tion with Appius Claudius, because he evidently excelled him in
eloquence and political abilities.

16. When the election was finished, the former consuls, their command
being continued for six months, were ordered to prosecute the war in
Samnium. Accordingly, during this next year also, in the consulate of
Lucius Volumnius and Appius Claudius, Publius Decius, who had been
left consul in Samnium by his colleague, in the character of
proconsul, ceased not to spread devastation through all parts of that
country; until, at last, he drove the army of the Samnites, which
never dared to face him in the field, entirely out of the country.
Thus expelled from home, they bent their route to Etruria; and,
supposing that the business, which they had often in vain endeavoured
to accomplish by embassies, might now be negotiated with more effect,
when they were backed by such a powerful armed force, and could
intermix terror with their entreaties, they demanded a meeting of the
chiefs of Etruria: which being assembled, they set forth the great
number of years during which they had waged war with the Romans, in
the cause of liberty; "they had," they said, "tried to sustain, with
their own strength, the weight of so great a war: they had also made
trial of the support of the adjoining nations, which proved of little
avail. When they were unable longer to maintain the conflict, they had
sued the Roman people for peace; and had again taken up arms, because
they felt peace was more grievous to those with servitude, than war to
free men. That their one only hope remaining rested in the Etrurians.
They knew that nation to be the most powerful in Italy, in respect of
arms, men, and money; to have the Gauls their closest neighbours, born
in the midst of war and arms, of furious courage, both from their
natural temper, and particularly against the people of Rome, whom they
boasted, without infringing the truth, of having made their prisoners,
and of having ransomed for gold. If the Etrurians possessed the same
spirit which formerly Porsena and their ancestors once had, there was
nothing to prevent their obliging the Romans, driven from all the
lands on this side of the Tiber, to fight for their own existence, and
not for the intolerable dominion which they assumed over Italy. The
Samnite army had come to them, in readiness for action, furnished with
arms and pay, and were willing to follow that instant, even should
they lead to the attack of th