Samnite History

That the Samnites invaded the territory of Fregellae and laid it waste, but the Romans took eighty-one villages of the Samnites and Daunians, and, having slain twelve thousand of them, forced them to withdraw from Fregellae. And the Samnites again sent ambassadors to Rome, bringing the bodies of the men they had slain as being responsible for this war, and gold as having been procured from their property. Seeing this, the Senate, thinking they were completely exhausted, expected that in their distress they would yield concerning the hegemony. But they accepted the other terms, and if they made any objection, they either pleaded and entreated or referred it back to their cities; but concerning the hegemony, unable to bear even to hear of it again, they said they had come not to surrender their cities, but to bring about friendship. So, having ransomed their captives with the gold, they departed in anger, having experienced the trial concerning the hegemony. And the Romans voted no longer even to admit embassies from the Samnites, but to wage an implacable and unheralded war against them until they should utterly destroy them. But God was indignant at their boastfulness, and later the Romans were defeated by the Samnites and led under the yoke. For the Samnites hemmed them in a very narrow space under the command of Pontius, and when the Romans were pressed by hunger, their generals sent ambassadors and entreated Pontius to bestow a favor upon the Romans, which few occasions afford. But he replied that they should not even send embassies to him anymore, unless they surrendered their weapons and themselves. There was therefore a lamentation as if a city had been captured. And the generals delayed for some days more, hesitating to do anything unworthy of the city; but when no means of safety appeared, and hunger pressed them, and there was a youth of fifty thousand whom they hesitated to look upon as perishing, they surrendered themselves to Pontius, and entreated that, whether he chose to kill, to sell, or to keep them for ransom, he should commit no outrage upon the bodies of unfortunate men. But he consulted with his father, having sent for him from Caudium, who was carried in a wagon because of his old age. And the old man said: “There is, my son, one remedy for a great enmity, an excess either of benefit or of punishment. For punishments strike terror, but benefits win men over. Know this to be your first and greatest victory, to store up good fortune; and release them all unharmed, neither insulting them nor taking anything from them, so that the magnitude of your benefit may remain intact. And they are, as I hear, most competitive for honor. But defeated by benefits alone, they will contend with you for this favor. You have this benefit as a pledge to receive eternal peace. But if this does not persuade you, kill them all alike, not even leaving a messenger. I say the former choosing it, and the latter as necessary. For the Romans, if outraged in any way, will certainly avenge themselves upon you; but block them beforehand when they are about to avenge themselves. And you could find no greater damage than fifty thousand young men at once.” The father said these things, but the son replied: “That you have spoken things most contrary to each other, father, I do not wonder; for you foretold that you would speak the excesses of both. But I will not kill so many men, both guarding against the vengeance of God and respecting the envy of men, nor will I deprive nations of their hopes toward one another by an incurable evil. But concerning their release, it does not seem fit even to myself, since the Romans have done many terrible things to us and still hold our lands and cities, to release these captives completely unharmed. I will not do it; for irrational benevolence is folly. And consider, leaving me aside, also the situation of the Samnites; whose children and fathers and brothers have died at the hands of the Romans, and who, deprived of possessions and money, need consolation; and the victor is by nature proud, and they look around for profits. Who then will tolerate my not killing, nor selling, nor punishing these men, but sending them on their way unharmed as if they were benefactors? For these reasons, therefore, let us dismiss the excesses, since of the one I am not master, and the other more inhuman one I cannot bear; but in order that I may both strip away some of the pride of the Romans and be blameless toward others, I will take away their weapons, which they always used against us, and their money (for they have these from us), and I will send them out unharmed under the yoke, a shame which they themselves used against others, and I will agree that there be peace for the nations, and I will select the most illustrious of the horsemen as hostages of these treaties, until the whole people votes on it. And doing these things, I believe I shall perform the deeds of a victor and a humanitarian, and the Romans will be content with what they themselves, claiming to contend for virtue, often did to others.”