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Updated: June 1, 2025
From thence he sent to Calatia, where he heard that the Roman consuls were encamped, ten soldiers, in the habit of shepherds, and ordered them to keep some cattle feeding in several different places, at a small distance from the Roman posts; and that, when they fell in with any of their foragers, they should all agree in the same story, that the legions of the Samnites were then in Apulia, that they were besieging Luceria with their whole force, and very near taking it by storm.
That out of the four consuls he had slain two; of the two remaining, one was wounded, the other, having lost his whole army, had fled from the field with scarcely fifty men; that the master of the horse, an authority equal to that of consul, had been routed and put to flight; that the dictator, because he had never engaged in a pitched battle, was esteemed a matchless general; that the Bruttii, the Apulians, part of the Samnites and of the Lucanians had revolted to the Carthaginians.
But the Samnites were of a different mind; they prepared for their hopeless resistance with the courage of free men, which cannot compel success but may put it to shame.
The first engagement did not prove fortunate for the Romans; their advanced guard was defeated by the combined Gauls and Samnites in the district of Chiusi. But that diversion accomplished its object.
Samnites, war is just to those for whom it is necessary, and arms are clear of impiety for those who have no hope left but in arms.
Notwithstanding these successes, peace was not yet established, either among the Samnites or Etrurians: for the latter, at the instigation of the Perusians, resumed their arms, after his army had been withdrawn by the consul; and the Samnites made predatory incursions on the territories of Vescia and Formiae; and also on the other side, on those of Aesernia, and the parts adjacent to the river Vulturnus.
Lucania was lost to the Romans: Laevinus collected the troops stationed there and marched to Apulia, The Bruttians, Lucanians, and Samnites joined Pyrrhus unmolested.
As to the conditions of peace, they shall be equal and right. Ye shall depart from the land of the Samnites, and take away your colonies; and hereafter both Romans and Samnites shall live under their own laws. If these conditions please the Consuls, I will make a treaty with them; if they please them not, return not hither again."
The Samnites were distinguished by their love of war, and their unconquerable attachment to liberty; their sway at one time extended over Campa'nia, and the greater part of central Italy; and the Romans found them the fiercest and most dangerous of their early enemies. The chief towns in the Samnite territory were Alli'fæ, Beneventum, and Cau'dium.
The patriotic feelings of Livy dispose him to maintain that Alexander, had he invaded Italy and assailed Romans or Samnites, would have failed and perished like his relative Alexander of Epirus. But this conclusion can not be accepted.
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