Valerias, and gave him not only a victory, but also a name ; for he was afterwards called Corvinus, and on account of this exploit he was made consul, though he was only twenty-three years old. About this time, the night was lengthened on on? occasion, and was seen to be extended over a great part of * the following day. And stones fell from the clouds. About the same time Alexander the Great was born. Now the Romans began to be a powerful people, for a war was carried on by them a hundred and thirty miles from the city, against the Samnites, who are a people between Picenum Campania and Apulia. If you enquire about their wealth, they wear arms inlaid with gold and silver, and garments, embroidered down to the very edge. If you enquire about their skill in manœuvres and ambushes, you must know that that nation owed its power to its defiles, and to the facilities afforded by its mountains for manœuvres. If about their rage and madness, know that they hastened to the destruction of the world with their sacrilege and human sacrifices. If you would understand their obstinacy, think of that treaty which they broke six times over ; so that their pertinacity was even more violent than their enmity, therefore, the Romans undertook war against the Samnites on behalf of the Campanians and Tidicini. The district of Campania is the most beautiful of all the regions, not in Italy only, but, I may almost say, in the whole world. Lucius Papirius Cursor was despatched to that war, with the appointment of dictator. And as he wished to return to Rome, he left Fabius Maximus, his master of the horse, in command of the army, with orders not to engage the enemy in his absence. Fabius, however, having an opportunity offered him, fouçht a most successful battle, and utterly routed the Samnites, on which account he was con- , demned to death by the dictator, because he had fought without his permission ; but he was delivered by his great popularity with both the soldiers and the people, as such a sedition was excited against Papirius the dictator, that he was nearly killed himself. Afterwards the Samnites defeated the Romans in the consulship of Titus Veturiue and Spurius Postumius, when they were hemmed in, in a narrow strait at the Caudine Torts, with great disgrace. And their general Pontius employed the security which his victory gave him, in consult