Ab urbe condita

the fields. Meantime they expected that as the Romans made no movement and had brought only as much corn as they could carry with the rest of their equipment on their shoulders, they, too, would soon be in want

of everything. When the consul saw the enemy scattered through the fields and only a few left on outpost duty in front of the camp, he addressed a few words of encouragement to his men and led them out to storm the

Samnite camp. They carried it at the first rush; more of the enemy were killed in their tents than at the gates or on the rampart. All the standards which were captured he ordered to be collected together. Leaving two legions to hold the camp, he gave strict orders that they were not to touch the booty till

he returned. He went forward with his men in open column and sent the cavalry to round up the scattered Samnites, like so much game, and drive them against

his army. There was an immense slaughter, for they were too much terrified to think under what standard to rally or whether to make for their camp or flee

further afield. Their fears drove them into such a hasty flight that as many as 40,000 shields — far more than the number of the slain —and military standards, including those captured in the storming of the camp, to the number of 170 were brought to

the consul. He then returned to the Samnite camp and all the booty there was given to the soldiers.

The success which attended these operations made the people of Falerii anxious to convert their forty years' truce into a permanent treaty of peace with Rome. It also led the Latins to abandon their designs against Rome and employ the force they had collected against the Paelignians.

The fame of these victories was not confined to the limits of Italy; even the Carthaginians sent a deputation to congratulate the senate and to present a golden crown which was to be placed in the chapel of Jupiter on the Capitol. It weighed twenty-five pounds.

Both the consuls celebrated a triumph over the Samnites A striking figure in the procession was Decius, wearing his decorations; in their extempore effusions the soldiers repeated his name as often as that of the consul. Mutiny of Troops in Campania.

—Soon after this an audience was granted to deputations from Capua and from Suessa, and at their request it was arranged that a force should be sent to winter in those two cities to act as a check upon the Samnites.

Even in those days a residence in Capua was by no means conducive to military discipline; having pleasures of every kind at their command, the troops became enervated and their patriotism was undermined. They began to hatch plans for seizing Capua by the same criminal means by which its present holders had taken it from its ancient possessors.

“They richly deserved,” it was said, “to have the precedent which they had set turned against themselves. Why should people like the Campanians who were incapable of defending either their possessions or themselves enjoy the most fertile territory in Italy, and a city well worthy of its territory, in preference to a victorious army who had driven off the Samnites from it by their sweat and blood?

Was it just that these people who had surrendered themselves into their power should be enjoying that fertile and delightful country while they, wearied with warfare, were struggling with the arid and pestilential soil round the City, or suffering the ruinous consequences of an evergrowing interest which were awaiting them in Rome?”

This agitation which was being conducted in secret, only a few being yet taken into the conspirators' confidence, was discovered by the new consul, Caius Marcius Rutilus, to whom Campania had been allotted as his province, his colleague, Q. Servilius, being left in the City.

Taught by years and experience —he had been four times consul as well as Dictator and censor —he thought his best course would be, after he was in possession of the facts as ascertained through the tribunes, to frustrate any chance of the soldiers carrying out their design by encouraging them in the hope of executing it whenever they pleased. The troops had been distributed amongst the cities of Campania, and the contemplated plan had been propagated from Capua throughout the entire force.

The consul caused a rumour, therefore, to be spread that they were to occupy the same winter quarters the following year. As there appeared to be no necessity for their carrying out their design immediately, the agitation quieted down for the present.