According to Livy's extensive description, the Roman commander, the consul Aulus Cornelius Cossus was marching from Saticula (in southern Italy) when he was almost trapped by a Samnite army in a mountain pass.

His army was only saved because one of his military tribunes, Publius Decius Mus, led a small group of men to seize a hilltop, distracting the Samnites and allowing the consul to escape.

Modern historians are however sceptical of the historical accuracy of Livy's account, and have in particular noted the similarities with how a military tribune is said to have saved Roman army in 258 BC during the First Punic War.

[1] The two Roman consuls for 343 BC, Marcus Valerius Corvus and Aulus Cornelius Cossus, marched each of their armies against the Samnites.

[2] Livy writes that Cornelius then advanced from Saticula and led his army through a mountain pass which descended into a narrow valley.

Unnoticed by the consul the Samnites had occupied the surrounding heights and were waiting for the Roman army to descend into the valley.

The Samnites did not discover Decius until he was nearly at the summit and were then so distracted that they allowed the consul to withdraw the Roman army to more favourable ground.

[4] After the battle the consul summoned an army assembly where he presented Decius with a golden chaplet, a hundred oxen and one white ox with gilded horns.

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

Livy's battle-scenes for this time period are mostly free reconstructions by him and his sources, and there is no compelling reason why this battle should be an exception.

Salmon also thinks Valerius Corvus' Campanian victories in 343 could be doublets of Roman operations against Hannibal in the same area in 215.

In Salmon's reconstruction, there was only one battle in 343: perhaps fought on the outskirts of Capua near the shrine of Juno Gaura, and ending with a narrow Roman victory.