The line of battle is formed; nor do the Veientian foe and the Etrurian legions decline the contest.
46.

An almost certain hope was entertained that they would no more fight with them than they had done with the AEqui; that even some more serious attempt was not to be despaired of, considering the irritated state of their feelings, and the very critical occasion.

The affair turned out altogether differently; for never before in any other war did the Roman soldiers enter the field with more determined minds (so much had the enemy exasperated them by taunts on the one hand, and the consuls by delay on the other).

The Etrurians had scarcely time to form their ranks, when the javelins having been thrown away at random, in the first hurry, rather than discharged with aim, the battle had now come to close fighting, even to swords, where the fury of war is most desperate.

Among the foremost the Fabian family was distinguished for the sight it afforded and the example it presented to their fellow citizens; one of these, Q.Fabius, (he had been consul two years before,) as he was advancing at the head of his men against a dense body of Veientians, and whilst engaged amid numerous parties of the enemy, and therefore not prepared for it, was transfixed with a sword through the breast by a Tuscan who presumed on his bodily strength and skill in arms: on the weapon being extracted, Fabius fell forward on the wound.