27.  The consuls, having crossed the Apennines, came up with the enemy in the territory of Sentinum, their camp was pitched there at the distance of about four miles.  Several councils were then held by the enemy, and their plan of operations was thus settled:  that they should not encamp together, nor go out together to battle; the Gauls were united to the Samnites, the Umbrians to the Etrurians.  The day of battle was fixed.  The part of maintaining the fight was committed to the Samnites and Gauls; and the Etrurians and Umbrians were ordered to attack the Roman camp during the heat of the engagement.  This plan was frustrated by three Clusian deserters, who came over by night to Fabius, and after disclosing the above designs, were sent back with presents, in order that they might discover, and bring intelligence of, any new scheme which should be determined on.  The consuls then wrote to Flavius and Postumius to move their armies, the one from the Faliscian, the other from the Vatican country, towards Clusium; and to ruin the enemy’s territory by every means in their power.  The news of these depredations drew the Etrurians from Sentinum to protect their own region.  The consuls, in their absence, practised every means to bring on an engagement.  For two days they endeavoured, by several attacks, to provoke the enemy to fight; in which time, however, nothing worth mention was performed.  A few fell on each side, but still the minds [of the Romans] were irritated to wish for a general engagement; yet nothing decisive was hazarded.  On the third day, both parties marched out their whole force to the field:  here, while the armies stood in order of battle, a hind, chased by a wolf from the mountains, ran through the plain between the two lines:  there the animals taking different directions, the hind bent its course towards the Gauls, the wolf towards the Romans:  way was made between the ranks for the wolf, the Gauls slew the hind with their javelins; on which one of the Roman soldiers in the van said, “To that side, where you see an animal, sacred to Diana, lying prostrate, flight and slaughter are directed; on this side the victorious wolf of Mars, safe and untouched, reminds us of our founder, and of our descent from that deity.”  The Gauls were posted on the right wing, the Samnites on the left:  against the latter, Fabius drew up, as his right wing, the first and third legions:  against the Gauls, Decius formed the left wing of the fifth and sixth.  The second and fourth were employed in the war in Samnium, under the proconsul, Lucius Volumnius.  In the first encounter the action was supported with strength so equal on both sides, that had the Etrurians and Umbrians been present, either in the field or at the camp, in whichever place they might have employed their force, the Romans must have been defeated.