them:  twenty-six military standards were taken here, and the Samnite general, Statius Gellius, with a great number of other prisoners, and both the camps were taken.  Next day Bovianum was besieged, and soon after taken.  Both the consuls were honoured with a triumph, with high applause of their excellent conduct.  Some writers say, that the consul Minucius was brought back to the camp grievously wounded, and that he died there; that Marcus Fulvius was substituted consul in his place, and that it was he who, being sent to command Minucius’s army, took Bovianum.  During the same year, Sora, Arpinum, and Censennia were recovered from the Samnites.  The great statue of Hercules was erected in the Capitol, and dedicated.

45.  In the succeeding consulate of Publius Sulpicius Saverrio and Publius Sempronius Sophus, the Samnites, desirous either of a termination or a suspension of hostilities, sent ambassadors to Rome to treat of peace; to whose submissive solicitations this answer was returned, that, “had not the Samnites frequently solicited peace, at times when they were actually preparing for war, their present application might, perhaps, in the course of negotiating, have produced the desired effect.  But now, since words had hitherto proved vain, people’s conduct must be guided by facts:  that Publius Sempronius the consul would shortly be in Samnium with an army:  that he could not be deceived in judging whether their dispositions inclined to peace or war.  He would bring the senate certain information respecting every particular, and their ambassadors might follow the consul on his return from Samnium.”  When the Roman army accordingly marched through all parts of Samnium, which was in a state of peace, provisions being liberally supplied, a renewal of the old treaty was, this year, granted to the Samnites.  The Roman arms were then turned against the Aequans, their old enemies, but who had, for many years past, remained quiet, under the guise of a treacherous peace, because, while the Hernicians were in a state of prosperity, these had, in conjunction with them, frequently sent aid to the Samnites; and after the Hernicians were subdued, almost the whole nation, without dissembling that they acted by public authority, had revolted to the enemy; and when, after the conclusion of the treaty with the Samnites at Rome, ambassadors were sent to demand satisfaction, they said, that “this was only a trial made of them, on the expectation that they would through fear suffer themselves to be made Roman citizens.  But how much that condition was to be wished for, they had been taught by the Hernicians; who, when they had the option, preferred their own laws to the freedom of the Roman state.  To people who wished for liberty to choose what they judged preferable, the necessity of becoming Roman citizens would have the nature of a punishment.”  In resentment of these declarations, uttered publicly in their assemblies, the Roman people ordered war to be made on the Aequans;