Roma si Peninsula-Italica ! Partea-2!

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“The Battle of Aquilonia was the last great battle of the war, and it sealed the fate of the Samnites.”

Roman victory at the Battle of Sentinum had broken the coalition against them, but at great cost. While Decius was slain at the battle along with 8,700 legionaries, Fabius had rallied the troops to rout the Samnites and then surround the Senones, killing around 20,000. As this was taking place, Lucius Volumnius was in Samnium, and routed a Samnite force at Mt Tifernus. After the battle, 5,000 Samnites made their way home through the lands of the Paeligni, who in turn attacked them and killed a further thousand men. Fabius left the army of Decius to guard Etruria while he celebrated a Triumph in Rome, though in Etruria the Perusini continued the war. Appius Claudius was sent as proprietor to command Decius’ army, while Fabius confronted and defeated the Perusini. The Samnites attacked around the Liris, at Formiae and Vescia, and the Volturnus. Appius and Volumnius pursued them, combining forces to crush them at Caiatia, near Capua.

Victory at Sentinium caused the Etruscans, Umbrians and Senone Gauls to exit the Rome. The Samnites, aside from losing their allies, had suffered huge casualties. At a time when populations were much smaller than today, when infant mortality was much higher and diseases were rife, it is hard to understand how any society could persist in a war after suffering such huge losses. Most societies would suffer a heavy loss and seek an end to the war – Rome was among very few with the belligerence to be willing to turn almost any war into one of annihilation.

294 BC saw Samnite raids against Roman armies returning to Etruria, defending the border, and in Campania. The Consul Atilius Regulus met the Samnites at the front where neither side could ravage the other’s territory, and a Samnite attack in the fog managed to capture part of the Roman camp and kill several officers, plus hundreds of soldiers. The Consul Postimius Megellus, recovering from illness, assembled an allied army at Sora and went on to take Milionia and Feritrum from the Samnites. Atilius then marched on Luceria (in Apulia) which was being besieged, but was defeated. There was another battle the next day, in which the legionaries began to flee, only to be forced back into the fray by their own cavalry. The Samnites failed to press their moment of advantage, and were defeated.

While returning, Atilius defeated a Samnite force attacking Interamna, a Roman colony on the Liris, while Postumius moved from Samnium to Etruria without consulting the Senate. He ravaged the territory of the Volsinii and defeated the townsfolk who arrived to defend the city. Volsinii, Perusia and Arretium all sued for peace, agreeing a 40-year truce. 293 BC saw fresh troops levied throughout Samnium, with 40,000 assembling in Aquilonia. The Consul Spurius Carvilius Maximus took the veteran legions Atilius had left at Interamna Lirenas in the mid-Liris Valley and swiftly seized Amiternum, in Samnium. The other Consul, Lucius Papirius Cursor – the son of the Consul from the Second Samnite War – levied a fresh army and stormed Duronia. Both Consuls then moved to check the main Samnite force, Spurius engaging in skirmishes at Cominium and Papirius besieging Aquilonia.

A deserter informed Papirius that there were 20 contingents of 400 elite Samnite soldiers which, in desperation, had been recruited under the les sacrata – in which soldiers swore not to flee under punishment of death – headed to Cominium. The Roman legions thus united and set off to intercept them, crushing the Samnite force. Papirius returned to take Aquilonia, while Spurius – unaware of the defeat of the elite Samnites – sent a legion of his own to intercept them. The city eventually surrendered to him, and increasing Samnite territory fell into Roman hands. Forsythe wrote that the Battle of Aquilonia was “the last great battle of the war, and it sealed the fate of the Samnites.” With the Samnite armies destroyed, Roman attention now turned to storming their towns, and forcing their belligerent enemies to surrender.