Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 10
D. Spillan, A.M., M.D., Cyrus Evans, Ed.

16. When the election was finished, the former consuls, their command being continued for six months, were ordered to prosecute the war in Samnium. [2] Accordingly, during this next year also, in the consulate of Lucius Volumnius and Appius Claudius, Publius Decius, who had been left consul in Samnium by his colleague, in the character of proconsul, ceased not to spread devastation through all parts of that country; until, at last, he drove the army of the Samnites, which never dared to face him in the field, entirely out of the country. [3] Thus expelled from home, they bent their route to Etruria; and, supposing that the business, which they had often in vain endeavoured to accomplish by embassies, might now be negotiated with more effect, when they were backed by such a powerful armed force, and could intermix terror with their entreaties, they demanded a meeting of the chiefs of Etruria: [4] which being assembled, they set forth the great number of years during which they had waged war with the Romans, in the cause of liberty; “they had,” they said, “tried to sustain, with their own strength, the weight of so great a war: they had also made trial of the support of the adjoining nations, which proved of little avail. [5] When they were unable longer to maintain the conflict, they had sued the Roman people for peace; and had again taken up arms, because [p. 648]they felt peace was more grievous to those with servitude, than war to free men. [6] That their one only hope remaining rested in the Etrurians. They knew that nation to be the most powerful in Italy, in respect of arms, men, and money; to have the Gauls their closest neighbours, born in the midst of war and arms, of furious courage, both from their natural temper, and particularly against the people of Rome, whom they boasted, without infringing the truth, of having made their prisoners, and of having ransomed for gold. [7] If the Etrurians possessed the same spirit which formerly Porsena and their ancestors once had, there was nothing to prevent their obliging the Romans, driven from all the lands on this side of the Tiber, to fight for their own existence, and not for the intolerable dominion which they assumed over Italy. [8] The Samnite army had come to them, in readiness for action, furnished with arms and pay, and were willing to follow that instant, even should they lead to the attack of the city of Rome itself.”