This point is also uncertain, whether the ambassadors went to expostulate to the Boii suffered violence, or whether an attack was made on the triumvirs while measuring out the lands.

While they were shut up in Mutina, and a people unskilled in the arts of besieging towns, and, at the same time, most sluggish at military operations, lay inactive before the walls, which they had not touched, pretended proposals for a peace were set on foot; and the ambassadors, being invited out to a conference by the chiefs of the Gauls, are seized, not only contrary to the law of nations, but in violation of the faith which was pledged on that very occasion; the Gauls denying that they would set them free unless their hostages were restored to them.

When this intelligence respecting the ambassadors was announced, and that Mutina and its garrison were in danger, Lucius Manlius, the praetor, inflamed with rage, led his army in haste to Mutina.

There were then woods on both sides of the road, most of the country being uncultivated.

There, having advanced without previously exploring his route, he fell suddenly into an ambuscade; and after much slaughter of his men, with difficulty made his way into the open plains.