On receiving this information the consul led his army round to that side of the city which the cavalry had examined. Halting the standards near the gates, he ordered five horsemen to enter the city, and after going some distance three were to remain where they were, and two were to return and report to him what they had discovered.

They reported that they had reached a point from which a view was obtained in all directions, and everywhere they saw a silent solitude.

The consul immediately sent some light-armed cohorts into the city, the rest of the army received orders to form an entrenched camp.

The soldiers who had entered the place broke open some of the houses and found a few old and sick people and such property left behind as they found too difficult to transport.

This was appropriated, and it was ascertained from the prisoners that several cities in the neighbourhood had mutually agreed to leave their homes, and the Romans would probably find the same solitude in other cities.

What the prisoners had said proved to be true, and the consul took possession of the abandoned towns.

The other consul, M. Atilius, found his task by no means so easy. He had received information that the Samnites were besieging Luceria, and he marched to its relief, but the enemy met him at the frontier of the Lucerine territory.

Exasperation and rage lent them a strength which made them a match for the Romans. The battle went on with changing fortunes and an indecisive result, but in the end the Romans were in the sorrier plight, for they were unaccustomed to defeat, and it was after the two armies had separated rather than in the battle itself that they realised how much greater the loss was on their side in both killed and wounded.

When they were once more within their camp they became a prey to fears which, had they felt them whilst actually fighting, would have brought upon them a signal disaster. They passed an anxious night expecting that the Samnites would make an immediate attack on the camp, or that they would have to engage their victorious foe at daybreak.