All divisions of the army, now, united their efforts to
restore the fight; officers, soldiers, the whole force, both of
cavalry and infantry; even the powers of heaven seemed to have looked,
with favour, on the Roman cause; so speedily was a thorough change
effected in the fortune of the day, the enemy being repulsed from the
camp, and, in a short time, driven back to the spot where the battle
had commenced. Here they stopped, being obstructed by the heap of
baggage, lying in their way, where they had thrown it together; and
then, to prevent the plundering of their effects, formed round them a
circle of troops. On this, the infantry assailed them vigorously in
front, while the cavalry, wheeling, fell on their rear: and, being
thus enclosed between the two, they were all either slain, or taken
prisoners. The number of the prisoners was seven thousand two hundred,
who were all sent under the yoke; the killed amounted to four thousand
eight hundred. The victory did not prove a joyous one, even on the
side of the Romans: when the consul took an account of the loss
sustained in the two days, the number returned, of soldiers lost, was
seven thousand three hundred. During these transactions in Apulia, the
Samnites with the other army having attempted to seize on Iteramna, a
Roman colony situated on the Latin road, did not however obtain the
town; whence, after ravaging the country, as they were driving off
spoil, consisting of men and cattle, together with the colonists whom
they had taken, they met the consul returning victorious from Luceria,
and not only lost their booty, but marching in disorder, in a long
train, and heavily encumbered, were themselves cut to pieces. The
consul, by proclamation, summoned the owners to Interamna, to claim
and receive again their property, and leaving his army there, went to
Rome to hold the elections. On his applying for a triumph, that honour
was refused him, because he had lost so many thousands of his
soldiers; and also, because he had sent the prisoners under the yoke
without imposing any conditions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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