3. ¶The Samnites after their defeat at the hands of the Romans, made proposals for truce to the Romans in the city.  They sent them all the Roman captives that they held, together with the property of a man named Papius, [Footnote:  Papius Brutulus.] who was esteemed among the foremost of his race and bore the entire responsibility for the war; his bones, since he anticipated them in committing suicide, they scattered abroad.  Yet they did not obtain their peace; for they were regarded as untrustworthy and had the name of making truces according to events merely for the purpose of cheating any power that conquered them:  hence they not only failed to obtain terms, but even brought a relentless war upon themselves.  The Romans while accepting their prisoners voted to make war upon them without announcement. (Ursinus, p.374.  Zonaras, 7, 26.)

[Sidenote:  B.C. 321. (a.u. 433)] 4.  Among the many events of human history that might give one cause for wonder must certainly be reckoned what occurred at this time.  The Romans, who were so extremely arrogant as to vote that they would not again receive a herald from the Samnites in the matter of peace and hoped moreover to capture them all at the first blow, succumbed to a terrible disaster and incurred disgrace as never before; the others, who to begin with were badly frightened and thought the refusal to make peace a great calamity, seized their camp and entire force, and sent them all under the yoke.  So great a reverse of fortune did they suffer. (Mai, p.161.  Zonaras, 7, 26.)

5.  Benefits lie rather within the actual choice of men and are not brought about by necessity, or by ignorance, or anger, or deceit, or anything of the sort, but are performed voluntarily by a willing and eager condition of spirit.  And for this reason it is proper to pity, admonish, instruct those who commit any error and to admire, love, reward those who do right.  Whenever men act in both of these two ways, it is decidedly more befitting our characters to remember their better than their less correct deeds. [Footnote:  Sections 5, 6, and 7 appear to come from various speeches delivered at the Caudine Forks; section 8, however, is from the speech of Herennius Pontius.] (Mai, p.535.)

6. ¶Quarrels are checked by kindness.  The greater the pitch of enmity to which a man has come when he unexpectedly obtains safety instead of severity, the more readily does he hasten voluntarily to abandon the quarrel and to acknowledge gladly the influence of kindness.  B.C. 321 (a.u. 433) As in a random host of persons at variance from divers causes those who have passed from friendship to enmity hate each other with the more intense hatred, so in a random host of persons kindly treated do those who receive this considerate treatment after a state of strife love their benefactors the more.  Romans, accordingly, are very anxious to surpass in war and at the same time they honor virtue; for this reason, compelled in both regards by their nobility of spirit, they verily earn the right to surpass, since they take pains to recompense fair treatment fairly, and even beyond its value. (Mai, p.161.)