the consuls were in such a position in the valley that they could
neither make good their way up the hill, which was occupied by the
enemy, nor retreat as they were intercepted in the rear, yet the
contest might have been continued longer had not a retreat, commenced
by the Tuscans, dismayed the rest of the troops. The Fregellans,
however, did not give over fighting, though deserted by the Tuscans,
while the consuls, uninjured, kept up the battle by encouraging
their men and fighting themselves. But when they saw both the consuls
wounded, and Marcellus transfixed with a lance and falling lifeless
from his horse, then they too, and but a very few survived, betook
themselves to flight, together with Crispinus the consul, who had
received two javelin wounds, and young Marcellus, who was himself also
wounded. Aulus Manlius, a military tribune, was slain, and of the two
praefects of allies, Manius Aulius was slain, Lucius Arennius made
prisoner. Five of the consul's lictors fell into the enemy's hands
alive, the rest were either slain or fled with the consul. Forty-three
horsemen fell in the battle or in the flight, and eighteen were taken
alive. An alarm had been excited in the camp, and the troops were
hastening to go and succour the consuls, when they saw one of the
consuls and the son of the other wounded, and the scanty remains
of this unfortunate expedition returning to the camp. The death
of Marcellus was an event to be deplored, as well from other
circumstances which attended it, as because that in a manner
unbecoming his years, for he was then more than sixty, and
inconsistently with the prudence of a veteran general, he had so
improvidently plunged into ruin himself, his colleague, and almost the
whole commonwealth. I should launch out into too many digressions
for a single event, were I to relate all the various accounts which
authors give respecting the death of Marcellus. To pass over others,
Lucius Caelius gives three narratives ranged under different heads;