any attempt on his camp. The more furiously did the Samnites ride up to the rampart, and allowed him no quiet. When the enemy were now come up close to the gates of the camp, Quintus Aulius Cerretanus, master of the horse, without consulting the dictator, sallied out furiously at the head of all the troops of cavalry, and drove back the enemy. In this desultory kind of fight, fortune worked up the strength of the combatants in such a manner, as to occasion an extraordinary loss on both sides, and the remarkable deaths of the commanders themselves. First, the general of the Samnites, indignant at being repulsed, and compelled to fly from a place to which he had advanced so confidently, by entreating and exhorting his horsemen, renewed the battle. As he was easily distinguished among the horsemen, while he urged on the fight, the Roman master of the horse galloped up against him, with his spear directed, so furiously, that, with one stroke, he tumbled him lifeless from his horse. The multitude, however, were not, as is generally the case, dismayed by the fall of their leader, but rather raised to fury. All who were within reach darted their weapons at Aulius, who incautiously pushed forward among the enemy's troops; but the chief share of the honour of revenging the death of the Samnite general they assigned to his brother; he, urged by rage and grief, dragged down the victorious master of the horse from his seat, and slew him. Nor were the Samnites far from obtaining his body also, as he had fallen among the enemies' troops: but the Romans instantly dismounted, and the Samnites were obliged to do the same; and lines being thus formed suddenly but, at the same time, untenable through scarcity of necessaries: "for all the country round, from which provisions could be supplied, has revolted; and besides, even were the inhabitants disposed to aid us, the ground is unfavourable. I will not therefore mislead you by leaving a camp here, into which ye may retreat, as on a former day, without completing the victory. Works ought to be secured by arms, not arms by works. Let those keep a camp, and repair to it, whose interest it is to protract the war; but let us cut off from ourselves every other prospect but that of conquering. Advance the standards against the enemy; as soon as the troops shall have marched beyond the rampart, let those who have it in orders burn the camp. Your losses, soldiers, shall be compensated with the spoil of all the nations round who have revolted." The soldiers advanced against the enemy with spirit inflamed by the dictator's discourse, which seemed indication of an extreme necessity; and, at the same time, the very sight of the camp burning behind them, though the nearest part only was set on fire, (for so the dictator had ordered,) was small incitement: rushing on therefore like madmen, they disordered the enemy's battalions at the very first onset; and the master of the horse, when he saw at a distance the fire in the camp, which was a signal agreed on, made a seasonable attack on their rear. The Samnites, thus surrounded on either side, fled different ways. A vast number, who had gathered into a body through fear, yet from confusion incapable of fleeing, were surrounded and cut to pieces. The enemy's camp was taken and plundered; and the soldiers being laden with spoil, the dictator led them back to the Roman camp, highly rejoiced at the success, but by no means so much as at finding, contrary to their expectation, every thing there safe, except a small part only, which was injured or destroyed by the fire.
24
They then marched back to Sora; and the new consuls, Marcus Poetelius and Caius Sulpicius, receive the army from the dictator Fabius, discharging a great part of the veteran soldiers, having brought with them new cohorts to supply their place. Now while, on account of the dire situation of the city, no certain mode of attack could be devised, and success must either be distant in time, or at desperate risk; a deserter from Sora came out of the town privately by night, and when he had got as far as the Roman watches, desired to be conducted instantly to the consuls: which being complied with, he made them an offer of delivering the place into their hands. When he answered their questions, respecting the means by which he intended to make good his promise, appearing to state a project by no means idle, he persuaded them to remove the Roman camp, which was almost close to the walls, to the distance of six miles; that the consequence would be that this would render the guards by day, and the watches by night, the less vigilant. He then desired that some cohorts should post themselves the following night in the woody places under the town, and took with himself ten chosen soldiers, through steep and almost impassable ways, into the citadel, where a quantity of missive weapons had been collected, larger than bore proportion to the number of men. There were stones besides, some lying at random, as in all craggy places, and others heaped up designedly by the townsmen, to add to the security of the place. Having posted the Romans here, and shown them a steep and narrow path leading up from the town to the citadel--"From this ascent," said he, "even three armed men would keep off any multitude whatever. Now ye are ten in number; and, what is more, Romans, and the bravest among the Romans. The night is in your favour, which, from the uncertainty it occasions, magnifies every object to people once alarmed. I will immediately fill every place with terror: be ye alert in defending the citadel." He then ran down in haste, crying aloud, "To arms, citizens, we are undone, the citadel is taken by the enemy; run, defend it." This he repeated, as he passed the doors of the principal men, the same to all whom he met, and also to those who ran out in a fright into the streets. The alarm, communicated first by one, was soon spread by numbers through all the city. The magistrates, dismayed on hearing from scouts that the citadel was full of arms and armed men, whose number they multiplied, laid aside all hopes of recovering it. All places are filled with terror: the gates are broken open by persons half asleep, and for the most part unarmed, through one of which the body of Roman troops, roused by the noise, burst in, and slew the terrified inhabitants, who attempted to skirmish in the streets. Sora was now taken, when, at the first light, the consuls arrived, and accepted the surrender of those whom fortune had left remaining after the flight and slaughter of the night. Of these, they conveyed in chains to Rome two hundred and twenty-five, whom all men agreed in pointing out as the authors, both of the revolt, and also of the horrid massacre of the colonists. The rest they left in safety at Sora, a garrison being placed there. All those who were brought to Rome were beaten with rods in the forum, and beheaded, to the great joy of the commons, whose interest it most highly concerned, that the multitudes, sent to various places in colonies should be in safety.
25
The consuls, leaving Sora, turned their warlike operations against the lands and cities of the Ausonians; for all places had been set in commotion by the coming of the Samnites, when the battle was fought at Lautulae: conspiracies likewise had been formed in several parts of Campania; nor was Capua itself clear of the charge: nay, the business spread even to Rome, and inquiries came to be instituted respecting some of the principal men there. However, the Ausonian nation fell into the Roman power, in the same manner as Sora, by their cities being betrayed: these were Ausona Minturnae, and Vescia. Certain young men, of the principal families, twelve in number, having conspired to betray their respective cities, came to the consuls; they informed them that their countrymen, who had for a long time before honestly wished for the coming of the Samnites, on hearing of the battle at Lautulae, had looked on the Romans as defeated, and had assisted the Samnites with supplies of young men and arms; but that, since the Samnites had been beaten out of the country, they were wavering between peace and war, not shutting their gates against the Romans, lest they should thereby invite an attack; yet determined to shut them if an army should approach; that in that fluctuating state they might easily be overpowered by surprise. By these men's advice the camp was moved nearer; and soldiers were sent, at the same time, to each of the three towns; some armed, who were to lie concealed in places near the walls; others, in the garb of peace, with swords hidden under their clothes, when, on the opening of the gates at the approach of day, were to enter into the cities. These latter began with killing the guards; at the same time, a signal was made to the men with arms, to hasten up from the ambuscades. Thus the gates were seized, and the three towns taken in the same hour and by the same device. But as the attacks were made in the absence of the generals, there were no bounds to the carnage which ensued; and the nation of the Ausonians, when there was scarcely any clear proof of the charge of its having revolted, was utterly destroyed, as if it had supported a contest through a deadly war.
26
During this year, Luceria fell into the hands
