Caudine Forks

A narrow pass in the mountains near Capua, now called the Valley of Arpaia. It was here that the Roman army, under the consuls T. Veturius Calviʹnus and Sp. Postuʹmius fell into the hands of the Samnites, and were made to pass under the yoke.

“Hard as it was to abandon an enterprise so very dear to him … . he did not hesitate to take the more prudent course of passing under (sic) the Caudine Forks of the Monroe doctrine, and leave Maximilian and the French bondholders to their fate.”—Standard, Nov. 17th, 1866.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Caudine Forks

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