Lucius Papirius Cursor again appeared at the head of the Roman troops sent against the Samnites, and again remained the victor in a great and decisive battle (445), in which the confederates had put forth their last energies.

The flower of their army--the wearers of the striped tunics and golden shields, and the wearers of the white tunics and silver shields--were there extirpated, and their splendid equipments thenceforth on festal occasions decorated the rows of shops along the Roman Forum.

Their distress was ever increasing; the struggle was becoming ever more hopeless.

In the following year (446) the Etruscans laid down their arms; and in the same year the last town of Campania which still adhered to the Samnites, Nuceria, simultaneously assailed on the part of the Romans by water and by land, surrendered under favourable conditions.

The Samnites found new allies in the Umbrians of northern, and in the Marsi and Paeligni of central, Italy, and numerous volunteers even from the Hernici joined their ranks; but movements which might have decidedly turned the scale against Rome, had the Etruscans still remained under arms, now simply augmented the results of the Roman victory without seriously adding to its difficulties.