The Republic* R 0 
hand, led him towards the enemy, and cried out. Soldiers, 
advance ! The soldiery were ashamed not to follow a gene¬ 
ral who exposed himself to. the first attack; and therefore, 
having made a great shout, they fell upon the enemy with 
incredible fury. Camillus, in order to. increase their eager¬ 
ness still more, commanded a standard to be thrown into the 
enemy’s battalions; which made the soldiers, who were 
fighting in the first ranks, exert all the resolution they could 
to recover it. The Antiates, not being able any longer to 
make head against the Romans, gave way, and were 
entirely defeated. The Latins and Hernici separated from 
the Volsci, and returned home. The Volsci, seeing them¬ 
selves thus abandoned by their allies, took refuge in the 
neighbouring city of Satricum; which Camillus immediately 
invested, and took by assault. The latter threw down their 
arms, and surrendered at discretion. He then left his army 
under the command of Valerius ; and returned to Rome to 
solicit the consent of the senate, and to make the necessary 
preparations for undertaking the siege of Antium. 
But, while he was proposing this affair to the senate, 
deputies arrived from Nepet and Sutrium, two cities in al¬ 
liance ' with Rome, demanding succours against the 
Etrurians, who threatened to besiege these two cities, 
which were the keys of Etruria. Hereupon the expedi¬ 
tion against. Antium was laid aside, and Camillus com¬ 
manded to hasten to the relief of the allied cities, with the 
troops which Servilius had kept in readiness at Rome in case 
of an emergency. Camillus immediately set out for the new 
war; and, upon his arrival before Sutrium, found that 
important place not only besieged, but almost taken ; the 
Etrurians having made themselves masters of some of the 
gates, and gained possession of all the avenues leading to the 
city. However, the inhabitants no sooner heard that Camil¬ 
lus was come to their relief, but they recovered their courage, 
and, by barricadoes made in the streets, prevented the enemy 
from making themselves masters of the whole city. Camillus 
in the mean time having divided his army into two bodies, 
ordered Valerius to march round the -walls, as if he designed 
to scale them, while he with the other undertook to charge 
the Etrurians in the rear, force his way into the city, and 
shut up the enemy between the besieged and his troops. 
The Romans no sooner appeared than the Etrurians betook 
themselves to a disorderly flight through a gate which was 
not invested. Camillus’s troops made a dreadful slaughter of 
them within the city, while Valerius put great numbers of 
them to the sword without the walls. From reconquering 
Sutrium, Camillus hastened to the relief of Nepet. But that 
city being better affected to the Etrurians than to the Romans, 
had voluntarily submitted to the former. Wherefore Camil¬ 
lus, having invested it with his whole army, took it by 
assault, put all the Etrurian soldiers without distinction to 
the sword, and condemned the authors of the revolt to die 
by the axes of the lictors. Thus ended Camillus’s military 
tribuneship, in which he acquired no less reputation than he 
had done in the most glorious of his dictatorships. 
In the following magistracy of six military tribunes, a 
dangerous sedition is said to have taken place through the 
ambition of Marcus Manlius, who had saved the capitol 
from the Gauls in the manner already related. But it was 
soon quelled, and according to some accounts, Manlius was 
precipitated from the capitol: this however is doubtful. 
The Romans, having now triumphed over the Sabines, 
the Etrurians, the Latins, the Hernici, the iEqui, and the 
Volscians, began to look for greater conquests. They acr 
cordingly turned their arms against the Samnites, a people 
about 100 miles east from the city, descended from the 
Sabines, and inhabiting a large tract of southern Italy, which 
at this day makes a considerable' part of the kingdom of 
Naples. Valerius Cofvus and Cornelius were the two 
consuls, to whose care it first fell to manage this dreadful 
contention. A. U. C. 412. 
Valerius was one of the greatest commanders of his time : 
he was surnamed Corvus, from a fable of his being assisted 
Vol. XXII. No. 1497, 
M E. The Republic. 2-3V 
• by a crow in a single combat, in which he fought and killed 
a Gaul of a gigantic stature. To his colleague’s care it was 
consigned to lead an army to Samnium, the enemy’s capital; 
while Corvus was sent to relieve Capua, the capital of the 
Campanians. The Samnites were the bravest men the 
Romans had ever yet encountered, and the contention be¬ 
tween the two nations was managed on both sides with the 
most determined resolution. But the fortune of Rome 
prevailed; the Samnites at length fled, averring, that they 
were not able to withstand the fierce looks and the fire- 
darting eyes of the Romans. The other consul, however, 
wasnot at first so fortunate; for having unwarily led his army 
into a defile, he was in danger of being cut off, had not 
Decius, a tribune of the army, possessed himself of a hill 
which commanded the enemy: so that the Samnites, being 
attacked on either side, were defeated with great slaughter, 
no less than 30,000 of them being left dead upon the field of 
battle. 
A war between the Romans and the Latins followed soon 
after; but as their habits, arms, and language, were the same, 
the most exact discipline was necessary to prevent confusion 
in the engagement. Orders, therefore, were issued by Manlius 
the consul, that no soldier should leave his ranks upon 
any provocation; and that he should be certainly put 
to death who should offer to do otherwise. With these 
injunctions, both armies were drawn out in array, and ready 
to begin; when Metius, the general of the enemy’s cavalry, 
pushed forward from his lines, and challenged any knight 
in the Roman army to single combat. For some time there 
was a general pause, no soldier offering to disobey his orders, 
till Titus Manlius, the consul’s own son, burning with shame 
to see the whole body of the Romans intimidated, boldly 
sallied out. Manlius killed his adversary ; and then, de¬ 
spoiling him of his armour, returned in triumph to his 
father's tent, whotri he foundfpreparing and giving orders 
relative to the engagement. However he might have 
been [applauded by his fellow-soldiers, his father ordered 
him to be led publicly forth before the army, and there 
to have his head struck off on account of his disobeying 
orders. His dead body was carried forth without the camp, 
and, being adorned with the spoils of the vanquished enemy, 
was buried with pomp. 
In the mean time, the battle joined with mutual fury; and 
as the two armies had often fought under the same leaders, 
they combated with all the animosity of a civil war. Manlius 
commanded the right wing, and Decius led on the left'. 
Both sides fought for .some time with doubtful success : 
but, after a time, the left wing of the Roman army 
began to give ground. It was then that Decius who 
commanded there, resolved to devote himself for his 
country, and to offer his own life as an atonement to save his 
army. Thus determined, he called out to Manlius with a 
loud voice, and demanded his instructions, as he was the 
chief pontiff, how to devote himself, and the form of the 
words he should use. By his directions, therefore, being 
clothed in a long robe, his head covered, and his arms 
stretched forward, standing upon a javelin, he devoted him¬ 
self to the celestial and infernal gods for the safety of Rome. 
Then arming himself, and mounting on horseback, he drove 
furiously into the midst of the enemy, carrying terror and 
consternation wherever he came; till he fell covered with 
wounds. In the mean time, the Roman army considered 
his devoting himself in this manner as an assurance of success; 
nor was the superstition of the Latins less powerfully in¬ 
fluenced by his resolution; a total rout began to ensue : the 
Romans pressed them on every side; and so great was the 
carnage, that scarce a fourth part of the enemy survived the : 
defeat. This was the last battle of any consequence that the 
Latins had with the Romans: they were forced to beg a peace, 
and two years after, their strongest city, Pasdurri, being taken, 
they were brought to an entire submission. 
A disgrace which the Romans sustained about this time in 
their contest with the - Samnites, made a pause in their good 
i 3 P fortune. 
