Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 41
Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. and Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Ed.

3. The state of affairs among the Romans was not at all the same at this moment; on land, on sea there was confusion; the sailors were striking their tents and were hurrying off to the ships the provisions set out on the shore; [2] the terrified soldiers were rushing to the small boats and into the sea; some of the sailors, in the fear that the ships would be overcrowded, were blocking the onrush of the crowd while others were pushing out the ships from the shore into deep water. [3] Then there was a struggle and soon even a battle, marked by the wounding and slaying of soldiers and sailors in turn, until the fleet was removed far from the land by order of the consul, who next began to segregate the armed [p. 193]men from the unarmed. [4] There were barely¹ twelve hundred out of so great a crowd who had their weapons, and a very few cavalry were found who had brought their horses away with them; the rest were a motley crowd like servants and sutlers, surely destined to be booty if the enemy had bethought himself of the war. [5] Then finally a messenger was sent to recall the third legion and the Gallic contingent, and at the same time from all sides there began the movement back to recover the camp and to wipe out the disgrace. [6] The military tribunes of the third legion ordered foraging parties² to abandon the forage and wood they had collected, directed the centurions to mount two of the older soldiers on each pack-animal whose load had been removed, and the cavalry to take one each of the younger infantrymen with them on their horses: they told them that the legion would win a fair report if by their valour they should recover the camp which had been lost through the panic of the men of the second legion. [7] The recovery of the camp would be easy, they said, if the barbarians could be suddenly surprised while engaged with the booty; just as they had taken it, so it could be taken from them. [8] This exhortation was listened to with great enthusiasm on the part of the soldiers. They advanced the standards at full speed, nor did the troops lag behind the standard-bearers. Nevertheless the consul and the troops who were being brought back from the sea reached the rampart ahead of them. [9] Lucius Atius, the senior tribune of the second legion, not only urged on the men but also showed them that if the victorious Histrians intended to hold the captured camp with the same arms [p. 195]with which they had captured it, they would first³ have pursued to the sea the enemy, driven from his camp, and then at least have posted guards in front of the rampart; it was very probable that they were lying sunk in wine and sleep.

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