de, the recent tracks on their retreat, and the things
which, in the confusion of the night, they had left scattered up and
down. On hearing this, the consul led round the army to that side of
the city which had been examined, and making the troops halt at a
little distance from the gate, gave orders that five horsemen should
ride into the city; and when they should have advanced a good way into
it, then, if they saw all things safe, three should remain there, and
the other two return to him with intelligence. These returned and
said, that they had proceeded to a part of the town from which they
had a view on every side, and that nothing but silence and solitude
reigned through the whole extent of it. The consul immediately led
some light-armed cohorts into the city; ordering the rest to fortify
a camp in the mean time. The soldiers who entered the town, breaking
open the doors, found only a few persons, disabled by age or sickness;
and such effects left behind as could not, without difficulty, be
removed. These were seized as plunder: and it was discovered from the
prisoners, that several cities in that quarter had, in pursuance of a
concerted plan, resolved on flight; that their towns-people had gone
off at the first watch, and they believed that the same solitude they
should find in the other places. The accounts of the prisoners proved
well-founded, and the consul took possession of the forsaken towns.

35. The war was by no means so easy with the other consul, Marcus
Atilius. As he was marching his legions towards Luceria, to which he
was informed that the Samnites had laid siege, the enemy met him on
the border of the Lucerian territory. Rage supplied them, on this
occasion, with strength to equal his: the battle was stubbornly
contested, and the victory doubtful; in the issue, however, more
calamitous on the side of the Romans, both because they were
unaccustomed to defeat, and that, on leaving the field, they felt more
sensibly, than during the heat of the action, how much more wounds and
bloodshed had been on their side. In consequence of this, such dismay
spread through the camp, as, had it seized them during the engagement,
a signal defeat would have been the result. Even as the matter stood,
they spent the night in great anxiety; expecting, every instant, that
the Samnites would assault the camp; or that, at the first light, they
should be obliged to stand a battle with a victorious enemy. On the
side of the