History of Rome

​In Samnium also, because Fabius had departed from there, new disturbances arose. Calatia and Sora, and the Roman garrisons which were in them, were taken by storm, and cruel outrages were committed against the bodies of the captured soldiers.

​Therefore P. Cornelius was sent there with an army; to Marcius the new enemies—for war had already been declared against the Anagnians and the other Hernicians—were decreed.

​At first, the enemy blocked all the strategic places between the camps of the consuls so effectively that an unencumbered messenger could not pass through ​and for several days, uncertain of all matters and anxious about each other’s status, both consuls conducted themselves, and this fear spread to Rome, to such an extent that all the younger men were bound by oath and two regular armies were enrolled for sudden emergencies.

​But the Hernician war was by no means in proportion to the present terror and the ancient glory of that nation.

​Attempting nothing anywhere worthy of mention, stripped of three camps within a few days, they agreed upon a truce of thirty days on condition that they should send envoys to the senate at Rome, paying six months’ pay and corn, and a tunic for each soldier.

​They were referred back by the senate to Marcius, to whom authority over the Hernicians had been granted by a decree of the senate, and he received that nation into surrender. Meanwhile in Samnium, the other consul, superior in forces, was more embarrassed by the terrain.

​The enemy had blocked all the routes and occupied the passable passes, so that provisions could not be brought up from any quarter; nor could the consul, though he daily led out his standards into line of battle, draw them out to an engagement, ​and it was sufficiently clear that neither would the Samnite bear an immediate contest, nor the Roman a delay of the war.

​The arrival of Marcius, who, having subdued the Hernicians, hastened to come to the assistance of his colleague, took away from the enemy the delay of the contest.

​For, as men who had not believed themselves a match even for the other army in battle, and who believed that absolutely no hope would remain if they allowed two consular armies to join, they attacked Marcius as he arrived in an unformed column.

​Hastily the baggage was piled in the center, and, as time permitted, the line of battle was drawn up. The shouting first reached the permanent camp, then the sight of dust in the distance caused an alarm in the camp of the other consul;

​and he, having immediately ordered his soldiers to take arms and having led them out in haste into line of battle, attacked the flank of the enemy’s line, which was occupied in another contest, shouting out that it would be the greatest disgrace, ​if they allowed the other army to become master of both victories and did not claim for themselves the glory of their own war. Where he had made his charge, ​he broke through and marched through the middle of the line into the enemy’s camp, and took it empty of defenders and set it on fire.

​When the soldiers of Marcius saw this burning and the enemy looked back, then the flight of the Samnites began to take place in all directions; but slaughter occupied every part, nor was there safe refuge in any direction.

​Already, thirty thousand of the enemy having been slain, the consuls had given the signal for retreat and were collecting their forces together, congratulating one another in turn, when suddenly new cohorts of the enemy, which had been enrolled as reinforcements, appeared in the distance and renewed the slaughter.

​Against these, neither by command of the consuls nor having received a signal, the victors advanced, shouting out that the Samnite must be initiated with a disastrous apprenticeship.

​The consuls indulged the eagerness of the legions, as men who well knew that the new soldiers of the enemy, among veterans terrified by flight, would not be equal to a contest even by attempting it. Nor did their opinion deceive them; all the forces of the Samnites, ​veteran and new, fled to the nearest mountains. Thither also the Roman line ascended, nor was there any place safe enough for the vanquished, and they were dislodged from the ridges which they had occupied; and now with one voice all began to sue for peace.

​Then, having demanded three months’ provisions, a year’s pay, and a tunic for each soldier, spokesmen for peace were sent to the senate. Cornelius was left in Samnium;

​Marcius returned to the city, triumphing over the Hernicians, and an equestrian statue was decreed in the forum, which was placed before the temple of Castor.

​To the three peoples of the Hernicians, the Aletrinate, the Verulan, and the Ferentinate, because they preferred it to citizenship, their own laws were restored, and intermarriage among themselves, which for some time they alone of the Hernicians possessed, was permitted.

​To the Anagnians and those others who had borne arms against the Romans, citizenship without the right of suffrage was given, their councils and right of intermarriage were taken away, and their magistrates were forbidden all administration except the care of sacred rites.

​In the same year, the temple of Salus was contracted for by C. Junius Bubulcus, censor, which he had vowed as consul in the Samnite war. By the same man and his colleague M. Valerius Maximus, roads were made through the country districts at public expense.

​And with the Carthaginians, in the same year, the treaty was renewed for the third time, and gifts were courteously sent to their envoys, who had come for that purpose.