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They were now fighting outside the rampart while the fourth legion were still held up in their gate. Suddenly a new alarm arose on the opposite side of the camp. [2] The Gauls had broken through the quaestorian gate, and after meeting with the most obstinate resistance had killed the quaestor, L. Postumius Tympanus, M. Atinius and P. Sempronius, praefects of allies, and nearly 200 men. [3] This side of the camp was in the enemy's hands until one of the "special cohorts" which had been sent by the consul to defend the quaestorian gate drove them out of the camp after killing many of them, and stopped those who were breaking in. [4] Almost at the same moment the fourth legion, with two of the special cohorts, forced their way out of another gate. So there were three separate actions going on simultaneously on different sides of the camp, and the confused shouts which arose called off the attention of the combatants from their own struggle to the doubtful position of their comrades. [5] Up to noonday the battle was fought with equal strength on both sides, and almost equal hopes of victory. But the heat and the exertion told upon the Gauls with their soft and perspiring bodies, utterly incapable as they were of enduring thirst, and compelled them to beat a retreat. [6] The few who still stood their ground were charged by the Romans and driven in rout to their camp. Then the consul gave the signal to retire; most of the men obeyed it, but some in their eagerness for battle and in the hope of securing the hostile camp pushed on to the rampart. [7] The Gauls, deriding this weak force, rushed in a body out of their camp. Now it was the Romans who were routed, and those who refused to return to camp at the consul's order were driven thither by their fears. [8] So first on one side and then on the other victory and flight alternated. The Gauls, however, lost as many as 11,000 men, the Romans 5000.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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