Nic Fields - Caudine Forks 321 BC: Rome’s Humiliation in the Second Samnite War

In its long history, the Roman Republic suffered many defeats, but none as shameful as that at the Caudine Forks (Lat. Furcae Caudinae, It. Forche Caudine), an enclosed upland valley at a disputed location not far from Caudium (modern Montesarchio) at the western reaches of ancient Samnium where the Apennine foothills meet the Campanian Plain. This was during the campaign season of 321 BC when the combined forces of two consular armies were surprised, surrounded and forced to surrender unconditionally. The captive Romans were not killed, enslaved or ransomed, but disarmed, forced to pass under the yoke and then set free. Let there be no doubt: Rome had suffered one of the most humiliating defeats.

Rome of the 4th century BC was little more than an Italic urban-based state vying with other Italic urban centres, communities and tribes of the Italian Peninsula that called it home too. The century was to be a crucial one for the fledgling Roman state, for in this mosaic of peoples, one opponent in particular lived in the mountainous lands to the south-east of Rome. They were the Samnites.

There were three lengthy, savage wars with the Samnites who unquestionably ranked as one of archaic Romes most formidable foes that took place off and on from 343 BC to 290 BC . But it is the second of these conflicts that concerns our story. Rome had been at war with these rugged uplanders since 327 BC in what would turn out to be a long and bitter conflict that we now term the Second Samnite War. Though we should not look upon the Samnites as a single, monolithic entity, they were perfectly capable of mobilizing themselves and federating into a league when they needed to fight. The rising, rival Italic powers vied for supremacy in central and southern Italy, and their respective leaders were contemplating the conquest of the entire Italian Peninsula, or so we are led to believe.

Consequently, for the urban state of Rome it was a period of extraordinary energetic warring against the states and Italic peoples of central Italy, of an almost uninterrupted succession of annual campaigns. And truly so, for during the period 350 BC to 264 BC , Rome went to war yearly with the exception of six years: 347 BC , 344 BC , 328 BC , 288287 BC and 285 BC (Harris 1986 [1979], pp. 25657 ). By themselves the Samnites were sufficiently numerous and warlike to warrant paying special attention to. The Second Samnite War ( 327304 BC ) is described by Livy (books VIIX) in his inescapable but entertaining dramatic style. This conflict was particularly hard-fought, and the Roman army was to suffer a serious and humiliating reverse at the Caudine Forks, the focus of this monograph.