1The consuls elected were Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, for the third time, and Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis. 1The census was taken that year; 1it was thought contrary to religion to close the lustrum, because the Capitol had been captured and a consul killed. 2In the consulship of Quintus Fabius and Lucius Cornelius there was turmoil right at the beginning of the year. 2The tribunes were stirring up the plebs; 2the Latins and Hernici were reporting a huge war on the part of the Volsci and Aequi: the legions of the Volsci were already at Antium. 2There was great fear, too, that the colony itself would revolt; 2and with difficulty the tribunes were prevailed upon to let the war take precedence.
2The consuls then divided the commands between them: to Fabius it was assigned to lead the legions to Antium, to Cornelius to act as a garrison at Rome, lest any part of the enemy, as was the custom of the Aequi, should come to plunder. 4The Hernici and Latins were ordered to provide soldiers under the treaty; 4and two parts of the army were allies, a third citizens. 4After the allies had come on the appointed day, the consul pitches camp outside the Capene Gate. 4From there, after purifying the army, he set out for Antium and encamped not far from the town and the enemy's standing camp. 5There, when the Volsci, not daring to fight because the army from the Aequi had not yet come, were preparing to defend themselves quietly behind their rampart, on the following day Fabius drew up, not a single line mixing allies and citizens, but three separate lines of the three peoples around the enemy's rampart; 5he himself was in the centre with the Roman legions.
6Then he ordered them to watch for the signal, so that the allies might begin the action together with him and fall back if he sounded the retreat. 6Likewise he places each division's own cavalry behind its front line. 7Thus, attacking on three sides, he surrounded the camp and, pressing on from every direction, drove the Volsci, who could not withstand the assault, off their rampart. 7Then, crossing the fortifications, he drives the frightened crowd, which had given way towards one side, out of the camp. 8Next the cavalry, for whom it had not been easy to get over the rampart, and who had stood by till then as spectators of the fight, caught them as they fled in disorder over the open plain and enjoyed a share of the victory by cutting down the terrified men.
9Great was the slaughter of the fugitives both in the camp and outside the fortifications, but greater still the booty, because the enemy could scarcely carry their arms away with them. 9And the army would have been wiped out, had the woods not covered their flight.