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Ab Urbe Condita, books 26-27 - 27

Perseus Latin · Perseus Latin · 1 sections

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   Book XXVII SUCH was the state of affairs in Spain. In Italy the consul Marcellus, having regained possession of Salapia by betrayal, took Marmoreae and Meles from the Samnites by force. About three thousand of Hannibal's soldiers, who had been left as a garrison, were overpowered there. The booty —and there was much of it —was turned over to the soldiers. In addition two hundred and forty thousand pecks of wheat and a hundred and ten thousand pecks of barley were found. But the rejoicing in consequence by no means balanced the great loss suffered within a few days not far from the city of Herdonea. There Gnaeus Fulvius, the proconsul, was encamped, in the hope of regaining Herdonea, which had deserted the Romans after the disaster at Cannae; but his camp was pitched in a position neither quite safe nor strongly held. Carelessness, ingrained in the character of the general, was increased by that hope, inasmuch as he had learned that their loyalty was weakening and turning against the Carthaginian, ever since they had heard that, after the loss of Salapia, Hannibal had withdrawn from that region into the land of the Bruttii. The report of all this to Hannibal from Herdonea by secret messengers made him concerned to retain an allied city and at the same time gave him the hope of attacking the enemy unawares. With an army unencumbered by baggage he hastened by forced marches to Herdonea, so that he almost outstripped reports of his coming; and to strike more alarm into the enemy, he approached the city in battle-array. The Roman, who was his equal in boldness but not in strategy and in forces, hastily led out his troops and engaged. The fifth legion and the left ala went into battle with spirit. But Hannibal gave the order to his cavalry, that when the infantry lines should have concentrated the eyes and attention of the enemy upon the immediate conflict, they should turn the flanks and attack, some of them the enemy's camp, some the rear of the wavering troops. And he himself, scornfully alluding to the similarity in the name of Gnaeus Fulvius, since he had defeated a praetor Gnaeus Fulvius two years before in the same region, asserted that the outcome of the battle would be similar. Nor was that hope groundless. For when many of the Romans had fallen in the close contact of the lines during the infantry battle, while the ranks and standards nevertheless held their ground, the wild charge of the cavalry was heard in the rear, and at the same time the shouts of the enemy from the camp. This routed first the sixth legion, which was posted in the second line and was the first to be thrown into disorder by the Numidians; and then it routed the fifth legion and the men who were with the front-line standards. Some scattered in flight, some were slain in the centre of the battle, where Gnaeus Fulvius also fell together with eleven tribunes of the soldiers. How many thousand Romans and allies were slain in that battle who could state with certainty, inasmuch as in one source I find thirteen thousand, in another not more than seven? The camp and booty fell to the victor. As for Herdonea, in view of his information that it would have revolted to the Romans and would not remain loyal to him if he should withdraw, he removed the whole population to Metapontum and Thurii and set fire to the city. He put to death the leading men who, he was informed, had had secret conversations with Fulvius. The Romans who had made their escape from so disastrous a battle, by different roads and half-armed sought refuge with the consul Marcellus in Samnium. Marcellus, who was not particularly alarmed by so serious a defeat, wrote a letter to the senate at Rome in regard to the loss of general and army at Herdonea. He said that nevertheless, being the same man who, after the battle of Cannae, had frustrated Hannibal, elated by that victory, he was marching against him to cut short his joy and exultation. At Rome, to be sure, there was not only great sorrow owing to what had happened, but also great fear for the future. The consul, however, crossing over from Samnium into Lucania, pitched camp near Numistro, on level ground in sight of Hannibal, while the Carthaginian held a hill. He added the further appearance of confidence in being the first to lead out into battle-line. And Hannibal did not refuse, when he saw the standards borne out of the gates. Nevertheless they drew up their lines so that the Carthaginian made his right wing reach up the hill, while the Romans rested their left wing on the town. On the Roman side the first legion and right ala, on Hannibal's side the Spanish soldiers and Balearic slingers were engaged; and the elephants also were driven into battle after the conflict had begun. For a long time the battle hung in the balance, not inclining in either direction. After they had prolonged the battle from the third hour to nightfall and the front lines were exhausted by fighting, the third legion relieved the first, the left ala relieved the right, and among the enemy fresh troops took over the battle from the weary. A new battle and fierce suddenly flamed out of a conflict now grown spiritless, for the combatants were now fresh in spirit and in body. But night parted them with victory undecided. On the next day the Romans stood in line from sunrise until late in the day. When none of the enemy came out against them, they gathered spoils at their leisure, carried corpses of their men into one place and burned them. On the following night Hannibal broke camp silently and marched away into Apulia. Marcellus, when day disclosed the flight of the enemy, left the wounded at Numistro with a small garrison, placed Lucius Furius Purpurio, a tribune of the soldiers, in command of them, and made haste to follow on Hannibal's heels. Near Venusia he overtook him. There for a number of days, while charges were made by outposts, there were mixed cavalry and infantry engagements, rather skirmishes than important battles, and nearly all of them favourable to the Romans. Thence the armies were led through Apulia without any notable conflict, since Hannibal would set his standards in motion by night, seeking positions for ambuscades, while Marcellus did not follow except in broad daylight and after reconnoitring. At Capua meantime, while Flaccus was spending his time in selling the property of leading men, in leasing lands that had been confiscated — and he leased them all in return for grain —a fresh crime fomented in secret was brought to light by informers, that he might not lack occasion for harsh treatment of the Capuans. The soldiers had been removed from dwellings, in order that houses in the city might be leased together with the land, and because Flaccus at the same time feared that the great charms of the city might weaken his army also, as they had Hannibal's. Accordingly he had compelled them to build their own shelters soldier-fashion at the gates and along the walls. Furthermore most of these were made of wickerwork and planks, others of reeds interwoven, all of them thatched with straw, as though these materials were deliberately intended to feed the flames. A hundred and seventy Capuans, under the lead of the brothers Blossii, had conspired to set fire to all of these huts at the same hour of the night. Information in regard to this was given by slaves of the Blossii, and the gates were suddenly closed by order of the proconsul. The soldiers having rushed to arms at a given signal, all who were involved in the crime were arrested, and after a rigorous inquiry were condemned and put to death. The informers received their freedom and ten thousand asses each. As for the men of Nuceria and Acerrae, who complained that they had no dwelling-place, since Acerrae had been partly burned and Nuceria destroyed, Fulvius sent them to the senate at Rome. The Acerrans were permitted to restore what had been burned; the Nucerians, having so elected, were conducted to Atella, while the Atellans were ordered to migrate to Calatia. Among the many important events which were engaging men's attention, as being now favourable and now unfavourable, the citadel of Tarentum also was not forgotten. Marcus Ogulnius and Publius Aquilius set out for Etruria as commissioners to buy up grain to be shipped to Tarentum. And a thousand soldiers, equally divided between Romans and allies from the army at the city, were sent with the grain to the same place on garrison duty. Already the summer was at an end and the time for the consular election at hand. But a letter from Marcellus, stating that it was against the public interest for him to move a step away from Hannibal, since he was himself pressing him hard as he retired and refused an engagement, had inspired concern, for fear they must call the consul away from the war at the moment when he was actively engaged, or else should be without consuls for the next year. It seemed best instead to recall the consul Valerius from Sicily, even though he was outside of Italy. To Valerius under orders from the senate Lucius Manlius, the city praetor, sent a letter, together with the letter of Marcus Marcellus, the consul, that from these letters Valerius might learn what reason the senators had for recalling him rather than his colleague from his province. About the same time legates from King Syphax came to Rome, reporting what successes he had had in battle with the Carthaginians. They stated that the king was not more hostile to any people than to the Carthaginian, nor more friendly to any than to the Roman people; that previously he had sent legates to Spain to Gnaeus and Publius Cornelius, the Roman generals; that now he was minded to seek Roman friendship, as it were at the very source. The senate not only replied graciously to the legates, but also sent its legates, Lucius Genucius, Publius Poetelius, Publius Popillius, to the king with gifts. They took with them as gifts a purple toga and tunic, an ivory chair, a golden patera weighing five pounds. They were ordered to go on and visit other princes in Africa. For these also they took with them bordered togas and golden paterae, each of them three pounds in weight, to be presented to them. Also to Alexandria as ambassadors to the monarchs, Ptolemy and Cleopatra, were sent Marcus Atilius and Manius Acilius, to call to mind and revive friendship with them. As gifts they carried for the king a purple toga and tunic, with an ivory chair, for the queen an embroidered palla and a purple cloak. During the summer in which these events occurred many portents were reported from neighbouring cities and from the country: that at Tusculum a lamb was born with an udder full of milk, and that the ridge of Jupiter's temple was struck by lightning and stripped of almost all its roofing; that at Anagnia about the same time ground struck by lightning outside the gate burned for a day and a night without any fuel; and that at the crossroads near Anagnia, in the grove of Diana, birds deserted their nests in the trees; that at Tarracina, in the sea not far from the harbour, serpents of remarkable size leaped about after the manner of fish at play; that at Tarquinii a pig was born with a human face; and that in the territory of Capena, at the grove of Feronia, four statues sweated blood profusely for a day and a night. These prodigies were atoned for with full-grown victims by decree of the pontiffs. And prayers were ordered for one day in Rome at all the pulvinaria, and for a second day at the grove of Feronia, in the territory of Capena. Marcus Valerius, the consul, on being summoned by the letter, assigned his province and army to Lucius Cincius, a praetor, and sent Marcus Valerius Messalla, admiral of the fleet, with a part of his ships to Africa, to plunder and at the same time to find out what the Carthaginian state was doing and preparing to do. The consul himself set out for Rome with ten ships, and on his safe arrival he at once held a session of the senate, in which he set forth his own achievements: that for almost sixty years war had been carried on in Sicily by land and sea, often with great losses, but now he had completed the conquest of that province. He said that there was not a Carthaginian in Sicily; that not a Sicilian was absent; that those who had been absent, banished by their fears, had all been brought back to their cities, to their lands, and were ploughing and sowing; that a deserted land was again under cultivation, productive at last for the farmers themselves, and for the Roman people in peace and in war a most dependable source of the grain supply. Then Muttines and any others who had done services to the Roman people were brought into the senate, and honours were bestowed upon them all, in fulfilment of the consul's promise. Muttines was even made a Roman citizen, when in accordance with a decree of the senate a bill had been proposed to the plebs by its tribunes. While these events were occurring at Rome, Marcus Valerius, having approached the coast of Africa with fifty ships before daybreak, made an unexpected landing on the territory of Utica. And this he ravaged far and wide, captured many persons together with other booty of every description, returned to his ships and crossed over to Sicily, sailing back to Lilybaeum on the 13th day after he had left that port. Upon inquiry made from the captives the following facts were ascertained and written down fully and in order for the consul Laevinus, that he might know what the condition of affairs in Africa was: that five thousand Numidians were at Carthage under Masinissa, son of Gala and a most impetuous young man; and that other soldiers were being hired everywhere in Africa, to be sent over to Hasdrubal in Spain, so that he should cross over into Italy with the largest possible army as soon as he could and join Hannibal; that upon this the Carthaginians believed that victory depended; furthermore that a very large fleet was being made ready, for the purpose of recovering Sicily; and he believed that fleet would soon make the passage. These statements as read by the consul so swayed the senators that they decided that he must not wait for the elections, but that after appointing a dictator to conduct the elections, the consul must at once return to his province. Debate continued on one point —namely, the consul kept promising to appoint in Sicily Marcus Valerius Messalla, then in command of the fleet, as dictator, while the fathers maintained that a dictator could not be appointed outside of Roman territory, and that this was confined to Italy. When Marcus Lucretius, tribune of the plebs, sought to know its pleasure in the matter, the senate decreed that, before leaving the city, the consul should ask the people whom they preferred to have named dictator, and should name as dictator the man ordered by the people; that if the consul should refuse, the praetor should ask the people; in case of his refusal also, the tribunes should bring the matter before the commons. When the consul refused to submit to the people a question that belonged to his own authority, and forbade the praetor to do so, the tribunes asked the commons and the commons ordained that Quintus Fulvius, who was then at Capua, should be named dictator. But on the day on which that plebeian assembly was to be held the consul left for Sicily secretly by night. And the fathers, being deserted, voted to send a letter to Marcus Claudius, that he should come to the aid of the state abandoned by his colleague, and should name as dictator whomsoever the people might command. Thus Quintus Fulvius was named dictator by Marcus Claudius, the consul, and in accordance with the same decree of the commons Publius Licinius Crassus, pontifex maximus, was named master of the horse by Quintus Fulvius as dictator. On coming to Rome the dictator sent Gaius Sempronius Blaesus, his lieutenant, whom he had had at Capua, into Etruria as his province, to be with the army, taking the place of the praetor Gaius Calpurnius, whom he had summoned by letter to take command of Capua and his own army. As for himself, he proclaimed the elections for the earliest possible date. But owing to the conflict which arose between the tribunes and the dictator the election could not be completed. The Galeria century of the younger men, which obtained by lot the right to vote first, had voted for Quintus Fulvius and Quintus Fabius as consuls; and the centuries called in the legal order would have inclined in the same direction, if the tribunes of the plebs, Gaius and Lucius Arrenius, had not intervened. They repeated that to prolong a magistracy was not consistent with the common interest, and also that it was a much more dangerous precedent for the man who was conducting the election to be himself elected. Accordingly, they said, if the dictator admitted his own name, they would veto the election; if other men than himself were considered, they would not delay the election. The dictator defended the procedure in the election by the authority of the senate, by the decree of the commons, by precedents. For, he said, in the consulship of Gnaeus Servilius, when Gaius Flaminius, the other consul, had fallen at Trasumennus, by authority of the fathers it was proposed to the commons, and the commons had ordained that, so long as the war remained in Italy, the people should have the right to re-elect as consuls the men they pleased and as often as they pleased from the number of those who had been consuls. He added that he had precedents for so doing: an old instance, that of Lucius Postumius Megellus, who as interrex had been elected consul with Gaius Iunius Bubulcus at an election which he had himself conducted; and a recent case, that of Quintus Fabius, who surely would never have permitted his consulship to be prolonged unless it were done for the public welfare. After a contest long continued by such speeches, final agreement between the dictator and the tribunes was reached: that they would stand by whatever the senate should decide. To the fathers it seemed a time for the state to have its affairs in the hands of generals mature and experienced and skilled in war; and so they said they did not favour any delaying of the election. Since the tribunes gave way, the election was held. Quintus Fabius Maximus was declared consul for the fifth time, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus for the fourth. Then as praetors the following were elected: Lucius Veturius Philo, Titus Quinctius Crispinus, Gaius Hostilius Tubulus, Gaius Aurunculeius. The magistrates having been elected for the year, Quintus Fulvius abdicated his dictatorship. At the end of this summer a Carthaginian fleet of forty ships under command of the prefect Hamilcar crossed over to Sardinia and first laid waste the region of Olbia. Then after Publius Manlius Volso, the praetor, showed himself there with an army, the fleet coasted around from Olbia to the other side of the island, ravaged the territory of Carales and returned with booty of every kind to Africa. Of the Roman priests a number died that year and successors were appointed. Gaius Servilius was made pontifex in place of Titus Otacilius Crassus; Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Tiberius, was made augur in place of Titus Otacilius Crassus. In like manner Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Tiberius, was appointed decemvir for the performance of rites in place of Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Gaius. Marcus Marcius, rex sacrorum, and Marcus Aemilius Papus, the chief curio, died; and no priests were appointed that year in their places. And this year had as censors Lucius Veturius Philo and Publius Licinius Crassus, pontifex maximus. Crassus Licinius had been neither consul nor praetor before he became censor; he made but one step from aedileship to censorship. But these censors neither revised the senate list nor did any public business. The death of Veturius dissolved their censorship, consequently Licinius abdicated his office. The curule aediles, Lucius Veturius and Publius Licinius Varus, renewed the Roman Games for one day. The plebeian aediles, Quintus Catius and Lucius Porcius Licinus, out of money paid in fines set up bronze statues at the Temple of Ceres, and they celebrated the games with splendid appointments, considering the resources of the time. VII. At the end of this year Gaius Laelius, Scipio's lieutenant, came to Rome on the thirty-fourth day after leaving Tarraco. And on entering the city with a train of captives he occasioned a great concourse of people. Introduced into the senate the next day, he set forth the capture of (New) Carthage, chief city of Spain, in a single day, and the recovery of a number of cities that had revolted, and the admission of new cities into alliance. From the captives they ascertained facts which in general agreed with statements previously made in the letter of Marcus Valerius Messalla. What especially stirred the fathers was Hasdrubal's proposed crossing into Italy, which was with difficulty withstanding Hannibal and his arms. On being brought before an assembly also, Laelius discoursed on the same subject. The senate decreed a thanksgiving for one day on account of Publius Scipio's successes. It ordered Gaius Laelius to return as soon as possible to Spain on the ships with which he had come. —The storming of (New) Carthage I have set in this year on the authority of many writers, though not unaware that there are some who have related its capture in the following year. I have done so because it has seemed to me less probable that Scipio spent a whole year in Spain doing nothing. Quintus Fabius Maximus being now consul for the fifth and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus for the fourth time, on the Ides of March, the day of their entry upon office, Italy was assigned to the two as their province; their military authority, however, was geographically divided. Fabius was to command around Tarentum, Fulvius in Lucania and the land of the Bruttii. For Marcus Claudius his command was prolonged for one year. The praetors received their assignments by lot, Gaius Hostilius Tubulus the city praetorship, Lucius Veturius Philo the jurisdiction over foreigners, together with Gaul; Titus Quinctius Crispinus received Capua, Gaius Aurunculeius Sardinia. The armies were distributed among the assignments as follows: to Fulvius the two legions which Marcus Valerius Laevinus had in Sicily, to Quintus Fabius those which Gaius Calpurnius had commanded in Etruria; the army at the city was to take the place of that in Etruria; Gaius Calpurnius was to be in command of that province and its army; Titus Quinctius was to be in charge of Capua and the army which Quintus Fulvius had held. Gaius Hostilius was to take over from Gaius Laetorius, the propraetor, his province and the army which was then at Ariminum. To Marcus Marcellus were assigned the legions with which he had carried on operations as consul. To Marcus Valerius and Lucius Cincius —for their command in Sicily was also prolonged —was assigned the army from Cannae, and they were ordered to recruit it from the soldiers who survived from the legions of Gnaeus Fulvius. These were sought out and sent by the consuls into Sicily. And there was added the same humiliation in the service as that under which the men from Cannae were serving, and those from the army of the praetor Gnaeus Fulvius, who had been sent thither by the senate out of anger on account of their similar flight. To Gaius Aurunculeius in Sardinia were assigned the same legions with which Publius Manlius Volso had held that province. Publius Sulpicius was ordered to hold Macedonia with the same legion and the same fleet, and his command was prolonged for one year. Thirty quinqueremes were ordered to be sent from Sicily to Quintus Fabius, the consul, at Tarentum. With the rest of his fleet it was the will of the senate, he was informed, that Marcus Valerius Laevinus should either cross over into Africa himself to plunder the country, or should send at his discretion Lucius Cincius or Marcus Valerius Messalla. And in regard to Spain no change was made, except that the commands of Scipio and Silanus were prolonged, not for one year, but until they should be recalled by the senate. Thus were the assignments and army commands apportioned for that year. In the midst of their attention to more important matters the election of a maximus curio, when they were choosing a priest to succeed Marcus Aemilius, stirred up an old contest. The patricians declared that no regard should be paid to C. Mamilius Atellus, the one plebeian who was a candidate, since no one not a patrician had previously held that priesthood. The tribunes were appealed to, and referred the case back to the senate; the senate gave the people power to decide. Thus as the first plebeian Gaius Mamilius Atellus was elected maximus curio. And Publius Licinius, the pontifex maximus, compelled Gaius Valerius Flaccus to be installed as flamen of Jupiter, although unwilling. Gaius Laetorius was named one of the decemviri for the performance of rites in place of Quintus Mucius Scaevola deceased. The reason for installing a flamen perforce I should gladly have passed over in silence, had not his reputation changed from bad to good. Because of his irresponsible and dissipated youth Gaius Flaccus, who was odious to his own brother, Lucius Flaccus, and other relatives on account of the same vices, had been seized upon as flamen by Publius Licinius, pontifex maximus. As soon as the charge of rites and ceremonies took possession of his mind, Gaius so suddenly put off his old character that no one among all the young men stood higher in the estimation and approval of the leading senators, both of his own family and of strangers alike. By the unanimity of this good report he was raised to a well-founded self-confidence, and claimed what had been in abeyance for many years owing to the unworthiness of former flamens, namely, that he should be admitted to the senate. When he had entered the Senate House, and the praetor, Publius Licinius, had escorted him out of it, he appealed to the tribunes of the plebs. The flamen insistently claimed an ancient right of his priesthood, saying it had been granted to that office of flamen along with the toga praetexta and the sella curulis. The praetor maintained that a right was based, not upon outmoded instances from the annals, but in each case upon very recent practice; and that within the memory neither of their fathers nor grandfathers had any flamen of Jupiter exercised that right. The tribunes expressed the opinion that obsolescence due to the indolence of flamens was justly accounted their own loss, not a loss to the priestly office. Whereupon, without opposition even from the praetor himself, and with the general approval of the senators and of the commons, the tribunes led the flamen into the senate, for it was the opinion of everyone that the flamen had carried his point rather by the uprightness of his life than by virtue of priestly privilege. The consuls, before leaving for their provinces, enrolled two city legions to supplement the other armies so far as was necessary. The duty of leading the former city army into Etruria the consul Fulvius assigned to Gaius Fulvius Flaccus, his lieutenant —this was the consul's brother —also that of bringing the legions that were in Etruria away to Rome. And Fabius, the consul, ordered his son Quintus Maximus to search out the remains of the Fulvian. army —and they amounted to four thousand three hundred and forty-four —and to conduct them to Sicily to Marcus Valerius, the proconsul; also to receive from him two legions and thirty quinqueremes. The withdrawal of these legions from the islands did not reduce the garrison of that province at all either in actual strength or in appearance. For Valerius, in addition to the two old legions remarkably well recruited, had a large number of Numidian deserters also, cavalry and infantry; and he enrolled Sicilians likewise who had been in the army of Epicydes or of the Carthaginians, being men trained in warfare. Having attached these foreign auxiliary forces to each of the Roman legions, he preserved the appearance of two armies. With the one he ordered Lucius Cincius to defend that part of the island where had been the kingdom of Hiero; with the other he himself defended the rest of the island, formerly divided by the boundaries between the Roman and the Punic empires. The fleet also of seventy ships was divided, so that they might protect the seacoast around its entire circuit. Valerius himself with Muttines' cavalry roamed about his province, in order to visit the farms and to distinguish between cultivated and uncultivated lands, and to praise or upbraid the owners accordingly. So, owing to this diligence, such a crop of grain was produced that he sent grain to Rome and also transported it to Catina, whence it could be supplied to the army which was to have its summer camp near Tarentum. But the transfer of soldiers to Sicily —and the most of them were of Latin status or allies —was the cause of an outbreak which might have been serious; so true is it that on small things often depends the course of great events. For complaints began to be heard among Latins and allies in their gatherings: that for now the tenth year they had been exhausted by levies of troops and their pay; that almost every year they fought in a disastrous defeat. Some, they said, were slain in battle, others carried off by disease. The townsman who was enlisted by the Roman was lost to them more completely than a man taken captive by the Carthaginian. For with no demand for a ransom the enemy sent him back to his native town; the Romans transported him out of Italy, really into exile rather than into military service. For the eighth year now the soldiers from Cannae were growing old there, certain to die before the enemy, who at the very moment was in the flower of his strength, departed out of Italy. If the old soldiers should not return to their native places, and fresh soldiers continued to be levied, soon no one would be left. Accordingly, what the situation itself would soon refuse must be refused the Roman people without waiting to reach the extreme of desolation and poverty. If the Romans should see the allies unanimous to this effect, surely they would think of making peace with the Carthaginians. Otherwise never, so long as Hannibal lived, would Italy be rid of war. Such were the matters debated in their meetings. There were at that time thirty colonies of the Roman state. Of these, while delegations from them all were at Rome, twelve informed the consuls that they had no means of furnishing soldiers and money. These were Ardea, Nepete, Sutrium, Alba, Carsioli, Sora, Suessa, Circeii, Setia, Cales, Narnia, Interamna. The consuls, deeply impressed by what was unheard-of, wishing to deter them from so abominable a move, and thinking they should accomplish more by upbraiding and rebuking them than by soft words, told them that they had dared to say to the consuls what the consuls could not bring themselves to utter in the senate. For it was not a refusal of burdens and of military service, but an open revolt from the Roman people. Accordingly they should return to their colonies promptly, and, as though nothing had been settled, since they had spoken of so great a crime but had not yet ventured to commit it, they should deliberate with their people. Let them remind them that they were not Capuans nor Tarentines, but Romans, sprung from Rome and sent thence into colonies and on land captured in war, to increase their race. All that children owed to their parents they owed, it was said, to the Romans, if there was any filial affection, any memory of their former city. Let them therefore deliberate again; for their present reckless proposal tended to betray the Roman empire, to give over the victory to Hannibal. The consuls by turns kept on for a long time in this strain; but the deputies, still unmoved, said that they had nothing to report back home, nor did their senates have anything new to decide upon, in towns where there were neither soldiers to be enlisted nor money to be furnished for pay. The consuls, finding them unyielding, brought the matter before the senate; and there such terror was inspired in the minds of the members that a great many of them said the empire was at an end; that the same thing would be done by the other colonies, the same by the allies; that they all had conspired to betray the city of Rome to Hannibal. The consuls exhorted and comforted the senate, and said that the rest of the colonies would be loyal and dutiful as formerly; that even the colonies which had abandoned their duty would have respect for the empire, if legates should be sent about among them to upbraid, not to entreat. Permission having been given the consuls by the senate to act and do as they thought to be for the interest of the state, after first sounding the temper of the other colonies, they summoned their legates, and asked them whether they had any soldiers in readiness according to the compact. On behalf of the eighteen colonies Marcus Sextilius, of Fregellae, replied that they had soldiers in readiness according to the compact, and would give more if more were needed, and would exert themselves to do whatever else the Roman people might command and desire. To that end, he said, they did not lack means and had even a surplus of spirit. The consuls began by saying that to do the men justice it did not seem enough that they should receive praise from the lips of the consuls only, without having the entire senate first return thanks to them in the Senate House; and then they bade them to follow into the senate. After addressing them in a decree as complimentary as possible, the senate instructed the consuls to bring them before the people also, and along with the many other conspicuous services they had rendered to the senators themselves and their ancestors, to recount their recent service also to the state. Even now, after so many generations, they shall not be passed over in silence or defrauded of their praise. It was the men of Signia and Norba and Saticula and Fregellae, and of Luceria and Venusia, and of Brundisium and Hadria and Firmum and Ariminum, and on the other sea, the men of Pontiae and Paestum and Cosa, and in the interior, the men of Beneventum and Aesernia and Spoletium, and of Placentia and Cremona. With the aid of these colonies at that time the empire of the Roman people stood fast, and thanks were rendered to them in the senate and before the people. Of the other twelve colonies, which refused to obey orders, the senators forbade any mention to be made; their legates should neither be dismissed nor detained nor spoken to by the consuls. That silent rebuke seemed most in keeping with the majesty of the Roman people. While the consuls were endeavouring to provide everything else needed for the war, it was voted that the gold yielded by the five per cent tax on manumissions, and kept in the more sacred treasury to meet extreme emergencies, should be brought out. About four thousand pounds of gold were brought out. Of this five hundred pounds each were given to the consuls and to Marcus Marcellus and Publius Sulpicius, the proconsuls, and to Lucius Veturius, the praetor who had by lot received Gaul as his province. And for Fabius, the consul, there were added a hundred pounds of gold above the rest, to be conveyed to the citadel of Tarentum. The remainder of the gold they employed in letting contracts in terms of ready money for clothing for the army which was carrying on the war in Spain, with distinction to itself and to its commander. It was further voted that for prodigies the atonement be made before the consuls should set out from the city. On the Alban Mount a statue of Jupiter and a tree near the temple had been struck by lightning; and at Ostia a basin, and at Capua the city wall and the temple of Fortune, and at Sinuessa the wall and a gate. These were struck by lightning. Also some persons testified that the current of the outlet of the Alban Lake was blood-red, and that at Rome inside the cella of the Temple of Fors Fortuna a small image on a garland fell of itself from the head of the statue into the hand. And at Privernum it was established that an ox spoke, and that in the crowded market-place a vulture flew down upon a shop, and that at Sinuessa a child was born of uncertain sex, as between male and female —the populace call them hermaphrodites, as it uses many similar terms, since the Greek language is more apt in compounding words —; also that it rained milk there, and that a child was born with the head of an elephant. These prodigies were atoned for with full-grown victims, and prayers were ordered at all the pulvinaria, and entreaties for one day. And it was decreed that Gaius Hostilius, the praetor, should vow and conduct games in honour of Apollo, as they had been vowed and conducted in those years. About that time Quintus Fulvius, the consul, also held an election for the naming of censors. Marcus Cornelius Cethegus and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus, both of whom had not yet been consuls, were named censors. That these censors should lease lands in the Campanian region was proposed to the commons on the authority of the senate, and the commons so ordered. The revision of the list of the senate was delayed by a dispute between the censors in regard to the choice of a princeps senatus. The choice belonged to Sempronius; but Cornelius said that they must follow the traditional custom of the senate, namely, to choose as princeps the man who, among the living, had been censor first. That was Titus Manlius Torquatus. Sempronius claimed that if the gods had given a man the choice by lot, they also gave him an unrestricted right; he would make the choice according to his own judgment, and would choose Quintus Fabius Maximus, whom he could prove, even with Hannibal as judge, to be at that time the first citizen of the Roman state. After the war of words had lasted long, his colleague was giving way, and Sempronius chose Quintus Fabius Maximus, the consul, as princeps senatus. Then the rest of the list of the senate was made up, with eight men ignored, among whom was Marcus Caecilius Metellus, notorious as having advised the desertion of Italy after the disaster at Cannae. In attaching their nota to knights also the same principle was maintained, but very few were the men to whom that notoriety applied. From all of those who, as horsemen belonging to the legions from Cannae, were in Sicily —and there were many of them —their horses were taken away. To this severity the censors added also prolonged service —that the years previously served with horses furnished by the state should not be reckoned, but that they must serve ten years, furnishing their own mounts. Furthermore they sought out a great number of the men who were bound to serve in the cavalry, and reduced to the grade of aerarii all those who at the beginning of the war had been seventeen years old and had not served. They then contracted for the rebuilding of what had been destroyed by fire around the Forum, namely, seven shops, the market, the Atrium Regium. Having completed everything that was to be done at Rome, the consuls set out for the war. Fulvius went first and led the way to Capua. After a few days he was overtaken by Fabius, who implored his colleague in person and Marcellus also by letter to keep Hannibal occupied by the most spirited fighting possible while he himself was besieging Tarentum. With that city taken from him, he said, the enemy, beaten back on every side, and having no place where he might make a stand nor any loyal support to look to, would also find no reason for lingering in Italy. He sent a messenger to Regium also, to the commander of the garrison which had been posted there against the Bruttii by Laevinus, the consul, eight thousand men, for the most part from Agathyrna, as has been said above, who had been brought over from Sicily, being men accustomed to live by plundering. To their number had been added from the same region Bruttian deserters, a match for them in daring and in the urgent needs that compelled them to take any risk. This force Fabius ordered to be led out first for the purpose of ravaging the country of the Bruttians, and then of besieging the city of Caulonia. After carrying out their orders not only with energy but also with zest, robbing and putting to flight the tillers of the soil, they proceeded to assail the city with great violence. Marcellus, spurred by the consul's letter, and also because he had come to believe that no Roman general was so good a match for Hannibal as himself, set out from winter quarters as soon as there was abundance of pasture in the fields, and encountered Hannibal near Canusium. The Carthaginian was tempting the men of Canusium to revolt; but on hearing of the approach of Marcellus, he moved his camp away. It was an open country, with no concealment for ambuscades; accordingly he began to retire from it into wooded regions. Marcellus kept at his heels and would place camp close to camp, and after completing his fortifications, he would at once lead his legions out into battle-line. Hannibal by his cavalry in single troops and by spearmen on foot kept bringing on slight engagements, but thought the risk of a general conflict unnecessary. Nevertheless he was drawn into the conflict which he was trying to avoid. When the enemy had gone ahead by night, Marcellus overtook him in level and open country. Then as Hannibal was pitching camp, the Roman by fighting on all sides against the men engaged in fortifying prevented them from doing so. Thus standards faced standards and it was a battle with all their forces, and when night was now at hand, they separated on even terms. The camps, separated by a very short distance, were hastily fortified before night. The next day Marcellus led out his forces into line at daybreak. And Hannibal did not refuse battle, after he had exhorted his soldiers at length, that, remembering Trasumennus and Cannae, they should crush the over-confidence of the enemy, who was pressing them, Hannibal said, and threatening them, not allowing them to march undisturbed, nor to pitch their camp, nor to take breath and look around them; every day they must at the same moment see the sun rising and the Roman battle-line in the plain; if he should come out of a single battle not without some losses, the enemy would thereafter carry on the war more calmly and quietly. Inflamed by these exhortations and also weary of the high spirit of a foe who daily pressed upon them and challenged them, they went into battle fiercely. They fought for more than two hours. Then on the side of the Romans the right ala and the élite troops began to give way. Seeing this Marcellus led up the eighteenth legion into the front rank. While the one part in disorder was yielding ground, and the other was slow in coming up, the whole line was confused, then thoroughly routed, and as fear overpowered the sense of shame, they fled. In battle and flight some two thousand seven hundred citizens and allies fell, among them four Roman centurions, two tribunes of the soldiers, Marcus Licinius and Marcus Helvius. Four military standards were lost from the ala which was the first to flee, and two from the legion which had relieved the allies as they gave way. Marcellus, after they had returned to camp, made a speech to the soldiers which was so savage and bitter that, although they had borne the battle all day long without success, the angry general's speech was more ferocious to them. The immortal gods, he said, have my praises and thanks, so far as one can be grateful now, because the victorious enemy, when you were throwing yourselves in such fright upon the earthwork and the gates, did not attack the camp itself. You would surely have deserted the camp in terror, just as in terror you abandoned the battle. What fright is this, what terror, that have taken possession of your minds, what sudden forgetting who you are and in battle with whom? Of course these are the same enemies in defeating whom, and in pursuing them when defeated, you have spent last summer, the same men whom you have pressed hard in these days, as they were fleeing day and night, whom you have wearied by slight engagements, whom yesterday you did not allow either to march or to pitch camp. I pass over the things of which you can boast. I shall mention something for which you ought also to feel shame and regret; namely, you broke off the battle yesterday while it was undecided. What has this night, what has this day brought? Have your troops been reduced, or their forces increased in that time? For my part I do not seem to be speaking with my army nor with Roman soldiers. It is merely your bodies and weapons that are the same. Can it be that, if you had had the same spirit, the enemy would have seen your backs? And would he have taken standards from any maniple or cohort? Till now his boasting was in the slaughter of Roman legions: you have this day given him for the first time the distinction of putting an army to flight. Then they began to shout that he should pardon them for that day, and afterwards, whenever he wished, he should test the spirit of his soldiers. I will indeed test them, soldiers, said he, and to-morrow I will lead you out into battle-line, that as victors, rather than as vanquished, you may gain the pardon for which you ask. To the cohorts which had lost their standards he ordered barley to be issued, and as for the centurions of the maniples whose standards had been lost, he made them stand aside with drawn swords and no belts; and he ordered that on the morrow they should all, infantry and cavalry, present themselves under arms. So the assembly was dismissed, as the men confessed that they had been upbraided with good reason and deservedly, and that on that day in the Roman line no one had been a man except the general alone, whom they must satisfy either by dying or by a glorious victory. The next day they presented themselves according to orders armed and equipped. The general praised them warmly and declared that he would. lead out into the first line the men with whom the flight had begun the day before, and the cohorts which had lost their standards; that now he proclaimed that they must all fight and win, and strive singly and collectively to prevent news of yesterday's flight from reaching Rome before that of to-day's victory. They were then bidden to strengthen themselves by eating, so that, if the battle should be prolonged, they might have sufficient endurance. When everything had been said and done that could arouse the soldiers' spirits, they advanced into line. When this was reported to Hannibal, Of a truth, he said, we have to deal with an enemy who can bear neither good fortune nor bad. If he has won, he furiously presses the defeated; if on the other hand he has been defeated, he renews the conflict with the victors. Then he ordered the trumpets to sound and led out his forces. On both sides the battle was much fiercer than the day before, the Carthaginians striving to maintain the distinction of yesterday, while the Romans strove to rid themselves of their disgrace. The left ala on the Roman side and the cohorts which had lost their standards were fighting in the first line, and the eighteenth legion was drawn up on the right wing. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Gaius Claudius Nero, the lieutenants, commanded the wings. Marcellus in person upheld the centre, to exhort them and as a witness. On Hannibals' side Spanish troops held the front line. And they were the best troops in the entire army. When the battle had long been indecisive Hannibal ordered the elephants to be driven up to the front, in the hope that that move might bring about confusion and panic. And at first they did cause disorder among the standards and ranks, and by trampling down some of those who were near, and scattering others in alarm, they had stripped the line of battle at one point, and the flight would have spread further, had not Gaius Decimius Flavus, a tribune of the soldiers, seized a standard from the first maniple of the hastati and ordered the maniple to which it belonged to follow him. He led them to the spot where the brutes massed together were causing confusion and bade them hurl their javelins against them. All the weapons stuck fast, for it was not difficult to hit bodies of such size from a short distance and now packed in a dense mass. But although not all were wounded, still those in whose backs the javelins remained well fixed —so undependable is the species —took to flight and even made the uninjured wheel about. Then no longer did a single maniple hurl its javelins, but every soldier for himself, provided he was able to catch up with the column of the fleeing elephants. All the more did the brutes dash among their own men and cause a greater slaughter than they had done among the enemy, in proportion as the frightened beast is urged on more fiercely by terror than when under the control of a driver on its back. Into the line thrown into confusion by the brutes dashing through it the Roman infantry carried their standards and with no great struggle they made the scattered and wavering enemy retreat. Then, as they fled, Marcellus sent his cavalry against them, and pursuit did not end until in alarm they were driven into their camp. For in addition to the other causes of terror and consternation, two elephants had fallen in the very gate, and the soldiers were forced to dash into the camp over fosse and earthwork. It was there that the greatest slaughter of the enemy occurred, that is to say, about eight thousand men and five elephants. And for the Romans also it was not a bloodless victory. About one thousand seven hundred from the two legions, and of the allies more than one thousand three hundred, were killed; wounded were a large number of citizens and allies. Hannibal moved his camp that night; Marcellus was eager to pursue, but the numbers of the wounded prevented him. Scouts sent to pursue the column reported next day that Hannibal was on his way to the land of the Bruttii. About the same time the Hirpini and Lucanians and the men of Volceii surrendered to Quintus Fulvius, the consul, handing over Hannibal's garrisons which they had in their cities, and were kindly received by him with nothing more than an oral reprimand for their previous mistake. The Bruttii 3 also were given to expect a like pardon, upon the arrival from that region of the brothers Vibius and Paccius, easily the noblest of that tribe, to ask for the same terms of surrender as had been given to the Lucanians. Quintus Fabius, the consul, took the town of Manduria, in the land of the Sallentini, by storm. There about three thousand persons were captured, and other booty in quantity. Then removing to Tarentum he pitched camp at the very entrance to the harbour. Of the ships which Laevinus had had to protect his supplies, the consul loaded some with devices and equipment for attacking city walls, while some of them he fitted out with artillery and stones and every kind of missile weapon. And so also with the merchantmen, not merely those propelled by oars, in order that some crews should carry engines and ladders up to the walls, and others from ships at long range should wound the defenders on the walls. These ships were equipped and made ready to attack the city from the open sea. And the sea was unmolested by the Punic fleet, which had been sent over to Corcyra, since Philip was preparing to attack the Aetolians. In the country of the Bruttii meanwhile the besiegers of Caulonia, to avoid being surprised, just before Hannibal's arrival withdrew to a hill that was safe from immediate attack, but otherwise offered nothing. While Fabius was besieging Tarentum, a circumstance hardly worth mentioning aided him in attaining his great objective. The Tarentines had a guard of Bruttians, furnished by Hannibal. The commander of that guard was desperately in love with a young woman whose brother was in the army of Fabius, the consul. This brother, informed by a letter from his sister of her new acquaintance with a stranger who was rich and held in such honour by his people, conceived the hope that through his sister her lover could be swayed in any desired direction, and informed the consul what he hoped for. Since that seemed no empty idea, he was bidden to go over to Tarentum, as if he were a deserter. And having won the friendship of the commander through his sister, he first guardedly sounded him, then, his lack of character being demonstrated, he used a woman's blandishments to lead him on to betray the defence of a place of which he had been put in command. When the method of carrying out the plan and the time also had been settled, a soldier, sent out of the city secretly by night through intervals between outposts, reported to the consul the steps which had been taken and those which it had been agreed should be taken. Fabius at the first watch gave the signal to the men in the citadel and to those who were guarding the harbour ; and thereupon, making the circuit of the harbour, he established himself in hiding on the eastern side of the city. Then trumpets sounded at the same time from the citadel and from the harbour, and from the ships which had approached from the open sea, and from all sides shouting and great uproar were purposely raised where there was the least danger. The consul meantime kept his men quiet. Accordingly Democrates, who had previously been admiral of the fleet, and chanced to be in command at that point, on seeing everything near him quiet, while other quarters resounded with such an uproar that from time to time shouts arose as in a captured city, feared that, while he himself delayed, the consul might make an assault and bring in his troops. He thereupon led his forces over to the citadel, from which came the most terrifying noise. Fabius, both from the time elapsed and from the mere silence —since no voice came from the direction where a little while before there was shouting to waken men and call them to arms —was aware that the guards had been removed. Accordingly he ordered ladders to be carried to that part of the wall where the go-between in the betrayal had reported that the cohort of Bruttians was on guard duty. There first the wall was taken, the men being aided and welcomed by the Bruttians, and they climbed over the wall into the city. Then also the nearest gate was broken open, so that a dense column might march in. Thereupon raising a shout they made their way into the market-place at about daybreak, while no armed men encountered them, and they drew against themselves an attack on every side from all the men who were fighting at the citadel and by the harbour. They joined battle at the entrance to the market-place with more spirit than persistence. The Tarentine was no match for the Roman in courage, in arms, in the art of war, in bodily energy and strength. Therefore, after merely throwing their javelins, they retreated almost before they came to blows, and slipped away along the familiar streets of the city to their homes and those of friends. Two of their commanders, Nico and Democrates, fell fighting bravely. Philemenus, who was the originator of the betrayal to Hannibal, had ridden away at full speed from the battle; and a little later his riderless horse was recognized wandering about the city, but his body was nowhere found. It was generally believed that he had thrown himself from his horse into an open well. Moreover Carthalo, commander of the Punic garrison, mentioning his father's guest-friendship, had laid down his arms and was on his way to the consul, when he was slain by a soldier who met him. Other soldiers slew other men everywhere, whether armed or unarmed, Carthaginians and Tarentines alike. Everywhere Bruttians also were slain, many of them, either by mistake or out of old, inbred hatred of them, or to blot out the report of treachery, that Tarentum might be thought to have been captured rather by force of arms. Then from the slaughter they dispersed to plunder the city. Thirty thousand slaves are said to have been captured, an immense quantity of silver, wrought and coined, of gold three thousand and eighty pounds, statues and paintings, so that they almost rivalled the adornments of Syracuse. But Fabius showed more magnanimity in refraining from plunder of that kind than did Marcellus. When a clerk asked what he wished to have done with statues of colossal size —they are gods in the form of warriors, but each in his own attitude —Fabius ordered that their angry gods be left to the Tarentines. Then the wall which separated the city from the citadel was torn down and completely destroyed. While these things were going on, Hannibal received the surrender of the force besieging Caulonia and, on hearing of the attack upon Tarentum, urged his column rapidly forward day and night. When informed, while hastening to bring aid, that the city had been taken, The Romans also, he said, have their Hannibal; by the same art by which we had captured Tarentum we have lost it. Nevertheless, in order not to appear to have reversed his column as if in retreat, he pitched camp just where he had halted, about five miles from the city. After lingering there a few days he withdrew to Metapontum. From there he sent to Fabius at Tarentum two men of Metapontum carrying a letter from the leading men of that city and expecting to receive the consul's promise that their previous acts would go unpunished, if they should betray Metapontum and its Punic garrison. Fabius, assuming their message to be true, appointed a day on which he would come to Metapontum, and gave them a letter addressed to the leading citizens —a letter which was delivered to Hannibal. Pleased indeed at the success of the ruse, if even Fabius was to prove not unconquerable by trickery, Hannibal laid an ambush not far from Metapontum. When Fabius endeavoured to take the auspices before leaving Tarentum, the fowls were again and again unfavourable. And when with the slaughter of a victim also he consulted the gods, the soothsayer declared that he must be on his guard against a ruse of the enemy and against an ambuscade. The men of Metapontum, when the consul had not come on the appointed day, were sent back to urge him if he hesitated; and being suddenly seized, in fear of a more relentless inquiry they revealed the plot. At the beginning of the summer in which these events were taking place, after Publius Scipio in Spain had spent the entire winter in winning over the support of the barbarians, partly by gifts and partly by restoring their hostages and captives, Edesco, who was eminent among the Spanish chieftains, came to him. His wife and children were in the hands of the Romans; but in addition to this reason he was drawn by that more or less fortuitous trend of feeling which had turned all Spain away from Punic rule to Roman. Indibilis and Mandonius, unquestionably the leading men of all Spain, had the same reason for leaving Hasdrubal, taking with them the whole force of their countrymen and withdrawing to heights which overlooked his camp, and from which there was a safe retreat along continuous ridges to the Romans. Hasdrubal, seeing that the resources of the enemy were increasing by such large accessions, while his own were diminishing and, unless he ventured to do something, they would melt away to the Roman side, as they had begun to do, decided to fight as soon as possible. Scipio was even more eager for battle, both because of confidence which was increasing with his success, and because he preferred to fight with one general and army before the armies of the enemy should unite, rather than with them all at once. But even supposing he should have to fight with several at the same time, he had enlarged his forces by a certain artifice. For, seeing that he was making no use of ships, since the whole coast of Spain was rid of Punic fleets, he beached his vessels at Tarraco and added their crews to the land forces. And arms he had in abundance, both those captured at (New) Carthage and those which after the capture of that city he had caused to be made by impounding a large number of artisans. With these troops Scipio set out at the beginning of spring from Tarraco and proceeded to lead against the enemy; for by this time Laelius also, without whom he did not wish any important action to be taken, had returned from Rome. As Scipio was passing through an entirely peaceful region, while allies escorted and welcomed him whenever he crossed the boundary of a tribe, Indibilis and Mandonius with their forces met him. Indibilis spoke for them both, not at all boorishly or carelessly, as one might expect of a barbarian, but rather with modesty and dignity, and more like a man who excused their change of sides as necessary than one who bragged that they had, as it were, seized that as the first opportunity. For he was aware, he said, that the word deserter was detested by old allies, suspected by new ones; and he did not blame men for that habit, if only it was the motive, not the word, which produced hatred in both parties. He then recounted their services to the Carthaginian generals, and on the other hand the greed and haughtiness of the generals and the wrongs of every sort they had done to them and their countrymen. Consequently it was till then merely their body that had been with them; their mind had long since been where they believed justice and right were held in honour. Even to the gods, he said, do those who cannot endure the violence and the wrongs of men flee as suppliants; as for themselves, their prayer to Scipio was that he should not reckon the change of sides either to their detriment or to their credit. According as he should henceforward come to know their worth by testing them, let him in that light estimate the value of their service. The Roman replied that he would do precisely that, and not regard as deserters men who did not consider an alliance valid in which nothing either divine or human was sacred. Thereupon their wives and children were brought before their eyes and given over to them as they wept for joy. And on that day they were escorted to guest-quarters, while the next day their promise of loyalty was accepted on the basis of a treaty, and they were sent away to bring up their forces. Thereafter they were quartered in the same camp, until with these men as guides the enemy was reached. The nearest army of the Carthaginians, that of Hasdrubal, was close to the city of Baecula. Before the camp they had cavalry outposts. Upon these the light-armed, the vanguard and men at the head of the column, just as they came up after the march and before choosing a site for a camp, made an attack with such disdain that it was easy to see what was the spirit of each side. The horsemen were forced into the camp in alarm and flight, and the Roman standards were all but carried inside the very gates. And on that day, indeed, after they had merely provoked each other to battle, the Romans pitched camp; but by night Hasdrubal withdrew his troops to a hill the top of which formed an open, level plain. The river was behind it, while in front and at the sides a steep bank, as it were, encircled its entire margin. Beneath was also a lower level area, gently sloping down. This also was surrounded by another ledge no easier to climb. Down to this lower plain Hasdrubal next day, on seeing the enemy's line standing before his camp, sent down his Numidian cavalry and the light-armed Balearic and African troops. Scipio, while riding about his ranks and standards, pointed out that the enemy, having given up in advance the hope of fighting on level ground, were hugging the hills and were standing before them in reliance upon position, not upon courage and arms. But (New) Carthage, he said, had possessed higher walls, which the Roman soldier had scaled; and neither hills nor citadel, not even the sea, had withstood his arms. The heights which the enemy had taken would only serve them for purposes of flight, as they leaped over precipices and crags. He would cut them off from such a flight too. And he ordered one of two cohorts to hold the entrance into the valley through which the river flowed, the other to block the road leading from the city down the slope of the hill into the country. He himself led the unencumbered men, who the day before had routed the outposts of the enemy, to meet the light-armed standing on the lowest brow of the hill. At first they advanced over rugged ground, hampered only by the footing. Then when they came within range, at first an immense number of missile weapons of every kind was showered upon them. In return they hurled stones which the place affords, strewn broadcast and almost all of them of a size to be thrown, and not only did the soldiers do so, but also the mass of camp-servants mingling with the armed men. But although the ascent was difficult and they were almost overwhelmed by missile weapons and stones, still, thanks to their practice in scaling walls and to their persistence, they were the first to reach the top. As soon as they had taken some level ground where they could get a firm footing, they dislodged the light-armed enemy —troops that are accustomed to skirmishing and, while avoiding the real battle by hurling long-range missiles, are protected by distance, but prove unsteady in the face of hand-to-hand conflict. Thus with great slaughter they drove them against the battle-line standing on the higher level of the hill. Then Scipio ordered his victorious troops to go up facing the centre of the line, divided the rest of his forces with Laelius, and bade him circle round the right side of the hill, until he found a way less difficult of ascent. He himself on the left, after a moderate circuit, charged into the flank of the enemy. In consequence the line was at first thrown into disorder, while the men tried to wheel and made their ranks face the shouts resounding on every side. In the midst of this disorder Laelius also reached the top; and the front line of the enemy, as the men gave way and were afraid of being wounded from the rear, lost its solidity, and room was given even for the Romans in the centre to mount to the top. These men would never have done so over such unfavourable ground if the ranks had stood unbroken with the elephants placed in front of the standards. While on all sides the slaughter was in progress, Scipio, who with the left wing had charged into the enemy's right wing, was fighting especially against the exposed flank of the enemy. And no longer was space left open even for flight; for both on the right and on the left Roman outposts had blocked the roads, and the gate of the camp was obstructed by the flight of the general and chief officers, while in addition there was the panic of the elephants, of which, when terrified, they were as much afraid as of the enemy. Accordingly about eight thousand men were slain. Hasdrubal, who even before the battle had hastily gathered up his money and had sent elephants in advance, picking up as many men as possible in the course of their flight, directed his march along the river Tagus towards the Pyrenees. Scipio took possession of the enemy's camp, and after giving up to the soldiers all the booty except free persons, in listing the captives found ten thousand foot-soldiers and two thousand horsemen. Of these he sent all the Spaniards to their homes without ransom; the Africans he ordered the quaestor to sell. Then the crowd of Spaniards, both those previously surrendered and those captured the day before, flocked round him and with great unanimity hailed him as king. Thereupon Scipio, after silence had been secured by a herald, said that his highest title was that of general-in-command; with that his soldiers had addressed him; the title of a king, elsewhere in high honour, was not to be endured at Rome. As for his having the spirit of a king, if they thought that was the noblest thing in the nature of man, let it be their silent verdict; from the use of the word let them refrain. Even the barbarians appreciated the magnanimity of a man who from so lofty a height scorned a title by whose fascination the rest of mortals were dazed. Then gifts were apportioned to the princes and chieftains of the Spaniards, and out of the large number of captured horses he ordered Indibilis to select three hundred of his own choosing. While the quaestor at the general's command was selling the Africans, and had heard that a well-grown boy of conspicuous beauty among them was of royal race, he sent him to Scipio. When Scipio asked him who he was and from what region, and why at that age he was in the camp, he said he was a Numidian; that his people called him Massiva; that, left an orphan by his father, he had been brought up in the house of his maternal grandfather Gala, king of the Numidians; that with his uncle Masinissa, who had recently come with his cavalry to the assistance of the Carthaginians, he had crossed over into Spain; forbidden by Masinissa on account of his age, he had never before gone into battle. On the day they had fought with the Romans, without his uncle's knowledge, he said, he had secretly taken arms and a horse and gone out into the battle-line; there, thrown headforemost by a fall of his horse, he had been captured by the Romans. Scipio, after ordering that the Numidian should be guarded, completed such duties as he had to perform from the platform; and then, having returned to headquarters, summoned him and asked whether he would like to return to Masinissa. When he shed tears of joy and said that he was indeed eager to do so, Scipio thereupon presented the boy with a gold ring, a tunic with a broad stripe, and a Spanish cloak, a golden brooch and a horse with his equipment; and ordering horsemen to escort him as far as he desired, Scipio sent him away. Then a council was held on the conduct of the war. And when some advised him to overtake Hasdrubal at once, Scipio thought that a dangerous course, for fear lest Mago and the other Hasdrubal should join forces with him. He therefore merely sent a force to occupy the Pyrenees, and himself spent the remainder of the summer in receiving the submission of the peoples of Spain. A few days after the battle at Baecula, when Scipio, now on his way back to Tarraco, had emerged from the forest of Castulo, the generals, Hasdrubal the son of Gisgo and Mago, came from farther Spain to Hasdrubal, bringing belated aid after the defeat, but not inopportunely for a council on the prosecution of the rest of the war. There, as they were exchanging information concerning the spirit of the Spaniards in the territory assigned to each of them, Hasdrubal, the son of Gisgo, was alone of the opinion that the most remote part of Spain, which extends toward the Ocean and Gades, was still unacquainted with the Romans and in consequence sufficiently loyal to the Carthaginians. The other Hasdrubal and Mago agreed that, both as states and as individuals, all men were prepossessed owing to the favours of Scipio; and there would be no end to desertions until all the Spanish soldiers had been either segregated in the farthest part of Spain, or led over into Gaul. And so, they said, even if the Carthaginian senate had not decreed it, Hasdrubal would still have been obliged to proceed into Italy, where was the focus of the war and the main issue, with this purpose also, in order that he might lead all the Spanish troops out of Spain, far removed from the fame of Scipio. They proposed that his army, depleted both by desertions and by defeat, should be recruited with Spanish soldiers; and further, that Mago, after turning over his army to Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, should himself cross to the Balearic Isles with a large sum of money, to hire mercenary auxiliaries; that Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, should retire with his army into the interior of Lusitania and not engage in battle with the Roman; that for Masinissa there should be a full complement of three thousand horsemen, the pick of all the cavalry, and that, roaming about over hither Spain, he should lend aid to allies and devastate towns and farms of the enemy. Having thus ordered, the generals separated, to carry out the measures decided upon. Such were the events in Spain that year. At Rome Scipio's fame was growing from day to day; Fabius, although Tarentum had been taken by ruse rather than by courage, nevertheless gained glory thereby; Fulvius' celebrity was declining; Marcellus was even in bad repute, not only because he had at first been defeated, but also because, while Hannibal was wandering about Italy, he had drawn off his troops to their billets at Venusia in midsummer. He had a personal enemy, Gaius Publicius Bibulus, tribune of the plebs. This man, beginning with the first battle, which had been unsuccessful, by continually haranguing had defamed Claudius to the common people and made them hate him, and by this time he was arguing for the abrogation of his command when the relatives of Claudius nevertheless carried their point that Marcellus should leave a lieutenant at Venusia and come to Rome, to clear himself of the charges which his enemies were making, and that the abrogation of his command should not be discussed while he himself was absent. By chance Marcellus came to Rome to avert disgrace, about the same time that Quintus Fulvius, the consul, arrived to conduct the elections. The argument in regard to Marcellus' command was staged in the Flaminian Circus, before a great assemblage of the commons and of all classes. And the tribune of the plebs accused not Marcellus merely, but the entire nobility. It was due to their dishonesty and delaying, he said, that Hannibal had Italy as his province for now the tenth year, and had lived longer there than at Carthage. The Roman people had this fruit from the continuation of Marcellus' command, namely, that his army, twice cut to pieces, had its summer quarters at Venusia in billets! This speech of the tribune was so completely refuted by Marcellus' statement of his achievements that not only was the bill to abrogate his command rejected, but on the following day all the centuries with great unanimity elected him consul. Joined with him as colleague was Titus Quinctius Crispinus, who at the time was praetor. On the following day Publius Licinius Crassus Dives, pontifex maximus, Publius Licinius Varus, Sextus Iulius Caesar and Quintus Claudius were elected praetors. Precisely on these election days the state was concerned in regard to a revolt in Etruria. First steps in that direction were reported in a letter of Gaius Calpurnius, propraetor in charge of the assignment, as being taken by the men of Arretium. Accordingly Marcellus, the consul-elect, was at once sent thither to look into the matter and, if he thought it important enough, to send for an army and shift the war from Apulia to Etruria. The Etruscans, restrained by the fear of that move, kept quiet. When legates of the Tarentines sued for peace with freedom and their own laws, the senate answered that they should return when Fabius, the consul, came to Rome. The Roman Games and the Plebeian Games were repeated that year for one day in each case. The curule aediles were Lucius Cornelius Caudinus and Servius Sulpicius Galba, the plebeian aediles being Gaius Servilius and Quintus Caecilius Metellus. It was said that legally Servilius had not been tribune of the plebs, nor was he now legally aedile, because his father, of whom it had been believed for nine years that he was slain as one of the three land-commissioners by the Boii near Mutina, was alive, it was now established, and in the hands of the enemy. In the eleventh year of the Punic War the consuls entering office were Marcellus, for the fifth time —to include the consulship which he had not held on account of a defective election —and Titus Quinctius Crispinus. Italy was assigned as their province to both consuls, also the two armies of the consuls of the previous year. A third, hitherto commanded by Marcellus, was then at Venusia. The decree ordered that of the three they should choose two of their own selection, and that the third be given to the general whose assignment should be Tarentum and the Sallentini. The rest of the assignments were distributed as follows: for the praetors, jurisdiction in the city to Publius Licinius Varus, that involving strangers to Publius Licinius Crassus, pontifex maximus, with a command wherever the senate should decide; Sicily to Sextus Iulius Caesar and Tarentum to Quintus Claudius. Continued for one year was the command of Quintus Fulvius Flaccus; who with one legion was to be in charge of Capua as his assignment, formerly held by Titus Quinctius as praetor. Continued also was the command of Gaius Hostilius Tubulus, who was to succeed Gaius Calpurnius as propraetor for Etruria, at the head of two legions. The command of Lucius Veturius Philo was likewise continued, he to hold Gaul as propraetor —the same assignment with the same two legions with which he had held it as praetor. The measure adopted in the case of Lucius Veturius was likewise decreed by the senate in that of Gaius Aurunculeius, and the bill to continue his command was brought before the people. As praetor he had had Sardinia for his province with two legions. In addition he was given for the defence of the province the fifty warships which Publius Scipio had sent from Spain. And to Publius Scipio and Marcus Silanus were decreed for one year their own provinces in Spain and their own armies. Scipio was ordered to send over to Sardinia fifty of the eighty ships which he had either brought with him from Italy or captured at (New) Carthage. This was owing to the report that at Carthage there were great naval preparations that year, and that with two hundred ships the Carthaginians would cover the whole coast of Italy, also of Sicily and Sardina. In Sicily, moreover, the apportionment was as follows: the army from Cannae was given to Sextus Caesar; Marcus Valerius Laevinus —for his command also was continued —to have the fleet of seventy vessels then in Sicilian waters. To that he should add thirty ships which had been at Tarentum the previous year. With that fleet of a hundred ships, he was, if he saw fit, to cross over to Africa, to ravage the country. Likewise Publius Sulpicius' command was continued for one year, and he was to have Macedonia and Greece as his province with the same fleet as before. In regard to the two legions that had been at the city of Rome no change was made. Permission was given to the consuls to recruit additional numbers, to be assigned to meet any need. It was with twenty-one legions that the Roman empire was defended that year. In addition, Publius Licinius Varus, the city praetor, was given the task of repairing the thirty old warships which were at Ostia and of manning twenty new ships with crews, so that with a fleet of fifty ships he might defend the seacoast near the city of Rome. Gaius Calpurnius was forbidden to move his army away from Arretium before the arrival of his successor. The same order was given to Tubulus also, to be particularly on his guard there against the outbreak of any sedition. XXIII. The praetors set out for their assignments, but the consuls were detained by religious scruples, because, when a number of portents were reported, they did not easily obtain favourable sacrifices. From Campania had come reports that at Capua two temples, those of Fortune and of Mars, and a number of tombs were struck by lightning; that at Cumae mice had gnawed the gold in the temple of Jupiter —so true is it that superstition brings the gods into the smallest circumstances. At Casinum it was said that a great swarm of bees had settled in the forum. It was also reported that at Ostia the wall and a gate of the city had been struck by lightning, that at Caere a vulture had flown into the temple of Jupiter, that at Volsinii the lake was stained with blood. On account of these prodigies prayers were offered for one day. For several days full-grown victims were slain without a favourable result, and for a long time the peace of the gods was not secured. It was upon the heads of the consuls that dire consequences of the portents descended, while the state remained unharmed. The Games of Apollo had been observed for the first time in the consulship of Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, under the direction of Publius Cornelius Sulla, the city praetor. From that time all the successive city praetors had conducted them. But they vowed them for a single year and did not conduct them on a fixed date. That year a serious epidemic fell upon the city and the countryside, occasioning maladies, however, that were rather lingering than fatal. On account of that epidemic prayers were offered at the street corners throughout the city; and in addition Publius Licinius Varus, the city praetor, was ordered to propose to the people a bill that those games should be vowed in perpetuity for a fixed date. He himself was the first to vow them in those terms, and he conducted them on the fifth of Quinctilis. Thenceforward that day was kept as a regular holiday. XXIV. As regards the Arretines, reports grew more serious every day, and the anxiety of the senators was increased. Accordingly Gaius Hostilius received written orders not to postpone taking hostages from the Arretines, and Gaius Terentius Varro was sent with military authority, that Hostilius might turn them over to him to be escorted to Rome. Upon Varro's arrival Hostilius at once ordered the one legion which was encamped before the city to advance into the city, and he posted his forces in suitable positions. Then, summoning the senate to the forum, he demanded hostages of them. When the senate asked for two days to consider, he ordered that they themselves furnish them forthwith, or else on the next day, he declared, he would take all the children of the senators. Thereupon the tribunes of the soldiers and prefects of allies and centurions were bidden to guard the gates, that no one might leave the city in the night. This was done slowly and with carelessness. Seven leading members of the senate, before guards could be posted at the gates, escaped before nightfall with their children. Next day at dawn they were missed when the senators began to be summoned to the forum, and their property was sold. From the rest of the senators a hundred and twenty hostages, their own children, were taken and handed over to Gaius Terentius Varro to be escorted to Rome. Varro in the senate represented everything as causing more apprehension than before. And so, just as if an outbreak in Etruria were imminent, Gaius Terentius himself was ordered to lead a single legion, one or the other of the city legions, to Arretium and to keep that legion as the garrison of the town. As for Gaius Hostilius, it was decided that with the rest of the army he should scour the whole province and see to it that no opportunity was given to those eager for a revolution. Upon the arrival of Gaius Terentius at Arretium with his legion, when he demanded of the magistrates the keys of the gates, and they said they were not to be found, thinking they were removed by stealth and not really missing through carelessness, he himself provided other keys for all the gates, and took great pains to have everything under his own control. He very earnestly warned Hostilius to rest his hope that the Etruscans would not make any move upon one thing —that he had first made it impossible for them to do so. Then in regard to the Tarentines there was very heated discussion in the senate in the presence of Fabius, who himself defended the men whom he had captured by force, whereas others were hostile and many put them upon the same level of guilt and punishment as the Capuans. A decree of the senate was adopted on motion of Manius Acilius, that the town should be guarded by a garrison and all the Tarentines confined within the walls; that, with no action now, the case should be brought up later, when the condition of Italy was more peaceful. Also in regard to Marcus Livius, commandant of the citadel of Tarentum, there was no less heated discussion. For some were proposing to brand the commandant by a decree of the senate, because by his lack of spirit Tarentum had been betrayed to the enemy, and others proposed to vote him rewards, because he had defended the citadel for five years, and it was thanks to him more than to anyone else that Tarentum had been recovered. Those who preferred a middle course claimed that a hearing of his case belonged to the censors, not to the senate. Of this mind was Fabius also. He added, however, his admission that the recovery of Tarentum was due to Livius, as his friends had repeatedly declared in the senate; for it would not have had to be recovered unless it had been lost. Of the consuls one, Titus Quinctius Crispinus, set out for Lucania with additional recruits to join the army which Quintus Fulvius Flaccus had held. Marcellus was detained by religious scruples one after another, as they were impressed upon his mind. One of them was that, although he had vowed at Clastidium, in the Gallic War, a temple to Honour and Valour, the dedication of the temple was being blocked by the pontiffs. These said that one cella was not properly dedicated to more than a single divinity, since, if it should be struck by lightning, or some portent should occur in it, expiation would be difficult, because it could not be known to which god sacrifice should be offered; for, with the exception of certain deities, sacrifice of a single victim to two gods was not proper. Accordingly a temple of Valour was added, its construction being hastened. Even so the temples were not dedicated by Marcellus in person. Then at last he set out with additional recruits to join the army which he had left at Venusia the previous year. Crispinus attempted to besiege Locri in the land of the Bruttii, because he thought that Tarentum had brought great repute to Fabius; and he had requisitioned artillery and machines of every kind from Sicily. And from the same quarter ships also had been sent for, to attack the part of the city facing the sea. That siege was given up, because Hannibal had brought up his forces to Lacinium, and the consul wished to unite with his colleague, who, it was reported, had already led his army away from Venusia. And so he returned from the land of the Bruttii into Apulia, and the consuls established themselves between Venusia and Bantia in two camps less than three miles apart. Hannibal also, now that the war had been diverted from Locri, returned into the same region. There both consuls, who were by nature high-spirited, went out into battle-line almost daily, with no uncertain hope that, if the enemy should risk a battle with two united consular armies, the war could be finished. XXVI. Hannibal, since in his two encounters with Marcellus in the previous year he had been both victor and vanquished, believed indeed that, if he should have to fight with the same general, he would find neither hope nor fear unfounded; nevertheless he believed that he would be by no means a match for the two consuls. Accordingly, devoting himself exclusively to his own arts, he was in search of a place for an ambush. Slight engagements, however, were taking place in the space between the two camps with varying results. The consuls, believing that the whole summer could be spent in that way, and yet thinking it possible to besiege Locri, wrote to Lucius Cincius to cross over from Sicily with his fleet to Locri. And, to make an attack upon the walls possible from the landward side also, they ordered that a part of the force which was serving as a garrison should be brought from Tarentum to Locri. Hannibal, being informed by some men of Thurii that this was about to be done, sent men to lie in wait along the road from Tarentum. There, beneath the hill of Petelia, three thousand horsemen and two thousand foot were posted in hiding. When the Romans, as they advanced without reconnoitring, encountered this force, about two thousand of their armed men were slain, about fifteen hundred taken alive. The rest, scattering in flight over the farms and through the woods, returned to Tarentum. Between the Carthaginian and the Roman camps there was a wooded hill, at first not occupied by either army, because the Romans did not know what was the character of that side of it which faced the enemy's camp, and Hannibal had believed it better suited to an ambuscade than to a camp. And so, sending by night a number of squadrons of the Numidians for that purpose, he had concealed them in the middle of the wood. And during the day none of them would stir from his post, for fear lest either their arms or the men themselves should be seen from a distance. In the Roman camp there was a general outcry that the hill must be occupied and defended by a fort, in order that they might not have the enemy, as it were, upon their necks, if the hill should be occupied by Hannibal. That roused Marcellus, and he said to his colleague, Why not go ourselves with a few horsemen to reconnoitre? Seeing the situation before our eyes will give us a surer judgment. As Crispinus assented, they set out with two hundred and twenty horsemen, of whom forty were from Fregellae, the rest Etruscans. The tribunes of the soldiers, Marcus Marcellus, son of the consul, and Aulus Manlius, followed them, along with two prefects of the allies, Lucius Arrenius and Manius Aulius. Some have related that the consul Marcellus offered a sacrifice that day, and that when the first victim was slain, the liver was found headless; that in the second everything usually found was present; that the head seemed even enlarged; also that the soothsayer had not been at all pleased that, after organs defective and deformed, others had appeared which were more than promising. But such eagerness to fight with Hannibal possessed the consul Marcellus that he said the camps were never close enough together. At this time also, as he came out from the earthwork, he gave the command that the soldiers should be ready and in place, so that, in case the hill which they were on their way to reconnoitre proved satisfactory, they might gather up their baggage and follow. There was only a small level space before the camps; then a road open and visible from every side led up the hill. As for the Numidians, a scout who had been posted not at all in the hope of so important a result, but in case they might be able to capture any men who, in wandering about in search of fodder or firewood, had gone too far from camp, gave the signal to spring up, all of them at the same time, from their different hiding-places. Those who, facing the enemy, had to rise up from the hillside itself, did not show themselves before those who were to cut off the road in the rear turned the enemy's flanks. Then they all sprang up from every side and, raising a shout, they attacked. Although the consuls were in such a depression that they neither could make their way up on to the ridge occupied by the enemy, nor had any retreat open, being enclosed in the rear, still the combat might possibly have been prolonged, had not flight begun by the Etruscans inspired alarm in the others. Nevertheless the men of Fregellae, deserted by the Etruscans, did not give up the battle, so long as the unwounded consuls withstood the attack, encouraging their men and themselves taking part in the fight. But after they saw both consuls wounded, Marcellus even pierced by a lance and slipping from his horse, a dying man, then they likewise —now only a very few were left —fled with Crispinus, the consul, who had been struck by two javelins, and Marcellus the younger, also wounded. Aulus Manlius, tribune of the soldiers, was slain, and of the two prefects of the allies Manius Aulius was killed, Lucius Arrenius captured. And five of the consuls' lictors came alive into the hands of the enemy; the rest were either slain or they escaped with the consul. Of the horse forty-three fell either in battle or in flight, eighteen were captured alive. In the camps there had been an uproar, a clamour that they should go to the relief of the consuls, when now they saw the consul and the son of the other consul both wounded, and the little remnant of the unlucky enterprise coming towards the camps. Marcellus' death was pitiable both for other reasons and also because it was neither consistent with his age —for he was now more than sixty years old —nor with his foresight as a veteran commander, that with such imprudence he had carried himself and his colleague and almost the entire state over the brink. I should be very discursive in regard to a single event, if I should aim to rehearse all the statements in which authorities differ concerning the death of Marcellus. Not to mention others, Coelius furnishes successively a threefold relation of what happened: one the traditional account, a second set down in the eulogy pronounced by the son, who was present, Coelius says, when it happened, a third which he himself contributes as investigated and established by him. But the divergent reports fall within this range, that most authorities relate that he left the camp to reconnoitre a position, while all say that he was overwhelmed by an ambush. Hannibal, thinking that great terror had been inspired in the enemy by the death of one consul and the wounding of the other, not to miss any opportunity, at once removed his camp to the hill on which they had fought. There Marcellus' body was found and buried. Crispinus, alarmed both by the death of his colleague and by his own wound, set out in the silence of the following night and in the first mountains which he reached pitched camp on a high place that was also safe on every side. There the two generals set their wits to work, the one to employ, the other to guard against, a ruse. Marcellus' ring had come into the hands of Hannibal along with the body. Fearing some trickery might be contrived by the Carthaginian through a fraudulent use of that seal, Crispinus had sent word around to the nearest city-states that his colleague had been slain and the enemy was in possession of his ring; that they should not trust any letters written in the name of Marcellus. This message of the consul had come to Salapia a little before a letter from Hannibal written in Marcellus' name arrived, saying that he would come to Salapia in the night following that day; that the soldiers on garrison duty should be ready, in case he should have any need of their services. The men of Salapia were aware of the deception, and thinking that Hannibal, out of anger not only because of their revolt, but also for the slaughter of his cavalry, was seeking an excuse for punishing them, they sent back the messenger —he was, in fact, a Roman deserter —that the soldiers might do what they wished unobserved. And they posted men of the town along the walls and at favourable positions in the city in detachments on guard duty. For that night they established guard-lines and sentries with more than usual care. Around the gate by which they thought the enemy would come they drew up the best men in the garrison. Hannibal approached the city about the fourth watch. At the head of the column were the Roman deserters, and they had Roman arms. When they came up to the gate, all of them, speaking Latin, called out to the sentinels and bade them open the gate. The consul, they said, was coming. The sentries, pretending to have been awakened by their outcry, were in a turmoil, excited and labouring to open the gate. The portcullis had been closed. Some raised it with levers, some hoisted it with ropes, just high enough for men to pass under it upright. Hardly had the way been quite cleared, when the deserters vied with each other in dashing through the gate. And when about six hundred had entered and the rope by which it was held up had been let go, the portcullis fell with a great crash. Some of the Salapians attacked the deserters, who fresh from their march were carrying arms carelessly slung from their shoulders, as if among peaceable people; others from towers of the gate and from the walls frightened off the enemy with stones, poles and javelins. Thus Hannibal, having been ensnared by his own ruse, went away; and he set out to raise the siege of Locri, a city which Lucius Cincius was besieging with great violence by means of siege-works and with every sort of artillery brought from Sicily. For Mago, who no longer was confident that he would hold and defend the city, the first ray of hope came with the news of Marcellus' death. Then followed the news that Hannibal had sent the Numidian cavalry in advance and was himself following with the infantry column, making all possible speed. Accordingly, as soon as Mago knew from signals given from watch-towers that the Numidians were approaching, he also suddenly opens a gate and sallies out confidently against the enemy. And at first it was a doubtful conflict, rather because his action had been unexpected than because he was a match in forces. Then when the Numidians came up, such terror was inspired among the Romans that they fled pell-mell to the sea and the ships, leaving siege-works and engines with which they were battering the walls. Thus by Hannibal's coming the siege of Locri was raised. Crispinus, on learning that Hannibal had set out for the country of the Bruttii, ordered Marcus Marcellus, tribune of the soldiers, to lead away to Venusia the army which his colleague had commanded. He himself set out with his legions for Capua, although on account of his serious wounds he was barely able to endure the motion of his litter. But he sent a letter to Rome in regard to the death of his colleague, stating also in what danger he was himself; that he was unable to come to Rome for the elections, because it seemed that he would not be able to endure the strain of the journey, also because he was concerned about Tarentum, lest Hannibal, leaving the land of the Bruttii, should head his column in that direction. It was necessary, he wrote, that envoys be sent to him, men of foresight with whom he might say what he wished to say about the state. The reading of this letter caused at the same time great grief for the death of one consul and great fear in regard to the other. Accordingly they sent Quintus Fabius the son to the army at Venusia, and also three legates were sent to the consul, namely, Sextus Iulius Caesar, Lucius Licinius Pollio and Lucius Cincius Alimentus, the last named having returned from Sicily a few days before. These men were bidden to report to the consul that, if he could not come himself to Rome for the elections, he should on Roman territory name a dictator for the purpose of the elections; that if the consul should go to Tarentum, it was the will of the senate that Quintus Claudius, the praetor, should lead his legions away to a region in which he could defend the greatest number of cities of the allies. The same summer Marcus Valerius crossed over from Sicily to Africa with a fleet of a hundred ships, and making a landing at the city of Clupea, he ravaged the country far and wide, meeting hardly any armed men. Then the foragers were hurriedly brought back to the ships, because suddenly came the report that a Carthaginian fleet was approaching. There were eighty-three ships. With these the Roman fought with success not far from Clupea. After capturing eighteen ships and putting the rest to flight, he returned to Lilybaeum with a great quantity of booty from the land and from the ships. The same summer Philip, in response to their appeal, lent aid to the Achaeans, whom Machanidas, tyrant of Lacedaemon, was harassing with a war on their border, while the Aetolians also, sending their army on ships across the strait —the inhabitants call it Rhion —which flows between Naupactus and Patrae, had devastated their country. Furthermore Attalus, King of Asia, it was reported, was about to cross over into Europe, since the Aetolians had at their last council conferred upon him the highest magistracy of their nation. Consequently, as Philip was coming down into Greece, the Aetolians encountered him at the city of Lamia, their general being Pyrrhias, who along with the absent Attalus had been elected praetor for that year. They had with them auxiliary troops from Attalus and also about a thousand men sent by Publius Sulpicius from the Roman fleet. Against this general and these forces Philip fought twice with success. In each battle he slew fully a thousand of the enemy. Then, while the Aetolians, constrained by fear, remained inside the walls of the city of Lamia, Philip led his army back to Phalara. The place is on the Maliac Gulf, and was formerly populous on account of its remarkable harbour and safe roadsteads on this side and that and other advantages from the sea and the land. To that place came ambassadors from Ptolemy, King of Egypt, and from the Rhodians and Athenians and Chians, in order to bring to an end the war between Philip and the Aetolians. A peacemaker from their neighbours also was brought in by the Aetolians, Amynander, King of the Athamanians. For all of them, however, it was not so much solicitude for the Aetolians, a race more warlike than comports with the character of Greeks, as it was the fear lest Philip and his kingdom might become involved in the affairs of Greece and become a menace to freedom. As for the peace, consideration was postponed until the council of the Achaeans, and for that council a place and also a fixed date were appointed. Meantime a truce for thirty days was obtained. Setting out from thence King Philip came by way of Thessaly and Boeotia to Chalcis in Euboea, in order that he might prevent Attalus, who, he had heard, was about to make for Euboea with a fleet, from using the harbours and from landing on the shore. And then, leaving a garrison against Attalus, in case he should cross over in the meantime, he set out himself with a few horsemen and light-armed and came to Argos. There the direction of the games in honour of Hera and of the Nemean Games was conferred upon him by vote of the people, because the kings of the Macedonians claim that they sprang from that city. When the Heraea were over, immediately after the games he left for Aegium and the long since appointed council of his allies. There they discussed the termination of the Aetolian war, that neither the Romans nor Attalus might have reason to enter Greece. But all such plans, though the time of the truce had scarcely elapsed, were thrown into confusion by the Aetolians, when they heard that Attalus had reached Aegina and also that a Roman fleet was lying at Naupactus. For on being called into the council of the Achaeans, in which were also present the embassies which at Phalara had spoken on behalf of peace, they at first complained of certain small breaches of the agreement committed during the truce. Finally they asserted that the war could not be brought to an end unless the Achaeans should restore Pylus to the Messenians, and Atintania should be returned to the Romans, and the Ardiaei to Scerdilaedus and Pleuratus. Philip, who thought it a perfect outrage for the vanquished actually to offer terms to him, the victor, said that on the former occasion also it was not with any hope that the Aetolians would keep quiet that he had either listened to pleas for peace or agreed to a truce, but in order to have all the allies witnesses that he had sought a ground for peace, the Aetolians a ground for war. So, with peace unachieved, he dismissed the council, leaving four thousand armed men to protect the Achaeans and receiving five warships from them. He had decided that, if he should add these to the Carthaginian fleet lately sent to him, and to the ships that were coming from Bithynia from King Prusias, he would attack the Romans, who had long commanded the sea in that region, in a naval battle. As for himself, he returned from that council to Argos; for the time of the Nemean Games was at hand, and he wished them to be more festive because of his presence. While the king was engaged in preparing for the games and relaxing during the festal days with more freedom than in war-times, Publius Sulpicius sailing from Naupactus put in with his fleet between Sicyon and Corinth and ravaged a region of the most noted fertility far and wide. The report of this called Philip away from the games; and setting out in haste with the cavalry, after ordering the infantry to follow, he attacked the Romans, who, fearing nothing of the kind, were widely scattered over the country and loaded down with their plunder, and he drove them to their ships. The Roman fleet, not at all happy over its plunder, returned to Naupactus. For Philip the remainder of the games also had gained in festivity from the news of a victory, unimportant as it might be, but still over the Romans. And the festival was observed with immense rejoicing, all the more because, to be popular, he had removed his diadem and purple and other regal attire, and in appearance had put himself on the same plane as the others, than which nothing is more acceptable to free states. Also by doing so he would have offered them no uncertain hope of freedom, had he not degraded and debased everything by his insufferable lust. For with one or two companions he would roam day and night round the homes of married couples, and lowering himself to the level of a private citizen, the less he was observed the more unrestrained was he; and liberty, of which he had made but an empty show to others, for his purpose he had turned wholly to licence. For he did not obtain everything by purchase or cajoling, but even employed force to gain his shameful ends. And it was dangerous for both husbands and parents if they had delayed the royal lust by disobliging strictness. Even from Aratus, one of the leading men of the Achaeans, his wife, named Polycratia, had been taken away and carried off into Macedonia with the prospect of a royal marriage. After the festival of the Nemea had been completed in the midst of such shameful conduct, and he had added a few more days, he set out for Dymae, in order to expel the Aetolian garrison which had been summoned by the Eleans and admitted to their city. Cycliadas, who held the chief command, and the Achaeans met the king near Dymae, being not only inflamed with hatred of the Eleans because they were at odds with the rest of the Achaeans, but also hostile to the Aetolians, who, they believed, had stirred the Romans likewise to a war against them. Setting forth from Dymae and uniting their armies, they crossed the river Larisus, which separates the Elean territory from that of Dymae. The first day on which they entered the territory of the enemy they spent in devastation. On the next day, drawing up a battle-line, they approached the city, after sending the cavalry in advance; it was to ride up to the gates and provoke the Aetolians, a race of men alert for sallies. They did not know that Sulpicius with fifteen ships had crossed over from Naupactus to Cyllene, and landing four thousand armed men had entered Elis in the dead of night, so that the column should not be seen. Consequently the surprise inspired great alarm, when they had recognized Roman standards and arms among the Aetolians and Eleans. And at first the king had wished to recall his men; then, on seeing his own men hard pressed by the battle already begun between the Aetolians and the Tralles, an Illyrian race, the king also with his cavalry charged a Roman cohort. There his horse was run through by a javelin and threw the king sprawling over his head, whereupon a fierce battle was kindled on both sides, as the Romans made an attack upon the king and at the same time the king's guards tried to protect him. Conspicuous was his own fighting also, although he had been forced to go into battle on foot among horsemen. Then, when the combat was now one-sided and many were falling and being wounded around him, he was seized by his men, was lifted upon another horse, and fled. On that day he pitched camp five miles from the city of Elis. The next day he led out all his troops to a neighbouring fortress of the Eleans —they call it Pyrgus —into which he had heard that a great number of rustics, together with their flocks, had been driven by the fear of being robbed. That unorganized and unarmed multitude he at once captured in the first panic as he came up. And by that booty he had made good the disgrace he had suffered at Elis. As he was dividing the booty and the captives —there were in fact four thousand persons and about twenty thousand cattle of every kind —came the news from Macedonia that one Aëropus by bribing the commander of the citadel and garrison had captured Lychnidus, was holding some villages of the Dassaretii and also stirring up the Dardani. Consequently the king, dropping the Achaean and Aetolian war, but still leaving twenty-five hundred armed men of every sort with Menippus and Polyphantas as commanders to defend his allies, setting out from Dymae, made his way through Achaia and Boeotia and Euboea in ten day's marches to Demetrias in Thessaly. There other messengers met him, bringing news of a greater inroad: that the Dardanians pouring into Macedonia were already holding Orestis and had come down into the Argestaean Plain; and that it was currently reported among the barbarians that Philip had been slain. On that raid in which he fought near Sicyon with men who were ravaging the country, he was dashed against a tree by his charging horse, and broke off one of the two horns of his helmet against a projecting branch. It was found by a certain Aetolian and carried into Aetolia to Scerdilaedus, who was acquainted with the ornament of the helmet, and this spread abroad the report that the king had been slain. After the departure of the king from Achaia, Sulpicius went with his fleet to Aegina and joined Attalus. The Achaeans fought a successful engagement with the Aetolians and Eleans not far from Messene. King Attalus and Publius Sulpicius spent the winter at Aegina. At the end of this year Titus Quinctius, the consul, after naming Titus Manlius Torquatus dictator for the purpose of holding elections and games, died of his wound. Some relate that he died at Tarentum, others in Campania. So two consuls —and this had happened in no previous war —losing their lives without a notable battle, had left the state as it were bereft. The dictator Manlius named Gaius Servilius, then a curule aedile, as master of the horse. The senate on the first day on which it sat ordered the dictator to conduct the great games which Marcus Aemilius, the city praetor, had conducted in the consulship of Gaius Flaminius and Gnaeus Servilius and had vowed for the fifth year thereafter. At this time the dictator conducted the games and also vowed them for the succeeding lustrum. But inasmuch as two consular armies were so near the enemy without their commanders, the senate and the people, neglecting everything else, were possessed by one particular concern —to elect consuls at the first possible moment, and to elect especially men whose courage was quite safe against the Carthaginian wiles. Not only throughout that war, they said, had the over-hasty, fiery temperament of the generals proved ruinous, but in that very year the consuls in their excessive eagerness to engage with the enemy had fallen unawares into a trap. But, they added, the immortal gods, taking pity upon the Roman people, had spared the innocent armies, and had punished the rashness of the consuls by the loss of their own lives. While the fathers were casting about to see whom they should make consuls, pre-eminent above all the rest was Gaius Claudius Nero; their quest was for his colleague. And they considered Nero a remarkable man, to be sure, but more hasty and violent than the war situation and Hannibal as enemy demanded. They thought his violent nature must be tempered by giving him as his colleague a man of moderation and foresight. There was Marcus Livius, who many years before, after his consulship, had been condemned by verdict of the people, and had been so indignant at that disgrace that he removed to the country and for many years absented himself from the city and also from every gathering of men. About seven years after his condemnation Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Marcus Valerius Laevinus, the consuls, had brought him back into the city. But he wore old clothing and long hair and beard, revealing outwardly in countenance and garb a notable memory of the disgrace he had incurred, Lucius Veturius and Publius Licinius, the censors, compelled him to shave and lay aside his neglected appearance and to come into the senate and perform other public duties. Even then, however, he would either assent in a word or go over to the side of the mover, until the case of his relative, Marcus Livius Macatus, whose reputation was involved, obliged him to stand up and deliver his opinion in the senate. When he was heard at that time after so long an interval, he attracted men's attention to himself and gave occasion for their saying that the people had wronged a man who did not deserve it, and that it had been a great loss that in so serious a war the state had not availed itself of the services and the advice of such a man; that neither Quintus Fabius nor Marcus Valerius Laevinus could be given to Gaius Nero as his colleague, because it was not lawful to elect two patricians; that the same reason applied to Titus Manlius, in addition to the fact that he had refused and would refuse the offer of a consulship. An extraordinary pair of consuls it would be, if they should link Marcus Livius with Gaius Claudius as his colleague. And mention of the matter, beginning with the fathers, was not frowned upon by the people. The only one in the state who rejected it, accusing the citizens of inconsistency, was the man to whom the office was tendered. He said that, having shown no pity toward a defendant in mourning, they were offering the whitened toga to a reluctant man; honours and penalties were being heaped upon the same person. If they thought him a good man, why then had they condemned him as a bad man and a criminal? If they had found him a criminal, why then, after unfortunately entrusting a former consulship, were they now entrusting a second to him? When he made use of these and similar arguments and complaints, the fathers would rebuke him, and by reminding him that Marcus Furius, on being recalled from exile, had restored his native city when driven from her place —that, as in the case of parents, so the harshness of one's native city must be appeased by suffering and bearing it —through the united efforts of them all, they elected Marcus Livius consul with Gaius Claudius. On the third day after that the election of praetors took place. Lucius Porcius Licinus, Gaius Mamilius, Gaius Hostilius Cato and Aulus Hostilius Cato were elected praetors. After completing the elections and holding the games, the dictator and master of the horse abdicated office. Gaius Terentius Varro was sent into Etruria as propraetor, with the understanding that Gaius Hostilius should go from that province to Tarentum, to the army which Titus Quinctius, the consul, had had. It was decreed also that Lucius Manlius should cross the sea as an emissary and ascertain what was going on there; at the same time, inasmuch as the Olympic Festival was to be held that summer —and, as they said, it was observed by a great multitude of Greeks —if he could be safe from the enemy, he should go to that gathering, so that such Sicilians as were there as refugees on account of the war, or citizens of Tarentum banished by Hannibal, might return and know that the Roman people was restoring to them all the possessions which they had held before the war. Inasmuch as a very dangerous year seemed impending, and the state had no consuls, everyone turned to the consuls-elect and wished that as soon as possible they should cast lots for their provinces and settle in advance what province and what enemy each of them was to have. Also a reconciliation between them was discussed in the senate, Quintus Fabius Maximus taking the initiative. Now between them was a well-known enmity, and for Livius his own downfall had embittered that enmity and made it more intolerable, because he believed that in that misfortune he had been treated with contempt. And so he was the more deaf to entreaty, and kept saying they had no need to be reconciled; that in every act each would show more spirit and alertness for fear an unfriendly colleague might have the opportunity to gain at his expense. Nevertheless by the authority of the senate they were prevailed upon to lay aside their quarrels and to carry on the government with a common spirit and policy. The provinces assigned to them were not locally indistinguishable, as in the preceding years, but separated by the whole length of Italy. To the one was assigned the land of the Bruttii and Lucania facing Hannibal, to the other Gaul facing Hasdrubal, who was reported to be already nearing the Alps. Whichever of them should receive Gaul in the allotment was to choose the army he preferred out of the two that were in Gaul and in Etruria and the one at the city. The consul to whom the land of the Bruttii should fall as his province was to enrol new legions for the city and take, at his own discretion, the army of one or the other of the consuls of the previous year. As for the army which was not taken by a consul, Quintus Fulvius, the proconsul, was to take it, and his command was to be for one year. And for Gaius Hostilius, for whom they had made a change of provinces, Tarentum in place of Etruria, they made a change of Capua instead of Tarentum. One legion was assigned to him, that which in the previous year Fulvius had commanded. In regard to Hasdrubal's coming to Italy anxiety was daily increasing. First, ambassadors from Massilia had announced that he had passed over into Gaul, and that the Gauls were aroused by his coming, because he was said to have brought a great amount of gold in order to hire mercenaries. After that, Sextus Antistius and Marcus Raecius, who were sent with them from Rome as ambassadors to look into the matter, had reported that with Massilians as guides they had sent men to ascertain all the facts through leading Gauls who were guestfriends of their guides, and to report; that they had established that Hasdrubal with a huge army already concentrated would cross the Alps the next spring, and that at that time nothing else was detaining him than that the Alps were closed by the winter. In place of Marcus Marcellus as augur Publius Aelius Paetus was elected and installed; and Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella was installed as rex sacrorum in place of Marcus Marcius, who had died two years before. Also in the same year the lustration was completed by the censors, Publius Sempronius Tuditanus and Marcus Cornelius Cethegus. Enrolled in the census were 137,108 citizens, a considerably smaller number than it had been before the war. In that year for the first time since Hannibal had invaded Italy it is recorded that the Comitium was covered, and that the Roman Games were repeated for one day by the curule aediles, Quintus Metellus and Gaius Servilius. And at the Plebeian Games there was a repetition for two days by order of Gaius Mamilius and Marcus Caecilius Metellus, plebeian aediles. And they likewise gave three statues at the Temple of Ceres. There was also a banquet for Jupiter on account of the festival. Later on Gaius Claudius Nero and Marcus Livius entered upon their consulship, the latter for the second time. Because as consuls-elect they had already cast lots for their provinces, they ordered the praetors to cast lots. To Gaius Hostilius fell the city praetorship; the foreign praetorship also was assigned to him, to enable three praetors to go out to provinces. Sardinia fell to Aulus Hostilius, Sicily to Gaius Mamilius, Gaul to Lucius Porcius. The total of the legions was twenty-three, divided as follows among the provinces: the consuls were each to have two legions, Spain four, each of three praetors was to have two, in Sicily and Sardinia and Gaul, Gaius Terentius to have two in Etruria, Quintus Fulvius two in the land of the Bruttii, Quintus Claudius two in the vicinity of Tarentum and the Sallentini, Gaius Hostilius Tubulus one at Capua. Two city legions were to be enrolled. For the first four legions the people elected the tribunes, to the rest of the legions tribunes were sent by the consuls. Before the consuls set out there were nine days of rites, because stones had rained from the sky at Veii. Following mention of one prodigy, as usual, others also were reported: that at Minturnae the Temple of Jupiter and the grove of Marica, also at Atella the city wall and a gate had been struck by lightning. To make it more terrible, the men of Minturnae added that there had been a river of blood in the gate. And at Capua a wolf had entered a gate at night and mangled a sentry. These prodigies were atoned for with full-grown victims, and a single day of prayer was observed by decree of the pontiffs. Then again the nine days of rites were repeated, because in the Armilustrum men saw a rain of stones. Relieved of their religious scruples, men were troubled again by the report that at Frusino there had been born a child as large as a four-year-old, and not so much a wonder for size as because, just as at Sinuessa two years before, it was uncertain whether male or female. In fact the soothsayers summoned from Etruria said it was a terrible and loathsome portent; it must be removed from Roman territory, far from contact with earth, and drowned in the sea. They put it alive into a chest, carried it out to sea and threw it overboard. The pontiffs likewise decreed that thrice nine maidens should sing a hymn as they marched through the city. While they were in the Temple of Jupiter Stator, learning that hymn, composed by Livius the poet, the Temple of Juno the Queen on the Aventine was struck by lightning. That this portent concerned the matrons was the opinion given by the soothsayers, and that the goddess must be appeased by a gift; whereupon the matrons domiciled in the city of Rome or within ten miles of it were summoned by an edict of the curule aediles to the Capitol. And from their own number they themselves chose twenty-five, to whom they should bring a contribution from their dowries. Out of that a golden basin was made as a gift and carried to the Aventine, and the matrons after due purification offered sacrifice. At once a day was appointed by the decemvirs for another sacrifice to the same goddess; and the order of procedure was as follows: from the Temple of Apollo two white cows were led through the Porta Carmentalis into the city; behind them were carried two statues of Juno the Queen in cypress wood. Then the seven and twenty maidens in long robes marched, singing their hymn in honour of Juno the Queen, a song which to the untrained minds of that time may have deserved praise, but now, if repeated, would be repellent and uncouth. Behind the company of maidens followed the decemvirs wearing laurel garlands and purple-bordered togas. From the gate they proceeded along the Vicus Iugarius into the Forum. In the Forum the procession halted, and passing a rope from hand to hand the maidens advanced, accompanying the sound of the voice by beating time with their feet. Then by way of the Vicus Tuscus and the Velabrum, through the Forum Boarium they made their way to the Clivus Publicius and the Temple of Juno the Queen. There the two victims were sacrificed by the decemvirs and the cypress statues borne into the temple. After due appeasement of the gods the consuls conducted the levy more vigorously and more strictly than anyone remembered its conduct in previous years. For the terror of the war was doubled by the coming of a new enemy into Italy, and also there were fewer young men from whom to enlist soldiers. Accordingly they compelled even the men of the seaboard colonies, who, it was said, had an exemption that could not be touched, to furnish soldiers. When they refused, the consuls named a date for them to report to the senate on what basis each state had exemption. On that day these came before the senate: Ostia, Alsium, Antium, Anxur, Minturnae, Sinuessa, and from the Upper Sea, Sena. Although each state read the evidence of its exemption, in no case except Antium and Ostia was exemption respected so long as the enemy was in Italy; and in the case of these colonies the younger men were made to swear that they would not pass the night outside the walls of their colony for more than thirty days, so long as the enemy was in Italy. All the senators were indeed of the opinion that the consuls must take the field at the earliest possible moment. For they felt that Hasdrubal must be met as he came down from the Alps, to prevent his stirring up the Cisalpine Gauls or Etruria, which was already aroused to the hope of rebellion, and likewise that Hannibal must be kept busy with a war of his own, that he might not be able to leave the country of the Bruttii and go to meet his brother. Nevertheless Livius was hesitating, having small confidence in the armies of his provinces, while his colleague, he thought, had his choice between two excellent consular armies and a third army which Quintus Claudius commanded at Tarentum. Livius had also mentioned a proposal to recall the slave volunteers to their standards. The senate gave the consuls unlimited power both to supplement from any source they pleased, and to choose out of all the armies men whom they preferred, and to exchange them, and to transfer them from their provinces whithersoever they thought to the advantage of the state. All of this was done with the greatest harmony on the part of the consuls. The slave volunteers were enrolled in the nineteenth and twentieth legions. Auxiliary forces of great strength, according to some of the authorities for this war, were sent from Spain as well to Marcus Livius by Publius Scipio, namely, eight thousand Spaniards and Gauls and two thousand legionary soldiers, one thousand eight' hundred cavalry, partly Numidians, partly Spanish. They report that Marcus Lucretius brought these troops by sea; and that about three thousand archers and slingers were sent from Sicily by Gaius Mamilius. At Rome the confusion was increased by the receipt of a letter from Gaul written by Lucius Porcius, the praetor, reporting that Hasdrubal had left his winter quarters and was already crossing the Alps; that eight thousand Ligurians, enrolled and armed, would join him after he had crossed into Italy, unless some one should be sent into Liguria to forestall them by a war; that he would himself advance, so far as he thought safe, with an army that was not strong. This letter constrained the consuls to complete the levy in haste and to leave for their provinces earlier than they had planned, with this intention, that each of them should keep an enemy in his province, and not allow them to come together and combine their armies in one. Of the greatest assistance in that direction was Hannibal's miscalculation. He had believed, indeed, that his brother would come over into Italy that summer; but when he recalled what he had himself endured during five months, in crossing first the Rhone, and then the Alps, in conflicts with men and the nature of the country, he looked forward to a crossing by no means so easy and so soon accomplished. This accounted for his slowness in leaving winter quarters. But for Hasdrubal everything moved more quickly and more easily than had been expected by himself and others. For not only did the Arverni, and then in turn other Gallic and Alpine tribes, receive him, but they even followed him to war. And not merely was he leading an army through country for the most part made passable by his brother's crossing, although previously trackless, but, thanks to the opening up of the Alps by twelve years of habitual use, they were also crossing through tribes now less savagely disposed. For previously, being never seen by strange peoples and unaccustomed themselves to see a stranger in their own land, they were unfriendly to the human race in general. And at first, not knowing whither the Carthaginian was bound, they had believed that their own rocks and fastnesses and booty in cattle and men were the objects of attack. Then reports of the Punic war, with which Italy had been aflame for eleven years, had made it quite plain to them that the Alps were merely a route; that two very powerful cities, separated from each other by a wide expanse of sea and land, were contending for empire and supremacy. These were the reasons which had opened the Alps for Hasdrubal. But what had been gained by the rapidity of his march he lost by delaying before Placentia, in a futile blockade rather than a siege. He had believed that the storming of a town in the plain was easy, and the reputation of the colony had led him on, thinking that by the destruction of that city he would inspire great alarm in the others. Not only did he hinder himself by that siege, but he had kept back Hannibal, who was just preparing to leave winter quarters, on hearing so much sooner than he had expected news of his brother's crossing. For Hannibal recalled not only how slow was the besieging of cities, but also how vainly he had himself attempted to take that same colony, upon returning as a victor from the Trebia. The setting out of the consuls from the city in opposite directions, as though for two wars at the same time, had drawn men's anxious thoughts both ways, while they not only remembered what disasters the first coming of Hannibal had brought into Italy, but also were tormented by this anxiety: what gods were to be so kindly disposed to the city and the empire that the state should meet with success at the same time in both quarters? It was with a balancing of defeats so far by victories, they thought, that matters had dragged on up to that time. When in Italy at Trasumennus and Cannae the Roman state had gone down to defeat, victorious campaigns in Spain had saved her from falling. Later, when in Spain one disaster after another had partially destroyed two armies with the loss of two extraordinary generals, many successes in Italy and Sicily had supported the tottering state. And the very distance, they said, in that one of the wars was fought in the remotest part of the world, had given time to recover breath. But now two wars had been admitted into Italy, two generals of the greatest celebrity were encircling the city of Rome, and upon one spot the whole mass, the entire weight of the danger had settled. Whichever of them was the first to win a victory would within a few days unite his camp with the other's. Alarm was caused also by the preceding year, saddened by the death of two consuls. Troubled by such anxieties men escorted the consuls as they parted, leaving for their provinces. It is related that when Marcus Livius, still filled with resentment toward his fellow-citizens, was setting out for the war, and Quintus Fabius warned him not to engage the enemy rashly, before he had come to know their character, he replied that he would fight when he first caught sight of the enemy's column. When the question was asked what reason he had for haste, he said, I shall win either great fame from the enemy, or from my defeated fellow-citizens a joy that surely is earned, even if not to my credit. Before Claudius, the consul, reached his province, as Hannibal was leading his army along the very border of the territory of ... into the country of the Sallentini, Gaius Hostilius Tubulus with cohorts unencumbered by baggage attacked him and caused terrible confusion in the straggling column. He slew about four thousand men and captured nine military standards. On hearing of the approach of the enemy, Quintus Claudius, who had his camps established near the various cities of the Sallentine territory, had left his winter quarters. Accordingly, not to engage two armies at the same time, Hannibal moved his camp out of the region of Tarentum by night and retired into the country of the Bruttii. Claudius turned his column into the territory of the Sallentini, while Hostilius on his way to Capua met the consul Claudius near Venusia. There forty thousand infantry and twenty-five hundred horsemen were selected from both their armies, that with them the consul might campaign against Hannibal, As for the rest of the forces, Hostilius was ordered to lead them to Capua, to be handed over to Quintus Fulvius, the proconsul. Hannibal, after concentrating the army which he had kept in winter quarters or garrisons in the land of the Bruttii, came to Grumentum in Lucania, in the hope of recovering the towns which out of fear had gone over to the Romans. The Roman consul hastened from Venusia to the same place, reconnoitring as he advanced, and pitched camp about fifteen hundred paces from the enemy. The Carthaginians' earthwork seemed almost in contact with the walls of Grumentum; the distance was only five hundred paces. Between the Punic camp and the Roman lay a plain. Bare hills overhung the left flank of the Carthaginians and the right flank of the Romans, without arousing suspicions for either army, because they had no woods nor any hiding-places for an ambush. In the plain between them charges starting from outposts brought on engagements not important enough to be mentioned. It was evident that the Roman general's only object was not to allow the enemy to get away. But Hannibal in his eagerness to make his way out of the place would go down into battle-line with all his forces. Then the consul, using the enemy's talent, all the more readily that on such exposed hills ambuscades could not be feared, commanded five cohorts, with five maniples in addition, to cross over the ridge in the night, and to post themselves on the farther side of the hills. As to the time for them to rise from ambush and attack the enemy he instructed Tiberius Claudius Asellus, tribune of the soldiers, and Publius Claudius, prefect of the allies, officers whom he was sending with them. At daybreak he himself led out all his forces, infantry and cavalry, into battle-line. A little later the signal for battle was set up by Hannibal also, and a shout was raised in the camp as the men rushed in all directions to get their arms. Then cavalry and infantry in rivalry dashed out of the gates and, scattering over the plain, made haste to reach the enemy. On seeing their disorder, the consul ordered Gaius Aurunculeius, tribune of the soldiers of the third legion, to send out the cavalry of the legion with all possible momentum against the enemy, saying that they had scattered so widely, like sheep, in disorder over the whole plain that they could be routed and crushed before they were drawn up in line. Not yet had Hannibal left the camp when he heard the shouting of the combatants. Accordingly, being summoned by the uproar, he rapidly moved his troops up to the enemy. Already the foremost had been seized with the panic caused by the cavalry. Of the Roman infantry also the first legion and the right ala were coming into battle. In disorder the enemy engaged, just as chance brought a man face to face with either a foot-soldier or a horseman. The battle was enlarged by the reserves and increased by the numbers of men rushing into the fray. And while his men were actually fighting, in spite of the uproar and the panic, Hannibal would have drawn them up —a thing not easy except in a veteran army and for a veteran commander —if from the rear the sound of the shouting cohorts and maniples, as they dashed down the hillsides, had not inspired the fear of being cut off from the camp. Thereupon they were panic-stricken and flight began on all sides. And the slaughter was less only because the nearness of the camp shortened flight for the routed. For the cavalry clung close to their rear; on the flank the cohorts, charging down the slope of the hills by an open, easy road, had attacked them. However, more than eight thousand men were slain, more than seven hundred captured; nine military standards were taken. Of the elephants also, of which no use had been made in a battle sudden and disorderly, four were slain, two captured. About five hundred Romans and allies fell although victorious. On the next day the Carthaginian remained inactive. The Roman led his forces out into line, and on seeing that no standard-bearer was advancing against him, ordered the spoils of the fallen enemies to be gathered and the bodies of his own men to be brought together and buried. Then for several days in succession he came up so close to the gates that he almost seemed to be advancing into the camp, until at the third watch Hannibal set out, leaving numerous fires and tents in that part of the camp which faced the enemy, also a few Numidians to show themselves on the earthwork and at the gates; and he pushed on toward Apulia. When day dawned, the Roman line came up to the earthwork, and the Numidians showed themselves a while, as arranged, at the gates and on the wall; then after deceiving the enemy for sometime, riding at full speed they overtook their own column. The consul, perceiving the stillness in the camp and not seeing anywhere even the few men who at daybreak had been strolling about, sent two horsemen in advance into the camp to reconnoitre. Then, once it had been ascertained that everything was quite safe, he ordered an advance into the camp. And after lingering there only long enough for the soldiers to scatter for plunder, he then sounded the recall, and long before nightfall led his troops back. Setting out at dawn on the next day, in forced marches he followed reports of the enemy's column and its tracks and overtook them not far from Venusia. There also there was a disorderly battle; over two thousand Carthaginians were slain. Then, marching by night and in the mountains, to give no opportunity for battle, the Carthaginian made for Metapontum. Thereupon Hanno, who had commanded the garrison of that place, was sent with a few men into the land of the Bruttii to muster a fresh army. Hannibal added Hanno's troops to his own, returned to Venusia by the same route by which he had come, and proceeded thence to Canusium. Nero had never left the enemy's heels and, when setting out himself for Metapontum, he had summoned Quintus Fulvius into Lucania, in order that that region should not be without troops. Meanwhile Hasdrubal, after abandoning the siege of Placentia, sent four Gallic horsemen and two Numidians with a letter to Hannibal. When they had already traversed nearly the whole length of Italy through the midst of the enemy, in following Hannibal as he withdrew to Metapontum they came by roads of which they were uncertain to Tarentum and were brought by Roman foragers who roamed about the country to Quintus Claudius, the propraetor. At first they tried to confuse him by vague answers, but when the fear of torture was brought to bear and compelled them to admit the truth, they informed him that they were carrying a letter from Hasdrubal to Hannibal. Together with the letter, still sealed as it was, they were turned over to Lucius Verginius, tribune of the soldiers, to be conducted to Claudius, the consul. At the same time two troops of Samnites were sent as an escort. When they had reached the consul, and the letter had been read by an interpreter and the captives questioned, Claudius thereupon judged that the situation of the state was not such that they should carry on the war by routine methods, each consul within the bounds of his own province, operating with his own armies against an enemy prescribed by the senate. Rather must he venture to improvise something unforeseen, unexpected, something which in the beginning would cause no less alarm among citizens than among enemies, but if accomplished would convert great fear into great rejoicing. Sending Hasdrubal's letter to the senate at Rome, he likewise informed the conscript fathers what he was himself intending to do. In view of Hasdrubal's writing to his brother that he would meet him in Umbria, the consul advised the senate to summon a legion from Capua to Rome, to conduct a levy at Rome, to confront the enemy at Narnia with the city troops. In such terms he wrote to the senate. He sent also messengers in advance through the regions of Larinum, of the Marrucini, the Frentani, the Praetutii, along the line of his proposed march, that they should all carry from the farms and the cities provisions, ready for the soldiers to eat, down to the road, and should bring out horses and mules as well, that the weary might have no lack of vehicles. As for himself, out of the whole army he chose the best soldiers, citizens and allies, six thousand infantry, a thousand cavalry. He announced that he intended to seize the nearest city in Lucania and its Carthaginian garrison; that they must all be ready for the march. Setting out at night, he changed his direction to that of Picenum. The consul in reality was leading his army to his colleague by the longest of forced marches, having left Quintus Catius, his lieutenant, to command the camp. At Rome there was no less panic and confusion than there had been four years before, when a Carthaginian camp had been pitched before the Roman walls and gates. Nor was it quite clear to men's minds whether they should praise or blame so bold a march on the part of the consul. It was plain that it would be praised or blamed according to the outcome, than which nothing is more unjust. They said that the camp had been left near an enemy who was Hannibal, without a general, with an army from which had been detached all its strength, all its flower. And the consul had indicated a march into Lucania, whereas he was heading for Picenum and Gaul, leaving a camp that was defended by nothing more than the deception of the enemy, who was unaware that the general and a part of his army were not there. What was to happen, if that became known and Hannibal should wish either with his whole army to pursue Nero, who had set out with only six thousand armed men, or else to attack the camp, abandoned to plunder, without proper forces, without its high command, without the auspices? The earlier disasters in that war, the death of two consuls in the preceding year, were still terrifying. And they said that all those misfortunes had befallen them when the enemy had but a single general, a single army, in Italy. At present it had become two Punic wars, two mighty armies, two Hannibals, so to speak, in Italy. For Hasdrubal also was a son of the same father, Hamilcar, and an equally strenuous commander, trained for so many years in Spain by a war with Romans, famous too for a double victory, the destruction of two armies and generals of great distinction. Certainly of the swiftness of his march from Spain, and of having aroused the Gallic tribes to war he could boast far more than Hannibal himself. For he had gathered an army in the very region in which Hannibal had lost the larger part of his forces by hunger and cold, the most pitiable forms of death. Furthermore, men acquainted with events in Spain repeatedly added that he would encounter in Gaius Nero no unknown general, but one whom he, when himself surprised, as it happened, in a difficult pass, had baulked and baffled like a child by the pretence of drawing up terms of peace. They reckoned all the enemy's forces even larger, their own less, than they were, since fear is an interpreter always inclined to the worse side. Nero, now that he had already made his distance from the enemy such that it was quite safe to reveal his plan, briefly addressed his soldiers. He said that no plan of any general had been in appearance more reckless, but in fact safer, than his. He was leading them to certain victory. For inasmuch as his colleague had set out for the war only when infantry and cavalry forces had been furnished by the senate to his own satisfaction —larger forces and better equipped than if he were marching even against Hannibal —if they should themselves with their troops add ever so small a makeweight, they would change the whole situation. The mere report along the battle-line —for he would see to it that they did not hear sooner —that a second consul and a second army had arrived would put their victory beyond a doubt. Hearsay, he said, decides a war and slight influences move men in the direction of hope and fear. Of the glory at least to be derived from success they would themselves reap almost the whole benefit. Always what was the last to be added is felt to have brought with it the whole issue. They themselves could see by what throngs of people, by what admiration, by what approval, their march was acclaimed. And in fact they were marching everywhere between lines of men and women who had poured out from the farms on every side, and amidst their vows and prayers and words of praise. Defenders of the state men called them, champions of the city of Rome and of the empire. In their weapons and their right hands, they said, were placed their own safety and freedom, and those of their children. They kept imploring all the gods and goddesses that the soldiers might have a successful march, a favourable battle, a prompt victory over the enemy, and that they might themselves be obliged to pay the vows they had made on their behalf; that, just as they were now anxiously escorting them, so after a few days they might with rejoicing go to meet them in the exultation of victory. Then they vied with each other in invitations and offers and in importuning them to take from them in preference to others whatever would serve the men themselves and their beasts; they heaped everything upon them generously. The soldiers competed in self-restraint, not to take more than they needed. There was no loitering, no straggling, no halt except while taking food; they marched day and night; they gave to rest hardly enough time for the needs of their bodies. And men had been sent in advance by Nero to his colleague, to announce their coming and to inquire whether he wished them to come secretly or openly, by day or by night, to establish themselves in the same camp or in another. It was thought best that they should enter by night in secret. Orders had been sent by Livius, the consul, throughout the camp that tribune should receive tribune, centurion centurion, horseman horseman, foot-soldier foot-soldier; for to enlarge the camp was not to the purpose, he said, lest the enemy should know of the arrival of the other consul. And to crowd in larger numbers of men in cramped quarters was to prove easier, because Claudius' army had brought with it on its expedition hardly anything besides its arms. But in the very course of the march the column had been enlarged by volunteers; for not only did old soldiers who had already completed their service offer themselves of their own motion, but also young men who had vied with each other in giving in their names and whom Claudius had enrolled whenever their physical appearance and sound condition seemed suitable for military service. The other consul's camp was near Sena, and about five hundred paces away was Hasdrubal. Accordingly, as he was now approaching, Nero came to a halt under cover of the hills, in order not to enter the camp before night. Silently they entered, each man being led to his tent by one of the same rank, and they were hospitably welcomed with great general rejoicing. On the next day a council of war was held, at which Lucius Porcius Licinus, the praetor, was present. His camp adjoined that of the consuls, and before their arrival he had baffled the enemy by all the arts of war, leading his army on high ground, while at one time he would occupy a narrow pass, to block their way, at another would make sudden attacks upon the column from the flank or the rear. And now he was present at the council. The opinions of many inclined in the direction of postponing the time for battle, until Nero should refresh his troops, worn by the march and lack of sleep, and at the same time should take a few days to acquaint himself with the enemy. But Nero began not merely to urge, but by all means also to implore them not to make his plan, which rapid movement had made safe, a reckless plan by delaying. It was by a deception which would not last long, he said, that Hannibal, as though dazed, was not attacking his camp, left without its commander, and had not set his army in motion to pursue him; that before Hannibal should bestir himself, they could destroy Hasdrubal's army and return to Apulia. Whoever by delaying gave the enemy time, was betraying the distant camp to Hannibal, at the same time opening the way into Gaul, so that unmolested he might join Hasdrubal whenever he pleased. At once, he said, the signal must be given and they must go out into battle-line and take advantage of the deception of their enemies, both the distant and those near at hand, while the one army was unaware that it had to do with smaller numbers, and the other that it had to deal with larger and stronger forces. Dismissing the council they raised the signal for battle and forthwith went out into battle-line. Already the enemy were standing in line before the camp. Delay in beginning the battle was due to Hasdrubal, in that, riding out in front of the standards with a few horsemen, he observed among the enemy old shields which he had not seen before and very lean horses; and he thought the numbers also larger than was usual. For, suspecting what had happened, he promptly sounded the recall and sent men to the river from which the Romans were drawing water, that some Romans might be captured there and scanned to see whether any chanced to be more sunburned, as though from a recent march. At the same time he ordered men to ride round the camps at a distance, and to notice whether the earthworks had been somewhere enlarged, and to mark whether the trumpet sounded once in the camp or twice. All this having been duly reported, the fact that the camps had not been enlarged deceived him. There were two of them, as there had been before the coming of the second consul, one that of Marcus Livius, the other that of Lucius Porcius. In neither case had anything been added to the fortifications to give ampler space for the tents. The one thing that impressed an experienced general and one accustomed to a Roman enemy was their report that the trumpet had sounded once in the praetor's camp, twice in the consul's. There surely were two consuls, he thought, and sadly concerned he was how the one had got away from Hannibal. Least of all could he suspect the fact-that Hannibal had been baffled and baulked to such an extent that he did not know where was the general, where was the army with which his camp was formerly in contact. Surely he had been deterred by no common disaster, and had not dared to pursue. Hasdrubal greatly feared that after all was lost he had himself come too late to assist, and that the Romans would have the same good fortune in Italy as in Spain. At times he believed his own letter had not reached Hannibal, and that the consul, upon intercepting it, had made haste, in order to overpower him. Troubled by these anxieties, he had the fires put out and orders given at the first watch that they should pack up their baggage in silence, and then he commanded the standards to advance. In the excitement and confusion of the night the guides were not closely watched, and one of them settled himself in a hiding-place he had previously determined upon, while the other swam across the river Metaurus, using a shallow place known to him. So the column, deserted by its guides, wandered at first about the country, and a considerable number, overcome by drowsiness and lack of sleep, threw themselves down anywhere and left few men with the standards. Hasdrubal ordered the standard-bearers to move along the bank of the river, until daylight should disclose a road. And having made little progress, while describing blind circles along the bends and curves of the twisting stream he halted, intending to cross the river as soon as daylight should show a favourable crossing. But inasmuch as the farther he marched away from the sea the higher were the banks that confined the stream, and hence he could not find a ford, by wasting the day he gave the enemy time to overtake him. First Nero with all the cavalry arrived, then Porcius with the light-armed caught up with them. And while they made skirmishing attacks from every side and charged the weary column, and the Carthaginian, now abandoning a march which resembled a flight, was aiming to lay out a camp on the hill above the bank of the river, came Livius with all the infantry forces, not in marching order, but formed and armed to begin the battle at once. But after they had combined all their troops and the line had been drawn up, Claudius on the right wing, Livius on the left, prepared for battle, while the command of the centre was assigned to the praetor. Hasdrubal, on seeing that he must fight, ceased fortifying his camp and placed his elephants in the front line before the standards. Flanking the elephants, on the left wing he placed the Gauls facing Claudius —not so much that he trusted them, as that he believed the enemy was afraid of them. The right wing facing Marcus Livius he took for himself and his Spanish troops, and above all he rested his hopes on these veteran soldiers. The Ligurians were placed in the centre behind the elephants. But the battle-line was deep rather than widely extended. A projecting hill shielded the Gauls. That part of the front which the Spaniards held clashed with the left wing of the Romans, whose whole right wing extended beyond the fighting and had nothing to do. The hill facing them prevented them from attacking either in front or on the flank. Between Livius and Hasdrubal a mighty battle had begun, and a savage slaughter on both sides was in progress. There both generals were engaged, there the greater part of the Roman infantry and cavalry, there the Spanish troops, the old soldiers, acquainted also with the Roman mode of fighting, and the Ligurians, a hardy race of warriors. To the same place came the elephants, which had thrown the front lines into confusion by their first charge and had by this time forced the standards back. Then as the conflict and the shouting increased, they were no longer under control and roamed about between the two battle-lines, as though uncertain to whom they belonged, not unlike ships drifting without their steering-oars. Claudius shouted to his soldiers, Why then have we covered so long a march at headlong speed? and endeavoured without success to lead his line up the hill. Thereupon, after discovering that they could not get to the enemy in that direction, he drew off a number of cohorts from the right wing, where he saw that they would be standing idly by instead of fighting. He led them round behind the battle-line, and to the surprise not only of the enemy, but also of his own troops, charged into the enemy's right flank. And such was his speed that, soon after showing themselves on the flank, they were already attacking the rear. Thus from all sides, front, flank, rear, the Spaniards and Ligurians were slain, and the slaughter had now reached the Gauls. At that point there was the least fighting; for a large proportion of them were not with the standards, having slipped away in the night and lying asleep scattered over the fields. And further, those who were present, being exhausted by marching and lack of sleep, lusty, but utterly lacking in endurance, could scarcely carry their arms on their shoulders. And now it was midday, and thirst and heat exposed the gasping men to unlimited slaughter or capture. More of the elephants were slain by their own drivers than by the enemy. These used to have a carpenter's chisel and a mallet. When the beasts began to grow wild and to dash into their own men, the keeper would place the chisel between the ears, precisely at the joint which connects the neck with the head, and would drive it in with all possible force. That had been found to be the quickest means of death in a brute of such size, when they got beyond the hope of control. And the first man to introduce the practice had been Hasdrubal, a general who was often notable at other times, but pre-eminently in that battle. It was he that by encouraging them and sharing the same dangers sustained his men in battle; he that fired them, now by entreating, now by upbraiding, the exhausted and those who because of weariness and over-exertion were giving up; he that recalled those who tried to flee and at not a few points revived the battle they were abandoning. Finally, when fortune unquestionably was on the enemy's side, in order not to survive so large an army that had followed his fame, he spurred his horse and charged into a Roman cohort. There, in a manner worthy of his father Hamilcar and of Hannibal his brother, he fell fighting. Never in a single battle of that war were so many of the enemy slain, and a disaster equal to that of Cannae, whether in the loss of the general or that of an army, seemed to have been inflicted in return. Fifty-six thousand of the enemy were slain, fifty-four hundred captured. Great was the rest of the booty, both of every kind and of gold and silver as well. In addition, Roman citizens —over four thousand of them —who as captives were in the hands of the enemy were recovered. This was some compensation for the soldiers lost in the battle. For the victory was by no means bloodless. About eight thousand Romans and allies were slain, and to such an extent were even the victors sated with bloodshed and slaughter that on the next day, when word was brought to Livius, the consul, that the Cisalpine Gauls and Ligurians, who either had not been present in the battle, or had escaped in the midst of the carnage, were moving away in one column, with no trustworthy guide, no standards, no formation or high command, that they all could be wiped out, if a single regiment of cavalry should be sent, the consul said, No! let there be some survivors, to carry the news both of the enemy's disaster and of our valour. Nero on the night following the battle set out for Apulia, and with a column moving more rapidly than when he had come from that region, reached his permanent camp and the enemy on the sixth day. His march was attended by smaller throngs, because no messenger had come in advance, but by rejoicing so great that people were almost beside themselves for joy. At Rome, of course, neither state of feeling can be sufficiently described and set forth, neither that in which the city had waited in suspense for the outcome, nor that in which it heard news of the victory. Not once in all the days since it was first reported that Claudius, the consul, had set out did a senator leave the Senate House and the magistrates from sunrise to sunset, nor did the people leave the Forum. The matrons, being in themselves unable to help, resorted to prayers and supplications, and wandering from one to another of all the temples, importuned the gods with entreaties and vows. While the city was in a state of such anxiety and suspense, came first a vague rumour that two horsemen of Narnia, coming from the battle, had reached the camp which had been placed to guard the gateway of Umbria, reporting that the enemy had been cut to pieces. And at first men had heard it, rather than taken it in, as something too great and too joyous for them to grasp and quite believe. And the promptness was in itself an obstacle to belief, in that the battle was said to have been fought but two days before. Then came a letter sent by Lucius Manlius Acidinus from the camp in regard to the arrival of the Narnian horsemen. This letter, carried through the Forum to the tribunal of the praetor, brought the senate out of the Curia. And with such rivalry and disorder did the people rush up to the doors of the Curia that the messenger could not get near, but was jostled by men asking questions and shouting that the letter should be read from the Rostra before the reading in the senate. Finally the rioters were pushed aside and restrained by magistrates, and the joy could be successively imparted to men unable to contain it. The letter was read in the senate first, then in the assembly; and, according to each man's temperament, some felt a delight already well founded, others would have no assurance until they should hear the emissaries or a letter from the consuls. Next came word that the emissaries themselves were approaching. Then in truth all ages ran to meet them, everyone eager to be the first to take in a joy so great with eyes and ears. An unbroken column reached all the way to the Mulvian Bridge. The emissaries, who were Lucius Veturius Philo, Publius Licinius Varus and Quintus Caecilius Metellus, beset by a crowd of men of every class made their way into the Forum, while some were questioning the emissaries themselves, some their companions, as to what had happened. And whenever a man heard that the army of the enemy and their general had been slain, that the Roman legions were intact, the consuls safe, forthwith he would share his delight with others. After they had made their way with difficulty into the Senate House and with much more difficulty the crowd had been pushed aside, so as not to mingle with the senators, the letter was read in the senate. Then the emissaries were led over into the assembly. Lucius Veturius, after the reading of the letter, himself set forth more clearly everything that had been done, with great approval and finally even shouting from the entire assembly, since they were barely able to contain their joy. Then some hastened to one temple of the gods after another to return thanks, others to their homes, to share news so joyous with wives and children. The senate decreed that, whereas Marcus Livius and Gaius Claudius, the consuls, with their army safe, had slain the general and legions of the enemy, there should be a thanksgiving for three days. This thanksgiving was proclaimed before an assembly by Gaius Hostilius, the praetor, and observed by men and women. All the temples were uniformly crowded for all three days, while the matrons in their richest garments, together with their children, being relieved of every fear, just as if the war were already finished, returned thanks to the immortal gods. Even the financial situation of the state was changed by that victory, so that from that time on, just as if in peace, they ventured to carry on business with one another, selling and buying, lending money and repaying loans. Gaius Claudius, the consul, having returned to his camp, ordered the head of Hasdrubal, which he had kept with care and brought with him, to be thrown in front of the enemy's outposts, and that captured Africans should be displayed, as they were, in chains; furthermore that two of them, released from bonds, should go to Hannibal and relate to him what had happened. Hannibal, under the blow of so great a sorrow, at once public and intimate, is reported to have said that he recognized the destiny of Carthage. And moving his camp away, with the intention to concentrate in that most distant part of Italy, the land of the Bruttii, all the forces which he was unable to defend if widely scattered, he removed the whole body of citizens of Metapontum, whom he had summoned to leave their homes, and such Lucanians also as were subject to him, into the Bruttian country.

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