1Once again the Veientine people were in conflict with the Fabii, without any preparation for a larger war, and there were not only raids on the fields or sudden attacks on the raiders, but several times they fought on level ground with standards joined, and a single clan of the Roman people often carried off victory from what was, as things then stood, the wealthiest Etruscan state. 3At first this seemed bitter and humiliating to the Veientes; 3then a plan arose from the situation itself, to catch their fierce enemy in an ambush; 3they even rejoiced that the Fabii's boldness was growing with their great success. 4So several times cattle were driven into the path of the raiders as if they had come upon them by chance, and fields were left empty by the flight of the country folk, and bands of armed men sent to ward off the raids fled back in panic more often feigned than real.
5And now the Fabii so despised the enemy that they believed their unconquered arms could be withstood in no place and at no time. 5This hope carried them so far that, at the sight of cattle far from the Cremera across a wide stretch of plain, they ran down to them, although enemy arms were visible here and there. 6And when, heedless, in their headlong rush they had passed the ambush laid around the very road, and scattered in all directions, were carrying off the cattle, which were straying, as happens when panic has been struck into them, suddenly men rise up from the ambush, and enemies were in front of them and on every side.
7First the shout that spread around them terrified them, then missiles fell from every quarter; 7and as the Etruscans closed in, they were now hemmed in by an unbroken line of armed men, and the more the enemy pressed forward, the more they too were forced to draw their circle into a narrower space, a thing which made both their own small numbers and the multitude of the Etruscans conspicuous, with their ranks multiplied in the confined space. 8Then, giving up the fight, which they had been directing equally in all directions, they all turn towards one place. 9Pressing there with bodies and arms, they broke a way through in a wedge.
10The way led to a gently rising hill. 10There at first they stood their ground; 10soon, as the higher position gave them room to breathe and to recover their spirits from so great a panic, they even drove back those coming up the slope; 10and their small number was winning with the help of the ground, had not the Veientes, sent round along the ridge, emerged on to the summit of the hill. 11So the enemy again gained the upper hand. 11The Fabii were slain to a man and the stronghold was stormed. 11It is fairly well agreed that three hundred and six perished, and that one, almost a boy in age, was left, to be the stock of the Fabian clan and to prove often, in times of crisis for the Roman people at home and in war, its very greatest help.