Desperation of the confederates.] The rebels indeed prepared for a
desperate resistance. Five generals were appointed, Pompaedius Silo,
the Marsian, at their head; and, by enrolling slaves and calling out
fresh levies, the Samnites mustered an army of 50,000 men. Once more,
almost single-handed, they prepared to strive with their old enemy for
the sovereignty of Italy. The gallant Silo signalised his appointment
by recovering Bovianum, but he was soon afterwards slain. He is said
to have been defeated in a great battle by Mamercus Aemilius, and to
have fallen in it. Appian says that Metellus defeated him in Iapygia;
Orosius, that Sulpicius defeated him in Apulia. However that may be,
with him the last gleam of hope for the Samnite cause faded away. They
made, it is said, a treaty with Mithridates; but long before that king
could have reached Italy, if he had been able to make the attempt,
there would have been no allies to support him. In Lucania Aulus
Gabinius, made rash by some successes, assaulted the confederate camp,
but was repulsed and slain. Lamponius, the Lucanian general, remained
master of the country, and attempted to take Rhegium, with the view
of crossing over to Sicily and renewing the rebellion there. But the
attempt failed. [Sidenote: Revolution at Rome, and the part taken by
the insurgents in it.] Nola, however, still held out in Campania; and
now there occurred a revolution at Rome which postponed the final
subjugation of the insurgents till after the battle of the Colline
Gate. For convenience and clearness the part taken by them in this
revolution may be here summarised. Sulla, as consul, was besieging
Nola when he was recalled to Rome by the Sulpician revolution and his
election to the command against Mithridates. A Samnite army had come
to relieve it, but had been defeated by Sulla. Three Roman corps
still remained to keep the Samnites in check and besiege Nola, under
Claudius, Metellus, and Plotius. It was to Nola that Cinna came, and
seduced a large portion of the besiegers to follow him to Rome. Upon
this the insurgents suddenly found themselves, instead of hunted
desperadoes, courted as allies by two parties. The Senate again
offered the terms of the Lex Plautia Papiria to all in arms, and some
accepted them. But the Nolans, when Metellus was recalled and the long
siege was then raised in 87 B.C., marched out and burnt Abella.
The Samnites demanded, as the price of their assistance, that the
p