Book 4
26.3
After a levy had been raised under the Lex Sacrata Lex Sacrata. —A law, the violation of which exposed the offender, his family and property, to be devoted (sacer) to some deity, and whoever killed him was held to have sacrificed him to that deity. Such was the Law of Publicola; as also that which secured the inviolability of the tribunes of the plebs and subsequently of other magistrates. In the present case everyone who refused to serve was so “devoted,” probably by a priest of Mars., which was the most powerful means they possessed of compelling men to serve, the armies of both nations advanced and concentrated on Algidus, where they entrenched themselves, each in a separate
26.4
camp. Their generals showed greater care than on any previous occasion in the construction of their lines and the exercising of the troops. The reports of this increased the alarm in
26.5
Rome. In view of the fact that these two nations after their numerous defeats were now renewing the war with greater energy than they had ever done before, and, further, that a considerable number of the Romans fit for active service had been carried off by the epidemic, the senate decided upon the nomination of a
26.6
Dictator. But the greatest alarm was caused by the perverse obstinacy of the consuls and their incessant wranglings in the senate. Some authorities assent that these consuls fought an unsuccessful action at Algidus and that this was the reason why a Dictator was
