Ab urbe condita

This roused the men; the cavalry behaved with quite as much gallantry as the infantry, and the staff-officers displayed no less energy than the generals.

M. Valerius on the right wing, and P. Decius on the left, both men of consular rank, rode up to the cavalry who were covering the flanks and urged them to snatch some of the glory for themselves. They charged the enemy on both flanks, and the double attack increased the consternation of the enemy.

To complete their discomfiture, the Roman legions again raised their battleshout and charged home. Now the Samnites took to flight, and soon the plain was filled with shining armour and heaps of bodies.

At first the terrified Samnites found shelter in their camp, but they were not able even to hold that; it was captured, plundered, and burnt before nightfall. The senate decreed a triumph for the Dictator.

By far the greatest sight in the procession was the captured armour, and so magnificent were the pieces considered that the gilded shields were distributed amongst the owners of the silversmiths' shops to adorn the Forum.

This is said to be the origin of the custom of the aediles decorating the Forum when the symbols of three Capitoline deities are conducted in procession through the City on the occasion of the Great Games. Whilst the Romans made use of this armour to honour the gods, the Campanians, out of contempt and hatred towards the Samnites, made the gladiators who performed at their banquets wear it, and they then called them “Samnites.”

The consul Fabius fought a battle this year with the remnants of the Etruscans at Perusia, for this city had broken the truce.

He gained an easy and decisive victory, and after the battle he approached the walls and would have taken the place had not envoys been sent on to surrender it.

After he had stationed a garrison in Perusia, deputations came to him from different cities in Etruria to ask for a restoration of amicable relations; these he sent on to the senate at Rome.

Then he entered the city in triumphal procession, after achieving a more solid success than the Dictator, especially as the defeat of the Samnites was put down largely to the credit of the staff-officers, P. Decius and M. Valerius. These men were chosen by an almost unanimous vote at the next elections —one as consul, the other as praetor.

Owing to his splendid services in the subjugation of Etruria, the consulship of Fabius was extended to another year, Decius being his colleague.