CHAPTER XXVIII
THE ROMAN ARMY IN A TRAP
While the Romans were at war with the Volscians, another
tribe, called the Æquians, poured down from their mountain
fastnesses and plundered and destroyed their land.
In 459 B.C. peace was made with these fierce mountaineers, and Rome hoped that her borders would no longer be disturbed.
But the Æquians were a restless people. They soon broke the treaty, and, led by their chief Clœlius, pitched their camp on one of the spurs of the Alban hills, and began to burn and plunder as of old.
The Romans, furious at this breach of faith, sent an embassy to demand redress.
But Clœlius mocked at the Roman ambassadors, and laughingly bade them lay their complaints before the oak-tree, under which his tent was pitched.
The angry ambassadors took the oak and all the gods to witness that it was not they but the Æquians who had broken the treaty and begun the war. Then hastening back to Rome, they told how insolently they had been treated.
An army, with the Consul Minucius at its head, was at once dispatched to punish the Æquians.
Clœlius was a skilful general, and as the Roman army advanced he slowly retreated into a narrow valley. The Romans foolishly followed the retreating Æquians, as Clœlius intended that they should.
When the enemy was in the midst of the valley, hemmed
