1The state was administered no better in the field than at home. 2The only fault in the generals was that they had made themselves hated by the citizens; 2all the rest of the guilt lay with the soldiers, who, so that nothing should succeed anywhere under the leadership and auspices of the decemvirs, let themselves be beaten, to their own disgrace and that of their commanders. 3The armies had been routed both by the Sabines at Eretum and by the Aequi on Algidus. 3Fleeing from Eretum in the silence of the night, they had fortified a camp nearer the city, on high ground between Fidenae and Crustumeria; 4when the enemy pursued them, they never committed themselves to a fair fight, but protected themselves by the nature of the ground and a rampart, not by courage or arms.
5On Algidus the disgrace was greater, and an even greater disaster was suffered; 5the camp too had been lost, and the soldiers, stripped of all their equipment, had betaken themselves to Tusculum, meaning to live on the good faith and pity of their hosts, which for all that did not fail them. 6Such alarming reports had been brought to Rome that the senators, now laying aside their hatred of the decemvirs, voted that watches should be kept in the city, ordered all who were of age to bear arms to guard the walls and to mount posts before the gates, and decreed arms and reinforcements for Tusculum, and that the decemvirs should come down from the citadel of Tusculum and keep their soldiers in camp; 7that the other camp should be moved from Fidenae into Sabine territory, and that by carrying the war to them unprovoked the enemy should be deterred from their plan of attacking the city.