10.16
When
the elections were over, the previous consuls received a six months'
extension of their command and were ordered to prosecute the war in
Samnium. P. Decius, who had been left by his colleague in Samnium and was
now proconsul, continued his ravages of the Samnite fields until he had
driven their army, which nowhere ventured to encounter him, outside their
frontiers. They made for Etruria, and were in hopes that the object which
they had failed to secure by their numerous deputations might be achieved
now that they had a strong force and could back up their appeals by
intimidation. They insisted upon a meeting of the Etruscan chiefs being
convened. When it had assembled they pointed out how for many years they
had been fighting with the Romans, how they had tried in every possible way
to sustain the weight of that war in their own strength, and how they had
proved the assistance of their neighbours to be of small value. They had sued
for peace because they could no longer endure war, they had taken to war
again because a peace which reduced them to slavery was heavier to bear
than a war in which they could fight as free men. The only hope left to them
now lay in the Etruscans. They knew that they of all the nations of Italy were
the richest in arms and men and money, and they had for their neighbours the
Gauls, trained to arms from the cradle, naturally courageous to desperation
and especially against the Romans, a nation whom they justly boast of having
captured and then allowing them to ransom themselves with gold. If the
Etruscans had the same spirit which Porsena and their ancestors once had
there was no reason why they should not expel the Romans from the whole
of their land as far as the Tiber and compel them to fight, not for their
insupportable dominion over Italy, but for their very existence. The Samnite
army had come to them completely provided with arms and a war chest, and
were ready to follow them at once, even if they led them to an attack on
Rome itself.