Aulus Cornelius Cossus Arvina was a Roman statesman and general who served as both consul and Magister Equitum twice, and Dictator in 322 BC.
The Cornelii were one of the most important families of the Roman Republic, first attaining the consulship in 485 BC, and remaining prominent throughout the next four hundred years, producing figures such as Scipio Africanus and Sulla.
Manlius then turned against the Falisci, who had also allied themselves with the Etruscans, but unable to locate the Faliscan army, he instead ravaged the territory of their chief city, Falerii.
He was saved by the military tribune Publius Decius Mus, who attacked and distracted the Samnites, allowing Cossus to escape with the bulk of his army.
[21][1][20] The Roman historian Livy reports an alternative tradition, in which Cossus was named dictator to oversee the Ludi Romani in place of the praetor, Lucius Plautius, who was unable to do so due to illness.
[22][1][23] The next year, the consuls Spurius Postumius Albinus and Titus Veturius Calvinus were caught in an ambush at the Battle of the Caudine Forks, and their armies were made to pass under the yoke, as well as agreeing to a treaty.
[28] The senate appointed Cossus a fetial, a type of priest who ritually presided over foreign treaties and affairs, to escort the ex-consuls to their fate.
[29][30][31][32][33] However, Gaius Pontius, the Samnite commander who had defeated the consular army, refused to accept the men, judging that to take or put them to death would give the Romans cause to pursue the war with renewed vigor.