to
join issue in war.

Three wars took place between the Romans and the Samnites. In the first
of these Valerius Corvus (the origin of whose name of Corvus we have
already told) led the Roman army to victory. In honor of this victory
Rome received from Carthage (with which city it was to engage in a
desperate contest in later years) a golden crown, for the shrine of
Jupiter in the Capitol.

In 329 B.C. Rome finally overcame the Volscians, with whom they had been
many years at war, and three years afterwards war with the Samnites was
again declared. The latter were invading Campania, in which country lay
the volcano of Vesuvius and the city of Naples. Rome came to the aid of
the Campanians, and a war began which lasted for more than twenty years.

Of this war we have but one event to tell, that in which Rome suffered
the greatest humiliation it had met with in its entire career, the
famous affair of the Caudine Forks. It was in the fifth campaign of the
war that this event took place. Two Roman armies had marched into
Campania and threatened the southern border of Samnium, which the
Samnite general Pontius was prepared to defend. His force occupied the
passes which led from the plain of Naples into the higher mountain
valleys; but he deceived the Romans by spreading the report that the
whole Samnite army had gone to Apulia, where they were besieging the
city of Luceria. His purpose was to lure the Romans into these difficult
defiles under the impression that the Samnites were trusting to the
natural strength of their country for its defence.

The trick succeeded. The Roman consuls believed the story, and, in their
haste to go to the aid of their allies in Apulia, chose the shortest
route, that which led through the Samnian hills. The absence of the
Samnite army would enable them, they thought, to force their way through
Samnium without difficulty; and, blinded by their false confidence, the
consuls recklessly led their men into the fatal pass of Caudium.

This pass was a narrow opening in the outer wall of the Apennines, which
led from the plain of Campania to Maleventum. To-day it is traversed by
the road from Naples to Benevento, and is called the valley of Arpaia.
In the past it was famous as Caudium.

Into this defile the Romans marched between the rugged mountain
acclivities that bounded its sides, and through the deep silence that
reigned around. The pass seemed utterly deserted, and they expected
soon to em