Page "Samnite Wars" Paragraph 16

Forsythe ( 2005 ) considers the episode with Cornelius Cossus and Decius Mus to have been invented, in part to foreshadow Decius ' sacrifice in 340.

P. Decius might have performed some heroic act which then enabled him to become the first of his family to reach the consulship in 340, but if so no detail of the historical event survives.

Instead later annalists have combined the disaster at the Caudine Forks with the tale of the military tribune of 258 to produce the entirely fictitious story recorded by Livy, the difference being that while in the originals the Romans suffered defeat and death, here none of Decius ' men are killed and the Romans win a great victory.