diffused such a dread of his arms, that the whole Etrurian nation sued to the consul for an alliance:  this they did not obtain; but a truce for a year was granted them.  The pay of the Roman army for that year was furnished by the enemy; and two tunics for each soldier were exacted from them:  this was the purchase of the truce.  The tranquillity now established in Etruria was interrupted by a sudden insurrection of the Umbrians, a nation which had suffered no injury from the war, except what inconvenience the country had felt in the passing of the army.  These, by calling into the field all their own young men, and forcing a great part of the Etrurians to resume their arms, made up such a numerous force, that speaking of themselves with ostentatious vanity and of the Romans with contempt, they boasted that they would leave Decius behind in Etruria, and march away to besiege Rome; which design of theirs being reported to the consul Decius, he removed by long marches from Etruria towards their city, and sat down in the district of Pupinia, in readiness to act according to the intelligence received of the enemy.  Nor was the insurrection of the Umbrians slighted at Rome:  their very threats excited tears among the people, who had experienced, in the calamities suffered from the Gauls, how insecure a city they inhabited.  Deputies were therefore despatched to the consul Fabius with directions, that, if he had any respite from the war of the Samnites, he should with all haste lead his army into Umbria.  The consul obeyed the order, and by forced marches proceeded to Mevania, where the forces of the Umbrians then lay.  The unexpected arrival of the consul, whom they had believed to be sufficiently employed in Samnium, far distant from their country, so thoroughly affrighted the Umbrians, that several advised retiring to their fortified towns; others, the discontinuing the war.  However, one district, called by themselves Materina, prevailed on the rest not only to retain their arms, but to come to an immediate engagement.  They fell upon Fabius while he was fortifying his camp.  When the consul saw them rushing impetuously towards his rampart, he called off his men from the work, and drew them up in the best manner which the nature of the place and the time allowed; encouraging them by displaying, in honourable and just terms, the glory which they had acquired, as well in Etruria as in Samnium, he bade them finish this insignificant appendage to the Etrurian war, and take vengeance for the impious expressions in which these people had threatened to attack the city of Rome.  Such was the alacrity of the soldiers on hearing this, that, raising the shout spontaneously, they interrupted the general’s discourse, and, without waiting for orders, advanced, with the sound of all the trumpets and cornets, in full speed against the enemy.  They made their attack not as on men, or at least men in arms, but, what must appear wonderful in the relation, began by snatching the standards out of the hands which