Thus he soon found himself superior to the enemy.

Consentia (Cosenza), which seems to have been the federal headquarters of the Sabellians settled in Magna Graecia, fell into his hands.

In vain the Samnites came to the help of the Lucanians; Alexander defeated their combined forces near Paestum.

He subdued the Daunians around Sipontum, and the Messapians in the south-eastern peninsula; he already commanded from sea to sea, and was on the point of arranging with the Romans a joint attack on the Samnites in their native abodes.

But successes so unexpected went beyond the desires of the Tarentine merchants, and filled them with alarm.