Introduction

During the second Samnite war in 321 bc, the Samnites besieged and defeated the Roman army at Caudine Forks near Caudine in Rome. In accordance with the practice of Italians, the Roman army must go beneath an “archway” formed by crossed spears. This was considered a high humiliation for the defeated army. That was the origin of the phrase “go through the Caudine Forks”, meaning suffering through a grotesque humiliation. Marx and Engels’ thought on the Russian commune’s possibility to “leap over” the Caudine Forks of capitalism was a “hot topic” in Chinese academia since mid-1980s. Here “without having to pass under its harsh tribute” means without having to go through the blight of capitalism. The use of “leaping over” instead of “without passing through” is for sake of brevity.