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Battle of Sentinum

Battle of Sentinum
Part of the Third Samnite War
Date 295 BC Location Sentinum (now near Sassoferrato, Marche, Italy) Result Roman victory
Belligerents
Roman Republic	Samnium Senone Gauls
Commanders and leaders
Publius Decius Mus † Fabius Maximus Rullianus	Gellius Egnatius †
Strength
4 legions (18,000-24,000 Romans) c. 20,000 allied troops Total: c. 40,000 men	Total: Nearly 80,000 men Participated in Battle: c. 40,000 men
Casualties and losses
8,700 killed	25,000 killed 8,000 captured

The Battle of Sentinum was the decisive battle of the Third Samnite War, fought in 295 BC near Sentinum (next to the modern town of Sassoferrato, in the Marches, region of Italy), in which the Romans overcame a formidable coalition of Samnites, Etruscans, and Umbrians and Senone Gauls. The Romans won a decisive victory that broke up the tribal coalition (the Etruscans, Umbrians, and Senones pulled out of the war) and paved the way for the Romans' complete victory over the Samnites. The Romans involved in the battle of Sentinum were commanded by consuls Publius Decius Mus and Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus.

Battle

The two armies arrived at the plain of Sentinum, but waited for two days to do battle. Finally, unable to control the eagerness of their troops, the Romans attacked. The Senones stood on the right and the Samnites on the left. On the Roman side Quintus Fabius commanded the right and Publius Decius the left.

Quintus Fabius fought defensively to make the battle a test of endurance and wait for the enemy to flag. Publius Decius fought more aggressively and ordered a cavalry charge, which drove back the Senone cavalry twice. During the second charge they reached the enemy infantry, but were counter-charged by the Senone chariots and were routed. The line of Decius’ infantry was broken by the chariots and the Senone foot.

Publius Decius decided to perform the devotio, offering prayers to the gods and launching himself into the enemy lines, effectively sacrificing himself when his troops were in dire straits, just as his father had done at the Battle of Vesuvius in 340 BC. This act galvanised the Roman left who were joined by two reserve contingents which Quintus Fabius had called in to help.

The Samnites and their allies were defeated, losing 20,000 men according to Livy, while the Romans lost 8,700 men.

Sources

The main source for this battle is Livy. There is a contemporary source in Duris of Samos who apparently recorded that 100,000 men died.

Bibliography

• Livy, Rome's Italian Wars: Books 6-10 (Oxford's World's Classics). Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0199564859
• Scullard, H.H. A History of the Roman World 753–146.
• Rosenstein, Nathan (2024-02-22), "The Battle of Sentinum", The Oxford Handbook of Pre-Roman Italy (1000--49 BCE), Oxford University Press, pp. 666–673, ISBN 978-0-19-998789-4, retrieved 2024-05-30
• Morelli, Davide (2023). "The battle of Sentinum (295 BC). Its location in a recent hypothesis". Rivista di Filologia e di Istruzione Classica. 151 (1): 88–103. doi:10.1484/j.rfic.5.135631. ISSN 0035-6220.
• Forsythe, Gary (2006). A critical history of early Rome: from prehistory to the first Punic War. The Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature (1. paperback printing ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24991-2.
• Walbank, Frank W., ed. (1990). The Cambridge ancient history. Vol. 7, Part 2: The rise of Rome to 220 B.C. / ed. by F. W. Walbank (2 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-521-23446-7.
  • Cornell, T. J. (1990-03-29), "The conquest of Italy", The Cambridge Ancient History, Cambridge University Press, pp. 351–419, ISBN 978-1-139-05435-5, retrieved 2024-05-30
• Salmon, Edward Togo (2010). Samnium and the Samnites (Digitally printed version ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-521-06185-8.

External links

• Outlines of Roman History
• "The Battle of Sentinum". The Story of Rome at The Baldwin Project.

Battle of the Caudine Forks

Battle of Caudine Forks
Part of the Second Samnite War
A Lucanian painting (fresco) of the Battle of the Caudine Forks.
Date 321 BC Location Caudine Forks (near Caudium) 41.1500°N 14.5333°E / 41.1500; 14.5333 Result Samnite victory
Belligerents
Roman Republic	Samnium
Commanders and leaders
Titus Veturius Calvinus Spurius Postumius Albinus	Gaius Pontius
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
None	None
class=notpageimage| Location within Italy

Second Samnite War, Battle of the Caudine Forks in 321 BC, the Roman army of the consuls Tiberius Veturius Calvinus symbolically pass under the yoke after their surrender.

The Battle of Caudine Forks, 321 BC, was a decisive event of the Second Samnite War. Its designation as a battle is a mere historical formality: there was no fighting and there were no casualties. The Romans were trapped in an enclosed valley by the Samnites before they knew what was happening and nothing remained but to negotiate an unfavorable surrender. The action was entirely political, with the magistrates on both sides trying to obtain the best terms for their side without disrespecting common beliefs concerning the rules of war and the conduct of peace. In the end the Samnites decided it would be better for future relations to let the Romans go, while the Romans were impeded in the prosecution of their campaign against the Samnites by considerations of religion and honor.

Description

According to Livy's account, the Samnite commander, Gaius Pontius, hearing that the Roman army was located near Calatia, sent ten soldiers disguised as herdsmen with orders to give the same story, which was that the Samnites were besieging Lucera in Apulia. The Roman commanders, completely taken in by this ruse, decided to set off to give aid to Lucera. Worse, they chose the quicker route, along a road later to become the Appian Way, through the Caudine Forks (Furculae Caudinae), a narrow mountain pass near Benevento, Campania. The area round the Caudine Forks was surrounded by mountains and could be entered only by two defiles. The Romans entered by one; but when they reached the second defile they found it barricaded. They returned at once to the first defile only to find it now securely held by the Samnites. At this point the Romans, according to Livy, fell into total despair, knowing the situation was quite hopeless. The Samnites had no idea what to do to take advantage of their success. Hence Pontius was persuaded to send a letter to his father, Herennius. The reply came back that the Romans should be sent on their way, unharmed, as quickly as possible. This advice was rejected, and a further letter was sent to Herennius. This time the advice was to kill the Romans down to the last man.

Not knowing what to make of such contradictory advice, the Samnites then asked Herennius to come in person to explain. When Herennius arrived he explained that were they to set the Romans free without harm, they would gain the Romans' friendship. If they killed the entire Roman army, then Rome would be so weakened that they would not pose a threat for many generations. At this his son asked was there not a middle way. Herennius insisted that any middle way would be utter folly and would leave the Romans smarting for revenge without weakening them.

Modern historians have cast doubt on the details of Livy's account. Neither defile leading to the central plain is as narrow and steep as Livy's dramatic description would suggest. The western defile (near the town of Arienzo) is over a kilometre wide, and it is unlikely that the Samnites would have had time to block it effectively in the brief time the Romans would have taken to cross the plain to the eastern defile (near Arpaia) and return. (The distance is 4.5 km, or just under 3 miles.) Even the eastern end, which is narrower, is wide enough to make it possible to march through while keeping out of range of missiles thrown from the hills on either side. Horsfall suggests that Livy's geography may have been influenced by accounts of the campaigns of Alexander the Great which were contemporary with this event.

Aftermath

Medallion depicting the Romans being sent under the yoke by the Samnites (Pseudo-Melioli, c. 1500)

According to Livy, Pontius was unwilling to take the advice of his father and insisted that the Romans surrender and pass under a yoke. This was agreed to by the two commanding consuls, as the army was facing starvation. Livy describes in detail the humiliation of the Romans, which serves to underline the wisdom of Herennius's advice.

Livy contradicts himself as to whether Rome honored or quickly repudiated the Caudine Peace. Livy claims the Roman Senate rejected the terms but, elsewhere, claims Rome honored the Caudine Peace until hostilities broke out afresh in 316.

References

• Livy 9, 2-6
• Rosenstein, Nathan S. Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocratic Competition in the Middle and Late Republic. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft967nb61p/
• Hammond, N.G.L. & Scullard, H.H. (Eds.) (1970). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (p. 217). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869117-3.
• Salmon, Edward Togo (1967). Samnium and the Samnites (Digitally printed version ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-521-06185-8. (originally published 1967)
• Horsfall, Nicholas (2020), "The Caudine Forks", Fifty Years at the Sibyl's Heels, Oxford University Press, pp. 171–180, ISBN 978-0-19-886386-1, retrieved 2024-05-30
• Walbank, Frank W., ed. (1990). The Cambridge ancient history. Vol. 7, Part 2: The rise of Rome to 220 B.C. / ed. by F. W. Walbank (2 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-521-23446-7.
  • Cornell, T. J. (1990-03-29), "The conquest of Italy", The Cambridge Ancient History, Cambridge University Press, pp. 351–419, ISBN 978-1-139-05435-5, retrieved 2024-05-30
• Forsythe, Gary (2006). A critical history of early Rome: from prehistory to the first Punic War. The Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature (1. paperback printing ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24991-2.
• Scopacasa, Rafael (2015-06-25). Ancient Samnium. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-871376-0.

External links

• Livy's Book 9, which includes his account of the battle