arriving a little before daylight at the camp, they occasioned such a panic, that, had the camp been situated on level ground, it might doubtlessly have been taken on the first assault.  The height of its situation and the works defended it; for they could not be approached on any side except by a steep and difficult ascent.  At break of day a hot engagement commenced, when the Carthaginians not only defended their rampart, but having more even ground, threw down the enemy as they attempted to ascend the steep.

14.  Persevering courage, however, at length prevailed over every impediment, and they made their way up to the ditch and rampart in several parts at the same time, but with many wounds and much loss of soldiers.  The consul, therefore assembling the military tribunes, said they must desist from this inconsiderate enterprise; and that it appeared to him to be the safer course, that the troops should be led back to Beneventum for that day, and then on the following day to pitch his camp close to that of the enemy, so that the Campanians could not quit it, nor Hanno return to it; and in order that that object might be attained with the greater ease, that he should send for his colleague and his army; and that they would direct their whole force on that point.  This plan of the general was disconcerted, after the signal began to sound for a retreat, by the clamours of the soldiery, who despised so pusillanimous an order.  Nearest to the gate of the enemy’s camp was a Pelignian cohort, whose commander, Vibius Accuaeus, seizing the standard, threw it over the rampart.  Then pronouncing a curse upon himself and his cohort, if the enemy got possession of that standard, he rushed forward before the rest, and crossing the ditch and rampart, burst into the camp of the enemy.  The Pelignians were now fighting within the rampart, when in another quarter Valerius Flaccus, a military tribune of the third legion, taunting the Romans with cowardice for conceding to allies the honour of taking the camp.  Titus Pedanius, first centurion of the first century, snatched the standard out of the hands of the standard-bearer, and cried out, “Soon shall this standard, and this centurion, be within the rampart of the enemy; let those follow who would prevent the standard’s being captured by the enemy.”  Crossing the ditch, he was followed first by the men of his own maniple, and then by the whole legion.  By this time the consul also, changing his plan on seeing them crossing the rampart, began to incite and encourage his soldiers, instead of calling them off; representing to them, how critical and perilous was the situation of the bravest cohort of their allies and a legion of their countrymen.  All, therefore, severally exerting themselves to the utmost, regardless whether the ground were even or uneven, while showers of weapons were thrown against them from all sides, the enemy opposing their arms and their persons to obstruct them, made their way and burst in.  Many who were