These men
were ordered to ride up close to Rome, and then to retire till their
pursuers were drawn into the snare. Poplicola heard of this plan the
same day from deserters, and quickly made all necessary arrangements. At
evening he sent Postumius Balbus, his son-in-law, with three thousand
men to occupy the tops of the hills under which the Sabine ambush was
placed. His colleague, Lucretius, was ordered to take the
swiftest-footed and noblest youth of the city, and pursue the plundering
horsemen, while he himself with the rest of the forces made a circuitous
march and outflanked the enemy. It chanced that a thick mist came on
about dawn, in the midst of which Postumius charged down from the hills
upon the men in ambush with a loud shout, while Lucretius sent his men
to attack the cavalry, and Poplicola fell upon the enemy's camp. The
Sabines were routed in every quarter, and even when fighting no longer
were cut down by the Romans, their rash confidence proving ruinous to
them. Each party thought that the others must be safe, and did not care
to stay and fight where they were, but those who were in the camp ran to
those in the ambush, and those in the ambush towards the camp, each of
them meeting those with whom they hoped to take refuge, and finding that
those who they had hoped would help them needed help themselves. The
Sabines would have been all put to the sword, had not the neighbouring
city of Fidenae afforded them a refuge, especially for the men from the
camp.
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