Battle of Suessula

The Battle of Suessula was the third and last battle between the Samnites and the Roman Republic in 343 BC, the first year of the First Samnite War. According to the Augustan historian Livy, the Samnites gathered their army at Suessula, at the eastern edge of Campania. The Roman consul Marcus Valerius Corvus took his army by forced marches to Suessula. When the Samnites had to scatter their army to forage for food, Valerius seized the opportunity to capture the Samnite camp and then rout the Samnite foragers. Modern historians believe that details of the battle were entirely invented by Livy and his annalistic sources, and the battle's historicity has also been questioned.