History of Rome

​In Italy, when after the battle of Cannae, the strength of the one side having been broken, ​and the spirits of the other having been softened, the war was more sluggish, the Campanians on their own undertook to bring the state of Cumae under their sway, at first urging them to revolt from the Romans; when this made little progress, they prepared a plot to capture them.

​A regular sacrifice at Hamae was established for all the Campanians. They informed the Cumaeans that the Campanian senate would come there, and requested that the Cumaean senate also come there to consult together, so that each people might have the same allies and enemies;

​they said they would have an armed guard there, so that there should be no danger from the Romans or Carthaginians. The Cumaeans, although the deceit was suspected, refused nothing, thinking that in this way their own deceptive plan could be concealed.

​Meanwhile, Ti. Sempronius, the Roman consul, having purified his army at Sinuessa, where he had appointed the day for assembling, crossed the Volturnus river and pitched camp near Liternum.

​There, because the stay in camp was idle, he repeatedly compelled the soldiers to perform drill, so that the recruits—the greatest part of whom were volunteer slaves—might become accustomed to follow the standards and recognize their ranks in battle.

​Among these things, the greatest care of the leader was, and so he had instructed the lieutenants and tribunes, that no reproach to anyone of their former condition should sow discord among the ranks; that the old soldier should allow himself to be equaled to the recruit, the free man to the volunteer slave;

​they should consider all sufficiently honorable and well-born to whom the Roman people had entrusted their arms and standards; whatever fortune had compelled things to be so, the same fortune compelled them to protect what had been done.

​These instructions were prescribed by the leaders with no greater care than they were observed by the soldiers, and in a short time the minds of all had united with such great harmony that it almost came into oblivion from what condition each had become a soldier.

​While Gracchus was doing these things, the Cumaean ambassadors reported to him what embassy had come from the Campanians a few days before and what they themselves had answered them:

​that three days after that day was the festival; not only the whole senate would be there, but also the Campanian camp and army.

​Gracchus, having ordered the Cumaeans to bring all things from the fields into the city and to remain within the walls, himself, on the day before the regular sacrifice was to be held by the Campanians, moved camp to Cumae.

​Hamae is three miles distant from there. Already the Campanians had assembled there in crowds by agreement, and not far from there in a hidden place Marius Alfius, the medix tuticus—this was the highest magistrate among the Campanians—held camp with fourteen thousand armed men, ​being considerably more intent on preparing the sacrifice and, during it, on setting up the trap, than on fortifying the camp or any military work.

​The rite was nocturnal, so that it was completed before midnight.

​Gracchus, thinking that he should lie in wait for this time, having placed guards at the gates lest anyone could announce what was begun, and having compelled the soldiers from the tenth hour of the day to refresh themselves and give attention to sleep, ​so that they could assemble at the standard at the first darkness, ordered the standards to be raised at about the first watch, ​and having set out in a silent column, when he had arrived at Hamae at midnight, he attacked the Campanian camp, which was neglected as is usual in an all-night festival, at all the gates at once; some he cut down stretched out in sleep, others returning unarmed after the performance of the sacrifice.

​In that nightly tumult more than two thousand men were slain along with the leader Marius Alfius himself, and thirty-four military standards were captured.