The partial success of this daring manoeuvre raised the spirits of the Samnites, and they not only prevented the Romans from advancing but they even kept the foraging parties out of their fields, who had consequently to fall back on the pacified district of Sora.
The report of this occurrence which reached Rome, and which was a much more sensational one than the facts warranted, compelled the other consul, L. Postumius, to leave the City before his health was quite re-established.
He issued a general order for his men to assemble at Sora, and previous to his departure he dedicated the temple to Victory which he had, when curule aedile, built out of the proceeds of fines.
On rejoining his army he marched from Sora to his colleague's camp. The Samnites despaired of offering an effectual resistance to two consular armies and withdrew; the consuls then proceeded in different directions to lay waste their fields and storm their cities.
Amongst the latter was Milionia, which Postumius unsuccessfully attempted to carry by assault.
He then attacked the place by regular approaches, and after his
3200 Samnites were killed and 4700 made prisoners, in addition to the rest of the booty.
From there the legions marched to Feritrum, but the townsfolk evacuated the place quietly during the night, taking with them all their possessions, everything which could be either driven or carried.
Immediately on his reaching the vicinity, the consul approached the walls with his men prepared for action, as though there was going to be as much fighting there as there had been at Milionia.
When he found that there was a dead silence in the city and no sign of arms or men was visible in the towers or on the walls, he checked his men, who were eager to get into the deserted fortifications, for fear he might be rushing blindly into a trap.
He ordered two troops of cavalry belonging to the Latin contingent to ride round the walls and make a thorough reconnaissance. They discovered one gate open and another near it also open, and on the road leading from these gates traces of the enemy's nocturnal flight.
Riding slowly up to the gates they obtained an uninterrupted view of the city through the straight streets, and brought back report to the consul that the city had been evacuated, as was clear from the unmistakable solitude and the things scattered about in the confusion of the night —evidence of their hasty flight.
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.