Editing Samnite Wars (section)

===Three Roman victories===
[[File:Samnite soldiers from a tomb frieze in Nola 4th century BCE.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Samnite soldiers from a tomb frieze in Nola, 4th century BC]]
According to Livy, the two Roman consuls for 343 BC, [[Marcus Valerius Corvus]] and [[Aulus Cornelius Cossus Arvina]], both marched against the Samnites. Valerius led his army into Campania, while Cornelius, into Samnium where he camped at [[Saticula]].<ref>Livy, vii.32.2</ref> Livy then goes on to narrate how Rome won three different battles against the Samnites. After a day of hard fighting, Valerius won the [[Battle of Mount Gaurus|first battle]], fought at [[Mount Barbaro|Mount Gaurus]] near [[Cumae]], only after a last desperate charge in fading daylight.<ref>Livy, vii.32.2–.33.18</ref> The [[Battle of Saticula|second battle]] almost ended in disaster for the Romans when the Samnites attempted to trap the other consul, Cornelius Cossus, and his army in a mountain pass. Fortunately for them, one of Cornelius' [[military tribune]]s, [[Publius Decius Mus (consul 340 BC)|Publius Decius Mus]] with a small detachment, seized a hilltop, distracting the Samnites and allowing the Roman army to escape the trap. Decius and his men slipped away to safety during the night; the morning after the unprepared Samnites were attacked and defeated.<ref>Livy, vii.33.1–.37.3; [[Frontinus|Frontin.]] ''[[Stratagems (book)|strat.]]'', i.5.14, iv.5.9; [[Cicero|Cic.]] ''[[De Divinatione|diu.]]'', i.51</ref> Still determined to seize victory, the Samnites collected their forces and laid siege to [[Suessula]] at the eastern edge of Campania. Leaving his baggage behind, Marcus Valerius took his army on forced marches to Suessula. Low on supplies, and underestimating the size of the Roman force, the Samnites scattered their army to forage for food. This gave Valerius the opportunity to win a [[Battle of Suessula|third Roman victory]] when he first captured the Samnites' lightly defended camp and then scattered their foragers.<ref>Livy, vii.37.4–.18</ref> These Roman successes against the Samnites convinced [[Falerii]] to convert her forty year's truce with Rome into a permanent peace treaty, and the Latins to abandon their planned war against Rome and instead campaign against the [[Paeligni]]. The friendly city-state of [[Carthage]] sent a congratulatory embassy to Rome with a twenty-five pound crown for the [[Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus]]. Both consuls then celebrated [[Roman triumph|triumphs]] over the Samnites.<ref>Livy, vii.38.1–3</ref> The ''[[Fasti Triumphales]]'' records that Valerius and Cornelius celebrated their triumphs over the Samnites on 21 September and 22 September respectively.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://attalus.org/translate/fasti.html|title=Fasti Triumphales : Roman Triumphs|website=attalus.org}}</ref>

Modern historians have doubted the historical accuracy of Livy's description of these three battles. Livy's battle-scenes for this time period are mostly free reconstructions by him and his sources, and there are no reasons why these should be different.<ref>Oakley (1998), p. 310</ref> The number of Samnites killed and the amounts of spoils taken by the Romans have clearly been exaggerated.<ref>Salmon (1967), p. 198; Oakley (1998), p. 358</ref> Historians have noted the many similarities between the story of Publius Decius Mus, and an event said to have taken place in [[Sicily]] in 258 when the Romans were fighting the [[First Punic War]] against Carthage. According to the ancient sources, a Roman army was in danger of being trapped in a defile when a military tribune led a detachment of 300 men to seize a hilltop in the middle of the enemy. The Roman army escaped, but of the 300 only the tribune survived. It is unlikely that this latter, in ancient times more famous, episode has not influenced the descriptions of the former.<ref>Salmon (1967) p. 198; Oakley (1998), pp. 332–333; Forsythe (2005), p. 288</ref>

Salmon (1967) also found several other similarities between the campaigns of 343 and later events which he considered to be doublets. Both the First and the Second Samnite Wars start with an invasion of Samnium by a Cornelius, the way in which a Roman army was led into a trap resembles the famous disaster at [[battle of the Caudine Forks|the Caudine Forks]] in 321 BC, and there are similarities to the campaigns of [[Cornelia (gens)#Cornelii Cossi|Publius Cornelius Arvina]] in 306 BC and [[Publius Decius Mus (consul 312 BC)|Publius Decius Mus]] (the son of the hero of Saticula) in 297 BC. He also thought Valerius Corvus' two Campanian victories could be doublets of Roman operations against [[Hannibal]] in the same area in 215<ref>Salmon (1967), pp. 199–198</ref> On the other hand, the entries in the ''Fasti Triumphales'' supports some measure of Roman success. In Salmon's reconstruction, therefore, there was only one battle in 343 BC, perhaps fought on the outskirts of Capua near the shrine of [[Juno (mythology)|Juno Gaura]], and ending with a narrow Roman victory.<ref>Salmon (1967), p. 201</ref>

Oakley (1998) dismisses these claims of doublets and inclines towards believing there were three battles. The Samnites would have gained significant ground in Campania by the time the Romans arrived and Valerius' two victories could be the outcome of twin Samnite attacks on Capua and Cumae. And while Samnite ambushes are somewhat of a stock motif in Livy's narrative of the Samnite wars, this might simply reflect the mountainous terrain in which these wars were fought.<ref>Oakley (1998), pp. 310–311</ref> The story of Decius, as preserved, has been patterned after that of the military tribune of 258, but Decius could still have performed some heroic act in 343, the memory of which became the origin of the later embellished tale.<ref>Oakley (1998), p. 333</ref>

Forsythe (2005) considers the episode with Cornelius Cossus and Decius Mus to have been invented, in part to foreshadow Decius' sacrifice in 340 BC. P. Decius might have performed some heroic act which then enabled him to become the first of his family to reach the consulship in 340, but if so, no detail of the historical event survives. Instead, later annalists have combined the disaster at the Caudine Forks with the tale of the military tribune of 258 BC to produce the entirely fictitious story recorded by Livy; the difference being that while in the originals the Romans suffered defeat and death, here none of Decius' men are killed and the Romans win a great victory.<ref>Forsythe (2005), p. 288</ref>