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Luceria was occupied by them and Fregellae surprised and taken by assault before the Romans had reorganized their broken army; the passing of the Satricans over to the Samnites shows what they might have accomplished, had they not allowed their advantage to slip through their hands.
Of troops capable of marching Caesar had not more than a legion 5000 infantry and 300 cavalry at Ravenna, which was by the highway some 240 miles distant from Rome; Pompeius had two weak legions 7000 infantry and a small squadron of cavalry under the orders of Appius Claudius at Luceria, from which, likewise by the highway, the distance was just about as great to the capital.
Two Roman armies had marched into Campania and threatened the southern border of Samnium, which the Samnite general Pontius was prepared to defend. His force occupied the passes which led from the plain of Naples into the higher mountain valleys; but he deceived the Romans by spreading the report that the whole Samnite army had gone to Apulia, where they were besieging the city of Luceria.
They perceived, when it was too late, that they had suffered themselves to be misled by a stratagem, and that the Samnites awaited them, not at Luceria, but in the fatal pass of Caudium. They fought, but without hope of success and without earnest aim; the Roman army was totally unable to manoeuvre and was completely vanquished without a struggle. The Roman generals offered to capitulate.
When the two consular armies advanced into Samnium, in the year 460, they encountered everywhere the most desperate resistance; in fact Marcus Atilius was discomfited near Luceria, and the Samnites were able to penetrate into Campania and to lay waste the territory of the Roman colony Interamna on the Liris.
They formed a junction again under the walls of Luceria, the siege of which was prosecuted with the greater zeal, because the Roman equites lay in captivity there; the Apulians, particularly the Arpani, lent the Romans important assistance in the siege, especially by procuring supplies.
Luceria was occupied by them and Fregellae surprised and taken by assault before the Romans had reorganized their broken army; the passing of the Satricans over to the Samnites shows what they might have accomplished, had they not allowed their advantage to slip through their hands.
I think it indeed more strange that there should exist any doubt whether it was Lucius Cornelius, in quality of dictator, Lucius Papirius Cursor being master of the horse, who performed these achievements at Caudium, and afterwards at Luceria, as the single avenger of the disgrace of the Romans, enjoying the best deserved triumph, perhaps, next to that of Furius Camillus, which had ever yet been obtained; or whether that honour belongs to the consuls, and particularly to Papirius.
They formed a junction again under the walls of Luceria, the siege of which was prosecuted with the greater zeal, because the Roman equites lay in captivity there; the Apulians, particularly the Arpani, lent the Romans important assistance in the siege, especially by procuring supplies.
Caesar had to choose whether he would march against Rome, from which his cavalry at Arretium were already only about 130 miles distant, or against the legions encamped at Luceria. He chose the latter plan. The consternation of the opposite party was boundless.
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