their own camp, they raised the shout, and uniting their efforts, stood their ground; then made advances, pushed closely on the enemy, and having forced them to give way, drove them back, without suffering their first terror to abate. They soon beat them out beyond the gate and the rampart, but not daring to pursue them, because the darkness of the weather made them apprehend an ambush, and content with having cleared the camp, they retired within the rampart, having killed about three hundred of the enemy. Of the Romans, including the first advanced guard and the watchmen, and those who were surprised at the quaestor's quarters, two hundred and thirty perished. This not unsuccessful piece of boldness raised the spirits of the Samnites so high, that they not only did not suffer the Romans to march forward into their country, but even to procure forage from their lands; and the foragers were obliged to go back into the quiet country of Sora. News of these events being conveyed to Rome, with circumstances of alarm magnified beyond the truth, obliged Lucius Postumius, the consul, though scarcely recovered from his illness, to set out for the army. However, before his departure, having issued a proclamation that his troops should assemble at Sora, he dedicated the temple of Victory, for the building of which he had provided, when curule aedile, out of the money arising from fines; and, joining the army, he advanced from Sora towards Samnium, to the camp of his colleague. The Samnites, despairing of being able to make head against the two armies, retreated from thence, on which the consuls, separating, proceeded by different routes to lay waste the enemy's lands and besiege their towns.
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Postumius attempted to make himself master of Milionia, at first by storm and an assault; but these not succeeding, he carried his approaches to the walls, and thus gained an entrance into the place. The fight was continued in all parts of the city from the fourth hour until near the eighth, the result being a long time uncertain: the Romans at last gained possession of the town. Three thousand two hundred of the Samnites were killed, four thousand seven hundred taken, besides the other booty. From thence the legions were conducted to Ferentinum, out of which the inhabitants had, during the night, retired in silence through the opposite gate, with all their effects which could be either carried or driven. The consul, on his arrival, approached the walls with the same order and circumspection, as if he were to meet an opposition here equal to what he had experienced at Milionia. Then, perceiving a dead silence in the city, and neither arms nor men on the towers and ramparts, he restrains the soldiers, who were eager to mount the deserted fortifications, lest they might fall into a snare. He ordered two divisions of the confederate Latin horse to ride round the walls, and explore every particular. These horsemen observed one gate, and, at a little distance, another on the same side, standing wide open, and on the roads leading from these every mark of the enemy having fled by night. They then rode up leisurely to the gates, from whence, with perfect safety, they took a clear view through straight streets quite across the city. They report to the consul, that the city was abandoned by the enemy, as was plain from the solitude, the recent tracks on their retreat, and the things which, in the confusion of the night, they had left scattered up and down. On hearing this, the consul led round the army to that side of the city which had been examined, and making the troops halt at a little distance from the gate, gave orders that five horsemen should ride into the city; and when they should have advanced a good way into it, then, if they saw all things safe, three should remain there, and the other two return to him with intelligence. These returned and said, that they had proceeded to a part of the town from which they had a view on every side, and that nothing but silence and solitude reigned through the whole extent of it. The consul immediately led some light-armed cohorts into the city; ordering the rest to fortify a camp in the mean time. The soldiers who entered the town, breaking open the doors, found only a few persons, disabled by age or sickness; and such effects left behind as could not, without difficulty, be removed. These were seized as plunder: and it was discovered from the prisoners, that several cities in that quarter had, in pursuance of a concerted plan, resolved on flight; that their towns-people had gone off at the first watch, and they believed that the same solitude they should find in the other places. The accounts of the prisoners proved well-founded, and the consul took possession of the forsaken towns.
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The war was by no means so easy with the other consul, Marcus Atilius. As he was marching his legions towards Luceria, to which he was informed that the Samnites had laid siege, the enemy met him on the border of the Lucerian territory. Rage supplied them, on this occasion, with strength to equal his: the battle was stubbornly contested, and the victory doubtful; in the issue, however, more calamitous on the side of the Romans, both because they were unaccustomed to defeat, and that, on leaving the field, they felt more sensibly, than during the heat of the action, how much more wounds and bloodshed had been on their side. In consequence of this, such dismay spread through the camp, as, had it seized them during the engagement, a signal defeat would have been the result. Even as the matter stood, they spent the night in great anxiety; expecting, every instant, that the Samnites would assault the camp; or that, at the first light, they should be obliged to stand a battle with a victorious enemy. On the side of the enemy, however, although there was less loss, yet there was not greater courage. As soon as day appeared, they wished to retire without any more fighting; but there was only one road, and that leading close by the post of their enemy; on their taking which, they seemed as if advancing directly to attack the camp. The consul, therefore, ordered his men to take arms, and to follow him outside the rampart, giving directions to the lieutenants-general, tribunes, and the praefects of the allies, in what manner he would have each of them act. They all assured him that "they would do every thing in their power, but that the soldiers were quite dejected; that, from their own wounds, and the groans of the dying, they had passed the whole night without sleep; that if the enemy had approached the camp before day, so great were the fears of the troops, that they would certainly have deserted their standards." "Even at present they were restrained from flight merely by shame; and, in other respects, were little better than vanquished men." This account made the consul judge it necessary to go himself among the soldiers, and speak to them; and, as he came up to each, he rebuked them for their backwardness in taking arms, asking, "Why they loitered, and declined the fight? If they did not choose to go out of the camp, the enemy would come into it; and they must fight in defence of their tents, if they would not in defence of the rampart. Men who have arms in their hands, and contend with their foe, have always a chance for victory; but the man who waits naked and unarmed for his enemy, must suffer either death or slavery." To these reprimands and rebukes they answered, that "they were exhausted by the fatigue of the battle of yesterday; and had no strength, nor even blood remaining; and besides, the enemy appeared more numerous than they were the day before." The hostile army, in the mean time, drew near; so that, seeing every thing more distinctly as the distance grew less, they asserted that the Samnites carried with them pallisades for a rampart, and evidently intended to draw lines of circumvallation round the camp. On this the consul exclaimed, with great earnestness, against submitting to such an ignominious insult, and from so dastardly a foe. "Shall we even be blockaded," said he, "in our camp, and die, with ignominy, by famine, rather than bravely by the sword, if it must be so? May the gods be propitious! and let every one act in the manner which he thinks becomes him. The consul Marcus Atilius, should no other accompany him, will go out, even alone, to face the enemy; and will fall in the middle of the Samnite battalions, rather than see the Roman camp enclosed by their trenches." The lieutenants-general, tribunes, every troop of the cavalry, and the principal centurions, expressed their approbation of what the consul said; and the soldiers at length, overcome by shame, took up their arms, but in a spiritless manner; and in the same spiritless manner, marched out of the camp. In a long train, and that not every where connected, melancholy, and seemingly subdued, they proceeded towards the enemy, whose hopes and courage, were not more steady than theirs. As soon therefore as the Roman standards were beheld, a murmur spread from front to rear of the Samnites, that, as they had feared, "the Romans were coming out to oppose their march; that there was no road open, through which they could even fly thence; in that spot they must fall, or else cut down the enemy's ranks, and make their way over their bodies."
36
They
