10.39
The
consuls left the City. The first to go was Spurius Carvilius, to whom were
assigned the legions which M. Atilius, the previous consul, had left in the
district of Interamna. With these he advanced into Samnium, and while the
enemy were taken up with their superstitious observance and forming secret
plans, he stormed and captured the town of Amiternum. Nearly 2800 men
were killed there, and 4270 made prisoners. Papirius with a fresh army raised
by senatorial decree successfully attacked the city of Duronia. He made
fewer prisoners than his colleague, but slew a somewhat greater number. In
both towns rich booty was secured. Then the consuls traversed Samnium in
different directions; Carvilius, after ravaging the Atinate country, came to
Cominium; Papirius reached Aquilonia, where the main army of the Samnites
was posted. For some time his troops, while not quite inactive, abstained
from any serious fighting. The time was spent in annoying the enemy when
he was quiet, and retiring when he showed resistance -in threatening rather
than in offering battle. As long as this practice went on day after day, of
beginning and then desisting, even the slightest skirmish led to no result. The
other Roman camp was separated by an interval of 20 miles, but Carvilius
was guided in all his measures by the advice of his distant colleague; his
thoughts were dwelling more on Aquilonia, where the state of affairs was so
critical, than on Cominium, which he was actually besieging.
Papirius was at length perfectly ready to fight, and he sent a
message to his colleague announcing his intention, if the auspices were
favourable, of engaging the enemy the next day, and impressing upon him
the necessity of attacking Cominium with his full strength, to give the
Samnites no opportunity of sending succour to Aquilonia. The messenger
had the day for his Journey, he returned in the night, bringing word back to
the consul that his colleague approved of his plan. Immediately after
despatching the messenger Papirius ordered a muster of his troops, and
addressed them preparatory to the battle. He spoke at some length upon the
general character of the war they were engaged in, and especially upon the
style of equipment which the enemy had adopted, which he said served for
idle pageantry rather than for practical use. Plumes did not inflict wounds,
their painted and gilded shields would be penetrated by the Roman javelin,
and an army resplendent in dazzling white would be stained with gore when
the sword came into play. A Samnite army all in gold and silver had once
been annihilated by his father, and those trappings had brought more glory as
spoils to the victors than they had brought as armour to the wearers. It
might, perhaps, be a special privilege granted to his name and family that the
greatest efforts which the Samnites had ever made should be frustrated and
defeated under their generalship and that the spoils which they brought back
should be sufficiently splendid to serve as decorations for the public places in
the City. Treaties so often asked for, so often broken, brought about the
intervention of the immortal gods, and if it were permitted to man to form
any conjecture as to the feelings of the gods, he believed that they had never
been more incensed against any army than against this one of the Samnites.
It had taken part in infamous rites and been stained with the mingled blood
of men and beasts; it was under the two-fold curse of heaven, filled with
dread at the thought of the gods who witnessed the treaties made with Rome
and horror-struck at the imprecations which were uttered when an oath was
taken to break those treaties, an oath which the soldiers took under
compulsion and which they recall with loathing. They dread alike the gods,
their fellow-countrymen, and the enemy.