusion, because some were ordering the signal to be given and others were commanding the retreat to be sounded, the Veientes attacked them at a favorable moment.
castra propinqua turbatos ac terga dantes accepere; plus itaque ignominiae quam cladis est acceptum.
The nearby camp received them as they were thrown into disorder and turning their backs; thus, more of disgrace than of disaster was sustained.
maesta civitas fuit vinci insueta; §4.31.4odisse tribunos, poscere dictatorem: in eo verti spes civitatis.
The state, unaccustomed to being defeated, was full of sorrow; they hated the tribunes and demanded a dictator: on him the hope of the state turned.
et cum ibi quoque religio obstaret, ne non posset nisi ab consule dici dictator, augures consulti eam religionem exemere.
And when there also a religious scruple stood in the way, lest a dictator could not be appointed except by a consul, the augurs, being consulted, removed that religious difficulty.
§4.31.5A. Cornelius dictatorem Mam. Aemilium dixit et ipse ab eo magister equitum est dictus; adeo, simul fortuna civitatis virtute vera eguit, nihil censoria animadversio effecit, quo minus regimen rerum ex notata indigne domo peteretur.
Aulus Cornelius named Mamercus Aemilius dictator, and was himself named master of the horse by him; so true it is that as soon as the fortune of the state required genuine merit, the censorial animadversion did nothing to prevent the direction of affairs from being sought from a house that had been undeservedly branded.
§4.31.6Veientes re secunda elati missis circum Etruriae populos legatis iactando tres duces Romanos ab se uno proelio fusos, cum tamen nullam publici consilii societatem movissent, voluntarios undique ad spem praedae adsciverunt.
The Veientes, elated by their success, sent envoys around the peoples of Etruria, boasting that three Roman generals had been routed by them in a single battle; yet, although they moved them to no public alliance of counsel, they enrolled volunteers from all sides with the hope of plunder.
§4.31.7uni Fidenatium populo rebellare placuit; et tamquam nisi ab scelere bellum ordiri nefas esset, sicut legatorum antea, ita tum novorum colonorum caede inbutis armis Veientibus sese coniungunt.
The people of Fidenae alone decided to rebel; and, as if it were a sacrilege to begin war except by a crime, just as they had done before with the slaughter of the envoys, so now, having stained their arms with the murder of the new colonists, they joined themselves with the Veientes.
§4.31.8consultare inde principes duorum populorum, Veios an Fidenas sedem belli caperent.
Then the leaders of the two peoples consulted whether they should choose Veii or Fidenae as the seat of war.
Fidenae visae opportuniores; itaque traiecto Tiberi Veientes Fidenas transtulerunt bellum.
Fidenae seemed more convenient; and so, crossing the Tiber, the Veientes transferred the war to Fidenae.
Romae terror ingens erat.
At Rome there was great terror.
§4.31.9accito exercitu a Veis eoque ipso ab re male gesta perculso castra locantur ante portam Collinam, et in muris armati dispositi, et iustitium in foro tabernaeque clausae, fiuntque omnia castris quam urbi similiora,
The army having been summoned from Veii, and that very army being demoralized by their ill success, they pitched their camp before the Colline Gate, and armed men were posted on the walls, and a cessation of public business was declared in the forum, and the shops were closed, and everything became more like a camp than a city,