Ab urbe condita

At the same moment the Master of the Horse seeing the burning camp in the distance —the agreed signal —attacked the enemy in the rear. Thus hemmed in, the Samnites fled in all directions, each as best he could.

A vast number, who had crowded together in their panic and were so close to one another that they could not use their weapons, were killed between the two armies.

The enemy's camp was captured and plundered, and the soldiers, loaded with spoil, were marched back to their own camp. Even their victory did not give them so much pleasure as the discovery that with the exception of a small part spoilt by fire their camp was unexpectedly safe.

They then returned to Sora, and the new consuls, M. Poetilius and C. Sulpicius, took over the army from the Dictator Fabius, after a large proportion of the veterans had been sent home and new cohorts brought up as reinforcements.

Owing, however, to the difficulties presented by the position of the city, no definite plan of attack was yet formed; a long time would be needed to reduce it by famine, and to attempt to storm it would involve considerable

risk. In the midst of this uncertainty a Soran deserter left the town secretly and made his way to the Roman sentinels, whom he requested to conduct him at once to the consuls.