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

18. The enemy, on the arrival of Gaius Claudius, by whom as commander they recalled that recently at the Scultenna river they had been defeated and put to flight, with a view to defending themselves by the protection of the country rather than by arms against an attack which had turned out [p. 239]unhappily¹ for them, occupied the two mountains,² Letum and Ballista, and in addition surrounded them by a wall. [2] Those who were slow in moving from the fields were cut off and destroyed to the number of fifteen hundred; the rest kept within the mountains and not even in their fear forgetting their natural fierceness, they raged against the booty which had been taken at Mutina. [3] The prisoners they slew after mutilating them cruelly; the beasts they butchered, scattered among the shrines, rather than sacrificed according to ritual. Sated with the slaughter of their living plunder, things which were inanimate, utensils of every sort, made for use rather than as ornaments to be looked at, they dashed against the walls.³ The consul Quintus Petilius, fearing lest the war should be finished in his absence, wrote to Gaius Claudius that he should bring the army to meet him in Gaul: he would await them, he said, at Campi Macri.⁴ [4] Claudius, on receipt of the letter, moved his camp from the Ligurian territory and at Campi Macri turned his army over to the consul. Thither a few days later Gaius Valerius, the other consul, came. There, dividing their forces, before they separated the two jointly purified the armies. [5] Then, because they had determined that the two should not approach the enemy from the same direction, they cast lots for the districts to which they should direct their march. It was evident that Valerius cast his lot in accordance with the requirements for auspices, because he was in the consecrated [p. 241]space; the augurs later declared that this fault had⁵ existed in the case of Petilius —namely, [6] the lot, which had been cast into the urn outside of the consecrated space, had been drawn by him while he was still outside of the consecrated area, although he should have been inside of it.⁶ From Campi Macri they marched in different directions. Petilius had his camp facing the height of Ballista and Letum, which joins these mountains with a continuous ridge. [7] Then, while he was encouraging the soldiers before the assembly, not thinking of the double meaning of the word, they said that he used the ominous expression that on that day he would gain Letum.⁷ He began to march up the hills in front on two sides at once. The column in which he himself was advanced vigorously. [8] When the enemy had repulsed the other, Petilius, in order to restore the wavering line, riding up on his horse, did indeed rally his men from their flight, but he himself, while riding before the standards with too little caution, fell struck with a javelin. But the enemy did not perceive that the commander had been killed, and the few of his own men who had seen it concealed his body with great care, knowing that victory depended on it. [9] The rest of the body of infantry and cavalry dislodged the enemy and took the mountains without their general. About five thousand of the Ligurians were killed: of the Roman army fifty-two fell. [10] In addition to this so manifest fulfilment of an omen of evil, it was [p. 243]also learned from the keeper of the chickens⁸ that⁹ there had been a flaw in the auspices, and that the consul had not been unaware of this. Gaius Valerius, hearing. . . [11] .¹⁰ Those who were skilled in the rules of religion and in public law said that, since the two regular consuls of the year had perished, the one from disease, the other in battle, a substituted consul could not properly conduct an election . . [13] .¹¹ brought them down.

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