by the Etrurians, the trumpets sounded, and the battalions advanced.
With no less alertness do the Romans commence the fight: both rushed
to the fight with violent animosity; the enemy were superior in
numbers, the Romans in valour. The battle being doubtful, carries off
great numbers on both sides, particularly the men of greatest courage;
nor did victory declare itself, until the second line of the Romans
came up fresh to the front, in the place of the first, who were much
fatigued. The Etrurians, because their front line was not supported by
any fresh reserves, fell all before and round the standards, and in no
battle whatever would there have been seen less disposition to run, or
a greater effusion of human blood, had not the night sheltered the
Etrurians, who were resolutely determined on death; so that the
victors, not the vanquished, were the first who desisted from
fighting. After sunset the signal for retreat was given, and both
parties retired in the night to their camps. During the remainder of
the year, nothing memorable was effected at Sutrium; for, of the
enemy's army, the whole first line had been cut off in one battle, the
reserves only being left, who were scarce sufficient to guard the
camp; and, among the Romans, so numerous were the wounds, that more
wounded men died after the battle than had fallen in the field.

33. Quintus Fabius, consul for the ensuing year, succeeded to the
command of the army at Sutrium; the colleague given to him was Caius
Marcius Rutilus. On the one side, Fabius brought with him a
reinforcement from Rome, and on the other, a new army had been sent
for, and came from home, to the Etrurians. Many years had now passed
without any disputes between the patrician magistrates and plebeian
tribunes, when a contest took its rise from that family, which seemed
raised by fate as antagonists to the tribunes and commons of those
times; Appius Claudius, being censor, when the eighteen months had