Previous to the unspeakable calamities which befell Rome in these wars, several years had past with great vicissitudes of fortune. The disastrous campaign of 283 must without doubt have added very much to the power of the Volscians: on the other side the Sabines were still carrying on the hostilities which the Veientines had engaged them to commence. Down to the year 285 the Romans were only fighting for the defense of remote insulated districts, and of their confederates: but now the Ausonian tribes had spread so far, that the territory of Rome itself was subject to their ravages: the Sabines even crost the Anio and advanced to the gates of the city. Dissensions had prevented the sending out any legions: they were now raised with the utmost haste, and the plunderers retreated before them. I shall pass over the main part of the occurrences related of these campaigns: for even if they were more attractive, who would give room to stories which may very probably be nothing but idle inventions of some chronicler! This however is not the case with the account that in the same year the Volscians were overtaken and defeated, when they were retiring upon Antium, and that the people of Ceno, a seaport in their territory, went over to the Romans. In the next year, 286, fortune continued to favour Rome; and the Volscians at Antium, after a battle in which they were worsted by the consul T. Quinctius, found themselves so hard prest, that they sent to the Ecetrans and Æquians for succour: at the same time the consul was joined by some cohorts of Hernicans: it was naturally expected that a decisive engagement would soon take place.