CHAP. XLV.
Whether in a Battel it is best to give or receive the Charge.
DEvius, and Fabius two Roman Consuls, were in the field with two Armies against the Samnites, and Tuscans; and being come to a Battel, it is observable that they took two several ways in the manner of their fighting, and it is worth our enquiry which of them was the best. Decius charged the Enemy with all imaginable fury, and engaged his whole Army at once: Fabius received the charge, and (judging that way the most safe) reserved his effort till the last, when (as we say) the Enemy had spent their fire, and the heat of their fury was over. By the success of the Battel, it appeared that the design of Fabius was better than that of Decius, who tired with the vehemence of his first charge, and seeing his men engaged farther among the Enemy, than otherwise they would have been, to gain that honour by his death, which he could not hope for by the Victory, in imitation of his Father, he sacrificed himself for the Roman Legions. Which when Fa∣bius understood, that he might not gain less honour by living, than his colleague should do by his death, he advanced with his Reserves, and charg'd the Enemy so briskly, that he overthrew them, and gained a happy and most memorable Victory. By which it ap∣pears that the way of Fabius was more imitable and secure.