Livy - THE HISTORY OF ROME (Complete Edition in 4 Volumes)

The ambassadors then withdrawing, after the senate had been consulted, though to a great many, their city the greatest and wealthiest in Italy, their land the most fertile, and situated near the sea, seemed likely to prove a granary to the Roman people for all varieties of provision; still the faith of their engagements was more regarded than such great advantages, and the consul, by the direction of the senate, answered as follows: "Campanians, the senate considers you deserving of aid. But it is meet that friendship be so established with you, that no prior friendship and alliance be violated. The Samnites are united in a treaty with us. Therefore we refuse you arms against the Samnites, which would be a violation of duty to the gods first, and then to men. We will, as divine and human law requires, send ambassadors to our allies and friends to entreat that no violence be committed against you?" To this the chief of the embassy replied, (for such were the instructions they had brought from home,) "Since you are not willing to defend by just force our possessions against violence and injustice, at least you will defend your own. Wherefore, conscript fathers, we surrender the Campanian people, and the city of Capua, their lands, the temples of the gods, all things divine and human, into your jurisdiction and that of the Roman people; whatever we shall suffer henceforth, being determined to suffer as men who have surrendered to you." On these words, all extending their hands towards the consuls, bathed in tears they fell prostrate in the porch of the senate-house. The fathers, affected at the vicissitude of human greatness, seeing that a nation abounding in wealth, noted for luxury and pride, from which a little time since their neighbours had solicited assistance, was now so broken in spirit, as to give up themselves and all they possessed into the power of others; moreover, their honour also seemed to be involved in not betraying those who had surrendered, nor did they consider that the people of the Samnites would act fairly, if they should attack a territory and a city which had become the property of the Roman people by a surrender. It was resolved therefore, that ambassadors should be sent forthwith to the Samnites; instructions were given "that they should lay before the Samnites the entreaties of the Campanians, the answer of the senate duly mindful of the friendship of the Samnites, and finally the surrender that had been concluded. That they requested, in consideration of the friendship and alliance subsisting between them, that they would spare their subjects; and that they would not carry hostilities into that territory which had become the property of the Roman people. If by gentle measures they did not succeed, that they should denounce to the Samnites in the name of the senate and Roman people, to withhold their arms from the city of Capua and the Campanian territory." When the ambassadors urged these matters in the assembly of the Samnites, so fierce an answer was returned, that they not only said that they would prosecute that war, but their magistrates, having gone out of the senate-house, in the very presence of the ambassadors, summoned the prefects of the cohorts; and with a distinct voice commanded them, to proceed forthwith into the Campanian territory, in order to plunder it.

The result of this embassy being reported at Rome, the care of all other concerns being laid aside, the senate, having despatched heralds to demand satisfaction, and, because this was not complied with, war being proclaimed in the usual way, they decreed that the matter should be submitted to the people at the very earliest opportunity; and both the consuls having set out from the city by order of the people with two armies, Valerius into Campania, Cornelius into Samnium, the former pitches his camp at Mount Gaurus, the latter at Saticula. The legions of the Samnites met with Valerius first; for they thought that the whole weight of the war would incline to that side. At the same time resentment stimulated them against the Campanians, that they should be so ready at one time to lend aid, at another to call in aid against them. But as soon as they beheld the Roman camp, they fiercely demanded the signal each from his leader; they maintained that the Roman would bring aid to the Campanian with the same fate with which the Campanian had done to the Sidicinian. Valerius, having delayed for a few days in slight skirmishes for the purpose of making trial of the enemy, displayed the signal for battle, exhorting his men in few words "not to let the new war or the new enemy terrify them. In proportion as they should carry their arms to a greater distance from the city, the more and more unwarlike should the nation prove to be against whom they should proceed. That they should not estimate the valour of the Samnites by the defeats of the Sidicinians and Campanians. Let the combatants be of what kind they may be, that it was necessary that one side should be vanquished. That as for the Campanians indeed, they were undoubtedly vanquished more by circumstances flowing from excessive luxury and by their own want of energy than by the bravery of the enemy. What were the two successful wars of the Samnites, during so many ages, against so many glorious exploits of the Roman people, who counted almost more triumphs than years since the building of their city? who held subdued by their arms all the states around them, the Sabines, Etruria, the Latins, Hernicians, Æquans, Volscians, Auruncans? who eventually drove by flight into the sea, and into their ships, the Gauls, after slaughtering them in so many engagements? That soldiers ought both to enter the field relying on their national military renown, and on their own valour, and also to consider under whose command and auspices the battle is to be fought; whether he be one which is to be listened to as a pompous exhorter, bold merely in words, unacquainted with military labours, or one who knows how to wield arms himself also, to advance before the standards, and to show himself in the midst of the danger. My acts, not my words merely, I wish you to follow; and to seek from me not military orders only, but example also. It was not by intrigues merely, nor by cabals usual among the nobles, but by this right hand, I procured for myself three consulships, and the highest eulogies. There was a time when this could be said; (no wonder,) for you were a patrician, and sprung from the liberators of your country; and that family of yours had the consulship the same year that the city had consuls. Now the consulship lies open in common to us patricians and to you plebeians; nor is it, as formerly, the prize of birth, but of valour. Look forward, therefore, soldiers, to even the highest honour. Though you, as men, have, with the approbation of the gods, given me this new surname of Corvus, the ancient surname of our family, Publicolæ, has not been erased from my memory. I ever do and ever have cultivated the good will of the Roman commons abroad and at home, as a private man and in public offices, high and low, as tribune equally as when consul, with the same undeviating line of conduct through all my successive consulships. Now, with respect to that which is at hand, with the aid of the gods, join with me in seeking a new and complete triumph over the Samnites."

Never was a general on a more familiar footing with his soldiers, by his performing all the duties among the lowest of the soldiers without reluctance. Moreover in the military sports, wherein equals vie with their equals in contests of swiftness and strength, affable and condescending, he conquered and was conquered with the same countenance; nor did he spurn any competitor who should offer; in his acts kind according to the occasion; in his conversation no less mindful of the ease of others than of his own dignity; and, a thing than which nothing is more agreeable to the people, he administered his offices by the same line of conduct by which he had gained them. The whole army therefore, cheering the exhortation of their leader with the utmost alacrity, march forth from the camp. The battle commenced with equal hopes and equal strength on both sides, as much as any battle ever did, with confidence in themselves, and without contempt of their enemies. Their recent exploits and their double victory a few days before, increased the spirits of the Samnites on the other side; the glories of four hundred years and victory coeval with the building of their city (had the same effect) on the Romans; to both sides, however, the circumstance of the enemy being a new one gave additional anxiety. The battle was a proof what spirits they possessed; for they maintained the conflict in such a manner, that, for a considerable time, the armies inclined to neither side. Then the consul, thinking that some confusion should be caused among them, since they could not be overpowered by force, endeavours to disorder their foremost battalions by a charge of cavalry. And when he saw them wheel their troops within a narrow compass in fruitless disorder, and that they could not open a passage to the enemy, riding back to the van of the legions, after leaping from his horse, he says, "Soldiers, this is the task for us infantry; come on, as ye shall see me making way with my sword, in whatever direction I shall advance into the enemy's line, so let each man, with all his might, beat down those who oppose him. All those places, where their erected spears now glitter, you shall see cleared by widely-extended slaughter." He had uttered these words, when the cavalry by order of the consul turn to the wings, and open a passage for the legions to the centre of the line. First of all, the consul attacks the enemy, and slays him whom he happened to engage. Those on the right and left, fired at this sight, commence a dreadful fight, each with the foe opposite him. The Samnites obstinately stand their ground, though they receive more wounds than they inflict. The battle had now lasted for a considerable time, great slaughter occurred around the standards of the Samnites; in no part was there a flight, so firmly had they made up their minds to be vanquished by death alone. Wherefore the Romans, when they perceived their strength to relax by fatigue, and but a small part of the day still remained, fired with fury, rush upon the enemy. Then for the first time it appeared that they were giving ground, and that the matter was inclining to a flight; then the Samnites were taken, some slain; nor would many have survived, had not night terminated the victory rather than the battle. Both the Romans confessed, that they had never fought with a more determined enemy; and the Samnites, on being asked what cause first drove them to fly after being so determined, said, that it was the eyes of the Romans which seemed to them to flash fire, and their distracted looks, and furious aspect; that more of terror arose from thence, than from any thing else. Which terror they confessed not only in the issue of the battle, but in their departure by night. Next day the Romans take possession of the deserted camp of the enemy, whither all the Campanians flocked to congratulate them.