1Then the consuls were Aulus Postumius Albus and Spurius Furius Fusus. 1Some have written 'Furius' as 'Fusius'; 1I mention this so that no one may think that what is a change of names is a change of the men themselves. 2There was no doubt that one of the consuls would wage war with the Aequi. 2And so the Aequi asked the Volscians of Ecetra for help; 2this was eagerly offered — so constantly did those states vie in hatred of the Romans — and war was prepared with the utmost energy. 3The Hernici perceived it and warned the Romans that Ecetra had gone over to the Aequi. 3The colony of Antium too was suspected, because a great number of people had fled from there to the Aequi when the town was captured; 3and these men were perhaps the fiercest soldiers throughout the Aequian war.
4Later, when the Aequi had been driven into their towns, this multitude slipped away and returned to Antium, and estranged from the Romans colonists already disloyal of their own accord. 5While the matter was not yet ripe, when it was reported to the senate that a revolt was being prepared, the consuls were given the task of summoning the leading men of the colony to Rome and inquiring what was going on. 6These came without reluctance, and when they had been brought before the senate by the consuls, they answered the questions in such a way that they were sent away more suspected than they had come. 6From then on war was regarded as certain.
7Spurius Furius, one of the consuls, to whom that command had fallen, set out against the Aequi and found the enemy plundering in the territory of the Hernici; and, ignorant of their numbers, because they had nowhere been seen all together, he rashly committed to battle an army unequal to their forces. 8Driven back at the first clash, he withdrew within his camp. 8Nor was that the end of the danger; 8for both the following night and the next day the camp was surrounded and attacked with such force that not even a messenger could be sent from there to Rome. 9The Hernici reported both that the battle had gone badly and that the consul and his army were under siege, and they struck such terror into the senators that Postumius, the other consul, was given the charge — the form of decree of the senate that has always been regarded as one of extreme necessity — to see to it that the state should suffer no harm.
10It seemed best that the consul himself should remain at Rome to enrol all who could bear arms; 10that Titus Quinctius should be sent as proconsul to relieve the camp with an army of allies; 10to fill it up, the Latins and Hernici and the colony of Antium were ordered to give Quinctius emergency soldiers — this is what they then called sudden reinforcements.