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.

On being brought before them he undertook to betray the place into their hands. When questioned as to the means by which he would carry out his undertaking, he laid his proposals before them and they appeared quite feasible.

He advised them to remove their camp, which was almost adjoining the walls, to a distance of six miles from the town, this would lead to less vigilance on the part of those who were on outpost duty during the day and sentry duty at night. The following night, after some cohorts had been ordered to conceal themselves in some wooded spots close under the town, he conducted a picked body of ten men by a steep and almost inaccessible path into the citadel.

Here a quantity of missile weapons had been collected, far more than would be required for the men who had been brought there, and m addition there were large stones, some lying about as is usual in craggy places, others piled in heaps by the townsmen to use for the defence of the place.