They had also surrounded, by means of an ambuscade, and put to the sword on disadvantageous ground, a large company which was crossing their borders, for it had proved hardly safe to go in small parties.

When the troops were marched up to assault this city, the inhabitants, conscious of their guilt, and seeing that it would be dangerous to surrender to an enemy so highly incensed, and that they could not hope to keep themselves in safety by means of their walls or their arms, resolved to execute upon themselves and those belonging to them a horrid and inhuman deed.

They fixed upon a place in their forum, in which they collected the most valuable of their property, and having directed their wives and children to seat themselves upon this heap, they raised a pile of wood around it and threw on it bundles of twigs.

They then ordered fifty armed youths to stand there and guard their fortunes, and the persons dearer to them than their fortunes, as long as the issue of the battle continued doubtful.

If they should perceive that the battle went against them, and that it came to the point that the city must be captured, they might be assured that those whom they saw going out to engage the enemy would perish in the battle itself; but implored them by all the gods, celestial and infernal, that, mindful of their liberty, which must be terminated on that day either by an honourable death or ignominious servitude, they would leave nothing on which an exasperated enemy could wreak his fury; that they had fire and sword at their command, and it was better that friendly and faithful hands should destroy what must necessarily perish, than that enemies should insult it with haughty wantonness.