story runs, it had been foretold to the Romans that the leader of one
army and the soldiers of the other were forfeited to the gods; and
when, during the battle, the plebeian consul, Marcus Decius Mus, who
had been a hero in the previous war, saw that his line was falling
back, he uttered a solemn prayer and threw himself into the thickest of
the fight. By thus giving up his life, as the partial historians like
to tell us that many Romans have done at various epochs, he ensured
victory on this occasion, and subsequently the conquest of the world,
to his countrymen. Other battles and other victories followed, and the
people of Latium became dependent upon Rome. The last engagement was at
Antium, an ancient city on a promontory below Ostia, which, having a
little navy, had interfered with the Roman commerce. The prows of the
vessels of Antium were set up in the Roman forum as an ornament to the
_suggestum_, or stage from which orators addressed the people. This was
called the _rostra_ afterward. (_Rostra_, beaks of birds or ships.)

Thus the city kept on adding to its dependents, and increasing its
power. In 329, the Volscians were overcome and their long warfare with
Rome ended. Two years later, the Romans declared war against Palæopolis
and Neapolis, and after taking the Old City, made a league with the
New. One war thus led to another, and as the Samnites, getting jealous
of the increasing power of their ally, had aided these two cities, Rome
declared war the second time against them, in 326. It proved the most
important of the three Samnite wars, lasting upward of twenty years.
The aim of each of the combatants seems to have been to gain as many
allies as possible, and to lessen the adherents of the enemy. For this
reason the war was peculiar, the armies of Rome being often found in
Apulia, and those of the enemy being ever ready to overrun Campania.

Success at first followed the Samnite banners, and this was notably the