Old Sicinius Dentatus said it was owing to bad management, and, as he had been in one hundred and twenty battles, everybody believed him.

Thereupon Appius Claudius sent for him, begged for his advice, and asked him to join the army that he might assist the commanders.

They received him warmly, and, when he advised them to move their camp, asked him to go and choose a place, and sent a guard with him of one hundred men.

But these were really wretches instructed to kill him, and as soon as he was in a narrow rocky pass they set upon him.

The brave old warrior set his back against a rock and fought so fiercely that he killed many, and the rest durst not come near him, but climbed up the rock and crushed him with stones rolled down on his head.