10.41
A
savagely fought contest ensued. The two sides were, however, animated by
very different feelings. The Romans went into battle eager for the fray,
confident of victory, exasperated against the enemy and thirsting for his
blood. The Samnites were, most of them, dragged in against their will by
sheer compulsion and the terrors of religion, and they adopted defensive
rather than aggressive tactics. Accustomed as they had been for so many
years to defeat, they would not have sustained even the first shout and
charge of the Romans had not a still more awful object of fear possessed
their minds and stayed them from flight. They had before their eyes all that
paraphernalia of the secret rite -the armed priests, the slaughtered remains
of men and beasts scattered about indiscriminately, the altars sprinkled with
the blood of the victims and of their murdered countrymen, the awful
imprecations, the frightful curses which they had invoked on their family and
race -these were the chains which bound them so that they could not flee.
They dreaded their own countrymen more than the enemy. The Romans
pressed on from both wings and from the centre and cut down men who
were paralysed by fear of gods and men. Only a feeble resistance could be
offered by those who were only kept from flight by fear. The carnage had
almost extended to the second line where the standards were stationed when
there appeared in the side distance a cloud of dust as though raised by the
tread of an immense army. It was Sp. Nautius -some say Octavius Maecius -the commander of the auxiliary cohorts. They raised a dust out of all
proportion to their numbers, for the camp-followers mounted upon the
mules were dragging leafy boughs along the ground. At first the arms and
standards gradually became visible through the beclouded light, and then a
loftier and thicker cloud of dust gave the appearance of cavalry closing the
column. Not only the Samnites but even the Romans were deceived, and the
consul endorsed the mistake by shouting to his front rank so that the enemy
could hear: "Cominium has fallen, my victorious colleague is coming on the
field, do your best to win the victory before the glory of doing so falls to the
other army!" He rode along while saying this, and commanded the tribunes
and centurions to open their ranks to allow passage for the cavalry. He had
previously told Trebonius and Caedicius that when they saw him brandish his
spear aloft they should launch the cavalry against the enemy with all the
force they could. His orders were carried out to the letter; the legionaries
opened their ranks, the cavalry galloped through the open spaces, and with
levelled spears charged the enemy's centre. Wherever they attacked they
broke the ranks. Volumnius and Scipio followed up the cavalry charge and
completed the discomfiture of the Samnites. At last the dread of gods and
men had yielded to a greater terror, the "linen cohorts " were routed; those
who had taken the oath and those who had not alike fled; the only thing they
feared now was the enemy.
The bulk of the infantry who survived the actual battle were driven
either into their camp or to Aquilonia, the nobility and cavalry fled to
Bovianum. The cavalry were pursued by cavalry, the infantry by infantry; the
wings of the Roman army separated, the right directed its course towards the
Samnite camp, the left to the city of Aquilonia. The first success fell to
Volumnius, who captured the Samnite camp. Scipio met with a more
sustained resistance at the city, not because the defeated foe showed more
courage there, but because stone walls are more difficult to surmount than
the rampart of a camp. They drove the defenders from their walls with
showers of stones. Scipio saw that unless his task was completed before the
enemy had time to recover from their panic, an attack on a fortified city
would be a somewhat slow affair. He asked his men whether they would be
content to allow the enemy's camp to be captured by the other army, whilst
they themselves after their victory were repulsed from the gates of the city.
There was a universal shout of "No!" On hearing this he held his shield
above his head and ran to the gate, the men followed his example, and
roofing themselves with their shields burst through into the city. They
dislodged the Samnites from the walls on either side of the gate, but as they
were only a small body did not venture to penetrate into the interior of the
city.