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Quintus Fabius, proconsul, fought a pitched battle with the armies of the Samnites, near the city of Allifae. The victory was complete. The enemy were driven from the field, and pursued to their camp; nor would they have kept possession of that, had not the day been almost spent. It was invested, however, before night, and guarded until day, lest any should slip away.
But the night, when the fear was equally shared, kept them from commencing the battle till morning. Meanwhile Hannibal, having marched his whole army through the pass, and having cut off some of the enemy in the very defile, pitches his camp in the country of Allifae.
On the day he crossed the Vulturnus, Hannibal pitched his camp at a small distance from the river. The next day, passing by Cales, he reached the Sidicinian territory, and having spent a day there in devastating the country, he led his troops along the Latin way through the territory of Suessa, Allifae, and Casinum.
Half reclining in the rude chariot, each jolt of which brought agony to his injured shoulder, Sergius watched, with far deeper pain than that of body, the last troop of allied horse winding up the pass toward Allifae: the rear-guard of Rome's line of march.
During these transactions in Etruria, the other consul, Caius Marcius Rutilus, took Allifae by storm from the Samnites; and many of their forts, and smaller towns, were either destroyed by his arms, or surrendered without being injured.
But his Punic accent, ill adapted to the pronunciation of Latin names, caused the guide to understand Casilinum, instead of Casinum; and leaving his former course, he descends through the territory of Allifae, Calatia, and Cales, into the plain of Stella, where, seeing the country enclosed on all sides by mountains and rivers, he calls the guide to him, and asks him where in the world he was? when he replied, that on that day he would lodge at Casilinum: then at length the error was discovered, and that Casinum lay at a great distance in another direction.
Separating from a contest thus by no means equal, they proceeded to their camps; the Spaniards almost all untouched; the Romans having lost a few. Fabius also moved his camp, and passing the defile, took up a position above Allifae, in a strong and elevated place. Then Hannibal, pretending to march to Rome through Samnium, came back as far as the Peligni, spreading devastation.
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