The Pax Caudina

Abstract

The circumstances surrounding one of the most grievous disgraces which ever befel a Roman army are familiar. In 321 B.C. the so called Second Samnite War was at its height. The Roman consuls, while at Calatia with their armies, received news that the enemy forces were in Apulia under the new Samnite general, Gavius Pontius. Pushing forward, either in the hope of winning a decisive victory on the Apulian plains, or in order to relieve the pressure on the allied city of Luceria, they advanced into a valley which had but two exits: on trying to get out of this defile, they found both entrances blocked. Doubtless the army made attempts to fight its way out of the encircling Samnite ring, but they proved unavailing. To avert death by starvation, the consuls surrendered. Pontius, being in a position to dictate his own terms, demanded that Roman garrisons should be withdrawn from territory which the Samnites regarded as theirs, while the Romans were not to re-open the war: in addition he took six hundred Roman knights as hostages, disarmed the Roman army and sent it ‘under the yoke.’