hundred. Fabius, after sending persons to search for the body of his colleague, had the spoils of the enemy collected into a heap, and burned them as an offering to Jupiter the Victorious. The consul's body could not be found that day, being hid under a heap of slaughtered Gauls: on the following, it was discovered and brought to the camp, amidst abundance of tears shed by the soldiers. Fabius, discarding all concern about any other business, solemnized the obsequies of his colleague in the most honourable manner, passing on him the high encomiums which he had justly merited.
30
During the same period, matters were managed successfully by Cneius Fulvius, propraetor, he having, besides the immense losses occasioned to the enemy by the devastation of their lands, fought a battle with extraordinary success, in which there were above three thousand of the Perusians and Clusians slain, and twenty military standards taken. The Samnites, in their flight, passing through the Pelignian territory, were attacked on all sides by the Pelignians; and, out of five thousand, one thousand were killed. The glory of the day on which they fought at Sentinum was great, even when truly estimated; but some have gone beyond credibility by their exaggerations, who assert in their writings, that there were in the army of the enemy forty thousand three hundred and thirty foot, six thousand horse, and one thousand chariots, that is, including the Etrurians and Umbrians, who [they affirm] were present in the engagement: and, to magnify likewise the number of Roman forces, they add to the consuls another general, Lucius Volumnius, proconsul, and his army to the legions of the consul. In the greater number of annals, that victory is ascribed entirely to the two consuls. Volumnius was employed in the mean time in Samnium; he drove the army of the Samnites to Mount Tifernus, and, not deterred by the difficulty of the ground, routed and dispersed them. Quintus Fabius, leaving Decius's army in Etruria, and leading off his own legions to the city, triumphed over the Gauls, Etrurians, and Samnites: the soldiers attended him in his triumph. The victory of Quintus Fabius was not more highly celebrated, in their coarse military verses, than the illustrious death of Publius Decius; and the memory of the father was recalled, whose fame had been equalled by the praiseworthy conduct of the son, in respect of the issue which resulted both to himself and to the public. Out of the spoil, donations were made to the soldiers of eighty-two asses [4] to each, with cloaks and vests; rewards for service, in that age, by no means contemptible.
31
Notwithstanding these successes, peace was not yet established, either among the Samnites or Etrurians: for the latter, at the instigation of the Perusians, resumed their arms, after his army had been withdrawn by the consul; and the Samnites made predatory incursions on the territories of Vescia and Formiae; and also on the other side, on those of Aesernia, and the parts adjacent to the river Vulturnus. Against these was sent the praetor Appius Claudius, with the army formerly commanded by Decius. In Etruria, Fabius, on the revival of hostilities, slew four thousand five hundred of the Perusians, and took prisoners one thousand seven hundred and forty, who were ransomed at the rate of three hundred and ten asses [5] each. All the rest of the spoil was bestowed on the soldiers. The legions of the Samnites, though pursued, some by the praetor Appius Claudius, the others by Lucius Volumnius, proconsul, formed a junction in the country of the Stellatians. Here sat down the whole body of the Samnites; and Appius and Volumnius, with their forces united in one camp. A battle was fought with the most rancorous animosity, one party being spurred on by rage against men who had so often renewed their attacks on them, and the other now fighting in support of their last remaining hope. Accordingly, there were slain, of the Samnites, sixteen thousand three hundred, and two thousand and seven hundred made prisoners: of the Roman army fell two thousand and seven hundred. This year, so successful in the operations of war, was filled with distress at home, arising from a pestilence, and with anxiety, occasioned by prodigies: for accounts were received that, in many places, showers of earth had fallen; and that very many persons, in the army of Appius Claudius, had been struck by lightning; in consequence of which, the books were consulted. At this time, Quintus Fabius Gurges, the consul's son, having prosecuted some matrons before the people on a charge of adultery, built, with the money accruing from the fines which they were condemned to pay, the temple of Venus, which stands near the circus. Still we have the wars of the Samnites on our hands, notwithstanding that the relation of them has already extended, in one continued course, through four volumes of our history, and through a period of forty-six years, from the consulate of Marcus Valerius and Aulus Cornelius, who first carried the Roman arms into Samnium. And, not to recite the long train of disasters sustained by both nations, and the toils which they underwent, by which, however, their stubborn breasts could not be subdued; even in the course of the last year, the Samnites, with their own forces separately, and also in conjunction with those of other nations, had been defeated by four several armies, and four generals of the Romans, in the territory of Sentinum, in that of the Pelignians, at Tifernum, and in the plains of the Stellatians; had lost the general of the highest character in their nation; and, now, saw their allies in the war, the Etrurians, the Umbrians, and the Gauls, in the same situation with themselves; but, although they could now no longer stand, either by their own or by foreign resources, yet did they not desist from the prosecution of hostilities. So far were they from being weary of defending liberty, even though unsuccessfully: and they preferred being defeated to not aspiring after victory. Who does not find his patience tired, either in writing, or reading, of wars of such continuance; and which yet exhausted not the resolution of the parties concerned?
32
Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius were succeeded in the consulship by Lucius Postumius Megellus and Marcus Atilius Regulus. The province of Samnium was decreed to both in conjunction; because intelligence had been received that the enemy had embodied three armies; with one that Etruria was to be recovered; with another the ravages in Campania were to be repeated; and the third was intended for the defence of their frontiers. Sickness detained Postumius at Rome, but Atilius set out immediately, with design to surprise the enemy in Samnium, before they should have advanced beyond their own borders; for such had been the directions of the senate. The Romans met the enemy, as if by mutual appointment, at a spot where, while they could be hindered, not only from ravaging, but even from entering the Samnite territory, they could likewise hinder the Samnites from continuing their progress into the countries which were quiet, and the lands of the allies of the Roman people. While their camps lay opposite to each other, the Samnites attempted an enterprise, which the Romans, so often their conquerors, would scarcely have ventured to undertake; such is the rashness inspired by extreme despair: this was to make an assault on the Roman camp. And although this attempt, so daring, succeeded not in its full extent, yet it was not without effect. There was a fog, which continued through a great part of the day, so thick as to exclude the light of the sun, and to prevent not only the view of any thing beyond the rampart, but scarcely the sight of each other, when they should meet. Depending on this, as a covering to the design, when the sun was scarcely yet risen, and the light which he did afford was obscured by the fog, the Samnites came up to an advanced guard of the Romans at one of the gates, who were standing carelessly on their post. In the sudden surprise, these had neither courage nor strength to make resistance: an assault was then made, through the Decuman gate, in the rear of the camp: the quaestor's quarters in consequence were taken, and the quaestor, Lucius Opimius Pansa, was there slain; on this a general alarm was given to take up arms.
33
The consul, being roused by the tumult, ordered two cohorts of the allies, a Lucanian and Suessanian, which happened to be nearest, to defend the head-quarters, and led the companies of the legions down the principal street. These ran into the ranks, scarcely taking time to furnish themselves with arms; and, as they distinguished the enemy by their shout rather than by sight, could form no judgment how great their number might be: thus, ignorant of the circumstances of their situation, they at first drew back, and admitted the enemy into the heart of the camp. Then when the consul cried out, asking them, whether they intended to let themselves be beaten out beyond the rampart, and then to return again to storm
