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Fabius, by letters and messengers, endeavoured to sound the disposition of the neighbouring states. He had laid two bridges over the Sicoris, four miles distant from each other, for the convenience of foraging, having consumed all the pasture on this side the river. Pompey's generals did the same, with much the like view, which occasioned frequent skirmishes between the horse. Two of Fabius's legions, which was the ordinary guard of the foragers, passing one day according to custom, and the cavalry and carriages following, the bridge broke down on a sudden, by the violence of the winds and floods, and separated them from the rest of the army. Afranius and Petreius perceiving it, by the fascines and hurdles that came down with the stream; detached immediately four legions, with all their cavalry, over the bridge that lay between the town and their camp, and marched to attack Fabius's legions. Upon this, L. Plancus, who commanded the escort, finding himself hard pressed, seizing a rising ground, and forming his men into two divisions, posted them back to back, that he might not be surrounded by the enemy's horse. By this disposition, though inferior in number, he was enabled to sustain the furious charge of their legions and cavalry. During the course of the battle, the ensigns of two legions were perceived at a distance, which Fabius had sent by the farther bridge to sustain his party, suspecting what might happen, and that Pompey's generals might seize the opportunity offered them by fortune, to fall upon our men. Their arrival put an end to the engagement, and both parties returned to their respective camps.

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