BOOK XXII.

_Hannibal, after an uninterrupted march of four days and three

nights, arrives in Etruria, through the marshes, in which he lost an

eye. Caius Flaminius, the consul, an inconsiderate man, having gone

forth in opposition to the omens, dug up the standards which could not

otherwise be raised, and been thrown from his horse immediately after

he had mounted, is insnared by Hannibal, and cut off by his army near

the Thrasimene lake. Three thousand who had escaped are placed in

chains by Hannibal, in violation of pledges given. Distress occasioned

in Rome by the intelligence. The Sibylline books consulted, and a

sacred spring decreed. Fabius Maximus sent as dictator against

Hannibal, whom he frustrates by caution and delay. Marcus Minucius,

the master of the horse, a rash and impetuous man, inveighs against

the caution of Fabius, and obtains an equality of command with him.

The army is divided between them, and Minucius engaging Hannibal in an

unfavourable position, is reduced to the extremity of danger, and is

rescued by the dictator, and places himself under his authority.

Hannibal, after ravaging Campania, is shut up by Fabius in a valley

near the town of Casilinum, but escapes by night, putting to flight

the Romans on guard by oxen with lighted faggots attached to their

horns. Hannibal attempts to excite a suspicion of the fidelity of

Fabius by sparing his farm while ravaging with fire the whole country

around it. Aemilius Paulus and Terentius Varro are routed at Cannae,

and forty thousand men slain, among whom were Paulus the consul,

eighty senators, and thirty who had served the office of consul,

praetor, or edile. A design projected by some noble youths of quitting

Italy in despair after this calamity, is intrepidly quashed by Publius

Cornelius Scipio, a military tribune, afterwards surnamed Africanus.

Successes in Spain, eight thousand slaves are enlisted by the Romans,

they refuse to ransom the captives, they go out in a body to meet

Varro, and thank him for not having despaired of the commonwealth._

* * * * *

1. Spring was now at hand, when Hannibal quitted his winter quarters,

having both attempted in vain to cross the Apennines, from the

intolerable cold, and having remained with great danger and alarm. The

Gauls, whom the hope of plunder and spoil had collected, when, instead

of being themselves engaged in carrying and driving away booty from

the lands of others, they saw their own lands made the seat of war and

burdened by the wintering of the armies of both forces, turned their

hatred back again from the Romans to Hannibal; and though plots were

frequently concerted against him by their chieftains, he was preserved

by the treachery they manifested towards each other; disclosing their

conspiracy with the same inconstancy with which they had conspired;

and by changing sometimes his dress, at other times the fashion of his

hair, he protected himself from treachery by deception. However, this

fear was the cause of his more speedily quitting his winter quarters.

Meanwhile Cneius Servilius, the consul, entered upon his office at

Rome, on the ides of March. There, when he had consulted the senate on

the state of the republic in general, the indignation against

Flaminius was rekindled. They said "that they had created indeed two

consuls, that they had but one; for what regular authority had the

other, or what auspices? That their magistrates took these with them

from home, from the tutelar deities of themselves and the state, after

the celebration of the Latin holidays; the sacrifice upon the mountain

being completed, and the vows duly offered up in the Capitol: that

neither could an unofficial individual take the auspices, nor could

one who had gone from home without them, take them new, and for the

first time, in a foreign soil." Prodigies announced from many places

at the same time, augmented the terror: in Sicily, that several darts

belonging to the soldiers had taken fire; and in Sardinia, that the

staff of a horseman, who was going his rounds upon a wall, took fire

as he held it in his hand; that the shores had blazed with frequent

fires; that two shields had sweated blood at Praeneste; that redhot

stones had fallen from the heavens at Arpi; that shields were seen in

the heavens, and the sun fighting with the moon, at Capena; that two

moons rose in the day-time; that the waters of Caere had flowed mixed

with blood; and that even the fountain of Hercules had flowed

sprinkled with spots of blood. In the territory of Antium, that bloody

ears of corn had fallen into the basket as they were reaping. At

Falerii, that the heavens appeared cleft as if with a great chasm;

and, that where it had opened, a vast light had shone forth; that the

prophetic tablets had spontaneously become less; and that one had

fallen out thus inscribed, "Mars shakes his spear." During the same

time, that the statue of Mars at Rome, on the Appian way, had sweated

at the sight of images of wolves. At Capua that there had been the

appearance of the heavens being on fire, and of the moon as falling

amidst rain. After these, credence was given to prodigies of less

magnitude: that the goats of certain persons had borne wool; that a

hen had changed herself into a cock; and a cock into a hen: these

things having been laid before the senate as reported, the authors

being conducted into the senate-house, the consul took the sense of

the fathers on religious affairs. It was decreed that those prodigies

should be expiated, partly with full-grown, partly with sucking

victims; and that a supplication should be made at every shrine for

the space of three days; that the other things should be done

accordingly as the gods should declare in their oracles to be

agreeable to their will when the decemviri had examined the books. By

the advice of the decemviri it was decreed, first, that a golden

thunderbolt of fifty pounds' weight should be made as an offering to

Jupiter; that offerings of silver should be presented to Juno and

Minerva; that sacrifices of full-grown victims should be offered to

Juno Regina on the Aventine; and to Juno Sospita at Lanuvium; that the

matrons, contributing as much money as might be convenient to each,

should carry it to the Aventine, as a present to Juno Regina; and that

a lectisternium should be celebrated. Moreover, that the very

freed-women should, according to their means, contribute money from

which a present might be made to Feronia. When these things were done,

the decemviri sacrificed with the larger victims in the forum at

Ardea. Lastly, it being now the month of December, a sacrifice was

made at the temple of Saturn at Rome, and a lectisternium ordered, in

which senators prepared the couch and a public banquet. Proclamation

was made through the city, that the Saturnalia should be kept for a

day and a night; and the people were commanded to account that day as

a holiday, and observe it for ever.

2. While the consul employs himself at Rome in appeasing the gods and

holding the levy, Hannibal, setting out from his winter quarters,

because it was reported that the consul Flaminius had now arrived at

Arretium, although a longer but more commodious route was pointed out

to him, takes the nearer road through a marsh where the Arno had, more

than usual, overflowed its banks. He ordered the Spaniards and

Africans (in these lay the strength of his veteran army) to lead,

their own baggage being intermixed with them, lest, being compelled to

halt any where, they should want what might be necessary for their

use: the Gauls he ordered to go next, that they might form the middle

of the marching body; the cavalry to march in the rear: next, Mago

with the light-armed Numidians to keep the army together, particularly

coercing the Gauls, if, fatigued with exertion and the length of the

march, as that nation is wanting in vigour for such exertions, they

should fall away or halt. The van still followed the standards

wherever the guides did but lead them, through the exceeding deep and

almost fathomless eddies of the river, nearly swallowed up in mud, and

plunging themselves in. The Gauls could neither support themselves

when fallen, nor raise themselves from the eddies. Nor did they

sustain their bodies with spirit, nor their minds with hope; some

scarce dragging on their wearied limbs; others dying where they had

once fallen, their spirits being subdued with fatigue, among the

beasts which themselves also lay prostrate in every place. But chiefly

watching wore them out, endured now for four days and three nights.

When, the water covering every place, not a dry spot could be found

where they might stretch their weary bodies, they laid themselves down

upon their baggage, thrown in heaps into the waters. Piles of beasts,

which lay every where through the whole route, afforded a necessary

bed for temporary repose to those seeking any place which was not

under water. Hannibal himself, riding on the only remaining elephant,

to be the higher from the water, contracted a disorder in his eyes, at

first from the unwholesomeness of the vernal air, which is attended

with transitions from heat to cold; and at length from watching,

nocturnal damps, the marshy atmosphere disordering his head, and

because he had neither opportunity nor leisure for remedies, loses one

of them.

3. Many men and cattle having been lost thus wretchedly, when at

length he had emerged from the marshes, he pitched his camp as soon as

he could on dry ground. And here he received information, through the

scouts sent in advance, that the Roman army was round the walls of

Arretium. Next the plans and temper of the consul, the situation of

the country, the roads, the sources from which provisions might be

obtained, and whatever else it was useful to know; all these things he

ascertained by the most diligent inquiry. The country was among the

most fertile of Italy, the plain of Etruria, between Faesulae and

Arretium, abundant in its supply of corn, cattle, and every other

requisite. The consul was haughty from his former consulship, and felt

no proper degree of reverence not only for the laws and the majesty of

the fathers, but even for the gods. This temerity, inherent in his

nature, fortune had fostered by a career of prosperity and success in

civil and military affairs. Thus it was sufficiently evident that,

heedless of gods and men, he would act in all cases with presumption

and precipitation; and, that he might fall the more readily into the

errors natural to him, the Carthaginian begins to fret and irritate

him; and leaving the enemy on his left, he takes the road to Faesulae,

and marching through the centre of Etruria, with intent to plunder, he

exhibits to the consul, in the distance, the greatest devastation he

could with fires and slaughters. Flaminius, who would not have rested

even if the enemy had remained quiet; then, indeed, when he saw the

property of the allies driven and carried away almost before his eyes,

considering that it reflected disgrace upon him that the Carthaginian

now roaming at large through the heart of Italy, and marching without

resistance to storm the very walls of Rome, though every other person

in the council advised safe rather than showy measures, urging that he

should wait for his colleague, in order that, joining their armies,

they might carry on the war with united courage and counsels; and

that, meanwhile, the enemy should be prevented from his unrestrained

freedom in plundering by the cavalry and the light-armed auxiliaries;

in a fury hurried out of the council, and at once gave out the signal

for marching and for battle. "Nay, rather," says he, "let him be

before the walls of Arretium, for here is our country, here our

household gods. Let Hannibal, slipping through our fingers, waste

Italy through and through; and, ravaging and burning every thing, let

him arrive at the walls of Rome; let us move hence till the fathers

shall have summoned Flaminius from Arretium, as they did Camillus of

old from Veii." While reproaching them thus, and in the act of

ordering the standards to be speedily pulled up, when he had mounted

upon his horse, the animal fell suddenly, and threw the unseated

consul over his head. All the bystanders being alarmed at this as an

unhappy omen in the commencement of the affair, in addition word is

brought, that the standard could not be pulled up, though, the

standard-bearer strove with all his force. Flaminius, turning to the

messenger, says, "Do you bring, too, letters from the senate,

forbidding me to act. Go, tell them to dig up the standard, if,

through fear, their hands are so benumbed that they cannot pluck it

up." Then the army began to march; the chief officers, besides that

they dissented from the plan, being terrified by the twofold prodigy;

while the soldiery in general were elated by the confidence of their

leader, since they regarded merely the hope he entertained, and not

the reasons of the hope.

4. Hannibal lays waste the country between the city Cortona and the

lake Trasimenus, with all the devastation of war, the more to

exasperate the enemy to revenge the injuries inflicted on his allies.

They had now reached a place formed by nature for an ambuscade, where

the Trasimenus comes nearest to the mountains of Cortona. A very

narrow passage only intervenes, as though room enough just for that

purpose had been left designedly; after that a somewhat wider plain

opens itself, and then some hills rise up. On these he pitches his

camp, in full view, where he himself with his Spaniards and Africans

only might be posted. The Baliares and his other light troops he leads

round the mountains; his cavalry he posts at the very entrance of the

defile, some eminences conveniently concealing them; in order that

when the Romans had entered, the cavalry advancing, every place might

be enclosed by the lake and the mountains. Flaminius, passing the

defiles before it was quite daylight, without reconnoitering, though

he had arrived at the lake the preceding day at sunset, when the

troops began to be spread into the wider plain, saw that part only of

the enemy which was opposite to him; the ambuscade in his rear and

overhead escaped his notice. And when the Carthaginian had his enemy

enclosed by the lake and mountains, and surrounded by his troops, he

gives the signal to all to make a simultaneous charge; and each

running down the nearest way, the suddenness and unexpectedness of the

event was increased to the Romans by a mist rising from the lake,

which had settled thicker on the plain than on the mountains; and thus

the troops of the enemy ran down from the various eminences,

sufficiently well discerning each other, and therefore with the

greater regularity. A shout being raised on all sides, the Roman found

himself surrounded before he could well see the enemy; and the attack

on the front and flank had commenced ere his line could be well

formed, his arms prepared for action, or his swords unsheathed.

5. The consul, while all were panic-struck, himself sufficiently

undaunted though in so perilous a case, marshals, as well as the time

and place permitted, the lines which were thrown into confusion by

each man's turning himself towards the various shouts; and wherever he

could approach or be heard exhorts them, and bids them stand and

fight: for that they could not escape thence by vows and prayers to

the gods but by exertion and valour; that a way was sometimes opened

by the sword through the midst of marshalled armies, and that

generally the less the fear the less the danger. However, from the

noise and tumult, neither his advice nor command could be caught; and

so far were the soldiers from knowing their own standards, and ranks,

and position, that they had scarce sufficient courage to take up arms

and make them ready for battle; and certain of them were surprised

before they could prepare them, being burdened rather than protected

by them; while in so great darkness there was more use of ears than of

eyes. They turned their faces and eyes in every direction towards the

groans of the wounded, the sounds of blows upon the body or arms, and

the mingled clamours of the menacing and the affrighted. Some, as they

were making their escape, were stopped, having encountered a body of

men engaged in fight; and bands of fugitives returning to the battle,

diverted others. After charges had been attempted unsuccessfully in

every direction, and on their flanks the mountains and the lake, on

the front and rear the lines of the enemy enclosed them, when it was

evident that there was no hope of safety but in the right hand and the

sword; then each man became to himself a leader, and encourager to

action; and an entirely new contest arose, not a regular line, with

principes, hastati, and triarii; nor of such a sort as that the

vanguard should fight before the standards, and the rest of the troops

behind them; nor such that each soldier should be in his own legion,

cohort, or company: chance collects them into bands; and each man's

own will assigned to him his post, whether to fight in front or rear;

and so great was the ardour of the conflict, so intent were their

minds upon the battle, that not one of the combatants felt an

earthquake which threw down large portions of many of the cities of

Italy, turned rivers from their rapid courses, carried the sea up into

rivers, and levelled mountains with a tremendous crash.

6. The battle was continued near three hours, and in every quarter

with fierceness; around the consul, however, it was still hotter and

more determined. Both the strongest of the troops, and himself too,

promptly brought assistance wherever he perceived his men hard pressed

and distressed. But, distinguished by his armour, the enemy attacked

him with the utmost vigour, while his countrymen defended him; until

an Insubrian horseman, named Ducarius, knowing him also by his face,

says to his countrymen, "Lo, this is the consul who slew our legions

and laid waste our fields and city. Now will I offer this victim to

the shades of my countrymen, miserably slain;" and putting spurs to

his horse, he rushes through a very dense body of the enemy; and first

slaying his armour-bearer, who had opposed himself to his attack as he

approached, ran the consul through with his lance; the triarii,

opposing their shields, kept him off when seeking to despoil him. Then

first the flight of a great number began; and now neither the lake nor

the mountains obstructed their hurried retreat; they run through all

places, confined and precipitous, as though they were blind; and arms

and men are tumbled one upon another. A great many, when there

remained no more space to run, advancing into the water through the

first shallows of the lake, plunge in, as far as they could stand

above it with their heads and shoulders. Some there were whom

inconsiderate fear induced to try to escape even by swimming; but as

that attempt was inordinate and hopeless, they were either overwhelmed

in the deep water, their courage failing, or, wearied to no purpose,

made their way back, with extreme difficulty, to the shallows; and

there were cut up on all hands by the cavalry of the enemy, which had

entered the water. Near upon six thousand of the foremost body having

gallantly forced their way through the opposing enemy, entirely

unacquainted with what was occurring in their rear, escaped from the

defile; and having halted on a certain rising ground, and hearing only

the shouting and clashing of arms, they could not know nor discern, by

reason of the mist, what was the fortune of the battle. At length, the

affair being decided, when the mist, dispelled by the increasing heat

of the sun, had cleared the atmosphere, then, in the clear light, the

mountains and plains showed their ruin and the Roman army miserably

destroyed; and thus, lest, being descried at a distance, the cavalry

should be sent against them, hastily snatching up their standards,

they hurried away with all possible expedition. On the following day,

when in addition to their extreme sufferings in other respects, famine

also was at hand, Maharbal, who had followed them during the night

with the whole body of cavalry, pledging his honour that he would let

them depart with single garments, if they would deliver up their arms,

they surrendered themselves; which promise was kept by Hannibal with

Punic fidelity, and he threw them all into chains.

7. This is the celebrated battle at the Trasimenus, and recorded among

the few disasters of the Roman people. Fifteen thousand Romans were

slain in the battle. Ten thousand, who had been scattered in the

flight through all Etruria, returned to the city by different roads.

One thousand five hundred of the enemy perished in the battle; many on

both sides died afterwards of their wounds. The carnage on both sides

is related, by some authors, to have been many times greater. I,

besides that I would relate nothing drawn from a worthless source, to

which the minds of historians generally incline too much, have as my

chief authority Fabius, who was contemporary with the events of this

war. Such of the captives as belonged to the Latin confederacy being

dismissed without ransom, and the Romans thrown into chains, Hannibal

ordered the bodies of his own men to be gathered from the heaps of the

enemy, and buried: the body of Flaminius too, which was searched for

with great diligence for burial, he could not find. On the first

intelligence of this defeat at Rome, a concourse of the people,

dismayed and terrified, took place in the forum. The matrons,

wandering through the streets, ask all they meet, what sudden disaster

was reported? what was the fate of the army? And when the multitude,

like a full assembly, having directed their course to the comitium and

senate-house, were calling upon the magistrates, at length, a little

before sunset, Marcus Pomponius, the praetor, declares, "We have been

defeated in a great battle;" and though nothing more definite was

heard from him, yet, full of the rumours which they had caught one

from another, they carry back to their homes intelligence, that the

consul, with a great part of his troops, was slain; that a few only

survived, and these either widely dispersed in flight through Etruria,

or else captured by the enemy. As many as had been the calamities of

the vanquished army, into so many anxieties were the minds of those

distracted whose relations had served under Flaminius, and who were

uninformed of what had been the fate of their friends, nor does any

one know certainly what he should either hope or fear. During the next

and several successive days, a greater number of women almost than men

stood at the gates, waiting either for some one of their friends or

for intelligence of them, surrounding and earnestly interrogating

those they met: nor could they be torn away from those they knew

especially, until they had regularly inquired into every thing. Then

as they retired from the informants you might discern their various

expressions of countenance according as intelligence, pleasing or sad,

was announced to each; and those who congratulated or condoled on

their return home. The joy and grief of the women were especially

manifested. They report that one, suddenly meeting her son, who had

returned safe, expired at the very door before his face--that another,

who sat grieving at her house at the falsely reported death of her

son, became a corpse, from excessive joy, at the first sight of him on

his return. The praetors detained the senators in the house for

several days from sunrise to sunset, deliberating under whose conduct

and by what forces, the victorious Carthaginians could be opposed.

8. Before their plans were sufficiently determined another unexpected

defeat is reported: four thousand horse, sent under the conduct of C.

Centenius, propraetor, by Servilius to his colleague, were cut off by

Hannibal in Umbria, to which place, on hearing of the battle at

Trasimenus, they had turned their course. The report of this event

variously affected the people. Some, having their minds preoccupied

with heavier grief, considered the recent loss of cavalry trifling, in

comparison with their former losses; others did not estimate what had

occurred by itself, but considered that, as in a body already

labouring under disease, a slight cause would be felt more violently

than a more powerful one in a robust constitution, so whatever adverse

event befell the state in its then sickly and impaired condition,

ought to be estimated, not by the magnitude of the event itself, but

with reference to its exhausted strength, which could endure nothing

that could oppress it. The state therefore took refuge in a remedy for

a long time before neither wanted nor employed, the appointment of a

dictator, and because the consul was absent, by whom alone it appeared

he could be nominated, and because neither message nor letter could

easily be sent to him through the country occupied by Punic troops,

and because the people could not appoint a dictator, which had never

been done to that day, the people created Quintus Fabius Maximus pro

dictator, and Marcus Minucius Rufus master of the horse. To them the

senate assigned the task of strengthening the walls and towers of the

city, of placing guards in such quarters as seemed good, and breaking

down the bridges of the river, considering that they must now fight at

home in defence of their city, since they were unable to protect

Italy.

9. Hannibal, marching directly through Umbria, arrived at Spoletum,

thence, having completely devastated the adjoining country, and

commenced an assault upon the city, having been repulsed with great

loss and conjecturing from the strength of this one colony, which had

been not very successfully attacked, what was the size of the city of

Rome, turned aside into the territory of Picenum, which abounded not

only with every species of grain, but was stored with booty, which his

rapacious and needy troops eagerly seized. There he continued encamped

for several days, and his soldiers were refreshed, who had been

enfeebled by winter marches and marshy ground, and with a battle more

successful in its result than light or easy. When sufficient time for

rest had been granted for soldiers delighting more in plunder and

devastation than ease and repose, setting out, he lays waste the

territories of Pretutia and Hadria, then of the Marsi, the Marrucini,

and the Peligni, and the contiguous region of Apulia around Arpi and

Luceria. Cneius Servilius, the consul, having fought some slight

battles with the Gauls, and taken one inconsiderable town, when he

heard of the defeat of his colleague and the army, alarmed now for the

walls of the capital, marched towards the city, that he might not be

absent at so extreme a crisis. Quintus Fabius Maximus, a second time

dictator, assembled the senate the very day he entered on his office;

and commencing with what related to the gods, after he had distinctly

proved to the fathers, that Caius Flaminius had erred more from

neglect of the ceremonies and auspices than from temerity and want of

judgment, and that the gods themselves should be consulted as to what

were the expiations of their anger, he obtained a resolution that the

decemviri should be ordered to inspect the Sibylline books, which is

rarely decreed, except when some horrid prodigies were announced.

Having inspected the prophetic books, they reported, that the vow

which was made to Mars on account of this war, not having been

regularly fulfilled, must be performed afresh and more fully; that the

great games must be vowed to Jupiter, temples to Venus Erycina and

Mens; that a supplication and lectisternium must be made, and a sacred

spring vowed, if the war should proceed favourably and the state

continue the condition it was in before the war. Since the management

of the war would occupy Fabius, the senate orders Marcus Aemilius, the

praetor, to see that all these things are done in good time, according

to the directions of the college of pontiffs.

10. These decrees of the senate having been passed, Lucius Cornelius

Lentulus, pontifex maximus, the college of praetors consulting with

him, gives his opinion that, first of all, the people should be

consulted respecting a sacred spring: that it could not be without the

order of the people. The people having been asked according to this

form: Do ye will and order that this thing should be performed in this

manner? If the republic of the Roman people, the Quirites, shall be

safe and preserved as I wish it may, from these wars for the next five

years, (the war which is between the Roman people and the

Carthaginian, and the wars which are with the Cisalpine Gauls), the

Roman people, the Quirites, shall present whatsoever the spring shall

produce from herds of swine, sheep, goats, oxen and which shall not

have been consecrated, to be sacrificed to Jupiter, from the day which

the senate and people shall appoint. Let him who shall make an

offering do it when he please, and in what manner he please; in

whatsoever manner he does it, let it be considered duly done. If that

which ought to be sacrificed die, let it be unconsecrated, and let no

guilt attach; if any one unwittingly wound or kill it, let it be no

injury to him; if any one shall steal it, let no guilt attach to the

people or to him from whom it was stolen; if any one shall unwittingly

offer it on a forbidden day, let it be esteemed duly offered; also

whether by night or day, whether slave or free-man perform it. If the

senate and people shall order it to be offered sooner than any person

shall offer it, let the people being acquitted of it be free. On the

same account great games were vowed, at an expense of three hundred

and thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three _asses_

and a third; moreover, it was decreed that sacrifice should be done to

Jupiter with three hundred oxen, to many other deities with white oxen

and the other victims. The vows being duly made, a supplication was

proclaimed; and not only the inhabitants of the city went with their

wives and children, but such of the rustics also as, possessing any

property themselves, were interested in the welfare of the state. Then

a lectisternium was celebrated for three days, the decemviri for

sacred things superintending. Six couches were seen, for Jupiter and

Juno one, for Neptune and Minerva another, for Mars and Venus a third,

for Apollo and Diana a fourth, for Vulcan and Vesta a fifth, for

Mercury and Ceres a sixth. Then temples were vowed. To Venus Erycina,

Quintus Fabius Maximus vowed a temple; for so it was delivered from

the prophetic books, that he should vow it who held the highest

authority in the state. Titus Otacilius, the praetor vowed a temple to

Mens.

11. Divine things having been thus performed, the dictator then put

the question of the war and the state; with what, and how many legions

the fathers were of opinion that the victorious enemy should be

opposed. It was decreed that he should receive the army from Cneius

Servilius, the consul: that he should levy, moreover, from the

citizens and allies as many horse and foot as seemed good; that he

should transact and perform every thing else as he considered for the

good of the state. Fabius said he would add two legions to the army of

Servilius. These were levied by the master of the horse, and were

appointed by Fabius to meet him at Tibur on a certain day. And then

having issued proclamation that those whose towns or castles were

unfortified should quit them and assemble in places of security; that

all the inhabitants of that tract through which Hannibal was about to

march, should remove from the country, having first burnt their

buildings and spoiled their fruits, that there might not be a supply

of any thing; he himself set out on the Flaminian road to meet the

consul and his army; and when he saw in the distance the marching body

on the Tiber, near Ocriculum, and the consul with the cavalry

advancing to him, he sent a beadle to acquaint the consul that he must

meet the dictator without the lictors. When he had obeyed his command,

and their meeting had exhibited a striking display of the majesty of

the dictatorship before the citizens and allies, who, from its

antiquity, had now almost forgotten that authority; a letter arrived

from the city, stating that the ships of burden, conveying provisions

from Ostia into Spain to the army, had been captured by the

Carthaginian fleet off the port of Cossa. The consul, therefore, was

immediately ordered to proceed to Ostia, and, having manned the ships

at Rome or Ostia with soldiers and sailors, to pursue the enemy, and

protect the coasts of Italy. Great numbers of men were levied at Rome,

sons of freed-men even, who had children, and were of the military

age, had taken the oath. Of these troops levied in the city, such as

were under thirty-five were put on board ships, the rest were left to

protect the city.

12. The dictator, having received the troops of the consul from

Fulvius Flaccus, his lieutenant-general, marching through the Sabine

territory, arrived at Tibur on the day which he had appointed the

new-raised troops to assemble. Thence he went to Praeneste, and

cutting across the country, came out in the Latin way, whence he led

his troops towards the enemy, reconnoitering the road with the utmost

diligence; not intending to expose himself to hazard any where, except

as far as necessity compelled him. The day he first pitched his camp

in sight of the enemy, not far from Arpi, the Carthaginian, without

delay, led out his troops, and forming his line gave an opportunity of

fighting: but when he found all still with the enemy, and his camp

free from tumult and disorder, he returned to his camp, saying indeed

tauntingly, "That even the spirit of the Romans, inherited from Mars,

was at length subdued; that they were warred down and had manifestly

given up all claim to valour and renown:" but burning inwardly with

stifled vexation because he would have to encounter a general by no

means like Flaminius and Sempronius; and because the Romans, then at

length schooled by their misfortunes, had sought a general a match for

Hannibal; and that now he had no longer to fear the headlong violence,

but the deliberate prudence of the dictator. Having not yet

experienced his constancy, he began to provoke and try his temper, by

frequently shifting his camp and laying waste the territories of the

allies before his eyes: and one while he withdrew out of sight at

quick march, another while he halted suddenly, and concealed himself

in some winding of the road, if possible to entrap him on his

descending into the plain. Fabius kept marching his troops along the

high grounds, at a moderate distance from the enemy, so as neither to

let him go altogether nor yet to encounter him. The troops were kept

within the camp, except so far as necessary wants compelled them to

quit it; and fetched in food and wood not by small nor rambling

parties. An outpost of cavalry and light-armed troops, prepared and

equipped for acting in cases of sudden alarm, rendered every thing

safe to their own soldiers, and dangerous to the scattered plunderers

of the enemy. Nor was his whole cause committed to general hazard;

while slight contests, of small importance in themselves, commenced on

safe ground, with a retreat at hand, accustomed the soldiery,

terrified by their former disasters, now at length to think less

meanly either of their prowess or good fortune. But he did not find

Hannibal a greater enemy to such sound measures than his master of the

horse, who was only prevented from plunging the state into ruin by his

inferiority in command. Presumptuous and precipitate in his measures,

and unbridled in his tongue, first among a few, then openly and

publicly, he taunted him with being sluggish instead of patient,

spiritless instead of cautious; falsely imputing to him those vices

which bordered on his virtues; and raised himself by means of

depressing his superiors, which, though a most iniquitous practice,

has become more general from the too great successes of many.

13. Hannibal crosses over from the Hirpini into Samnium; lays waste

the territory of Beneventum; takes the town of Telesia; and purposely

irritates the dictator, if perchance he could draw him down to a

battle on the plain, exasperated by so many indignities and disasters

inflicted on his allies. Among the multitude of allies of Italian

extraction, who had been captured by Hannibal at the Trasimenus, and

dismissed, were three Campanian horsemen, who had even at that time

been bribed by many presents and promises from Hannibal to win over

the affections of their countrymen to him. These, bringing him word

that he would have an opportunity of getting possession of Capua, if

he brought his army into the neighbourhood in Campania, induced

Hannibal to quit Samnium for Campania; though he hesitated,

fluctuating between confidence and distrust, as the affair was of more

importance than the authorities. He dismissed them, repeatedly

charging them to confirm their promises by acts, and ordering them to

return with a greater number, and some of their leading men. Hannibal

himself orders his guide to conduct him into the territory of Casinum,

being certified by persons acquainted with the country, that if he

seized that pass he would deprive the Romans of a passage by which

they might get out to the assistance of their allies. But his Punic

accent, ill adapted to the pronunciation of Latin names, caused the

guide to understand Casilinum, instead of Casinum; and leaving his

former course, he descends through the territory of Allifae, Calatia,

and Cales, into the plain of Stella, where, seeing the country

enclosed on all sides by mountains and rivers, he calls the guide to

him, and asks him where in the world he was? when he replied, that on

that day he would lodge at Casilinum: then at length the error was

discovered, and that Casinum lay at a great distance in another

direction. Having scourged the guide with rods and crucified him, in

order to strike terror into all others, he fortified a camp, and sent

Maharbal with the cavalry into the Falernian territory to pillage.

This depredation reached as far as the waters of Sinuessa; the

Numidians caused destruction to a vast extent, but flight and

consternation through a still wider space. Yet not even the terror of

these things, when all around was consuming in the flames of war,

could shake the fidelity of the allies; for this manifest reason,

because they lived under a temperate and mild government: nor were

they unwilling to submit to those who were superior to them, which is

the only bond of fidelity.

14. But when the enemy's camp was pitched on the Vulturnus, and the

most delightful country in Italy was being consumed by fire, and the

farm-houses, on all hands, were smoking from the flames, whilst Fabius

led his troops along the heights of Mount Massicus, then the strife

had nearly been kindled anew, for they had been quiet for a few days,

because, as the army had marched quicker than usual, they had supposed

that the object of this haste was to save Campania from devastation;

but when they arrived at the extreme ridge of Mount Massicus, and the

enemy appeared under their eyes, burning the houses of the Falernian

territory, and of the settlers of Sinuessa, and no mention made of

battle, Minucius exclaims, "Are we come here to see our allies

butchered, and their property burned, as a spectacle to be enjoyed?

and if we are not moved with shame on account of any others, are we

not on account of these citizens, whom our fathers sent as settlers to

Sinuessa, that this frontier might be protected from the Samnite foe:

which now not the neighbouring Samnite wastes with fire, but a

Carthaginian foreigner, who has advanced even thus far from the

remotest limits of the world, through our dilatoriness and inactivity?

What! are we so degenerate from our ancestors as tamely to see that

coast filled with Numidian and Moorish foes, along which our fathers

considered it a disgrace to their government that the Carthaginian

fleets should cruise? We, who erewhile, indignant at the storming of

Saguntum, appealed not to men only, but to treaties and to gods,

behold Hannibal scaling the walls of a Roman colony unmoved. The smoke

from the flames of our farm-houses and lands comes into our eyes and

faces; our ears ring with the cries of our weeping allies, imploring

us to assist them oftener than the gods, while we here are leading our

troops, like a herd of cattle, through shady forests and lonely paths,

enveloped in clouds and woods. If Marcus Furius had resolved to

recover the city from the Gauls, by thus traversing the tops of

mountains and forests, in the same manner as this modern Camillus goes

about to recover Italy from Hannibal, who has been sought out for our

dictator in our distress, on account of his unparalleled talents, Rome

would be the possession of the Gauls; and I fear lest, if we are thus

dilatory, our ancestors will so often have preserved it only for the

Carthaginians and Hannibal; but that man and true Roman, on the very

day on which intelligence was brought him to Veii, that he was

appointed dictator, on the authority of the fathers and the nomination

of the people, came down into the plain, though the Janiculum was high

enough to admit of his sitting down there, and viewing the enemy at a

distance, and on that very day defeated the Gallic legions in the

middle of the city, in the place where the Gallic piles are now, and

on the following day on the Roman side of Gabii. What many years after

this, when we were sent under the yoke at the Caudine forks by the

Samnite foe, did Lucius Papirius Cursor take the yoke from the Roman

neck and place it upon the proud Samnites, by traversing the heights

of Samnium? or was it by pressing and besieging Luceria, and

challenging the victorious enemy? A short time ago, what was it that

gave victory to Caius Lutatius but expedition? for on the day after he

caught sight of the enemy he surprised and overpowered the fleet,

loaded with provisions, and encumbered of itself by its own implements

and apparatus. It is folly to suppose that the war can be brought to a

conclusion by sitting still, or by prayers, the troops must be armed

and led down into the plain, that you may engage man to man. The Roman

power has grown to its present height by courage and activity, and not

by such dilatory measures as these, which the cowardly only designate

as cautious." A crowd of Roman tribunes and knights poured round

Minucius, while thus, as it were, haranguing, his presumptuous

expressions reached the ears of the common soldiers, and had the

question been submitted to the votes of the soldiers, they showed

evidently that they would have preferred Minucius to Fabius for their

general.

15. Fabius, keeping his attention fixed no less upon his own troops

than on the enemy, first shows that his resolution was unconquered by

the former. Though he well knew that his procrastination was

disapproved, not only in his own camp, but by this time even at Rome,

yet, inflexibly adhering to the same line of policy, he delayed

through the remainder of the summer, in order that Hannibal, devoid of

all hope of a battle, which he so earnestly desired, might now look

out for a place for winter quarters, because that district was one of

present, but not constant, supply, consisting, as it did, of

plantations and vineyards, and all places planted luxurious rather

than useful produce. This intelligence was to Fabius by his scouts.

When he felt convinced that he would return by the same narrow pass

through which he had entered the Falernian territory, he occupied

Mount Callicula and Casilinum with a pretty strong guard. Which city,

intersected by the river Vulturnus, divides the Falernian and

Campanian territories. He himself leads back his troops along the same

heights, having sent Lucius Hostilius Mancinus with four hundred of

the allied cavalry to reconnoitre; who being one of the crowd of

youths who had often heard the master of the horse fiercely

haranguing, at first advanced after the manner of a scout, in order

that he might observe the enemy in security; and when he saw the

Numidians scattered widely throughout the villages, having gotten an

opportunity, he also slew a few of them. But from that moment his mind

was engrossed with the thoughts of a battle, and the injunctions of

the dictator were forgotten, who had charged him, when he had advanced

as far as he could with safety, to retreat before he came within the

enemy's view. The Numidians, party after party, skirmishing and

retreating, drew the general almost to their camp, to the fatigue of

his men and horses. Then Karthalo, who had the command of the cavalry,

charging at full speed, and having put them to flight before he came

within a dart's throw, pursued them for five miles almost in a

continuous course. Mancinus, when he saw that the enemy did not desist

from the pursuit, and that there was no hope of escape, having

encouraged his troops, turned back to the battle though inferior in

every kind of force. Accordingly he himself, and the choicest of his

cavalry, being surrounded, are cut to pieces. The rest in disorderly

retreat fled first to Cales, and thence to the dictator, by ways

almost impassable. It happened that on that day Minucius had formed a

junction with Fabius, having been sent to secure with a guard the pass

above Tarracina, which, contracted into a narrow gorge, overhangs the

sea, in order that Hannibal might not be able to get into the Roman

territory by the Appian way's being unguarded. The dictator and master

of the horse, uniting their forces, lead them down into the road

through which Hannibal was about to march his troops. The enemy was

two miles from that place.

16. The following day the Carthaginians filled the whole road between

the two camps with his troops in marching order; and though the Romans

had taken their stand immediately under their rampart, having a

decidedly superior position, yet the Carthaginian came up with his

light horse and, with a view to provoke the enemy, carried on a kind

of desultory attack, first charging and then retreating. The Roman

line remained in its position. The battle was slow and more

conformable to the wish of the dictator than of Hannibal. On the part

of the Romans there fell two hundred, on the part of the enemy eight

hundred. It now began to appear that Hannibal was hemmed in, the road

to Casilinum being blockaded; and that while Capua, and Samnium, and

so many wealthy allies in the rear of the Romans might supply them

with provisions, the Carthaginian, on the other hand, must winter amid

the rocks of Formiae and the sands and hideous swamps of Liternum. Nor

did it escape Hannibal that he was assailed by his own arts;

wherefore, since he could not escape by way of Casilinum, and since it

was necessary to make for the mountains, and pass the summit of

Callicula, lest in any place the Romans should attack his troops while

enclosed in valleys; having hit upon a stratagem calculated to deceive

the sight, and excite terror from its appearance, by means of which he

might baffle the enemy, he resolved to come up by stealth to the

mountains at the commencement of night. The preparation of his wily

stratagem was of this description. Torches, collected from every part

of the country, and bundles of rods and dry cuttings, are fastened

before the horns of oxen, of which, wild and tame, he had driven away

a great number among other plunder of the country: the number of oxen

was made up to nearly two thousand. To Hasdrubal was assigned the task

of driving to the mountains that herd, after having set fire to their

horns, as soon as ever it was dark; particularly, if he could, over

the passes beset by the enemy.

17. As soon as it was dark the camp was moved in silence; the oxen

were driven a little in advance of the standards. When they arrived at

the foot of the mountains and the narrow passes, the signal is

immediately given for setting fire to their horns and driving them

violently up the mountains before them. The mere terror excited by the

flame, which cast a glare from their heads, and the heat now

approaching the quick and the roots of their horns, drove on the oxen

as if goaded by madness. By which dispersion, on a sudden all the

surrounding shrubs were in a blaze, as if the mountains and woods had

been on fire; and the unavailing tossing of their heads quickening the

flame, exhibited an appearance as of men running to and fro on every

side. Those who had been placed to guard the passage of the wood, when

they saw fires on the tops of the mountains, and some over their own

heads, concluding that they were surrounded, abandoned their post;

making for the tops of the mountains in the direction in which the

fewest fires blazed, as being the safest course; however they fell in

with some oxen which had strayed from their herds. At first, when they

beheld them at a distance, they stood fixed in amazement at the

miracle, as it appeared to them, of creatures breathing fire;

afterwards, when it showed itself to be a human stratagem, then,

forsooth, concluding that there was an ambuscade, as they are hurrying

away in flight, with increased alarm, they fall in also with the

light-armed troops of the enemy. But the night, when the fear was

equally shared, kept them from commencing the battle till morning.

Meanwhile Hannibal, having marched his whole army through the pass,

and having cut off some of the enemy in the very defile, pitches his

camp in the country of Allifae.

18. Fabius perceived this tumult, but concluding that it was a snare,

and being disinclined for a battle, particularly by night, kept his

troops within the works. At break of day a battle took place under the

summit of the mountain, in which the Romans, who were considerably

superior in numbers, would have easily overpowered the light-armed of

the enemy, cut off as they were from their party, had not a cohort of

Spaniards, sent back by Hannibal for that very purpose, reached the

spot. That body being more accustomed to mountains, and being more

adapted, both from the agility of their limbs and also from the

character of their arms, to skirmishing amid rocks and crags, easily

foiled, by their manner of fighting, an enemy loaded with arms,

accustomed to level ground and the steady kind of fighting. Separating

from a contest thus by no means equal, they proceeded to their camps;

the Spaniards almost all untouched; the Romans having lost a few.

Fabius also moved his camp, and passing the defile, took up a position

above Allifae, in a strong and elevated place. Then Hannibal,

pretending to march to Rome through Samnium, came back as far as the

Peligni, spreading devastation. Fabius led his troops along the

heights midway between the army of the enemy and the city of Rome;

neither avoiding him altogether, nor coming to an engagement. From the

Peligni the Carthaginian turned his course, and going back again to

Apulia, reached Geronium, a city deserted by its inhabitants from

fear, as a part of its walls had fallen down together in ruins. The

dictator formed a completely fortified camp in the territory of

Larinum, and being recalled thence to Rome on account of some sacred

rites, he not only urged the master of the horse, in virtue of his

authority, but with advice and almost with prayers, that he would

trust rather to prudence than fortune; and imitate him as a general

rather than Sempronius and Flaminius; that he would not suppose that

nothing had been achieved by having worn out nearly the whole summer

in baffling the enemy; that physicians too sometimes gained more by

rest than by motion and action. That it was no small thing to have

ceased to be conquered by an enemy so often victorious, and to have

taken breath after successive disasters. Having thus unavailingly

admonished the master of the horse, he set out for Rome.

19. In the beginning of the summer in which these events occurred, the

war commenced by land and sea in Spain also. To the number of ships

which he had received from his brother, equipped and ready for action,

Hasdrubal added ten. The fleet of forty ships he delivered to Himilco:

and thus setting out from Carthage, kept his ships near the land,

while he led his army along the shore, ready to engage with whichever

part of his forces the enemy might fall in with. Cneius Scipio, when

he heard that the enemy had quitted his winter quarters, at first

formed the same plan; but afterwards, not daring to engage him by

land, from a great rumour of fresh auxiliaries, he advances to meet

him with a fleet of thirty-five ships, having put some chosen soldiers

on board. Setting out from Tarraco, on the second day, he reached a

convenient station, ten miles from the mouth of the Iberus. Two ships

of the Massilians, sent forward from that place reconnoitering,

brought word back that the Carthaginian fleet was stationed in the

mouth of the river, and that the camp was pitched upon the bank. In

order, therefore, to overpower them while off their guard and

incautious, by a universal and wide-spread terror, he weighed anchor

and advanced. In Spain there are several towers placed in high

situations, which they employ both as watch-towers and as places of

defence against pirates. From them first, a view of the ships of the

enemy having been obtained, the signal was given to Hasdrubal; and a

tumult arose in the camp, and on land sooner than on the ships and at

sea; the dashing of the oars and other nautical noises not being yet

distinctly heard, nor the promontories disclosing the fleet. Upon

this, suddenly one horseman after another, sent out by Hasdrubal,

orders those who were strolling upon the shore or resting quietly in

their tents, expecting any thing rather than the enemy and a battle on

that day, immediately to embark and take up arms: that the Roman fleet

was now a short distance from the harbour. The horsemen, despatched in

every direction, delivered these orders; and presently Hasdrubal

himself comes up with the main army. All places resound with noises of

various kinds; the soldiers and rowers hurrying together to the ships,

rather like men running away from the land than marching to battle.

Scarcely had all embarked, when some, unfastening the hawsers, are

carried out against the anchors; others cut their cables, that nothing

might impede them; and by doing every thing with hurry and

precipitation, the duties of mariners were impeded by the preparations

of the soldiers, and the soldiers were prevented from taking and

preparing for action their arms, by the bustle of the mariners. And

now the Roman was not only approaching, but had drawn up his ships for

the battle. The Carthaginians, therefore, thrown into disorder, not

more by the enemy and the battle than by their own tumult, having

rather made an attempt at fighting than commenced a battle, turned

their fleet for flight; and as the mouth of the river which was before

them could not be entered in so broad a line, and by so many pressing

in at the same time, they ran their ships on shore in every part. And

being received, some in the shallows, and others on the dry shore,

some armed and some unarmed, they escaped to their friends, who were

drawn up in battle-array over the shore. Two Carthaginian ships were

captured and four sunk on the first encounter.

20. The Romans, though the enemy was master of the shore, and they saw

armed troops lining the whole bank, promptly pursuing the discomfited

fleet of the enemy, towed out into the deep all the ships which had

not either shattered their prows by the violence with which they

struck the shore, or set their keels fast in the shallows. They

captured as many as twenty-five out of forty. Nor was that the most

splendid result of their victory: but they became masters of the whole

sea on that coast by one slight battle; advancing, then, with their

fleet to Honosca, and making a descent from the ships upon the coast,

when they had taken the city by storm and pillaged it, they afterwards

made for Carthage: then devastating the whole surrounding country,

they, lastly, set fire also to the buildings contiguous to the wall

and gates. Thence the fleet laden with plunder, arrived at Longuntica,

where a great quantity of oakum for naval purposes had been collected

by Hasdrubal: of this, taking away as much as was sufficient for their

necessities, they burnt all the rest. Nor did they only sail by the

prominent coasts of the continent, but crossed over into the island

Ebusus; where, having with the utmost exertion, but in vain, carried

on operations against the city, which is the capital of the island,

for two days, when they found that time was wasted to no purpose upon

a hopeless task, they turned their efforts to the devastation of the

country; and having plundered and fired several villages, and acquired

a greater booty than they had obtained on the continent, they retired

to their ships, when ambassadors from the Baliares came to Scipio to

sue for peace. From this place the fleet sailed back, and returned to

the hither parts of the province, whither ambassadors of all the

people who dwell on the Iberus, and of many people in the most distant

parts of Spain, assembled. But the number of states who really became

subject to the authority and dominion of the Romans, and gave

hostages, amounted to upwards of one hundred and twenty. The Roman

therefore, relying sufficiently on his land forces also, advanced as

far as the pass of Castulo. Hasdrubal retired into Lusitania, and

nearer the ocean.

21. After this, it seemed probable that the remainder of the summer

would be peaceful; and so it would have been with regard to the Punic

enemy: but besides that the tempers of the Spaniards themselves are

naturally restless, and eager for innovation, Mandonius, together with

Indibilis, who had formerly been petty prince of the Ilergetes, having

stirred up their countrymen, came to lay waste the peaceful country of

the Roman allies, after the Romans had retired from the pass to the

sea-coast. A military tribune with some light-armed auxiliaries being

sent against these by Scipio, with a small effort put them all to the

rout, as being but a disorderly band: some having been captured and

slain, a great portion of them were deprived of their arms. This

disturbance, however, brought back Hasdrubal, who was retiring to the

ocean, to protect his allies on this side the Iberus. The Carthaginian

camp was in the territory of Ilercao, the Roman camp at the New Fleet,

when unexpected intelligence turned the war into another quarter. The

Celtiberians, who had sent the chief men of their country as

ambassadors to the Romans, and had given them hostages, aroused by a

message from Scipio, take up arms and invade the province of the

Carthaginians with a powerful army; take three towns by storm; and

after that, encountering Hasdrubal himself in two battles with,

splendid success, slew fifteen thousand and captured four thousand,

together with many military standards.

22. This being the state of affairs in Spain, Publius Scipio came into

his province, having been sent thither by the senate, his command

being continued to him after his consulate, with thirty long ships,

eight thousand soldiers, and a large importation of provisions. That

fleet, swelled to an enormous size by a multitude of transports, being

descried at a distance, entered safe the port of Tarraco, to the great

joy of the citizens and allies. Landing his troops there, Scipio set

out and formed a junction with his brother, and thenceforward they

prosecuted the war with united courage and counsels. While the

Carthaginians, therefore, were occupied with the Celtiberian war, they

promptly crossed the Iberus, and not seeing any enemy, pursue their

course to Saguntum; for it was reported that the hostages from every

part of Spain, having been consigned to custody, were kept in the

citadel of that place under a small guard. That pledge alone checked

the affections of all the people of Spain, which were inclined towards

an alliance with the Romans; lest the guilt of their defection should

be expiated with the blood of their children. One man, by a stratagem

more subtle than honourable, liberated the Spaniards from this

restraint. There was at Saguntum a noble Spaniard, named Abelux,

hitherto faithful to the Carthaginians, but now (such are for the most

part the dispositions of barbarians) had changed his attachment with

fortune; but considering that a deserter going over to enemies without

the betraying of something valuable, would be looked upon only as a

stigmatized and worthless individual, was solicitous to render as

great a service as possible to his new confederates. Having turned

over in his mind, then, the various means which, under the favour of

fortune, he might employ, in preference to every other, he applied

himself to the delivering up of the hostages; concluding that this one

thing, above all others, would gain the Romans the friendship of the

Spanish chieftains. But since he knew that the guards of the hostages

would do nothing without the authority of Bostar, the governor, he

addresses himself with craft to Bostar himself. Bostar had his camp

without the city, just upon the shore, in order to preclude the

approach of the Romans from that quarter. He informs him, taken aside

to a secret place, and as if uninformed, in what position affairs

were: "That hitherto fear had withheld the minds of the Spaniards to

them, because the Romans were at a great distance: that now the Roman

camp was on this side the Iberus, a secure fortress and asylum for

such as desired a change, that therefore those whom fear could not

bind should be attached by kindness and favour." When Bostar, in

astonishment, earnestly asked him, what sudden gift of so much

importance that could be, he replied, "Send back the hostages to their

states: this will be an acceptable boon, privately to their parents,

who possess the greatest influence in their respective states, and

publicly to the people. Every man wishes to have confidence reposed in

him; and confidence reposed generally enforces the fidelity itself.

The office of restoring the hostages to their homes, I request for

myself; that I may enhance my project by the trouble bestowed, and

that I may add as much value as I can to a service in its own

intrinsic nature so acceptable." When he had persuaded the man, who

was not cunning as compared with Carthaginian minds in general, having

gone secretly and by night to the outposts of the enemy, he met with

some auxiliary Spaniards; and having been brought by them into the

presence of Scipio, he explains what brought him. Pledges of fidelity

having been given and received, and the time and place for delivering

the hostages having been appointed, he returns to Saguntum. The

following day he spent with Bostar, in taking his commands for

effecting the business; having so arranged it, that he should go by

night, in order that he might escape the observation of the enemy, he

was dismissed; and awakening the guards of the youths at the hour

agreed upon with them, set out and led them, as if unconsciously, into

a snare prepared by his own deceit. They were brought to the Roman

camp, and every thing else respecting the restoration of the hostages

was transacted as had been agreed upon with Bostar, and in the same

course as if the affair had been carried on in the name of the

Carthaginians. But the favour of the Romans was somewhat greater than

that of the Carthaginians would have been in a similar case; for

misfortune and fear might have seemed to have softened them, who had

been found oppressive and haughty in prosperity. The Roman, on the

contrary, on his first arrival, having been unknown to them before,

had begun with an act of clemency and liberality: and Abelux, a man of

prudence, did not seem likely to have changed his allies without good

cause. Accordingly all began, with great unanimity, to meditate a

revolt; and hostilities would immediately have commenced, had not the

winter intervened, which compelled the Romans, and the Carthaginians

also, to retire to shelter.

23. Such were the transactions in Spain also during the second summer

of the Punic war; while in Italy the prudent delay of Fabius had

procured the Romans some intermission from disasters; which conduct,

as it kept Hannibal disturbed with no ordinary degree of anxiety, for

it proved to him that the Romans had at length selected a general who

would carry on the war with prudence, and not in dependence on

fortune; so was it treated with contempt by his countrymen, both in

the camp and in the city; particularly after that a battle had been

fought during his absence from the temerity of the master of the

horse, in its issue, as I may justly designate it, rather joyful than

successful. Two causes were added to augment the unpopularity of the

dictator: one arising out of a stratagem and artful procedure of

Hannibal; for the farm of the dictator having been pointed out to him

by deserters, he ordered that the fire and sword and every outrage of

enemies should be restrained from it alone, while all around were

levelled with the ground; in order that it might appear to have been

the term of some secret compact: the other from an act of his own, at

first perhaps suspicious, because in it he had not waited for the

authority of the senate, but in the result turning unequivocally to

his highest credit, with relation to the exchange of prisoners: for,

as was the case in the first Punic war, an agreement had been made

between the Roman and Carthaginian generals, that whichever received

more prisoners than he restored, should give two pounds and a half of

silver for every man. And when the Roman had received two hundred and

forty-seven more than the Carthaginian, and the silver which was due

for them, after the matter had been frequently agitated in the senate,

was not promptly supplied, because he had not consulted the fathers,

he sent his son Quintus to Rome and sold his farm, uninjured by the

enemy, and thus redeemed the public credit at his own private expense.

Hannibal lay in a fixed camp before the walls of Geronium, which city

he had captured and burnt, leaving only a few buildings for the

purpose of granaries: thence he was in the habit of sending out

two-thirds of his forces to forage; with the third part kept in

readiness, he himself remained on guard, both as a protection to his

camp, and for the purpose of looking out, if from any quarter an

attack should be made upon his foragers.

24. The Roman army was at that time in the territory of Larinum.

Minucius, the master of the horse, had the command of it; the

dictator, as was before mentioned, having gone to the city. But the

camp, which had been pitched in an elevated and secure situation, was

now brought down into the plain; plans of a bolder character,

agreeably with the temper of the general, were in agitation; and

either an attack was to be made upon the scattered foragers, or upon

the camp now left with an inconsiderable guard. Nor did it escape the

observation of Hannibal, that the plan of the war had been changed

with the general, and that the enemy would act with more boldness than

counsel. Hannibal himself too, which one would scarcely credit, though

the enemy was near, despatched a third part of his troops to forage,

retaining the remaining two-thirds in the camp. After that he advanced

his camp itself nearer to the enemy, to a hill within the enemy's

view, nearly two miles from Geronium; that they might be aware that he

was on the alert to protect his foragers if any attack should be made

upon them. Then he discovered an eminence nearer to, and commanding

the very camp of the Romans: and because if he marched openly in the

day-time to occupy it, the enemy would doubtless anticipate him by a

shorter way, the Numidians having been sent privately in the night,

took possession of it. These, occupying this position, the Romans, the

next day, despising the smallness of their numbers, dislodge, and

transfer their camp thither themselves. There was now, therefore, but

a very small space between rampart and rampart, and that the Roman

line had almost entirely filled; at the same time the cavalry, with

the light infantry sent out against the foragers through the opposite

part of the camp, effected a slaughter and flight of the scattered

enemy far and wide. Nor dared Hannibal hazard a regular battle;

because with so few troops, that he would scarcely be able to protect

his camp if attacked. And now he carried on the war (for part of his

army was away) according to the plans of Fabius, by sitting still and

creating delays. He had also withdrawn his troops to their former

camp, which was before the walls of Geronium. Some authors affirm that

they fought in regular line, and with encountering standards; that in

the first encounter the Carthaginian was driven in disorder quite to

his camp; but that, a sally thence having been suddenly made all at

once, the Romans in their turn became alarmed; that after that the

battle was restored by the arrival of Numerius Decimius the Samnite;

that this man, the first in family and fortune, not only in Bovianum,

whence he came, but in all Samnium, when conducting by command of the

dictator to the camp eight thousand infantry and five hundred horse,

having shown himself on the rear of Hannibal, seemed to both parties

to be a fresh reinforcement coming with Quintus Fabius from Rome; that

Hannibal, fearing also some ambuscade, withdrew his troops; and that

the Roman, aided by the Samnite, pursuing him, took by storm two forts

on that day; that six thousand of the enemy were slain, and about five

thousand of the Romans; but that though the loss was so nearly equal,

intelligence was conveyed to Rome of a signal victory; and a letter

from the master of the horse still more presumptuous.

25. These things were very frequently discussed, both in the senate

and assemblies. When the dictator alone, while joy pervaded the city,

attached no credit to the report or letter; and granting that all were

true, affirmed that he feared more from success than failure; then

Marcus Metilius, a Plebeian tribune, declares that such conduct surely

could not be endured. That the dictator, not only when present was an

obstacle to the right management of the affair, but also being absent

from the camp, opposed it still when achieved; that he studiously

dallied in his conduct of the war, that he might continue the longer

in office, and that he might have the sole command both at Rome and in

the army. Since one of the consuls had fallen in battle, and the other

was removed to a distance from Italy, under pretext of pursuing a

Carthaginian fleet; and the two praetors were occupied in Sicily and

Sardinia, neither of which provinces required a praetor at this time.

That Marcus Minucius, the master of the horse, was almost put under a

guard, lest he should see the enemy, and carry on any warlike

operation. That therefore, by Hercules, not only Samnium, which had

now been yielded to the Carthaginians, as if it had been land beyond

the Iberus, but the Campanian, Calenian, and Falernian territories had

been devastated, while the dictator was sitting down at Casilinum,

protecting his own farm with the legions of the Roman people: that the

army, eager for battle, as well as the master of the horse, were kept

back almost imprisoned within the rampart: that their arms were taken

out of their hands, as from captured enemies: at length, as soon as

ever the dictator had gone away, having marched out beyond their

rampart, that they had routed the enemy and put him to flight. On

account of which circumstances, had the Roman commons retained their

ancient spirit, that he would have boldly proposed to them to annul

the authority of Quintus Fabius; but now he would bring forward a

moderate proposition, to make the authority of the master of the horse

and the dictator equal; and that even then Quintus Fabius should not

be sent to the army, till he had substituted a consul in the room of

Caius Flaminius. The dictator kept away from the popular assemblies,

in which he did not command a favourable hearing, and even in the

senate he was not heard with favourable ears, when his eloquence was

employed in praising the enemy, and attributing the disasters of the

last two years to the temerity and unskilfulness of the generals; and

when he declared that the master of the horse ought to be called to

account for having fought contrary to his injunction. That "if the

supreme command and administration of affairs were intrusted to him,

he would soon take care that men should know, that to a good general

fortune was not of great importance; that prudence and conduct

governed every thing; that it was more glorious for him to have saved

the army at a crisis, and without disgrace, than to have slain many

thousands of the enemy." Speeches of this kind having been made

without effect, and Marcus Atilius Regulus created consul, that he

might not be present to dispute respecting the right of command, he

withdrew to the army on the night preceding the day on which the

proposition was to be decided. When there was an assembly of the

people at break of day, a secret displeasure towards the dictator, and

favour towards the master of the horse, rather possessed their minds,

than that men had not sufficient resolution to advise a measure which

was agreeable to the public; and though favour carried it, influence

was wanting to the bill. One man indeed was found who recommended the

law, Caius Terentius Varro, who had been praetor in the former year,

sprung not only from humble but mean parentage. They report that his

father was a butcher, the retailer of his own meat, and that he

employed this very son in the servile offices of that trade.

26. This young man, when a fortune left him by his father, acquired in

such a traffic, had inspired him with the hope of a higher condition,

and the gown and forum were the objects of his choice, by declaiming

vehemently in behalf of men and causes of the lowest kind, in

opposition to the interest and character of the good, first came to

the notice of the people, and then to offices of honour. Having passed

through the offices of quaestor, plebeian, and curule aedile, and,

lastly, that of praetor; when now he raised his mind to the hope of

the consulship, he courted the gale of popular favour by maligning the

dictator, and received alone the credit of the decree of the people.

All men, both at Rome and in the army, both friends and foes, except

the dictator himself, considered this measure to have been passed as

an insult to him; but the dictator himself bore the wrong which the

infuriated people had put upon him, with the same gravity with which

he endured the charges against him which his enemies laid before the

multitude; and receiving the letter containing a decree of the senate

respecting the equalization of the command while on his journey,

satisfied that an equal share of military skill was not imparted

together with the equal share of command, he returned to the army with

a mind unsubdued alike by his fellow-citizens and by the enemy.

27. But Minucius, who, in consequence of his success and the favour of

the populace, was scarcely endurable before now especially,

unrestrained by shame or moderation, boasted not more in having

conquered Hannibal than Quintus Fabius. "That he, who had been sought

out in their distress as the only general, and as a match for

Hannibal; that he, an event which no record of history contains, was

by the order of the people placed upon an equal footing with

himself,--a superior with an inferior officer, a dictator with a

master of the horse,--in that very city wherein the masters of the

horse are wont to crouch and tremble at the rods and axes of the

dictator. With such splendour had his valour and success shone forth.

That he therefore would follow up his own good fortune, though the

dictator persisted in his delay and sloth; measures condemned alike by

the sentence of gods and men." Accordingly, on the first day on which

he met Quintus Fabius, he intimated "that the first point to be

settled was the manner in which they should employ the command thus

equalized. That he was of opinion that the best plan would be for them

to be invested with the supreme authority and command either on

alternate days, or, if longer intervals were more agreeable, for any

determinate periods; in order that the person in command might be a

match for the enemy, not only in judgment, but in strength, if any

opportunity for action should occur." Fabius by no means approved of

this proposition: he said, "that Fortune would have at her disposal

all things which the rashness of his colleague had; that his command

had been shared with him, and not taken away; that he would never,

therefore, willingly withdraw from conducting the war, in whatever

post he could with prudence and discretion: nor would he divide the

command with him with respect to times or days, but that he would

divide the army, and that he would preserve, by his own measures, so

much as he could, since it was not allowed him to save the whole."

Thus he carried it, that, as was the custom of consuls, they should

divide the legions between them: the first and fourth fell to the lot

of Minucius, the second and third to Fabius. They likewise divided

equally between them the cavalry, the auxiliaries of the allies and of

the Latin name. The master of the horse was desirous also that they

should have separate camps.

28. From this Hannibal derived a twofold joy, for nothing which was

going on among the enemy escaped him, the deserters revealing many

things, and he himself examining by his own scouts. For he considered

that he should be able to entrap the unrestrained temerity of Minucius

by his usual arts, and that half the force of the sagacity of Fabius

had vanished. There was an eminence between the camps of Minucius and

the Carthaginians, whoever occupied it would evidently render the

position of his enemy less advantageous. Hannibal was not so desirous

of gaining it without a contest, though that were worth his while, as

to bring on a quarrel with Minucius, who, he well knew, would at all

times throw himself in his way to oppose him. All the intervening

ground was at first sight unavailable to one who wished to plant an

ambuscade, because it not only had not any part that was woody, but

none even covered with brambles, but in reality formed by nature to

cover an ambush, so much the more, because no such deception could be

apprehended in a naked valley and there were in its curvatures hollow

rocks, such that some of them were capable of containing two hundred

armed men. Within these recesses, five thousand infantry and cavalry

are secreted, as many as could conveniently occupy each. Lest,

however, in any part, either the motion of any one of them

thoughtlessly coming out, or the glittering of their arms, should

discover the stratagem in so open a valley, by sending out a few

troops at break of day to occupy the before-mentioned eminence, he

diverts the attention of the enemy. Immediately, on the first view of

them, the smallness of their number was treated with contempt, and

each man began to request for himself the task of dislodging the

enemy. The general himself, among the most headstrong and absurd,

calls to arms to go and seize the place, and inveighs against the

enemy with vain presumption and menaces. First, he despatches his

light-armed, after that his cavalry, in a close body, lastly,

perceiving that succours were also being sent to the enemy, he marches

with his legions drawn up in order of battle. Hannibal also, sending

band after band, as the contest increased, as aids to his men when

distressed, had now completed a regular army, and a battle was fought

with the entire strength of both sides. First, the light infantry of

the Romans, approaching the eminence, which was preoccupied, from the

lower ground, being repulsed and pushed down, spread a terror among

the cavalry, which was marching up also and fled back to the standards

of the legions: the line of infantry alone stood fearless amidst the

panic-struck; and it appeared that they would by no means have been

inferior to the enemy, had it been a regular and open battle, so much

confidence did the successful battle a few days before inspire. But

the troops in ambush created such confusion and alarm, by charging

them on both flanks and on their rear, that no one had spirit enough

left to fight, or hope enough to try to escape.

29. Then Fabius, first having heard the shout of the terrified troops,

and then having gotten a view of their disordered line, exclaims, "It

is so; and no sooner than I feared, has adverse fortune overtaken

temerity. Equalled to Fabius in command, he sees that Hannibal is

superior to him in courage and in fortune. But another will be the

time for reproaches and resentment. Now advance your standards beyond

the rampart: let us wrest the victory from the enemy, and a confession

of their error from our countrymen." A great part of the troops having

been now slain, and the rest looking about for a way to escape; the

army of Fabius showed itself on a sudden for their help, as if sent

down from heaven. And thus, before he came within a dart's throw or

joined battle, he both stayed his friends from a precipitate flight

and the enemy from excessive fierceness of fighting. Those who had

been scattered up and down, their ranks being broken, fled for refuge

from every quarter to the fresh army; those who had fled together in

parties, turning upon the enemy, now forming a circle, retreat slowly,

now concentrating themselves, stand firm. And now the vanquished and

the fresh army had nearly formed one line, and were bearing their

standards against the enemy, when the Carthaginians sounded a retreat;

Hannibal openly declaring that though he had conquered Minucius, he

was himself conquered by Fabius. The greater part of the day having

been thus consumed with varying success, Minucius calling together his

soldiers, when they had returned to the camp, thus addressed them: "I

have often heard, soldiers, that he is the greatest man who himself

counsels what is expedient, and that he who listens to the man who

gives good advice is the second, but that he who neither himself is

capable of counselling, and knows not how to obey another, is of the

lowest order of mind. Since the first place of mind and talent has

been denied us, let us strive to obtain the second and intermediate

kind, and while we are learning to command, let us prevail upon

ourselves to submit to a man of prudence. Let us join camps with

Fabius, and, carrying our standards to his pavilion, when I have

saluted him as my parent, which he deserves on account of the service

he has rendered us and of his dignity; you, my soldiers, shall salute

those men as patrons, whose arms and right-hands just now protected

you: and if this day has conferred nothing else upon us, it hath at

least conferred upon us the glory of possessing grateful hearts."