CAUDINE FORKS

Latin Furculae Caudinae, narrow mountain pass near Beneventum in ancient Samnium (near modern Montesarchio, Campania, southern Italy). In the Battle of Caudine Forks the Samnites under Gavius Pontius defeated and captured a Roman army in 321 BC, during the Second Samnite War. The Roman army surrendered, and acknowledged that they had been defeated by passing under a yoke of Samnite spears, a unique disgrace.