An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
-Montesquieu
Battle at the Reginian Forks
The Roman Empire, by Wolfgang Schreier, Bonn 2003
After the surprising victories of the Romans against the Sabines the Umbrian League split apart: The Umbrians accepted the status quo with the Romans, the Sabines joined the Romans as Socii, thus loosing their political independence. Only the Etruscans and the Samnites continued fighting. For Rome this was a great relief, because two enemies had been knocked out of the war. In the year 328 BC it seemed that no one could stop the Roman armies. By the end of 327 BC it seemed the other way around. What happened?
The Etruscans sent three huge armies against the northern border of Rome. The Roman legions were still campaigning in Sabine territory, and so the Etruscans captured Caerae and Falerii, two major cities north of Rome. Now the Etruscans were close to the city itself.
In the same year the consul Iunus Publius Philo lead a Roman legion to the south to defend the cities Capua and Neapolis. The Samnite meddix Kelis Puntiis forced the Roman Consul to battle at the Reginian forks
Fabius - Ab Urbe Condita
(written at about 50 BC)
Book IX
(3) The Roman legion was camped at the Reginian forks and it consisted half Roman soldiers and half Latin allies. I. Publius Philo is said to have panicked the moment when he heard that Kelis Puntiis was marching towards him, for Puntiis was a brilliant general who won a many victories for the Samnites. After he calmed down Philo decided to order his men to set up for battle, but rumour of Philos breakdown spoke around already and the soldiers were unsure if thire commander had the nerves to fight against Puntiis.
On the other side Puntiis was determined to exploit the insecurity of Philo and order his man to rush onto the Romans. He advanced fast and after one hour the Roman legion saw the enemy approaching. Puntiis ordered his heavy Samnite troops to attack the right flank of the Roman legion, which consisted the Latin allies.
The battle began during the afternoon, the numbers of troops were equal but the moral of the Romans was low. After a while of heavy fighting between the two armies the Latin troops lost many men since they faced the most experienced and well equipped Samnite troops of all.
On the left light Latin soldiers face heavy Samnite infantry.
Soon their will broke and they started to flee, thus breaking the formation. When the rest of the Roman soldiers saw this happening they decided too to flee from the battlefield, for Philo was not competent enough to lead his men against a soldier like Puntiis. [...]
The Roman army in full flight.
The Roman Empire, by Wolfgang Schreier
The Roman army was in full flight after the defeat at the battle at the Reginian forks and for the next years the Romans would be very much on the defensive in the southern campaign again. In the north an attack on Rome itself by the Etruscans was prevented with the Battle at the Narisian fields 40 kilometres from Rome.
The year 327 BC was a serious blow to the Romans, but it also started military reforms that made the Roman army even more flexible for warfare in the mountains. The Romans would not engage the Samnites in open battle for the next years, but they built more fortifided colonies that made it terribly difficult for the Samnites to gain lands in Campania.
Re: [Multi-AAR] - History of men
Originally Posted by Fixiwee
Some news and behind the scenes infos:) wrote his account on the Roman history a couple of centuries later I actually played ahead with my PI campaign. I wrote his account a week or two later after I actually played it. I wanted to stimulate the fact that his source was written 300 years later. What did I remember? What was added to the facts? How would the ongoing Roman civil war (which will be an upcoming part of EB) influence his portrayal of the "good ol days"?
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