But when they perceived neither guards before the gates, nor soldiers on the ramparts, nor the usual bustle of a camp,--surprised at the extraordinary silence, they halted in apprehension of some stratagem.

At length, passing over the rampart, and finding the whole deserted, they proceeded to search out the tracks of the enemy.

But these, as they scattered themselves to every quarter, occasioned perplexity at first.

Afterwards discovering their design by means of scouts, they attacked their cities, one after another, and within the space of fifty days took, entirely by force, forty-one towns, most of which were razed and burnt, and the race of the Aequans almost extirpated.

A triumph was granted over the Aequans.
The Marrucinians, Marsians, Pelignians, and Ferentans, warned by the example of their disasters, sent deputies to Rome to solicit peace and friendship; and these states, on their submissive applications, were admitted into alliance.
46.