Match Report vs Chartered Trust 11 June 2013 @ Wenvoe (Skipper Jonny F, report Goff)

The Defeat at the Caudine Forks

In 321 BC, the Romans won a victory over the Samnites. The Samnites admitted defeat and wished to make atonement for a war they felt they had prosecuted against the will of the gods. They made some reasonable proposals including an undertaking to hand over to the Romans both the spoils of war and those on their side guilty of starting the war. The romans rejected the terms, bent on continuing the war. The Samnites returned to arms.

As a result of Samnite tactics and the carelessness of the Roman consuls, the Roman army found itself trapped between two mountain passes at a place known as the Caudine Forks. They made hopeless attempts to scale the steep surrounding slopes before finally resigning themselves to suing for peace with the Samnites. The proposals that the Samnites put to the Roman ambassadors was according with the customs of warfare between cities. The Romans would acknowledge their defeat, they would hand back those Samnite territories they had conquered an on which they had set up colonies, they would leave with the Samnites as hostages the officers of the army and 600 cavalry (equestrians), and then they would sign an alliance with the Samnites.

To save their army the Roman consuls accepted the Samnite terms, passed under the yoke with their entire army, stripped of their armour and weapons.
The defeat was a total one to the Romans. The worst defeat in Rome's history. Not so much because they had lost. Rome did not win everyone of its battles. The humiliation lay far more in the nature of the defeat. One had lost without a fight.

The army returned home, a sorry sight. The soldiers arrived back in Rome one evening with the look of prisoners of war. They hid themselves away in their houses. Not one of them showed his face at the forum. The consuls relinquished their offices. No longer soldiers in war, they no longer deemed themselves citizens in peace.

For those of us who had represented the Casuals at Wenvoe, Tuesday 11th June 2012. It was our Caudine Forks. To be known hereon as 'The defeat at Wenvoe'. Humiliation is the only decent description.

A TEN wicket defeat. Johnny F with the bat deserves a mention (44) and Dan economical with the ball.

Enough said. Let it go.

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