in Ancient Geography, a town of Samnium, on the Via Appia, between Calatia and Beneventum; Caudinus, the epithet. The Caudine Furcae, Furcatae, 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 submission.