about the fourth watch, took arms.  Axes are distributed among the servants following the army, to tear down the rampart and fill up the trench.  The line was formed within the works, and some chosen cohorts posted close to the gates.  Then, a little before day, which in summer nights is the time of the profoundest sleep, the signal being given, the rampart was levelled, and the troops rushing forth, fell upon the enemy, who were every where stretched at their length.  Some were put to death before they could stir; others half asleep, in their beds; the greatest part, while they ran in confusion to arms; few, in short, had time afforded them to arm themselves; and these, who followed no particular leader, nor orders, were quickly routed by the Romans and pursued by the Roman horse.  They fled different ways; to the camp and to the woods.  The latter afforded the safer refuge; for the former, being situated in a plain, was taken the same day.  The gold and silver was ordered to be brought to the consul; the rest of the spoil was given to the soldiers.  On that day, sixty thousand of the enemy were slain or taken.  Some affirm, that this famous battle was fought on the farther side of the Ciminian forest, at Perusia; and that the public had been under great dread, lest the army might be enclosed in such a dangerous pass, and overpowered by a general combination of the Etrurians and Umbrians.  But on whatever spot it was fought, it is certain that the Roman power prevailed; and, in consequence thereof, ambassadors from Perusia, Cortona, and Arretium, which were then among the principal states of Etruria, soliciting a peace and alliance with the Romans, obtained a truce for thirty years.

38.  During these transactions in Etruria, the other consul, Caius Marcius Rutilus, took Allifae by storm from the Samnites; and many of their forts, and smaller towns, were either destroyed by his arms, or surrendered without being injured.  About the same time also, the Roman fleet, having sailed to Campania, under Publius Cornelius, to whom the senate had given the command on the sea-coast, put into Pompeii.  Immediately on landing, the soldiers of the fleet set out to ravage the country about Nuceria:  and after they had quickly laid waste the parts which lay nearest, and whence they could have returned to the ships with safety, they were allured by the temptation of plunder, as it often happens, to advance too far, and thereby roused the enemy against them.  While they rambled about the country, they met no opposition, though they might have been cut off to a man; but as they were returning, in a careless manner, the peasants overtook them, not far from the ships, stripped them of the booty, and even slew a great part of them.  Those who escaped were driven in confusion to the ships.  As Fabius’ having marched through the Ciminian forest had occasioned violent apprehensions at Rome, so it had excited joy in proportion among the enemy in Samnium:  they talked of the Roman army being