The consul, on his arrival, approached the walls with the same order and circumspection, as if he were to meet an opposition here equal to what he had experienced at Milionia.

Then, perceiving a dead silence in the city, and neither arms nor men on the towers and ramparts, he restrains the soldiers, who were eager to mount the deserted fortifications, lest they might fall into a snare.

He ordered two divisions of the confederate Latin horse to ride round the walls, and explore every particular.

These horsemen observed one gate, and, at a little distance, another on the same side, standing wide open, and on the roads leading from these every mark of the enemy having fled by night.

They then rode up leisurely to the gates, from whence, with perfect safety, they took a clear view through straight streets quite across the city.