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All places are destroyed with fire and sword; plunder driven from every side; and not only was the ground left a mere waste to the enemy, but their forts and small towns were set on fire; he refrained from attacking the cities into which fear had driven the Etrurians. The consul Cneius Fulvius fought a glorious battle in Samnium, near Bovianum, attended with success by no means equivocal.
In their consternation they left behind them a great quantity of arms and eighteen military standards: they reached Bovianum with the rest of their party in safety, as far as could be expected after so disorderly a rout. The joy of both Roman armies was enhanced by the success achieved on the other side.
Both the consuls were therefore sent into Samnium, and proceeded to different regions, Postumius to Tifernum, Minucius to Bovianum. The first engagement happened at Tifernum, under the command of Postumius. Some say, that the Samnites were completely defeated, and twenty thousand of them made prisoners.
The Romans then proceeded to Postumius's station, where the two victorious armies falling upon the enemy, already dismayed by the news of what had passed, routed and dispersed them: twenty-six military standards were taken here, and the Samnite general, Statius Gellius, with a great number of other prisoners, and both the camps were taken. Next day Bovianum was besieged, and soon after taken.
Success followed in the south, also, and in the year 304, Bovianum, in the heart of Samnium, which had been before taken by them, fell into the hands of the Romans and closed the war, leaving Rome the most powerful nation in Central Italy.
Sulla pretended to treat for peace, and, when the enemy were off their guard, marched away in the night, leaving a trumpeter to sound all the watches as if the army was still in position. He seems to have defeated Mutilus after this, and, leaving Aesernia behind as he had left Nola, finally, before going home to sue for the consulship of 88 B.C., stormed Bovianum.
In Samnium Silo no doubt succeeded in retaking Bovianum; but in a battle, in which he engaged the Roman general Mamercus Aemilius, the Romans conquered, and what was more important than the victory itself Silo was among the 6000 dead whom the Samnites left on the field. In Campania the smaller townships, which the Samnites still occupied, were wrested from them by Sulla, and Nola was invested.
Then, having attacked Bovianum, and not long after Aufidena, he took them by storm. This year a colony was carried out to Carseoli, into the territory of the Aequicolae. The consul Fulvius triumphed on his defeat of the Samnites.
The consuls, after this important victory, led forward the legions to lay siege to Bovianum; and there they passed the winter quarters, until Caius Poetelius, being nominated dictator, with Marcus Foslius, master of the horse, received the command of the army from the new consuls, Lucius Papirius Cursor a fifth, and Caius Junius Bubulcus a second time.
The pass, where the Samnite militia under Mutilus awaited him, was turned, the Samnite army was attacked in rear, and defeated; the camp was lost, the general escaped wounded to Aesernia. Sulla advanced to Bovianum, the capital of the Samnite country, and compelled it to surrender by a second victory achieved beneath its walls. The advanced season alone put an end to the campaign there.
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