from their side: that the case of the Campanians was different,
they having come under their protection, not by treaty but by surrender:
accordingly, that the Campanians, whether they wished or not, should
remain quiet: that in the Latin treaty there was no clause by which they
were prevented from going to war with whomsoever they pleased.

3. Which answer, whilst it sent away the Samnites uncertain as to what
conduct they were to think that the Romans would pursue, it further
estranged the Campanians through fear; it rendered the Samnites more
presuming, they considering that there was nothing which the Romans
would now refuse them. Wherefore, proclaiming frequent meetings under
the pretext of preparing for war against the Samnites, their leading
men, in their several deliberations among themselves, secretly fomented
the plan of a war with Rome. In this war the Campanians too joined
against their preservers. But though all their schemes were carefully
concealed, and they were anxious that their Samnite enemy should be got
rid of in their rear before the Romans should be aroused, yet through
the agency of some who were attached [to the latter] by private
friendships and other ties, information of their conspiracy made its way
to Rome, and the consuls being ordered to resign their office before the
usual time, in order that the new consuls might be elected the sooner to
meet so important a war, a religious scruple entered their minds at the
idea of the elections being held by persons whose time of office had
been cut short. Accordingly an interregnum took place. There were two
interreges, Marcus Valerius and Marcus Fabius. The consuls elected were
Titus Manlius Torquatus a third time, and Publius Decius Mus. It is
agreed on that, in this year, Alexander, king of Epirus, made a descent
on Italy with a fleet. Which war, if the first commencement had been
sufficiently successful, would unquestionably have extended to the
Romans. The same was the era of the exploits of Alexander the Great,
whom, being son to the other's sister, in another region of the world,
having shown himself invincible in war, fortune cut short in his youth
by disease. But the Romans, although the revolt of their allies and of
the Latin nation was now no matter of doubt, yet as if they felt
solicitude regarding the Samnites, not for themselves, summoned ten of
the leading men of the Latins to Rome, to whom they wished to issue such
orders as they might w