238 The Republic. 
fortune, and turned the scale for a while in the enemy’s favour. 
The senate having denied the Samnites peace, Pontius, their 
general, was rtsolved to gain by stratagem what he had 
frequently lost by force. Accordingly, leading his army 
into a defile called Caudium, and taking possession of all its 
outlets, he sent 10 of his soldiers, habited like shepherds, with 
directions to throw themselves in the way the Romans were 
to march. The Roman consul met them, and taking them 
for what they appeared, demanded the route the Samnite 
army had taken; they, with seeming indifference, replied, 
that they were gone to Luceria, a town in Apulia, and were 
then actually besieging it. The Roman general, not sus¬ 
pecting the stratagem that was laid against him, marched 
directly by the shortest road, which lay through the defiles, 
to relieve the city; and was not undeceived till he saw his 
army surrounded, and blocked up on every side. Pontius 
thus having the Romans entirely in his power, first obliged 
the army to pass under the yoke, having been previously 
stripped of all but their garments; he then stipulated that 
they should wholly quit the territories of the Samnites, and 
that they, should continue to live upon terms of former con¬ 
federacy. "The Romans were constrained to submit to this 
ignominious treaty, and marched into Capua disarmed and 
half naked. When the army arrived at Rome, the whole 
c.ty was most surpri ingly afflicted at their shameful return ; 
nothing but grief and resentment was to be seen, and the 
whole city was put into mourning. 
But this was a transitory calamity : the war.was carried on 
as usual for many years; the power of the Samnites declining 
every day, while that of the Romans continually increased. 
Under the conduct of Papirius Cursor, who was at different 
times consul and dictator, repeated triumphs were gained. 
Falius Maximus, An. 444. also had his share in the glory of 
conquering them; and Decius, the son of that Deeius whom 
we saw devoting himself for his country about 40 years before, 
followed the example of his father, and rushed into the midst 
of the enemy, imagining that he could save the lives of his 
countrymen with the loss of his own. 
The subjugation of so many warlike nations, after they 
had so long and successfully resisted the Roman armies, has 
been but obscurely accounted for by historians. It may¬ 
be traced to two causes. The first was, that about the 
year 351, the soldiers, hitherto dependant on their own 
resources for equipment, and on plunder for pay, were 
exchanged for troops regularly paid by taxes, and whose 
arms were fabricated under the superintendence of the 
general. Their regular pay made them at all times pre¬ 
pared for war, and this standing army could, of course, be 
much more promptly called into action than the warlike 
populace with whom the senate had always to redress, as a 
preliminary step, some popular grievance. In the second 
place, the fear of the popular force had, since the time of 
Servius, rendered the patricians’ cavalry very careless of 
strengthening the plebeian infantry ; but after the establish¬ 
ment of the new system, this fear w'as of course no longer 
felt, i he consequence was, that supported by an effective 
body of foot soldiers, the cavalry were able to perform 
movements far more decisive than when they had to trust to 
their own unaided efforts, and the enemies of Rome found 
that a well paid and disciplined army had taken the place of 
the impatient and desultory warriors who repulsed their foes in 
one campaign, and walked home the next; and that this new 
power followed up every advantage it gained, pursued and 
hunted down its defeated opponents, garrisoned the cities 
which it bad taken, and, in a word, subjugated those posses¬ 
sions which the old Romans had been contented to overrun. 
In this place it seems proper to enter into some account of 
the. Arms and Tactics of the Romans. The spear had 
been introduced into the army by Servius Tullius, and had 
been by him allotted to the four first classes of the p ebeians. 
It was originally about twenty-four feet in length, but was 
afterwards reduced to twenty-one feet, and was sometimes 
The Republic. 
thrown, but more generally thrust against the enemy. • The 
shield, at first a round piece of bull’s hide, which ot course, 
when wet, was useless; and at all times feeble, was 
changed by Romulus for a wooden defence, entitled the 
scutum. In the time of Camillus, the soldiers were required 
to add a rim of brass to their shields. It appears also, that 
the wood now rose, covered with leather; this was often 
called c/ypeum. The shield of the infantry was large, oblong, 
and calculated to defend the whole of the trunk of the body. 
The scutum of the cavalry was round, slightly convex; it 
must necessarily have been smaller than the shield of the 
infantry. The sword was a short cut and thrust sword, 
with a mere cross at the handle, for a guard, and obviously 
unfitted tor any combat but the closest. The full robe of the 
Romans was diminished in fullness, and became the sagum 
or chlamys of the common soldier; or when of richer 
stuff, and fuller, the paludimentum of the general. To the 
defensive arms, Camillus added a steel cap, or helmet. 
Thus equipped, and laden with provisions, culinary utensils, 
and pioneers’ tools (so heavily, that the Spaniards said the 
Remans were rather mules than soldiers), the infantry 
marched into the field. Their weighty baggage was now 
thrown into a heap, behind the army, and the ranks were 
formed either into a phalanx, or into manipuli, (battalions.) 
The phalanx is traced by Pliny as far as the heroic age, and 
it is evident that in all rude periods this must be the first 
constitution of an infantry. The bolder spirits, and those 
whose circumstances enable them to be well armed, form a 
line.of effective force, which breaks and disorders the enemy, 
and the hinder ranks, only armed offensively, pursue ami 
slaughter the flying foe, or take prisoners. The phalanx of 
the Remans is described by Polybius as irresistible. “ It is a 
body of men,” he says, “ who keep their ranks so close, that 
each man is allowed hut three feet space, for himself and 
his arms. Those who composed this formidable body of men 
were anned with Larissce; p.ke% which, when they first 
came into use, were sixteen cubits, that is twenty-four feet 
long. But aiterwards they were reduced to fourteen cubits, 
that is twenty-one fejd, that they might be the more manage¬ 
able ; when, therefore, those of the first line were presented, 
they stood out at least ten cub.ts towards the enemy, allowing 
four cubits for the soldiers to hold by ; and consequently the 
pikes of the second, third, fourth, and fifth ranks were all 
long enough to reach before the first rank, some farther, 
some shorter, according to the distance of the ranks, from 
all which it is easy to conceive, adds Polybius, “ what the 
force of the phalanx must have been, when it gave an 
assault upon the enemy.” It is clear, however, that the 
fourth and fifth ranks could have been of no use whatever in 
the charge, and that when, as was often the ease, the pha¬ 
lanx was ten or fifteen lines deep, the hindermost soldier* 
could only be useful to withstand attacks from the rear, or, 
on the other hand, to form into line, and attack the flank 
of the enemy ; but the latter mariceuvre they do not seem to 
have practiced, and, indeed, the phalanx was less calculated 
to perform it than almost any other arrangement. 
With the improvement of the arms ot the Romans, this 
system was entirely abandoned. The phalanx had always 
been divided nominally into manipuli, but now a real divi¬ 
sion was made between them, and the army gradually 
assumed the form of a triple line, supported by a corps de 
reserve, and assisted by numerous light troops, for whose 
retreat their division into battalia formed a good security. 
This was the svlsterg of legions which conquered the world. 
The following description will set this matter in a clearer 
light. The Roman battalia were drawn up in three divisions, 
consisting of soldiers completely armed, as well to act 
offensively as defensively. The Hasiati, so called from a 
sort of weapon like our own lances, composed the first line 
of divisions. In the second were the Principes, so called 
from the Latin word princeps, either because in the first agvs 
of Rome they were placed at the head of the armies, or 
because they were preferred before tire hastati. Varro tells 
ROME. 
