Book 1
75
When these events were announced Afranius abandons the work that he had begun and returns to camp, apparently resolved to bear with a quiet and equal mind whatever chance should befall. But Petreius does not fail himself. He arms his retinue; with this and his official staff of light-armed men and with a few barbarian horsemen, his own retainers, whom he had been wont to maintain to guard his person, he makes a sudden onset on the rampart, interrupts the soldiers’ colloquies, drives our men from the camp, and slays all he catches. The rest gather together and, territos- fied by the sudden peril, wrap their left hands in their cloaks, draw their swords, and thus defend themselves from the light infantry and horsemen, trusting in the proximity of their camp, and retire to it, defended by the cohorts which are on guard at the gates.
