These were seized as plunder: and it was discovered from the prisoners, that several cities in that quarter had, in pursuance of a concerted plan, resolved on flight; that their towns-people had gone off at the first watch, and they believed that the same solitude they should find in the other places.

The accounts of the prisoners proved well-founded, and the consul took possession of the forsaken towns.
35.

The war was by no means so easy with the other consul, Marcus Atilius.

As he was marching his legions towards Luceria, to which he was informed that the Samnites had laid siege, the enemy met him on the border of the Lucerian territory.

Rage supplied them, on this occasion, with strength to equal his: the battle was stubbornly contested, and the victory doubtful; in the issue, however, more calamitous on the side of the Romans, both because they were unaccustomed to defeat, and that, on leaving the field, they felt more sensibly, than during the heat of the action, how much more wounds and bloodshed had been on their side.