Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 3
Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.

28. Then the dictator, having ridden about¹ and observed, as well as he could for the night, the extent of the camp and its shape, directed the military tribunes to make the soldiers throw down their packs in one place, and return, with arms and stakes, to their proper ranks. They did as he commanded. [2] Then, keeping the order of the march, he led out the whole army in a long column and surrounded the enemy's camp, commanding that at a given signal the troops should all raise a shout, and that after shouting every man should dig a trench in front of his own position and erect a palisade. The signal followed close on the announcement. [3] The men did as they had been bidden. Their cheer resounded on all sides of the enemy, and passing over their camp, penetrated that of the consul; in the one it inspired panic, in the other great rejoicing. [4] The Romans, congratulating one another that it was their fellow-citizens who shouted, and that help was at hand, on their own part began to threaten the enemy with attacks from their pickets and outposts. [5] The consul said that they ought to act without delay; the shout not only signified that their friends were come, but that they had begun to fight; and it would be surprising if they were not already assailing the enemy's camp from without. He accordingly bade his men stand to arms and follow him. [6] It was night when they entered the battle; with a cheer they gave the legions of the dictator to know that on their side as well the issue had been joined. [7] The Aequi were already preparing to resist the work of circumvallation, when the attack was begun upon their inner line. Lest a sortie should be made through the midst of their [p. 97]camp, they turned their backs on those who were² entrenching, and faced the attacking forces; and, leaving the others free to work all night, they fought till break of day with the soldiers of the consul. [8] At early dawn they had already been shut in by the dictator's rampart, and were scarcely maintaining the battle against one army. Then the troops of Quinctius, who had at once, on completing the works, resumed their weapons, assailed the rampart of the Aequi. Here was a new battle on their hands, and the other not yet in the least abated. [9] At this, hard-driven by a double danger, they turned from fighting to entreaties, and on the one hand implored the dictator, on the other the consul, not to make the victory a massacre, but to take their arms and let them go. The consul referred them to the dictator, who in his anger added ignominy to their surrender. [10] He commanded that Cloelius Gracchus, their commander, and the other captains, be brought to him in chains, and that the town of Corbio be evacuated. He said that he did not require the blood of the Aequi; they might go; but, that they might at last be forced to confess that their nation had been defeated and subdued, they should pass beneath the yoke as they departed. [11] A yoke was fashioned of three spears, two being fixed in the ground and the third laid across them and made fast. Under this yoke the dictator sent the Aequi.