Due to the sheer number of the Romans, the Volscian soldiers and Theonian reinforcements could not leave the city and sent only a small number of light infantry to harass the enemy, which obviously had little effect on the Roman army.
Camillus used half his troops for defence and the other half, plus slaves and civilians carrying provisions, to build the camp. He then rotated them regularly so that it took them only three days to construct an initial Roman camp between Setia and Privernum.
Quintus and Licinius, however, couldn’t wait any longer. Thus they propose to launch an attack on Setia.
Camillus had objected first, reminding the two military tribunes that the Volscians had set traps and trenches outside Setia in recent days, making the city’s defences much stronger than before. In addition, there were tens of thousands of Volscian reinforcements in Privernum, not far from Setia, as well as several thousand battle-hardened Theonians who could come to the city’s aid at any moment, adding to the difficulty of the siege.
He, therefore, suggested that they lay siege to Setia without actually attacking it and restrain Privernum. They would then split off twenty thousand men to bypass the two cities and head straight towards Circell while destroying the Volscian fields along the way. If the Volscian reinforcements and the Theonians came to their rescue, they would then take the opportunity to engage the enemy in a field battle. But if the enemy didn’t come, they would attack Circeii and eventually capture it, thus changing this stalemate.
Quintus, however, declined. With the enemy already in front of them, he could simply take Setia and fight a field battle against the enemy in Privernum with the strength of his army rather than going to the trouble of marching more than fifteen kilometres or so to attack Circeii, which the Volscians called dangerous terrain and the risk of being attacked by the enemy, which is both dangerous and troublesome.
And Licinius naturally supported capturing Setia first.
Furius, as the newest of the military tribunes, remained silent. But inwardly, he supported Quintus’ proposal. Their attitude stems from Rome’s military tradition of heavy infantry as the city-state’s main force. Hence, most Roman citizens are more accustomed to a frontal assault and have no concept of a roundabout attack, even after Furius’ worked together with Camillus for so long.
Camillus no longer insisted on his opinion. Instead, he asked to be allowed to stay while fortifying the new camp simultaneously.
In this way, the Romans launched an attack on the city of Setia.
But soon after, they tasted the strength of the fortified defence with the help and guidance of Theonia’s First Legion.
Firstly, the wide trap zone in front of the trench made the Romans suffer, with many soldiers getting their feet caught in a lilia* and stabbed by spikes. (Lilia are pit traps arranged in a quincunx pattern dug by the Roman armies in front of their defences. Frequently they had sharpened stakes set inside them as an extra obstacle to attackers.)
Just as they patiently cleared the traps, the defenders sent out several hundred light infantries who were familiar with the location of the traps. They then divided themselves around the safe area of the trap zone and attacked the Romans, who were busy clearing the traps on the ground with javelins and arrows, causing casualties among the Roman soldiers and slowing the siege’s progress.
The ballistae, three hundred metres from the city, constantly bombard the wall with stone projectiles, even damaging some of them through excessive use; So how could the old city wall of Setia, which had only recently undergone some repairs, withstand the constant bombardment? As a result, several parts of the wall had already crumbled.
But although it was an excellent opportunity to attack the city, the traps outside hampered the Romans, making them unable to approach the city smoothly. Instead, they could only watch as the Volscians filled the gaps with stones and mud. Still, it gave Quintus, Licinius and Furius more confidence to take Setia.
So they sent thousands of light infantry, who risked getting stabbed in the feet, to attack the Volscian light infantry sneaking out of the city, eventually forcing the enemy light infantry, who had suffered many casualties, not to dare leave the city.
A few days later, the Roman soldiers cleared the traps before the trench by paying some casualties.
After leaving nearly fifteen thousand men in camp with Camillus and Furius to guard against the rescue force from Privernum, Quintus and Licinius led about thirty thousand soldiers to attack the city of Setia.
The greatest obstacle to the Romans’ attack was Setia’s wide and deep trenches of Setia and the dense abatis below the wall. However, they were the Volscians’ greatest aid in killing the Romans, as they desperately threw javelins, arrows, stones and boiling oil…
After a long, arduous battle and many casualties, the Romans finally broke through the repaired gap in the wall with their siege equipment. The soldiers then began to pour through the wall openings into the city, but to their surprise, they found another, a slightly shorter earthen wall in front of them, with numerous Volscian soldiers at the top.
Though the Romans at the front knew they were deceived, their comrades behind them remained unaware as they continued to pour in, soon crowding the narrow path.
Then the Volscians, standing on top of the wall, launched long-range attacks from all directions, with every stone and javelin killing Roman soldiers, and the burning flames caused by setting fire to the thrown oil jars made the Romans feel as if they fell into the underworld…
Even after suffering more than two thousand casualties, the Roman army still failed to take the city.
Quintus and Licinius could only return to the camp in melancholy, while Camillus, without saying a word, simply summoned the physicians and soldiers in the camp to treat the wounded.
Meanwhile, the people of Setia were thrilled by the victory, which strengthened their determination to defend the city.
After two days of rest, Quintus and Licinius refused to listen to Camillus’ advice and insisted on attacking the city again. And with Furius at their side, Camillus could only agree.
This time Camillus alone remained in the camp with nearly ten thousand soldiers, including some of the wounded.
On the other hand, the three military tribunes, Quintus, Licinius and Furius, led over thirty thousand Roman soldiers from the east, west and south and launched a fierce attack on Setia.
The battle intensified.
By mid-afternoon, the Romans had launched one attack after another, forcing the Volscians to retreat completely behind their newly-built second wall. And with a shortage of men, the Volscians even had to arm their women and elderly to defend themselves against the fierce Roman onslaught.
At this critical moment, the reinforcements from Privernum arrived and tried to bypass the Roman camp to rescue Setia.
Camillus, who had long been on guard, led seven thousand soldiers out of the camp to intercept them after receiving the scout’s report, leaving more than two thousand men to guard the camp.
The reinforcements from Privernum numbered eight thousand soldiers, with Theonia’s First Legion making up the bulk of them. But even though their numbers weren’t much different from the last time, they were far less fierce than before, as they were a mixed force.
Upon realising this, Camillus became uneasy.
And indeed, the scout returned to confirm his fears: A few thousand Volscian soldiers were approaching the city of Setia from the north.
‘Is there still a Volscian force in the north?!’ Camillus was greatly disturbed and confused when he heard the report.
The truth is that when Privernum received news that the Roman army would storm Setia again, Phryntor concluded that the Setians would find it difficult to resist a fully prepared Roman army. So he gave his proposal, and the Volscian reinforcements followed his bold suggestion.
So they sent five thousand Volscian soldiers to march southwest first. Once they reached the marshes near the coast, they would turn north, stick to the edge of the marshes, and use their familiarity with the terrain to evade Roman scouts. Finally, they would make a wide circle north of Setia.
By the time they arrived, the siege was already at its most intense.
Although the newly built earthen walls withstood the fierce fighting between the two sides, several places still crumbled. As a result, they sent almost all the Setians, whether they were women, elderly, or young boys, as long as they could hold a spear to fill these gaps.
So the arrival of Volscian reinforcements with five thousand of their strongest soldiers while both sides fought fiercely showed that Privernum did their best to save Setia.
When Quintus, Licinius and Furius received the shocking report, it was as if they had been struck hard and could only shout, “Damned scouts! Why hadn’t they spotted the Volscian reinforcements until they were so close?!!…”
Naturally, Quintus also criticised, “Why didn’t Camillus stop them?…”
His accusation was absurd, and the other military tribunes thought Quintus just said those words because of his anxiety. After all, they had already received reports about Camillus leading the army to resist reinforcements from Privernum in the south.
With Volscian reinforcements fast approaching from the north, the Roman army found it difficult to spare troops to intercept them, as they were already fully engaged in the siege. As for the two thousand soldiers left in the camp, they didn’t dare to take them out. If they did, the Volscians could attack their camp and take their supplies and weapons, making it difficult for them to maintain an army of over forty thousand men.
“Why don’t we have our soldiers use Setia’s outer walls to hold back the Volscian reinforcements while we concentrate on capturing Setia?” Furius suggested.
“With the Volscians’ stubborn resistance, our exhausted soldiers would have no strength left to fight the five thousand enemies who newly joined the fray after doing our best to take Setia!” Licinius glanced at Quintus and voiced his opinion with concern.
“Retreat.” Quintus bluntly said. He then continued, “Since we had destroyed most of Setia’s defences, they would be no match for us in the short term. And with few Volscian soldiers left within their walls, those few thousand Volscian reinforcements had arrived in time to become our prisoners tomorrow! Furius, you made a good suggestion. So let’s have the soldiers near the outer walls hold off the enemy reinforcements and buy time for the whole army to retreat.”