uceria: and after they had quickly laid waste the
parts which lay nearest, and whence they could have returned to the
ships with safety, they were allured by the temptation of plunder, as
it often happens, to advance too far, and thereby roused the enemy
against them. While they rambled about the country, they met no
opposition, though they might have been cut off to a man; but as they
were returning, in a careless manner, the peasants overtook them, not
far from the ships, stripped them of the booty, and even slew a great
part of them. Those who escaped were driven in confusion to the ships.
As Fabius' having marched through the Ciminian forest had occasioned
violent apprehensions at Rome, so it had excited joy in proportion
among the enemy in Samnium: they talked of the Roman army being pent
up, and surrounded; and of the Caudine forks, as a model of their
defeat. "Those people," they said, "ever greedy after further
acquisitions, were now brought into inextricable difficulties, hemmed
in, not more effectually by the arms of their enemy, than by the
disadvantage of the ground." Their joy was even mingled with a degree
of envy, because fortune, as they thought, had transferred the glory
of finishing the Roman war, from the Samnites to the Etrurians: they
hastened, therefore, with their whole collected force, to crush the
consul Caius Marcius; resolving, if he did not give them an
opportunity of fighting, to proceed, through the territories of the
Marsians and Sabines, into Etruria. The consul met them, and a battle
was fought with great fury on both sides, but without a decisive
issue. Although both parties suffered severely, yet the discredit of
defeat fell on the Romans, because several of equestrian rank, some
military tribunes, with one lieutenant-general, had fallen; and, what
was more remarkable than all, the consul himself was wounded. On
account of this event, exaggerated by report as is usual, the senate
became greatly alarmed, so that they resolved on having a dictator
nominated. No one entertained a doubt that the nomination would light
on Papirius Cursor, who was then universally deemed to possess the
greatest abilities as a commander: but they could not be certain,
either that a message might be conveyed with safety into Samnium,
where all was in a state of hostility, or that the consul Marcius was
alive. The other consul, Fabius, was at enmity with Papirius, on his
own account; and lest this resentment mig