Ab urbe condita

No provision had been made for their allies, and as many as 7000 of them were sold into slavery.

Those who declared themselves Hernicans were separated and placed under guard; subsequently Fabius sent them all to the senate in Rome.

After inquiries had been made as to whether they had fought for the Samnites against Rome as conscripts or as volunteers, they were committed to the custody of the Latin cities. The new consuls, P. Cornelius Arvina and Q. Marcius Tremulus, were ordered to bring the whole question of the prisoners before the senate.

The Hernicans resented this, and a national council was held at Anagnia in what they call the Maritime Circus; the whole nation thereupon, with the exception of Aletrium, Ferentinae, and Verulae, declared war against Rome.

[*](Subjugation of the Hernicans and Aequi —Peace with the Samnites.) Now that Fabius had evacuated the country the Samnites became restless. Calatia and Sora and the Roman garrisons there were taken by storm, and the soldiers who had been taken prisoners were cruelly massacred. P. Cornelius was despatched thither with an army.

The Anagnians and Hernicans had been assigned to Marcius. At first the enemy occupied such a well-chosen position

between the camps of the two consul that no messenger, however active, could get through, and for some days both consuls were kept in ignorance of everything

and in anxious suspense as to each other's movements. Tidings of this alarming state of things reached Rome, and every man liable to service was called out; two complete armies were raised against sudden emergencies. But the progress of the war did not justify this extreme alarm, nor was it

worthy of the old reputation which the Hernicans enjoyed. They attempted nothing worth mentioning, within a few days they were stripped of three camps in succession, and begged for a thirty days'