Rome was a gloomy city for days after the return of the disgraced army.
The senators laid aside their gold rings, and no longer wore on their robes the red border which was the sign of their rank. In sombre attire and with grave faces they sat in the Senate-house, or paced the streets, thinking of the disgrace that had overtaken their people.
Shops were shut, business was laid aside, while the citizens mourned alike for those who had returned as for those who had been slain.
Ere long new Consuls were elected, and they, with the Senate, agreed that the treaty made with Pontius must not be kept.
Postumius then offered to go back to the Samnites, with his colleague and officers, as a punishment for agreeing to so humiliating a treaty. To this proposal the Senate gave its approval.
The Consuls and officers were then stripped of all save the kilt which they had worn when they passed beneath the yoke, and thus, with their hands tied behind them, they were sent back to the Samnites.’
‘These men are forfeited to you in atonement for the broken treaty,’ cried those who accompanied the miserable penitents, when at length they stood in the presence of Pontius.
But the Samnite general refused to receive such atonement. ‘Either,’ said he, ‘you must put your army back in the Caudine Forks, or you must keep the treaty to which your Consuls agreed.’
As the Romans refused to do this, the second Samnite war continued to be waged.