The battle is only explicitly referred to in a text by Polybius, the ancient Greek historian, which does not give much detail and puts it in the context of other events.

[1] According to Polybius: Hereupon the Boii, seeing the Senones expelled from their territory, and fearing a like fate for themselves and their own land, implored the aid of the Etruscans and marched out in full force.

Appian wrote: Britomaris, the Gaul, being incensed against them on account of his father, who had been killed by the Romans while fighting on the side of the Etruscans in this very war, slew the ambassadors [while they were still holding the herald’s staff].

He wrote that Britomaris wore the envoys' official garments and "cut their bodies in small pieces and scattered them in the fields."

Publius Cornelius Dolabella, (the consul for 283 BC) "while he was on the march, moved with great speed" to the ager Gallicus "by way of the Sabine country and Picenum" and laid it to waste.

He reduced the women and children to slavery, killed all the adult males without exception, devastated the country in every possible way, and made it uninhabitable for anybody else.

[3]Appian added, "A little later the Senones (who were serving as mercenaries), having no longer any homes to return to, fell boldly upon the consul Domitius, and being defeated by him killed themselves in despair.

The fact that Britomaris' father was killed by the Romans while fighting on the side of the Etruscans in the same war could suggest that this previous fighting was the Battle of Lake Vadimon, which involved a combined Etruscan and Gallic army (the Battle of Arretium only involved Gauls).

According to Augustine: [A]t one time, the Lucanians, Brutians, Samnites, Tuscans, and Senonian Gauls conspired against Rome, and first slew her ambassadors, then overthrew an army under the prætor, putting to the sword 13,000 men, besides the commander and seven tribunes[.

]"[5] Orosius wrote: [D]uring the consulship of Dolabella and Domitius, the Lucanians, Bruttians, and Samnites made an alliance with the Etruscans and Senonian Gauls, who were attempting to renew war against the Romans.

Seven military tribunes were also slain in that battle, many nobles were killed, and thirty thousand soldiers likewise met their death.