9.14
Whilst
both sides were making their preparations for battle, a deputation from
Tarentum appeared on the scene with a peremptory demand that both the
Samnites and the Romans should desist from hostilities. They threatened that
whichever side stood in the way of a cessation of arms, they would assist the
other side against them. After hearing the demands which the deputation
advanced and apparently attaching importance to what they had said,
Papirius replied that he would communicate with his colleague. He then sent
for him and employed the interval in hastening the preparations for battle.
After talking over the matter, about which there could be no two opinions,
he displayed the signal for battle. Whilst the consuls were engaged in the
various duties, religious and otherwise, which are customary before a battle,
the Tarentines waited for them, expecting an answer, and Papirius informed
them that the pullarius had reported that the auspices were favourable and
the sacrifice most satisfactory. "You see," he added, "that we are going into
action with the sanction of the gods." He then ordered the standards to be
taken up, and as he marched his men on to the field he expressed his
contempt for a people of such egregious vanity, that whilst quite incapable of
managing their own affairs, owing to domestic strife and discord, they
thought themselves justified in prescribing to others how far they must go in
making peace or war. The Samnites, on the other hand, had given up all
thoughts of fighting, either because they were really anxious for peace or
because it was their interest to appear so, in order to secure the goodwill of
the Tarentines. When they suddenly caught sight of the Romans drawn up
for battle, they shouted that they should act according to the instructions of
the Tarentines; they would neither go down into the field nor carry their
arms outside their rampart, they would rather let advantage be taken of them
and bear whatever chance might bring them than be thought to have flouted
the peaceful advice of Tarentum. The consuls said that they welcomed the
omen, and prayed that the enemy might remain in that mood so as not even
to defend their rampart. Advancing in two divisions up to the entrenchments,
they attacked them simultaneously on all sides. Some began to fill up the
fosse, others tore down the abattis on the rampart and hurled the timber into
the fosse. It was not their native courage only, but indignation and rage as
well which goaded them on, smarting as they were from their recent
disgrace. As they forced their way into the camp, they reminded one another
that there were no Forks of Caudium there, none of those insuperable defiles
where deceit had won an insolent victory over incaution, but Roman valour
which neither rampart nor fosse could check. They slew alike those who
fought and those who fled, armed and unarmed, slaves and freemen, young
and old, men and beasts. Not a single living thing would have survived had
not the consuls given the signal to retire, and by stern commands and threats
driven the soldiers who were thirsting for blood out of the enemy's camp. As
the men were highly incensed at this interruption to a vengeance which was
so delightful, it was necessary to explain to them on the spot why they were
prevented from carrying it further. The consuls assured them that they
neither had yielded nor would yield to any man in showing their hatred of the
enemy, and as they had been their leaders in the fighting so they would have
been foremost in encouraging their insatiable rage and vengeance. But they
had to consider the 600 equites who were being detained as hostages in
Luceria, and to take care that the enemy, despairing of any quarter for
themselves, did not wreak their blind rage on their captives, and destroy
them before they perished themselves. The soldiers quite approved and were
glad that their indiscriminate fury had been checked; they admitted that they
must submit to anything rather than endanger the safety of so many youths
belonging to the noblest families in Rome.