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The Samnites were a warlike and pastoral people who inhabited the rugged mountain district between the valleys of the Vulturnus and the Calor, but they were nevertheless barbarians, and the contest between them and the Romans was for the sovereignty of Italy. I need not mention the alleged causes, or the details of a sanguinary war.
Notwithstanding that this account carried every appearance of truth, he yet thought it necessary to obtain more certain information; accordingly he despatched some horsemen, to seize on some of the straggling marauders; from these he learned, on inquiry, that the enemy lay at the river Vulturnus; that they intended to remove thence at the third watch; and that their route was towards Samnium.
He himself marched from Casilinum to Calatia, and thence crossing the Vulturnus, and passing through the territories of Saticula and Trebula, pursuing his course along the mountains above Suessula, he arrived at Nola.
Fabius crossed the Vulturnus, after having at length expiated the prodigies, and both the consuls prosecuted the war in the neighbourhood of Capua. Fabius regained by force the towns Compulteria, Trebula, and Saticula, which had revolted to the Carthaginians; and in them were captured the garrisons of Hannibal and a great number of Campanians.
The Cumans, although they suspected treachery, made no objection, concluding that thus the deception they meditated might be concealed. Meanwhile Tiberius Sempronius, the Roman consul, having purified his army at Sinuessa, where he had appointed a day for their meeting, crossed the Vulturnus, and pitched his camp in the neighbourhood of Liternum.
He impatiently expected the return of Lothaire; ignorant, alas! that his brother could never return, and that the chief and his army had been swept away by a strange disease on the banks of the Lake Benacus, between Trent and Verona. The banners of Narses soon approached the Vulturnus, and the eyes of Italy were anxiously fixed on the event of this final contest.
Having spent several days there in evading and concerting plots, in fear themselves and suspected by the Campanians, and having now received certain information that the revolt of Capua and the reception of Hannibal were in agitation, they put the townsmen to the sword by night, and seized upon the part of the town on this side the Vulturnus, for it is divided by that river.
A store of corn was collected at Casilinum; at the mouth of the Vulturnus, where a town now stands, a strong post was fortified; and a garrison was stationed in Puteoli, which Fabius had formerly fortified, in order to have the command of the neighbouring sea and the river.
The swollen state of the Vulturnus and the entreaties of the people of Nola and Acerrae, who feared the Campanians if the Roman troops should leave them, kept Marcellus in his place; although desirous himself also to bring assistance to the besieged.
That those who had neither been in Capua nor in any Campanian city which had revolted from the Romans during the war, should inhabit a place on this side the river Liris towards Rome; and that those who had come over to the Romans before Hannibal arrived at Capua, should be removed to a place on this side the Vulturnus, with a proviso, that none of them should have either land or house within fifteen miles of the sea.
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