§4.59.1interim tribunos militum in Volscum agrum ducere exercitum placuit; §4.59.2Cn. Cornelius unus Romae relictus.
Meanwhile, it was resolved that the military tribunes should lead the army into the Volscian territory; Gnaeus Cornelius alone was left at Rome.
tres tribuni, postquam nullo loco castra Volscorum esse nec commissuros se proelio apparuit, tripertito ad devastandos fines discessere.
The three tribunes, after it became apparent that the camp of the Volscians was nowhere to be found and that they would not risk a battle, departed in three directions to devastate the territory.
§4.59.3Valerius Antium petit, Cornelius Ecetras; quacumque incessere, late populati sunt tecta agrosque, ut distinerent Volscos; Fabius, quod maxime petebatur, ad Anxur oppugnandum sine ulla populatione accessit.
Valerius made for Antium, Cornelius for Ecetrae; wherever they marched, they widely devastated the houses and fields in order to keep the Volscians divided; Fabius, which was the chief objective, advanced to the siege of Anxur without any plundering.
Anxur fuit, §4.59.4quae nunc Tarracinae sunt, urbs prona in paludes.
Anxur was—what is now Tarracinae—a city sloping down towards the marshes.
§4.59.5ab ea parte Fabius oppugnationem ostendit.
On that side, Fabius made a show of an assault.
circummissae quattuor cohortes cum Cn. Servilio Ahala cum inminentem urbi collem cepissent, ex loco altiore, qua nullum erat praesidium, ingenti clamore ac tumultu moenia invasere.
When four cohorts sent round under Gnaeus Servilius Ahala had seized the hill overlooking the city, they attacked the walls from the higher ground, where there was no guard, with a huge shout and tumult.
§4.59.6ad quem tumultum obstupefacti, qui adversus Fabium urbem infimam tuebantur, locum dedere scalas admovendi; plenaque hostium cuncta erant, et inmitis diu caedes pariter fugientium ac resistentium, armatorum atque inermium fuit.
Astounded by this tumult, those who were defending the lower part of the city against Fabius gave an opportunity for applying the scaling ladders; and everything was full of enemies, and for a long time there was a ruthless slaughter alike of those fleeing and those resisting, of the armed and the unarmed.
§4.59.7cogebantur itaque victi, quia cedentibus spei nihil erat, pugnam inire, cum pronuntiatum repente, ne quis praeter armatos violaretur, reliquam omnem multitudinem voluntariam exuit armis;
Therefore, the vanquished were being compelled to enter into battle, because there was no hope for those who retreated, when it was suddenly proclaimed that no one except the armed should be harmed; this stripped all the remaining multitude, who were willing, of their arms.
§4.59.8quorum ad duo milia et quingenti vivi capiuntur.
Of these, about two thousand five hundred were taken alive.
a cetera praeda Fabius militem abstinuit, §4.59.9donec collegae venirent, ab illis quoque exercitibus captum Anxur dictitans esse, qui ceteros Volscos a praesidio eius loci avertissent.
From the rest of the booty Fabius kept back the soldiers, until his colleagues should arrive, repeatedly saying that Anxur had been captured also by those armies which had turned away the rest of the Volscians from the defense of that place.
qui ubi venerunt, §4.59.10oppidum vetere fortuna opulentum tres exercitus diripuere; eaque primum benignitas imperatorum plebem patribus conciliavit.
When they arrived, the three armies pillaged the town, which was wealthy from its long-standing prosperity; and this generosity of the commanders first conciliated the plebs to the patricians.
§4.59.11additum deinde omnium maxime tempestivo principum in multitudinem munere, ut ante mentionem ullam plebis tribunorumve decerneret senatus, ut stipendium miles de publico acciperet, cum ante id tempus de suo quisque functus eo munere esset.
Then there was added a gift of the leading men to the multitude, the most seasonable of all, so that, before any mention by the plebs or their tribunes, the senate decreed that the soldier should receive pay from the public treasury, whereas before that time each man had performed that service at his own expense.