checked the progress of the Samnites, who had now began to gain ground; and, at this seasonable juncture, their comrades appearing suddenly on the mountains, and raising a shout, occasioned in the Samnites a fear of greater danger than really threatened them; Fabius called out aloud that his colleague Decius was approaching; on which all the soldiers, elated with joy, repeated eagerly, that the other consul was come, the legions were arrived! This artifice, useful to the Romans, filled the Samnites with dismay and terror; terrified chiefly lest, fatigued as they were, they should be overpowered by another army fresh and unhurt. As they dispersed themselves in their flight on every side, there was less effusion of blood than might have been expected, considering the completeness of the victory. There were three thousand four hundred slain, about eight hundred and thirty made prisoners, and twentythree military standards taken. 15. The Apulians would have joined their forces to the Samnites before this battle, had not the consul, Publius Decius, encamped in their neighbourhood at Maleventum; and, finding means to bring them to an engagement, put them to the rout. Here, likewise, there was more of flight than of bloodshed. Two thousand of the Apulians were slain; but Decius, despising such an enemy, led his legions into Samnium. There the two consular armies, overrunning every part of the country during the space of five months, laid it entirely waste. There were in Samnium forty-five places where Decius, and eighty-six where the other consul, encamped. Nor did they leave traces only of having been there, as ramparts and trenches, but other dreadful mementos of it-general desolation and regions depopulated. Fabius also took the city of Cimetra, where he made prisoners two thousand four hundred soldiers; and there were slain in the assault about four hundred and thirty. Going thence to Rome to preside at the elections, he used all expedition in despatching that business. All the first-called centuries voted Quintus Fabius consul. Appius Claudius was a candidate, a man of consular rank, daring and ambitious; and as he wished not more ardently for the attainment of that honour for himself, than he did that the patricians might recover the possession of both places in the consulship, he laboured, with all his own power, supported by that of the whole body of the nobility, to prevail on them to appoint him consul along with Quintus Fabius. To this Fabius objected, giving, at first, the same reasons which he had advanced the year before. The nobles then all gathered round his seat, and besought him to raise up the consulship out of the plebeian mire, and to restore both to the office itself, and to the patrician rank, their original dignity. Fabius then, procuring silence, allayed their warmth by a qualifying speech, declaring, that "he would have so managed, as to have received the names of two patricians, if he had seen an intention of appointing any other than himself to the consulship. As things now stood, he would not set so bad a precedent as to admit his own name among the candidates; such a proceeding being contrary to the laws." Whereupon Appius Claudius, and Lucius Volumnius, a plebeian, who had likewise been colleagues in that office before, were elected consuls. The nobility reproached Fabius for declining to act in conjunction with Appius Claudius, because he evidently excelled him in eloquence and political abilities. 16. When the election was finished, the former consuls, their command being continued for six months, were ordered to prosecute the war in Samnium. Accordingly, during this next year also, in the consulate of Lucius Volumnius and Appius Claudius, Publius Decius, who had been left consul in Samnium by his colleague, in the character of proconsul, ceased not to spread devastation through all parts of that country; until, at last, he drove the army of the Samnites, which never dared to face him in the field, entirely out of the country. Thus expelled from home, they bent their route to Etruria; and, supposing that the business, which they had often in vain endeavoured to accomplish by embassies, might now be negotiated with more effect, when they were backed by such a powerful armed force, and could intermix terror with their entreaties, they demanded a meeting of the chiefs of Etruria: which being assembled, they set forth the great number of years during which they had waged war with the Romans, in the cause of liberty; "they had," they said, "tried to sustain, with their own strength, the weight of so great a war: they had also made trial of the support of the adjoining nations, which proved of little avail. When they were unable longer to maintain the conflict, they had sued the Roman people for peace; and had again taken up arms, because war to free men. they felt peace was more grievous to those with servitude, than That their one only hope remaining rested in the Etrurians. They knew that nation to be the most powerful in Italy, in respect of arms, men, and money; to have the Gauls their closest neighbours, born in the midst of war and arms, of furious courage, both from their natural temper, and particularly against the people of Rome, whom they boasted, without infringing the truth, of having made their prisoners, and of having ransomed for gold. If the Etrurians possessed the same spirit which formerly Porsena and their ancestors once had, there was nothing to prevent their obliging the Romans, driven from all the lands on this side of the Tiber, to fight for their own existence, and not for the intolerable dominion which they assumed over Italy. The Samnite army had come to them, in readiness for action, furnished with arms and pay, and were willing to follow that instant, even should they lead to the attack of the city of Rome itself." 17. While they were engaged in these representations, and intriguing at Etruria, the operations of the Romans in their own territories distressed them severely. For Publius Decius, when he ascertained through his scouts the departure of the Samnite army, called a council, and there said, "Why do we ramble through the country, carrying the war from village to village? Why not attack the cities and fortified places? No army now guards Samnium. They have fled their country; they are gone into voluntary exile." The proposal being universally approved, he marched to attack Murgantia, a city of considerable strength; and so great was the ardour of the soldiers, resulting from their affection to their commander, and from their hopes of richer treasure than could be found in pillaging the country places, that in one day they took it by assault. Here, two thousand one hundred of the Samnites, making resistance, were surrounded and taken prisoners; and abundance of other spoil was captured. Decius, not choosing that the troops should be encumbered in their march with heavy baggage, ordered them to be called together, and said to them, "Do ye intend to rest satisfied with this single victory, and this booty? or do ye choose to cherish hopes proportioned to your bravery? All the cities of the Samnites, and the property left in them, are your own; since, after so often defeating their legions, ye have finally driven them out of the country. Sell those effects in your hands; and allure traders, by a prospect of profit, to follow you on your march. I will, from time to time, supply you with goods for sale. Let us go hence to the city of Romulea, where no greater labour, but greater gain awaits you." Having sold off the spoil, and warmly adopting the general's plan, they proceeded to Romulea. There, also, without works or engines, as soon as the battalions approached, the soldiers, deterred from the walls by no resistance, hastily applying ladders wherever was most convenient to each, they mounted the fortifications. The town was taken and plundered. Two thousand three hundred men were slain, six thousand taken prisoners, and the soldiers obtained abundance of spoil. This they were obliged to sell in like manner as the former; and, though no rest was allowed them, they proceeded, nevertheless, with the utmost alacrity to Ferentinum. But here they met a greater share both of difficulty and danger: the fortifications were defended with the utmost vigour, and the place was strongly fortified both by nature and art. However, the soldiers, now inured to plunder, overcame every obstacle. Three thousand of the enemy were killed round the walls, and the spoil was given to the troops. In some annals, the principal share of the honour of taking these cities is attributed to Maximus. They say that Murgantia was taken by Decius; Romulea and Ferentinum by Fabius. Some ascribe this honour to the new consuls: others not to both, but to one of these, Lucius Volumnius; that to him the province of Samnium had fallen. 18. While things went on thus in Samnium, whoever it was that had the command and auspices, powerful combination, composed of many states, was formed in Etruria against the Romans, the chief promoter of which was Gellius Egnatius, a Samnite. Almost all the Etrurians had united in this war. The neighbouring states of Umbria were drawn in, as it were, by the contagion; and auxiliaries were procured from the Gauls for hire: all their several numbers assembled at the camp of the Samnites. When intelligence of this sudden commotion was received at Rome, after the consul, Lucius Volumnius, had already set out for Samnium, with the second and third legions, and fifteen thousand of the allies; it was, therefore, resolved, that Appius Claudius should, at the very earliest opportunity, go into Etruria. Two Roman legions followed him, the first and fourth, and twelve thousand allies; their camp was pitched at a small distance from the enemy. However, advantage was gained by his early arrival in this particular, that the awe of the Roman name kept in check some states of Etruria which were disposed to war, rather than from any judicious or successful enterprise achieved under the guidance of the consul. Several battles were fought, at times and places unfavourable, and increasing confidence rendered the enemy daily more formidable; so that matters came nearly to such a state, as that neither could the soldiers rely much on their leader, nor the leader on his soldiers. It appears in three several histories, that a letter was sent by the consul to call his colleague from Samnium. But I will not affirm what requires stronger proof, as that point was a matter of dispute between these two consuls of the Roman people, a second time associated in the same office; Appius denying that the letter was sent, and Volumnius affirming that he was called thither by a letter from Appius. Volumnius had, by this time, taken three forts in Samnium, in which three thousand of the enemy had been slain, and about half that number made prisoners; and, a sedition having been raised among the Lucanians by the plebeians and the more indigent of the people, he had, to the great satisfaction of the nobles, quelled it by sending thither Quintus Fabius, proconsul, with his own veteran army. He left to Decius the ravaging of the enemy's country; and proceeded with his troops into Etruria to his colleague; where, on his arrival, the whole army received him with joy. Appius, if he did not write the letter, being conscious of this, had, in my opinion, just ground of displeasure; but if he had actually stood in need of assistance, his disowning it, as he did, arose from an illiberal and ungrateful mind. For, on going out to receive him, when they had scarcely exchanged salutations, he said, "Is all well, Lucius Volumnius? How stand affairs in Samnium? What motive induced you to remove out of your province?" Volumnius answered, that "affairs in Samnium were in a prosperous state; and that he had come thither in compliance with the request in his letter. But, if that were a forged letter, and that there was no occasion for him in Etruria, he would instantly face about, and depart." "You may depart," replied the other; "no one detains you: for it |