The Gauls did the same, when they found that their stratagem was detected, and that they were to engage in a fair and regular battle, where success must depend on valour alone.
5.

The battle began about the second hour.

The left brigade of the allies, and the Extraordinaries, fought in the first line, and were commanded by two lieutenant-generals of consular dignity, Marcus Marcellus and Tiberius Sempronius, who had been consul the year before.

The present consul was sometimes employed in the front of the line, sometimes in keeping back the legions in reserve, that they might not, through eagerness for fighting, come up to the attack until the signal was given.

He ordered the two Minucii, Quintus and Publius, military tribunes, to lead off the cavalry on the legions into open ground, at some distance from the line; and "when he should give them the signal, to charge the enemy through the clear space." While he was thus employed, a message came from Tiberius Sempronius Longus, that the Extraordinaries could not support the onset of the Gauls; that great numbers had already fallen; and that partly through weariness, partly through fear, the ardour of the survivors was much abated.