Quae ut augendae infamiae composita, sic reliqua non in obscuro habentur, una die quadraginta milium spatium emensum esse Paetum, desertis passim sauciis, neque minus deformem illam fugientium trepidationem, quam si terga in acie vertissent.
This version was undoubtedly written to conceal the shame, but there is no ambiguity regarding the remainder of the account: that Paetus covered a distance of forty miles in one day, leaving his wounded behind everywhere; and the terrified stampede of the fleeing soldiers was just as unseemly as if they had turned their backs on a battlefield.