History of Rome

​Gaius Sempronius Atratinus and Quintus Fabius Vibulanus were elected consuls. A foreign event, but one worthy of memory, is reported to have happened that year: Vulturnum, a city of the Etruscans which is now Capua, was captured by the Samnites, and was named Capua either from their leader Capys or, what is nearer the truth, from the surrounding plains.

​They took it, however, after having first been admitted into the partnership of the city and its lands when the Etruscans were exhausted by war, and then, on a festival day, the new settlers attacked the old inhabitants with a nocturnal slaughter when they were heavy with sleep and feasting.

​After these events, the consuls whom we have mentioned entered upon their office on the Ides of December.

​Already, not only had those who had been sent for that purpose reported that a Volscian war was imminent, but envoys also from the Latins and Hernici announced that never before had the Volscians been more intent either on choosing commanders or on levying an army;

​they were murmuring everywhere that either weapons and war must be forgotten forever and the yoke accepted, or they must not yield, in valor, in endurance, or in military discipline, to those with whom they were contending for supremacy.

​They brought no idle rumors; but the senators were not moved in proportion, and Gaius Sempronius, to whom that province had fallen by lot, relying on fortune as if it were the most constant thing, because he was the leader of a victorious people against the vanquished, did everything rashly and carelessly, ​so much so that there was more Roman discipline in the Volscian army than in the Roman. Therefore, fortune, as often at other times, followed valor.

​In the first battle, which was engaged by Sempronius incautiously and without consultation, they clashed without the line being strengthened by reserves, and without the cavalry being properly stationed.

​The shouting was the first indication of where the fortune of the day would incline; raised by the enemy, it was more vigorous and frequent; by the Romans, discordant, unequal, and repeated ever more feebly, it betrayed the terror of their minds.

​The enemy, charging all the more fiercely because of this, pushed with their shields and brandished their swords. On the other side, helmets tottered as men looked about them, and, hesitant and trembling, they pressed close to the crowd.

​The standards, now making a stand, were abandoned by the front-rank men, now withdrawn among their own maniples. Flight was not yet decided, nor was victory won; the Roman covered himself rather than fought; the Volscian advanced his standards, pressed the line, and saw more slaughter of the enemy than flight.