On the very heels of the report followed
manifest acts also of hostility; the country through which they
marched was all wasted, and such as by flight could not make their
escape to Rome were dispersing and scattering among the mountains.
The terror of this war quieted the sedition; nobles and commons,
senate and people together, unanimously chose Camillus the fifth
time dictator; who, though very aged, not wanting much of
fourscore years, yet, considering the danger and necessity of his
country, did not, as before, pretend sickness, or depreciate his
own capacity, but at once undertook the charge, and enrolled
soldiers. And, knowing that the great force of the barbarians lay
chiefly in their swords, with which they laid about them in a rude
and inartificial manner, hacking and hewing the head and
shoulders, he caused head-pieces entire of iron to be made for
most of his men, smoothing and polishing the outside, that the
enemy's swords, lighting upon them, might either slide off or be
broken; and fitted also their shields with a little rim of brass,
the wood itself not being sufficient to bear off the blows.
Besides, he taught his soldiers to use their long javelins in
close encounter, and, by bringing them under their enemy's swords,
to receive their strokes upon them.
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