These deeds of Philip, brought to our memory, would suffice as an example of miseries even if Alexander had not succeeded him in the kingdom. His wars — or rather the evils of the world that followed in order beneath his wars — I postpone for a little, so that I may insert the affairs of Rome at this point, as the correspondence of the times requires.
1 sufficerent ista ad exemplum miseriarum insinuata memoriae nostrae gesta per Philippum, etiamsi Alexander ei non successisset in regnum. cuius bella immo sub cuius bellis mundi mala ordine sequentia suspendo paulisper, ut in hoc loco pro conuenientia temporum Romana subiciam.
In the year 426 from the founding of the City, a notable disgrace of the Romans made the Caudine Forks famous and notorious enough. For when, in the previous war, twenty thousand Samnites had fallen in a battle fought by Fabius, the master of the horse, the Samnites, with more circumspect care and better prepared equipment, encamped at the Caudine Forks;1
2 Anno ab urbe condita CCCCXXVI Caudinas furculas satis celebres et famosas insignis Romanorum fecit infamia. nam cum superiore bello uiginti milia Samnitum Fabio magistro equitum pugnam conserente cecidissent, circumspectiore cura Samnites ac magis instructo apparatu apud Caudinas furculas consederunt;
1The disaster at the Caudine Forks is dated to 321 BC.
there, when they had shut in the consuls Veturius and Postumius and all the forces of the Romans by the narrowness of the place and by arms, their general Pontius was so carried away by the security of his victory that he thought he should consult his father Herennius whether to kill those shut in or to spare them once subjugated: he chose, however, to keep them alive for disgrace.
3 ubi cum Veturium et Postumium consules omnesque copias Romanorum angustiis locorum armisque clausissent, Pontius dux eorum in tantum abusus est uictoriae securitate, ut Herennium patrem consulendum putaret, utrum occideret clausos an parceret subiugatis: ut uiuos tamen dedecori reseruaret, elegit.
For it was well known that the Romans had very often before been defeated and killed, but had never been captured or forced to surrender.
4 Romanos enim antea saepissime uinci et occidi, numquam autem capi aut ad deditionem cogi potuisse constabat.
And so the Samnites, having gained the victory, ordered the whole Roman army — shamefully captured and stripped even of its arms and clothing, only a single meaner covering being allowed to each man to hide the private parts of the body — to be sent under the yoke and, subjected to servitude, to march in a long line of procession.
5 itaque Samnites uictoria potiti uniuersum exercitum Romanum turpiter captum armis etiam uestimentisque nudatum, tantum singulis uilioribus operimentis ob uerecunda corporum tegenda concessis, sub iugum missum seruitioque subiectum, longum agere pompae ordinem praeceperunt.
They took six hundred Roman knights as hostages and sent the consuls back laden with ignominy and empty of everything else.
6 sescentis autem equitibus Romanis in obsidatum receptis oneratos ignominia, ceteris rebus uacuos consules remiserunt.
Why should I labour with words to magnify the stain of this most shameful treaty, when I would rather have kept silent? For today the Romans either would not exist at all or would be slaves under Samnite rule, had they, when subject to the Samnites, themselves kept the faith of the treaty which they wish their own subjects to keep towards them.
7 Quid de exaggeranda huius foedissimi foederis macula uerbis laborem, qui tacere maluissem? hodie enim Romani aut omnino non essent aut Samnio dominante seruirent, si fidem foederis, quam sibi seruari a subiectis uolunt, ipsi subiecti Samnitibus seruauissent.
In the following year the Romans broke the agreement concluded with the Samnites and forced them into war, which, fought under the pressure of the consul Papirius, brought great slaughter to both peoples.
8 Posteriore anno infringunt Romani firmatam cum Samnitibus pactionem eosque in bellum cogunt, quod Papirio consule insistente commissum magnas strages utriusque populi dedit.
While on one side anger at their recent disgrace, and on the other the glory of their late victory, spurred on the combatants, at last the Romans won by dying stubbornly; and they did not cease alike from being slain and from slaying until, having defeated the Samnites and captured their general, they had put the yoke upon them in their turn.
9 cum hinc ira recentis infamiae, inde gloria proximae uictoriae pugnantes instimularet, tandem Romani pertinaciter moriendo uicerunt; nec caedi pariter uel caedere destiterunt, nisi postquam uictis Samnitibus et capto duci eorum iugum reposuerunt.
Then the same Papirius drove the Samnite garrison out of Satricum, and stormed and took the town. This Papirius was at that time considered so very warlike and vigorous among the Romans that, when Alexander the Great was said to be planning to come down from the East, conquer Africa by force, and cross from there into Italy, the Romans reckoned that, among the other generals who were then the best in their commonwealth, he would be the foremost who could withstand the onset of Alexander.
10 idem deinde Papirius Satricum expulso inde Samnitico praesidio expugnauit et cepit. hic autem Papirius adeo tunc apud Romanos bellicosissimus ac strenuissimus habebatur, ut cum Alexander Magnus disponere diceretur ab oriente descendens obtinere uiribus Africam atque inde in Italiam transuehi, Romani inter ceteros duces tunc in republica sua optimos hunc praecipuum fore qui Alexandri impetum sustinere posset meditarentur.