case at the battle of Caudine Forks, fought in a pass on the road from
Capua to Beneventum (then Maleventum), in the year 321, when the Romans
were entrapped and all obliged to pass under the yoke. Such a success
is apt to influence allies, and this tended to strengthen the Samnites.
It was not until seven years had passed that the Romans were able to
make decided gains, and though their cause appeared quite hopeful, the
very success brought new troubles, because it led the Etruscans to take
part with the Samnites and to create a diversion on the north. This
outbreak is said to have been quelled by Fabius Maximus Rullus, (a
general whose personal prowess is vaunted in the highest terms by the
historians of Rome,) who defeated the Etruscans at Lake Vadimonis, B.C.
310. Success followed in the south, also, and in the year 304,
Bovianum, in the heart of Samnium, which had been before taken by them,
fell into the hands of the Romans and closed the war, leaving Rome the
most powerful nation in Central Italy.

Unable to overcome its northern neighbor, Samnium now turned to attack
Lucania, the country to the south, which reached as far as the
Tarentine Gulf, just under the great heel of Italy. Magna Græcia was
then in a state of decadence, and Lucania was an ally of Rome, which
took its part against Samnium, not as loving Samnium less, but as
loving power more. The struggle became very general. The Etruscans had
begun a new war with Rome, but were about to treat for peace, when the
Samnites induced them to break off the negotiations, and they attacked
Rome at once on the north and the south. The undaunted Romans struck
out with one arm against the Etruscans and their allies the Gauls on
the north, and with the other hurled defiance at the Samnites on the
south. The war was decided by a battle fought in 295, on the ridge of
the Apennines, near the town of Sentinum in Umbria, where the allies
had all managed to unite their forces. On this occasion it is related