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CAUDIUM

Volume 5 · 88 words · 1823 Edition

in Ancient Geography, a town of Samnium, on the Via Appia, between Calatia and Beneventum: Caudinus, the epithet. The Caudine Furcor, Furcator, 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.