Volumnius succeeded first in gaining possession of the camp.
At the city, Scipio met a stouter resistance; not because the conquered troops there had gained courage, but because walls were a better defence against armed men than a rampart.

From these they repelled the enemy with stones.

Scipio, considering that unless the business were effected during their first panic, and before they could recover their spirits, the attack of so strong a town would be very tedious, asked his soldiers "if they could endure, without shame, that the other wing should already have taken the camp, and that they, after all their success, should be repulsed from the gates of the city ?" Then, all of them loudly declaring their determination to the contrary, he himself advanced, the foremost, to the gate, with his shield raised over his head: the rest, following under the like cover of their shields conjoined, burst into the city, and dispersing the Samnites who were near the gate, took possession of the walls, but they ventured not to push forward into the interior of the city in consequence of the smallness of their number.
42.

Of these transactions the consul was for some time ignorant; and was busily employed in calling home his troops, for the sun was now hastening to set, and the approach of night rendered every place suspicious and dangerous, even to victorious troops.

Having rode forward a considerable way, he saw on the right the camp taken, and heard on the left a shouting in the city, with a confused noise of fighting, and cries of terror.