Then having placed watch-guards, he commands the ticket to be issued to all the rest, that when the signal had been given by the trumpet of the second watch, they should assemble to him in silence fully armed. Whither when they had assembled in silence according to the orders issued, "Soldiers," says he, "this silence is to be observed in listening to me, waving the military mode of expressing assent. When I shall have thoroughly explained my sentiments to you, then such of you as shall approve the same, will pass over; we will follow that line of conduct which shall meet the judgment of the majority. Now hear what I meditate in mind. The enemy have surrounded you, not brought hither in flight, nor left behind through cowardice. By valour you seized this ground; by valour you must make your way from it. By coming hither you have saved a valuable army of the Roman people; by forcing your way hence, save yourselves. You have proved yourselves worthy, though few in number, of affording aid to multitudes, whilst you yourselves stand in need of aid from no one. You have to do with that enemy, who on yesterday, through their supineness, availed themselves not of the fortunate opportunity of destroying our whole army, who did not see this hill so advantageously situate hanging over their heads, until it was seized on by us; who with so many thousand men did not prevent us so few from the ascent, and did not surround us with a rampart when in possession of the ground, though so much of the day still remained. That enemy which with their eyes open and awake you so baffled, it is incumbent on you now to beguile, buried, as they are, in sleep; nay, it is absolutely necessary. For our affairs are in that situation, that I am rather to point out to you your necessity than to propose advice. For whether you are to remain or to depart hence, can no longer be matter of deliberation, since, with the exception of your arms, and courage mindful of those arms, fortune has left you nothing, and we must die of famine and thirst, if we are more afraid of the sword than becomes men and Romans. Therefore our only safety is to sally forth from this and to depart. That we must do either by day or by night. But lo! another point which admits of less doubt; for if daylight be waited for, what hope is there, that the enemy, who have now encompassed the hill on every side, as you perceive, with their bodies exposed at disadvantage, will not hem us in with a continued rampart and ditch? If night then be favourable for a sally, as it is, this is undoubtedly the most suitable hour of night. You assembled here on the signal of the second watch, a time which buries mortals in the profoundest sleep. You will pass through their bodies lulled to sleep, either in silence unnoticed by them, or ready to strike terror into them, should they perceive you, by a sudden shout. Only follow me, whom you have followed. The same fortune which conducted us hither, will I follow. Those of you to whom these measures seem salutary, come on, pass over to the right."
They all passed over, and followed Decius as he proceeded through the intervals which lay between the guards. They had now passed the middle of the camp, when a soldier, striding over the bodies of the watchmen as they lay asleep, occasioned a noise by striking one of their shields. When the watchman, being aroused by this, stirred the next one to him, and those who were awake stirred up others, not knowing whether they were friends or foes, whether it was the garrison that sallied forth or the consul had taken their camp; Decius, having ordered the soldiers to raise a shout, as they were no longer unobserved, disheartens them by panic whilst still heavy from sleep, by which being perplexed, they were neither able to take arms briskly, nor make resistance, nor to pursue them. During the trepidation and confusion of the Samnites, the Roman guard, slaying such of the guards as came in their way, reached the consul's camp. A considerable portion of night still remained, and things now appeared to be in safety; when Decius says, "Roman soldiers, be honoured for your bravery. Your journey and return ages shall extol. But to behold such bravery light and day are necessary; nor do you deserve that silence and night should cover you, whilst you return to the camp with such distinguished glory. Here let us wait in quiet for the daylight." His words they obeyed. And as soon as it was day, a messenger being despatched to the camp to the consul, they were aroused from sleep with great joy; and the signal being given by ticket, that those persons returned safe who had exposed their persons to evident danger for the preservation of all, rushing out each most anxiously to meet them, they applaud them, congratulate them, they call them singly and collectively their preservers, they give praises and thanks to the gods, they raise Decius to heaven. This was a sort of camp triumph for Decius, who proceeded through the middle of the camp, with his guard fully armed, the eyes of all being fixed on him, and all giving him equal honour with the consul. When they came to the general's tent, the consul summons them by sound of trumpet to an assembly; and commencing with the well-earned praises of Decius, he adjourned the assembly on the interposition of Decius himself, who advising the postponement of every thing else, whilst the occasion was still present, persuaded the consul to attack the enemy, whilst still in consternation from the panic of the night, and dispersing in separate detachments around the hill, [adding] that he believed that some who had been sent out in pursuit of him were straggling through the forest. The legions were ordered to take arms; and having departed from the camp, as the forest was now better known by means of scouts, they are led onwards to the enemy through a more open tract. Having unexpectedly attacked the enemy when off their guard, since the soldiers of the Samnites straggling in every direction, most of them unarmed, were not able either to rally, nor to take arms, nor to betake themselves within the rampart, they first drive them in a panic into the camp: then they take the camp itself, having dislodged the guards. The shout spread around the hill; and puts each to flight from their respective posts. Thus a great part yielded to an enemy they had not seen. Those whom the panic had driven within the rampart (they amounted to thirty thousand) were all slain; the camp was plundered.
Matters being thus conducted, the consul, having summoned an assembly, pronounces a panegyric on Decius, not only that which had been commenced on a previous occasion, but as now completed by his recent deserts; and besides other military gifts, he presents him with a golden crown and one hundred oxen, and with one white one of distinguished beauty, richly decorated with gilded horns. The soldiers who had been in the guard with him, were presented with a double allowance of corn for ever; for the present, with an ox and two vests each. Immediately after the consuls' donation, the legions place on the head of Decius a crown of grass, indicative of their deliverance from a blockade, expressing their approbation of the present with a shout. Decorated with these emblems, he sacrificed the beautiful ox to Mars; the hundred oxen he bestowed on the soldiers, who had been with him in the expedition. On the same soldiers the legions conferred, each a pound of corn and a pint of wine; and all these things were performed with great alacrity, with a military shout, a token of the approbation of all. The third battle was fought near Suessula, in which the army of the Samnites, having been routed by Marcus Valerius, having summoned from home the flower of their youth, determined on trying their strength by a final contest. From Suessula messengers came in great haste to Capua, and from thence horsemen in full speed to the consul Valerius, to implore aid. The troops were immediately put in motion; and the baggage in the camp being left with a strong guard, the army moves on with rapidity; and they select at no great distance from the enemy a very narrow spot (as, with the exception of their horses, they were unaccompanied by a crowd of cattle and servants). The army of the Samnites, as if there was to be no delay in coming to an engagement, draw up in order of battle; then, when no one came to meet them, they advance to the enemy's camp in readiness for action. There when they saw the soldiers on the rampart, and persons sent out to reconnoitre in every direction, brought back word into how narrow a compass the camp had been contracted, inferring thence the scanty number of the enemy. The whole army began to exclaim, that the trenches ought to be filled up, the rampart to be torn down, and that they should force their way into the camp; and by that temerity the war would have been soon over, had not the generals restrained the impetuosity of the soldiers. However, as their own numbers bore heavily on their supplies, and in consequence, first of their sitting down so long at Suessula, and then by the delay of the contest, they were not far from a want of provisions, it was determined, whilst the enemy remained shut up as if through fear, that the soldiers should be led through the country to forage; [supposing] in the mean time, that all supplies would fail the Romans also, who having marched in haste, had brought with him only as much corn as could be carried on his shoulders amid his arms. The consul, after he had observed the enemy scattered through the country, that the posts were left but insufficiently attended, having in a few words encouraged his men, leads them on to besiege the camp. After he had taken this on the first shout and contest, more of the enemy being slain in their tents than at the gates and rampart, he ordered the captive standards to be collected into one place, and having left behind two legions as a guard and protection, after giving them strict order that they should abstain from the booty, until he himself should return; having set out with his troops in regular order, the cavalry who had been sent on driving the dispersed Samnites as it were by hunting toils, he committed great slaughter among them. For in their terror they could neither determine by what signal they should collect themselves into a body, whether they should make for the camp, or continue their flight to a greater distance. And so great was their terror, and so precipitate their flight, that to the number of forty thousand shields, though by no means were so many slain, and one hundred and seventy standards, with those which had been taken in the camp, were brought to the consul. Then they returned to the enemy's camp; and there all the plunder was given up to the soldiers.
The result of this contest obliged the Faliscians, who were on terms of a truce, to petition for a treaty of alliance from the senate; and diverted the Latins, who had their armies already prepared, from the Roman to a Pelignian war. Nor did the fame of such success confine itself within the limits of Italy; but the Carthaginians also sent ambassadors to Rome to congratulate them, with an offering of a golden crown, to be placed in Jupiter's shrine in the Capitol. Its weight was twenty-five pounds. Both consuls triumphed over the Samnites, whilst Decius followed distinguished with praises and presents, when amid the rough jesting of the soldiers the name of the tribune was no less celebrated than that of the consuls. The embassies of the Campanians and Suessulans were then heard; and to their entreaties it was granted that a garrison should be sent thither, in order that the incursions of the Samnites might be repelled. Capua, even then by no means favourable to military discipline, alienated from the memory of their country the affections of the soldiers, which were debauched by the supply of pleasures of all kinds; and schemes were being formed in winter-quarters for taking away Capua from the Campanians by the same kind of wickedness as that by which they had taken it from its original possessors: "and not undeservedly would they turn their own example against themselves. For why should the Campanians, who were neither able to defend themselves nor their possessions, occupy the most fertile land of Italy, and a city worthy of that land, rather than the victorious army, who had driven the Samnites from thence by their sweat and blood? Was it reasonable that men who had surrendered to them should have the full enjoyment of that fertile and delightful country; that they, wearied by military toil, had to struggle in an insalubrious and arid soil around their city, or within the city to suffer the oppressive and exhausting weight of interest-money daily increasing?" These schemes agitated in secret cabals, and as yet communicated only to a few, were encountered by the new consul Caius Marcius Rutilus, to whom the province of Campania had fallen by lot, Quintus Servilius, his colleague, being left behind in the city. Accordingly when he was in possession of all these circumstances just as they had occurred, having ascertained them through the tribunes, matured by years and experience, (for he was consul now for the fourth time, and had been dictator and censor,) thinking it the wisest proceeding to frustrate the violence of the soldiers, by prolonging their hope of executing their project whenever they might wish, he spreads the rumour, that the troops were to winter in the same towns on the year after also. For they had been cantoned throughout the cities of Campania, and their plots had spread from Capua to the entire army. This abatement being given to the eagerness of their projects, the mutiny was set at rest for the present.
The consul, having led out his army to the summer campaign, determined, whilst he had the Samnites quiet, to purge the army by sending away the turbulent men; by telling some that their regular time had been served; that others were weighed down by years and debilitated in bodily vigour. Some were sent away on furloughs, at first individuals, then some cohorts also, on the plea that they had wintered far from their home and domestic affairs. When different individuals were sent to different places under pretence of the business of the service, a considerable number were put out of the way; which multitude the other consul detained in Rome under different pretences. And first indeed, not suspecting the artifice, they returned to their homes by no means with reluctance. After they saw that neither those first sent returned to their standards, and that scarcely any others, except those who had wintered in Campania, and chiefly the fomenters of the mutiny, were sent away; at first wonder, and then certain fear entered their minds, that their schemes had been divulged; "that now they would have to suffer trials, discoveries, the secret punishments of individuals, and the tyrannical and cruel despotism of the consuls and the senate. Those who were in the camp, discuss these things in secret conferences, seeing that the sinews of the conspiracy had been got rid of by the artifice of the consul." One cohort, when they were at no great distance from Anxur, posted itself at Lautulæ, in a narrow woody pass between the sea and the mountains, to intercept those whom the consul was dismissing under various pretences (as has been already mentioned). Their body was now becoming strong in numbers; nor was any thing wanting to complete the form of a regular army, except a leader. Without order, therefore, they come into the Alban territory committing depredations, and under the hill of Alba Longa, they encompass their camp with a rampart. The work here being completed, during the remainder of the day they discuss their different opinions regarding the choice of a commander, not having sufficient confidence in any of those present. Whom could they invite out from Rome? What individuals of the patricians or of the commons was there, who would either knowingly expose himself to such imminent danger, or to whom could the cause of the army, set mad by ill-treatment, be safely committed? On the following day, when the same subject of deliberation detained them, some of the straggling marauders ascertained and brought an account, that Titus Quinctius cultivated a farm in the Tusculan territory, forgetful of the city and its honours. This was a man of patrician family, whose military career, which was passed with great glory, having been relinquished in consequence of one of his feet being lamed by a wound, he determined on spending his life in the country far from ambition and the forum. His name once heard, they immediately recognised the man; and with wishes for success, ordered him to be sent for. There was, however, but little hope that he would do any thing voluntarily; they resolved on employing force and intimidation. Accordingly those who had been sent for the purpose, having entered the house in the silence of the night, and surprising Quinctius overcome in sleep, threatening that there was no alternative, either authority and honour, or death, in case he resisted, unless he followed, they force him to the camp. Immediately on his arrival he was styled general, and whilst he was startled at the strange nature of the sudden occurrence, they convey to him the ensigns of honour, and bid him lead them to the city. Then having torn up their standard, more under the influence of their own impetuosity than by the command of their general, they arrive in hostile array at the eighth stone on the road, which is now the Appian; and would have proceeded immediately to the city, had they not heard that an army was coming to meet them, and that Marcus Valerius Corvus was nominated dictator against them, and Lucius Æmilius Mamercinus master of the horse.