were encouraged in their hostilities by the six thousand foreign soldiers (four thousand of whom were Samnites) who garrisoned their city.
As the Roman army arrived to attack the city, the citizens simultaneously surrendered to the Romans and tricked the Samnites into leaving. The Romans still had the Smites to contend with, and defeated them in a battle. The rest of the war did not go so well.
Disaster at the Caudine Forks
In 321 B.C. the Roman army invaded Samnium. While the soldiers were raiding Samnite territory, shepherds grazing their
Page 80
flocks in the vicinity reported to them that the Samnite army had left Samnium and was besieging the town of Luceria, which lay in the territory of Apulia, and was allied to the Romans. Two roads could lead the Romans to the relief of the Lucerians: one was long, with open plains to its sides; the other was short, but with mountains rising to either side. The Romans went by the short path, through an area called Caudium. They had proceeded some distance when they noticed that trees had been chopped down and boulders had been piled up to bar their progress. They turned around, only to find that the way by which they had entered the gorge was blocked, not only by trees that had been chopped down, but also by Samnite soldiers. The Romans had been led into a trap; the shepherds had been planted there by the Samnite commander, Gavius Pontius.
Pontius had not expected that his plan would go so well. He was unsure what to do and wrote a letter to his father, an experienced general, asking him for advice. His father's first reply was to let the Roman soldiers go, unharmed, as soon as possible. The son did not like that advice, so he wrote his father another letter; this time, his father advised him to put all the Roman soldiers to death.
Now the son was even more confused and thought that old age must have blunted his father's acumen. Still, he sent a wagon to bring his father to him so they could discuss the course of action. The father came and explained his advice: By the first plan, which he considered the better of the two, the Samnites would, by a magnanimous gesture, secure unending peace with that very powerful people; by the other plan, the Samnites would merely postpone war for many generations, since Rome would find it difficult to replace the two armies that had been lost. There was no third alternative.
The son rejected both solutions. He told his father of his solution: to release the Romans, but to force them to give up their weapons and possessions, and to pass under the yokea symbol of slavery and a great source of shame to soldiers. He would also require that the Romans withdraw their colonies and forces from Samite territory, and that six hundred Roman equites be handed over to the Samnites as hostages.
The father, after listening to his son, said, "That plan of yours is one that doesn't make friends or remove enemies. Just watch out
Page 81
for those whom you have enraged with public humiliation! Those men there are of the Roman race, which doesn't know how to give in, even when it has been conquered. The memory of whatever they are forced to do now will always remain branded in their hearts, and it will not allow them to rest until you have paid the penalty many times over" (Livy IX.3.12).
The father was right, but his son did not know it, and he proceeded with his plans for sending the Roman soldiers under the yoke.
First, they were ordered to lay down their weapons, and then to go outside the camp's walls, with only one article of clothing; then the first hostages were handed over and led away to their guards. Then the lictors were ordered to leave the consuls, and the consuls' military cloaks were torn off. This caused such great pity among the soldiers that those who only shortly before had been cursing the consuls and thinking that they should be handed over to the enemy for torture, now forgot their individual situations and turned their eyes away from
As the Roman army arrived to attack the city, the citizens simultaneously surrendered to the Romans and tricked the Samnites into leaving. The Romans still had the Smites to contend with, and defeated them in a battle. The rest of the war did not go so well.
Disaster at the Caudine Forks
In 321 B.C. the Roman army invaded Samnium. While the soldiers were raiding Samnite territory, shepherds grazing their
Page 80
flocks in the vicinity reported to them that the Samnite army had left Samnium and was besieging the town of Luceria, which lay in the territory of Apulia, and was allied to the Romans. Two roads could lead the Romans to the relief of the Lucerians: one was long, with open plains to its sides; the other was short, but with mountains rising to either side. The Romans went by the short path, through an area called Caudium. They had proceeded some distance when they noticed that trees had been chopped down and boulders had been piled up to bar their progress. They turned around, only to find that the way by which they had entered the gorge was blocked, not only by trees that had been chopped down, but also by Samnite soldiers. The Romans had been led into a trap; the shepherds had been planted there by the Samnite commander, Gavius Pontius.
Pontius had not expected that his plan would go so well. He was unsure what to do and wrote a letter to his father, an experienced general, asking him for advice. His father's first reply was to let the Roman soldiers go, unharmed, as soon as possible. The son did not like that advice, so he wrote his father another letter; this time, his father advised him to put all the Roman soldiers to death.
Now the son was even more confused and thought that old age must have blunted his father's acumen. Still, he sent a wagon to bring his father to him so they could discuss the course of action. The father came and explained his advice: By the first plan, which he considered the better of the two, the Samnites would, by a magnanimous gesture, secure unending peace with that very powerful people; by the other plan, the Samnites would merely postpone war for many generations, since Rome would find it difficult to replace the two armies that had been lost. There was no third alternative.
The son rejected both solutions. He told his father of his solution: to release the Romans, but to force them to give up their weapons and possessions, and to pass under the yokea symbol of slavery and a great source of shame to soldiers. He would also require that the Romans withdraw their colonies and forces from Samite territory, and that six hundred Roman equites be handed over to the Samnites as hostages.
The father, after listening to his son, said, "That plan of yours is one that doesn't make friends or remove enemies. Just watch out
Page 81
for those whom you have enraged with public humiliation! Those men there are of the Roman race, which doesn't know how to give in, even when it has been conquered. The memory of whatever they are forced to do now will always remain branded in their hearts, and it will not allow them to rest until you have paid the penalty many times over" (Livy IX.3.12).
The father was right, but his son did not know it, and he proceeded with his plans for sending the Roman soldiers under the yoke.
First, they were ordered to lay down their weapons, and then to go outside the camp's walls, with only one article of clothing; then the first hostages were handed over and led away to their guards. Then the lictors were ordered to leave the consuls, and the consuls' military cloaks were torn off. This caused such great pity among the soldiers that those who only shortly before had been cursing the consuls and thinking that they should be handed over to the enemy for torture, now forgot their individual situations and turned their eyes away from
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