began
to fly. And now the plains were quickly filled with heaps of bodies
and splendid armour. At first, their camp received the dismayed
Samnites; but they did not long retain even the possession of that:
before night it was taken, plundered, and burnt. The dictator
triumphed, in pursuance of a decree of the senate; and the most
splendid spectacle by far, of any in his procession, was the captured
arms: so magnificent were they deemed, that the shields, adorned with
gold, were distributed among the owners of the silver shops, to serve
as embellishments to the forum. Hence, it is said, arose the custom of
the forum being decorated by the aediles, when the grand processions
are made on occasion of the great games. The Romans, indeed, converted
these extraordinary arms to the honour of the gods: but the
Campanians, out of pride, and in hatred of the Samnites, gave them as
ornaments to their gladiators, who used to be exhibited as a show at
their feasts, and whom they distinguished by the name of Samnites.
During this year, the consul Fabius fought with the remnants of the
Etrurians at Perusia, which city also had violated the truce, and
gained an easy and decisive victory. He would have taken the town
itself (for he marched up to the walls,) had not deputies come out and
capitulated. Having placed a garrison at Perusia, and sent on before
him to the Roman senate the embassies of Etruria, who solicited
friendship, the consul rode into the city in triumph, for successes
more important than those of the dictator. Besides, a great share of
the honour of reducing the Samnites was attributed to the
lieutenants-general, Publius Decius and Marcius Valerius: whom, at the
next election, the people, with universal consent, declared the one
consul, the other praetor.

41. To Fabius, in consideration of his extraordinary merit in the
conquest of Etruria, the consulship was continued. Decius was
appointed his colleague. Valerius was created praetor a fourth time.
The consuls divided the provinces between them. Etruria fell to
Decius, Samnium to Fabius. The latter, having marched to Nuceria,
rejected the application of the people of Alfaterna, who then sued for
peace, because they had not accepted it when offered, and by force of
arms compelled them to surrender. A battle was fought with the
Samnites; the enemy were overcome without much difficulty: nor would
the memory of that engagement have been preserved, except that in it
the Mar