However, there befell a mighty pestilence, and the Samnites and Falisci began to bestir themselves; they entertained a contempt for the Romans both on account of the disease and because, since no war menaced, they had chosen the consuls not on grounds of excellence.  The Romans, ascertaining the situation, sent out Carvilius along with Junius Brutus, and with Quintus Fabius his father Rullus Maximus, as subcommanders or lieutenants.  Brutus worsted the Falisci and plundered their possessions as well as those of the other Etruscans:  Fabius marched out of Rome before his father and pushed rapidly forward when he learned that the Samnites were plundering Campania.  Falling in with some scouts of theirs and seeing them quickly retire he got the impression that all the enemy were at that point and believed they were in flight.  Accordingly, in his hurry to come to blows with them before his father should arrive, in order that the success might appear to be his own and not his elder’s, he went ahead with a careless formation.  Thus he encountered a compact body of foes and would have been utterly destroyed, had not night intervened.  Many of his men died also after that with no physician or relative to attend them, because they had hastened on far ahead of the baggage carriers in the expectation of immediate victory.  Of a surety they would have perished on the following day but for the fact that the Samnites, thinking Fabius’s father to be near, felt afraid and withdrew.

[Sidenote:  FRAG. 33^24] THOSE IN THE CITY ON HEARING THIS BECAME TERRIBLY ANGRY, SUMMONED THE CONSUL, AND WANTED TO PUT HIM ON TRIAL.  BUT THE OLD MAN HIS FATHER BY ENUMERATING HIS OWN AND HIS ANCESTORS’ BRAVE DEEDS, BY PROMISING THAT HIS SON SHOULD MAKE NO RECORD THAT WAS UNWORTHY OF THEM, AND BY URGING HIS SON’S YOUTH TO ACCOUNT FOR THE MISFORTUNE, IMMEDIATELY ABATED THEIR WRATH.  JOINING HIM IN THE CAMPAIGN HE CONQUERED THE SAMNITES IN BATTLE, CAPTURED THEIR CAMP, RAVAGED THEIR COUNTRY, AND DROVE AWAY GREAT BOOTY.  A PART OF IT HE DEVOTED TO PUBLIC USES AND A PART HE ACCORDED TO THE SOLDIERS.  FOR THESE REASONS THE ROMANS EXTOLLED HIM AND ORDERED THAT HIS SON ALSO SHOULD COMMAND FOR THE FUTURE WITH CONSULAR POWERS AND STILL EMPLOY HIS FATHER AS LIEUTENANT.  THE LATTER MANAGED AND ARRANGED EVERYTHING FOR HIM, SPARING HIS OLD AGE NOT A WHIT, YET HE DID NOT LET IT BE SEEN THAT HE WAS EXECUTING THE BUSINESS ON HIS OWN RESPONSIBILITY, BUT MADE THE GLORY OF HIS EXPLOITS ATTACH TO HIS CHILD.

[Sidenote:  FRAG. 37] VIII, 2.—­AFTER THIS, WHEN THE TRIBUNES MOVED AN ANNULMENT OF DEBTS, THE PEOPLE, SINCE THIS WAS NOT YIELDED BY THE LENDERS AS WELL, FELL INTO TURMOIL:  and their turbulent behavior was not quieted until foes came against the city.

(BOOK 9, BOISSEVAIN.)