The battle is described by the Roman historian Livy (59 BC – AD 17) as part of Book Seven of his history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, where he narrates how the Roman consul Marcus Valerius Corvus won a hard-fought battle against the Samnites at Mount Gaurus, near Cumae, in Campania.

The Samnites had moved into Campania in force, believing this would be the main theatre of war, and were eager to fight.

With the Roman cavalry retreated, a dismounted Valerius decided to lead an infantry assault in person, but once again the Samnite lines did not break despite taking dreadful losses.

[4] When asked why in the end they had fled, the Samnites answered it was "the eyes of the Romans, which seemed to them to blaze, along with their furious expression and frenzied glare".

The Carthaginians, with whom the Romans had concluded a treaty of friendship in 348, congratulated Rome for her victories by sending a golden crown weighing twenty-five pounds for the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

Modern historians believe little, if any, of the detail provided by Livy for this battle derives from authentic records.

[11] Salmon (1967) suspected Valerius' victories in 343 could be doublets of Roman operations against Hannibal in the same area in 215, he also doubted the location of the battle at Mount Gaurus, close to Cumae, but far from Capua.

[12] Since the testimony of the Fasti Triumphales require some degree of Roman success in 343 and arguing that in this time period the Romans were more likely to defeat the Samnites on level than mountainous ground, Salmon (1967) therefore proposed that there was only one battle in 343 which was fought on the outskirts of Capua near the shrine of Juno Gaura, which Livy or his source had confused with Mount Gaurus.