Livy, viii. 10.
3-4 an consurgendi . . . esset. Livy says ‘The Triarii were posted crouching by the standards, their left leg extended forwards, holding their shields resting on their shoulders, and their spears fixed in the ground with the points erect, so that their line bristled as if enclosed by a rampart.’
6 Accensos. The Accensi (ad + censeo), originally supernumeraries to take the place of those who fell in battle, = levis armatura.
ante signa, i.e. of the Hastati and Principes.
8 excitaverunt = surgere iusserunt.—Weissenborn.
10 hebetassent = had blunted.
18 antepilanis = prop. both the Hastati and Principes who were drawn up before the Pilani or Triarii who formed the third line.
19 principia = the front line, now the Triarii of the Latins.
22 cuneos = columns (lit. wedges), i.e. a body of soldiers drawn up in the shape of a wedge. Livy uses it of the phalanx.
The Cause of the War. The war was almost a civil one. The dispute was chiefly about a right to share in the privileges of the full Roman citizenship (espec. the right to vote and to hold office).