CAUDIUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of Samnium, on the Via Appia, between Calatia and Beneventum: Caudinus, the epithet. The Caudinae Furcae, Furcatæ, were memorable by the disgrace of the Romans; being spears disposed in the form of a gallows under which prisoners of war were made to pass, and gave name to a defile or narrow pass near Caudium, (Livy); where the Samnites obliged the Roman army and the two consuls to lay down their arms and pass under the gallows, or yoke, as a token of subjection.