successes, peace was not yet established,
either among the Samnites or Etrurians: for the latter, at the
instigation of the Perusians, resumed their arms, after his army had
been withdrawn by the consul; and the Samnites made predatory
incursions on the territories of Vescia and Formiae; and also on the
other side, on those of Aesernia, and the parts adjacent to the river
Vulturnus. Against these was sent the praetor Appius Claudius, with
the army formerly commanded by Decius. In Etruria, Fabius, on the
revival of hostilities, slew four thousand five hundred of the
Perusians, and took prisoners one thousand seven hundred and forty,
who were ransomed at the rate of three hundred and ten _asses_
[Footnote: L1.] each. All the rest of the spoil was bestowed on the
soldiers. The legions of the Samnites, though pursued, some by the
praetor Appius Claudius, the others by Lucius Volumnius, proconsul,
formed a junction in the country of the Stellatians. Here sat down the
whole body of the Samnites; and Appius and Volumnius, with their
forces united in one camp. A battle was fought with the most rancorous
animosity, one party being spurred on by rage against men who had so
often renewed their attacks on them, and the other now fighting in
support of their last remaining hope. Accordingly, there were slain,
of the Samnites, sixteen thousand three hundred, and two thousand and
seven hundred made prisoners: of the Roman army fell two thousand and
seven hundred. This year, so successful in the operations of war, was
filled with distress at home, arising from a pestilence, and with
anxiety, occasioned by prodigies: for accounts were received that, in
many places, showers of earth had fallen; and that very many persons,
in the army of Appius Claudius, had been struck by lightning; in
consequence of which, the books were consulted. At this time, Quintus
Fabius Gurges, the consul's son, having prosecuted some matrons before
the people on a charge of adultery, built, with the money accruing
from the fines which they were condemned to pay, the temple of Venus,
which stands near the circus. Still we have the wars of the Samnites
on our hands, notwithstanding that the relation of them has already
extended, in one continued course, through four volumes of our
history, and through a period of forty-six years, from the consulate
of Marcus Valerius and Aulus Cornelius, who first carried the Roman
arms into Samnium. And, not to recite the long tr