Ab urbe condita

Come on! Wherever you see me making my way through the enemy's lines with my sword follow, and each of you do his best to cut down those in front.

All that ground which is now glittering with uplifted spears you shall see cleared by a vast carnage.” During those words the cavalry, at the consul's order, retired an both flanks, leaving the centre clear for the legions. The consul led the charge, and slew the first man he engaged with.

Fired at the sight, every man, right and left, charged straight forward and began a fight to be remembered. The Samnites did not flinch, though they were receiving more wounds than they inflicted.

The battle had now gone on for a considerable time; there was a terrible slaughter round the Samnite standards but no signs of flight anywhere, so resolved were they that death alone should be their conqueror.

The Romans began to find their strength failing through fatigue and not much daylight remained, so goaded on by rage and disappointment they flung themselves madly upon their foe.

Then for the first time the Samnites were seen to be giving ground and preparing to flee; they were being taken prisoners and killed in all directions, and not many would have survived had not night put an end to what was becoming a victory rather than a battle.

The Romans admitted that they had never fought with a more obstinate enemy, and when the Samnites were asked what it was that first turned them, with all their determination, to flight, they said that the eyes of the Romans looked like fire, and their faces and expression like those of madmen;

it was this more than anything else which filled them with terror. This terror showed itself not only in the result of the battle but also in their hurrying away in the night.

The next day the Romans took possession of their empty camp, and all the population of Capua came out there to congratulate them.

But[*](P. Decius Mus saves a Roman Army.) these rejoicings were very nearly being embittered by a great disaster in Samnium. The consul Cornelius had advanced from Saticula and led his army by a mountain pass which descended into a narrow valley.

All the surrounding heights were occupied by the enemy, and he did not notice them high up above him till retreat was impossible.

The Samnites were waiting quietly till the whole of the column should descend into the lowest part of the valley, but meantime P. Decius, a military tribune, descried a peak jutting out on the pass which commanded the enemy's camp. This height would have been a difficult one for a heavy-armed force to climb but not for one in light marching order.