History of Rome, Vol III
by
Titus Livius
Part 1 out of 11
Produced by Ted Garvin, Bill Hershey and PG Distributed Proofreaders
THE
HISTORY OF ROME.
TITUS LIVIUS.
BOOKS TWENTY-SEVEN TO THIRTY-SIX.
LITERALLY TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,
BY
CYRUS EDMONDS.
MDCCCL.
THE HISTORY OF ROME.
BOOK XXVII.
_Cneius Fulvius, proconsul, defeated by Hannibal and slain;
the consul, Claudius Marcellus, engages him with better
success. Hannibal, raising his camp, retires; Marcellus
pursues, and forces him to an engagement. They fight twice; in
the first battle, Hannibal gains the advantage; in the second,
Marcellus. Tarentum betrayed to Fabius Maximus, the consul.
Scipio engages with Hasdrubal, the son of Hamilcar, at
Baetula, in Spain, and defeats him. Among other prisoners, a
youth of royal race and exquisite beauty is taken; Scipio sets
him free, and sends him, enriched with magnificent presents,
to his uncle Masinissa. Marcellus and Quintus Crispinus,
consuls, drawn into an ambuscade by Hannibal; Marcellus is
slain, Crispinus escapes. Operations by Publius Sulpicius,
praetor, against Philip and the Achaeans. A census held;
the number of citizens found to amount to one hundred and
thirty-seven thousand one hundred and eight: from which it
appears how great a loss they had sustained by the number
of unsuccessful battles they had of late been engaged in.
Hasdrubal, who had crossed the Alps with a reinforcement for
Hannibal, defeated by the consuls, Marcus Livius and Claudius
Nero, and slain; with him fell fifty-six thousand men_.
1. Such was the state of affairs in Spain. In Italy, the consul
Marcellus, after regaining Salapia, which was betrayed into his hands,
took Maronea and Meles from the Samnites by force. As many as three
thousand of the soldiers of Hannibal, which were left as a garrison,
were here surprised and overpowered. The booty, and there was a
considerable quantity of it, was given up to the troops. Also, two
hundred and forty thousand pecks of wheat, with a hundred and ten
thousand pecks of barley, were found here. The joy, however, thus
occasioned, was by no means so great as a disaster sustained a few
days afterwards, not far from the town Herdonea. Cneius Fulvius, the
consul, was lying encamped there, in the hope of regaining Herdonea,
which had revolted from the Romans after the defeat at Cannae, his
position being neither sufficiently secure from the nature of the
place, nor strengthened by guards. The natural negligence of the
general was now increased by the hope that their attachment to the
Carthaginians was shaken when they had heard that Hannibal, after the
loss of Salapia, had retired from that neighbourhood into Bruttium.
Intelligence of all these circumstances being conveyed to Hannibal by
secret messengers from Herdonea, at once excited an anxious desire to
retain possession of a city in alliance with him, and inspired a hope
of attacking the enemy when unprepared. With a lightly equipped force
he hastened to Herdonea by forced marches, so as almost to anticipate
the report of his approach and in order to strike greater terror into
the enemy, came up with his troops in battle-array. The Roman, equal
to him in courage, but inferior in strength, hastily drawing out his
troops, engaged him. The fifth legion and the left wing of the allied
infantry commenced the battle with spirit. But Hannibal ordered his
cavalry, on a signal given, to ride round as soon as the foot forces
had their eyes and thoughts occupied with the contest before them, and
one half of them to attack the camp of the enemy, the other half to
fall upon their rear, while busily engaged in fighting. He himself,
sarcastically alluding to the similarity of the name Fulvius, as he
had defeated Cneius Fulvius, the praetor, two years ago, in the same
country, expressed his confidence that the issue of the battle would
be similar. Nor was this expectation vain; for after many of the
Romans had fallen in the close contest, and in the engagement with the
infantry, notwithstanding which they still preserved their ranks and
stood their ground; the alarm occasioned by the cavalry on their rear,
and the enemy shout, which was heard at the same time from their camp,
first put to flight the sixth legion, which being posted in the second
line, was first thrown into confusion by the Numidians; and then
the fifth legion, and those who were posted in the van. Some fled
precipitately, others were slain in the middle space, where also
Cneius Fulvius himself, with eleven military tribunes, fell. Who can
state with certainty how many thousands of the Romans and their allies
were slain in this battle, when I find in some accounts that
thirteen, in others that not more than seven, thousand were slain?
The conquerors got possession of the camp and the spoil. Finding that
Herdonea would have revolted to the Romans, and was not likely to
continue faithful to him if he departed thence, he removed all its
inhabitants to Metapontum and Thurium, and burnt it. He put to death
the chief men who were found to have held secret conferences with
Fulvius. Such of the Romans as escaped this dreadful carnage, fled
half-armed, by different roads, into Samnium, to the consul Marcellus.
2. Marcellus, who was not much discouraged at this so great a
disaster, sent a letter to the senate at Rome, with an account of the
loss of the general and army at Herdonea; observing, however, "that he
who, after the battle of Cannae, had humbled Hannibal when elated with
victory, was now marching against him, and that he would cause that
his present joy and exultation should not continue long." At Rome,
indeed, the grief occasioned by what had occurred, and the fears
entertained for the future, were excessive. The consul passing out of
Samnium into Lucania, pitched his camp at Numistro, on a plain
within view of Hannibal, who occupied a hill. He added also another
demonstration of his confidence; for he was the first to lead out his
troops to battle, nor did Hannibal decline fighting when he saw the
standards carried out from the gates. However, they drew up their
forces so that the right wing of the Carthaginians was extended up the
hill, while the left wing of the Romans was contiguous to the town.
For a long time neither side had any advantage; but the battle having
continued from the third hour till night, and the first lines, which
consisted, on the part of the Romans, of the first legion and the
right wing of the allied infantry, on the part of Hannibal, of the
Spanish soldiers, the Balearic slingers, and the elephants, which
were driven into the field after the commencement of the battle, being
fatigued with fighting, the first legion was relieved by the third,
and the right wing of allied infantry by the left; while on the part
of the enemy fresh troops took up the battle in place of those who
were tired. A new and desperate conflict suddenly arose, instead of
that which was so feebly maintained, their minds and bodies being
unimpaired by fatigue; but night separated the combatants while the
victory was undecided. The following day the Romans stood drawn up
for battle from sun-rise till late in the day; but none of the enemy
coming out against them, they gathered the spoils at their leisure,
and collecting the bodies of their own troops into a heap, burnt them.
The following night Hannibal decamped in silence, and moved on into
Apulia. As soon as daylight discovered the flight of the enemy,
Marcellus, leaving his wounded under the protection of a small
garrison at Numistro, in command of which he placed Lucius Furius
Purpureo, a military tribune, commenced a close pursuit of Hannibal,
and overtook him at Venusia. Here, during several days, parties of
troops sallying from the outposts, battles took place between foot and
horses promiscuously, rather irregular than important, but which for
the most part were favourable to the Romans. The armies were marched
thence through Apulia without any engagement worth recording; for
Hannibal marched by night, seeking an opportunity for ambuscade,
but Marcellus never followed him except in broad daylight, and after
having explored the country.
3. In the mean time, while Flaccus was detained at Capua in selling
the property of the nobles, and letting out the land which had been
forfeited, all of which he let for a rent to be paid in corn, lest
occasions for exercising severity toward the Campanians should be
wanting, a new piece of inquiry which had been ripening in secret, was
brought out in evidence. He had compelled his soldiers, withdrawn from
the houses, to build for themselves huts after the military manner,
near the gates and walls; at once, that the houses of the city might
be let and occupied together with the land, also through fear, lest
the excessive luxury of the city should enervate his troops as it had
those of Hannibal. Now many of these were formed of hurdles or boards,
others of reeds interwoven, all being covered with straw, as if
combustable materials had been employed on purpose. A hundred and
seventy Campanians, headed by the Blosii who were fathers, had formed
a conspiracy to set fire to all these at a late hour of the night; but
information of the conspiracy having been given by one of the slaves
of the Blosii, the gates were suddenly closed by the command of the
proconsul, and all the soldiers had been assembled under arms, on a
signal given all who were implicated in the guilt were seized, and,
after rigorous examination, were condemned and executed, informers
were rewarded with liberty and ten thousand _asses_ each. The people
of Nuceria and Acerra, who complained that they had no where to dwell,
Acerra being partly burnt, and Nuceria demolished, Fulvius sent to
Rome to the senate. Permission was given to the people of Acerra to
rebuild what had been destroyed by fire. The people of Nuceria were
removed to Atella, as they preferred; the people of Atella being
ordered to migrate to Calatia. Among the many and important events,
sometimes prosperous, sometimes adverse, which occupied men's
thoughts, not even the citadel of Tarentum was forgotten. Marcus
Ogulnius and Publius Aquillius went into Etruria as commissioners to
buy up corn to be conveyed to Tarentum; and one thousand men out of
the city troops, an equal number of Romans and allies, were sent to
the same place, together with the corn, for its protection.
4. The summer was now on the close, and the time for the election of
consuls drew nigh; but a letter from Marcellus, in which he stated,
that it would not be for the interest of the state that he should
depart a single step from Hannibal, whom he was severely pressing
while retreating before him and evading an engagement, had excited
anxiety, lest they must either recall the consul from the war at that
time when he was most actively employed, or consuls should not be
appointed for the year. The best course appeared to be to recall in
preference the consul Valerius from Sicily, although he was out of
Italy. A letter was sent to him by Lucius Manlius, the city praetor,
by order of the senate, together with the letter of Marcus Marcellus,
the consul, that he might learn from it what reason the senate had for
recalling him from his province rather than his colleague. Much about
this time ambassadors came to Rome from king Syphax with accounts of
the successful battles which he had fought with the Carthaginians.
They assured the senate that there was no people to whom the king
was more hostile than the Carthaginians, and none to whom he was
more friendly than the Romans. They said, that "he had before sent
ambassadors into Spain, to Cneius and Publius Cornelius, the Roman
generals, but that he was now desirous to solicit the friendship of
the Romans, as it were, from the fountain-head itself." The senate not
only returned a gracious answer to the ambassadors, but also sent
as ambassadors to the king, with presents, Lucius Genucius, Publius
Paetelius, and Publius Popillius. The presents they carried were a
purple gown and vest, an ivory chair, and a bowl formed out of five
pounds of gold. They received orders to proceed forthwith to other
petty princes of Africa carrying with them as presents for them gowns
bordered with purple, and golden bowls weighing three pounds each.
Marcus Atilius and Manius Acilius were also sent as ambassadors to
Alexandria, to king Ptolemy and queen Cleopatra, to revive and renew
the treaty of friendship with them, carrying with them as presents
a gown and purple tunic, with an ivory chair for the king, and an
embroidered gown and a purple vest for the queen. During the summer in
which these transactions took place, many prodigies were reported from
the country and cities in the neighbourhood; at Tusculum it was said
that a lamb was yeaned with its dug full of milk; that the roof of the
temple of Jupiter was struck with lightning and almost stripped of
its entire covering. Much about the same time it was reported that
the ground in front of the gate at Anagnia was struck, and that it
continued burning for a day and a night without any thing to feed
the fire; that at Compitum in the territory of Anagnia, the birds had
deserted the nests in the trees in the grove of Diana; that snakes
of amazing size had leaped up, like fishes sporting, in the sea at
Taracina not far from the port; at Tarquinii, that a pig was produced
with a human face; that in the territory of Capena at the grove of
Feronia, four statues had sweated blood profusely for a day and a
night. These prodigies were expiated with victims of the greater kind,
according to a decree of the pontiffs, and a supplication was fixed
to be performed for one day at Rome at all the shrines, and another in
the territory of Capena at the grove of Feronia.
5. Marcus Valerius, the consul, having been summoned by letter, gave
the command of the province and his army to Cincius the praetor, sent
Marcus Valerius Messala, commander of the fleet, with half of the
ships to Africa, at the same time to plunder the country and observe
what the Carthaginians were doing, and what preparations they were
making, and then set out himself with ten ships for Rome; where,
having arrived in safety, he immediately convened the senate. Here
he made a recital of his services. That "after hostilities had been
carried on, and severe losses often sustained, both by sea and land,
through a period of almost sixty years, he had completely terminated
the business of the province. That there was not one Carthaginian in
Sicily, nor one Sicilian absent of those who through fear had been
compelled to go into exile and live abroad; that all of them were
brought back to their cities and fields, and were employed in
ploughing and sowing; that the land which was deserted was now again
inhabited, not only yielding its fruits to its cultivators, but
forming a most certain resource for the supply of provisions to the
Roman people in peace and war." After this, Mutines and such others as
had rendered any services to the Roman people were introduced into
the senate, and all received honorary rewards in fulfilment of
the consul's engagement. Mutines was also made a Roman citizen,
a proposition to that effect having been made to the commons by a
plebeian tribune, on the authority of the senate. While these things
were going on at Rome, Marcus Valerius Messala, arriving on the coast
of Africa before daylight, made a sudden descent on the territory
of Utica; and after ravaging it to a great extent, and taking many
prisoners, together with booty of every kind, he returned to his ships
and sailed over to Sicily. He returned to Lilybaeum on the thirteenth
day from the time he left it. From the prisoners, on examination, the
following facts were discovered, and all communicated in writing to
the consul Laevinus in order, so that he might know in what state the
affairs of Africa were. That "five thousand Numidians, with Masinissa,
the son of Gala, a youth of extraordinary spirit, were at Carthage,
and that other troops were hiring throughout all Africa, to be passed
over into Spain to Hasdrubal; in order that he might, as soon as
possible, pass over into Italy, with as large a force as could be
collected, and form a junction with Hannibal." That the Carthaginians
considered their success dependent on this measure. That a very large
fleet was also in preparation for the recovery of Sicily, which they
believed would sail thither in a short time. The recital of these
facts had such an effect upon the senate, that they resolved that the
consul ought not to wait for the election, but that a dictator should
be appointed to hold it, and that the consul should immediately return
to his province. A difference of opinion delayed this, for the consul
declared that he should nominate as dictator Marcus Valerius Messala,
who then commanded the fleet in Sicily; but the fathers denied that a
person could be appointed dictator who was not in the Roman territory,
and this was limited by Italy. Marcus Lucretius, a plebeian tribune,
having taken the sense of the senate upon the question, it was
decreed, "that the consul before he quitted the city, should put
the question to the people, as to whom they wished to be appointed
dictator, and that he should nominate whomsoever they directed. If the
consul were unwilling that the praetor should put the question, and
if even he were unwilling to do it, that then the tribunes should make
the proposition to the commons." The consul refusing to submit to the
people what lay in his own power, and forbidding the praetor to do so,
the plebeian tribunes put the question, and the commons ordered that
Quintus Fulvius, who was then at Capua, should be nominated dictator.
But on the night preceding the day on which the assembly of the people
was to be held for that purpose, the consul went off privately into
Sicily; and the fathers, thus deserted, decreed that a letter should
be sent to Marcus Claudius, in order that he might come to the support
of the state, which had been abandoned by his colleague, and appoint
him dictator whom the commons had ordered. Thus Quintus Fulvius was
appointed dictator by Marcus Claudius, the consul, and in conformity
with the same order of the people, Publius Licinius Crassus, chief
pontiff, was appointed master of the horse by Quintus Fulvius, the
dictator.
6. After the dictator had arrived at Rome, he sent Cneius Sempronius
Blaesus, who had acted under him as lieutenant general at Capua, into
the province of Etruria, to take the command of the army there, in the
room of the praetor, Caius Calpurnius, whom he had summoned by letter
to take the command of Capua and his own army. He fixed the first date
he could for the election: which, however, could not be brought to
a conclusion, in consequence of a dispute which arose between the
tribunes and the dictator. The junior century of the Galerian tribe,
to whose lot it fell to give the votes first, had named Quintus
Fulvius and Quintus Fabius as consuls; and the other centuries,
on being called upon to vote according to their course, would have
inclined the same way, had not the plebeian tribunes, Caius and Lucius
Arennius interposed. They said, "that it was hardly constitutional
that a chief magistrate should be continued in office but that it was
a precedent still more shocking, that the very person who held the
election should be appointed. Then therefore, if the dictator
should allow his own name to appear they would interpose against the
election; but if the names of any other persons besides himself were
put up, they should not impede it." The dictator defended the election
by the authority of the fathers, the order of the commons, and
precedents. For, "in the consulate of Cneius Servilius, when the other
consul, Caius Flaminius, had fallen at Trasimenus, it was proposed
to the people on the authority of the fathers, and the people had
ordered, that as long as the war continued in Italy, it should be
lawful for the people to elect to the consulship whomsoever they
pleased, out of those persons who had been consuls, and as often as
they pleased. That he had a precedent of ancient date, which was to
the point, in the case of Lucius Posthumius Megellus, who, while he
was interrex, had been created consul with Caius Junius Bubulcus, at
an election over which he himself presided; and a precedent of recent
date, in Quintus Fabius, who certainly would never have allowed
himself to be re-elected, had it not been for the good of the state."
After the contest had been continued for a long time, by arguments
of this kind, at length the tribunes and the dictator came to an
agreement, that they should abide by what the senate should decide.
The fathers were of opinion, that such was then the condition of the
state, that it was necessary that its affairs should be conducted by
old and experienced generals, who were skilled in the art of war;
and, therefore, that no delay should take place in the election. The
tribunes then withdrew their opposition, and the election was held.
Quintus Fabius Maximus was declared consul for the fifth time,
and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus for the fourth. The praetors were then
created; Lucius Veturius Philo, Titus Quintus Crispinus, Caius
Hostilius Tubulus, and Caius Aurunculeius. The magistrates for the
year being appointed, Quintus Fulvius resigned the dictatorship. At
the end of this summer, a Carthaginian fleet of forty ships, under the
command of Hamilcar, passed over to Sardinia. At first it laid waste
the territory of Olbia, and then Publius Manlius Vulso, with his army,
making his appearance, it sailed round thence to the other side of the
island, and devastating the territory of Caralis, returned to Africa
with booty of every kind. Several Roman priests died this year, and
others were substituted. Caius Servilius was appointed pontiff, in the
place of Titus Otacilius Crassus. Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son
of Tiberius, was appointed as augur, in the place of Titus Otacilius
Crassus; and Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Tiberius, was
appointed decemvir for the performance of sacred rites, in the room of
Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Caius. Marcus Marcius, king of the
sacred rites, and Marcus Aemilius Papus, chief curio, died; but no
priests were appointed to succeed them this year. The censors this
year were Lucius Veturius Philo, and Publius Licinius Crassus chief
pontiff. Licinius Crassus had neither been consul nor praetor before
he was appointed censor, he stepped from the aedileship to the
censorship. These censors neither chose the senate, nor transacted any
public business, the death of Lucius Veturius prevented it; on this
Licinius also gave up his office. The curule aediles, Lucius Veturius
and Publius Licinius Varus, repeated the Roman games during one day.
The plebeian aediles, Quintus Catius and Lucius Porcius Licinius,
furnished brazen statues for the temple of Ceres, out of the money
arising from fines, and exhibited games with great pomp and splendour,
considering the circumstances of the times.
7. At the close of this year, Caius Laelius, the lieutenant general
of Scipio, came to Rome on the thirty-fourth day after he set out from
Tarraco, and entering the city accompanied by a train of captives,
drew together a great concourse of people. The next day, on being
brought into the senate, he stated that Carthage, the capital of
Spain, had been captured in one day, that several cities which had
revolted were regained, and that fresh ones had been received into
alliance. From the prisoners, information was gained, corresponding
for the most part with what was contained in the letter of Marcus
Valerius Messala. What produced the greatest effect upon the fathers,
was the march of Hasdrubal into Italy, which was with difficulty
resisting Hannibal and his forces. Laelius also, who was brought
before the general assembly, gave a particular statement of the same
things. The senate decreed a supplication for one day, on account of
the successes of Publius Scipio, and ordered Caius Laelius to return
as soon as possible to Spain, with the ships he had brought with him.
I have laid the taking of Carthage in this year, on the authority of
many writers, although aware that some have stated that it was taken
the following year, because it appeared to me hardly probable that
Scipio should have spent an entire year in Spain in doing nothing.
Quintus Fabius Maximus for the fifth time, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus
for the fourth having entered on their offices of consuls on the ides
of March, on the same day, Italy was decreed as the province of both,
their command, however, was distributed to separate districts. Fabius
was appointed to carry on the war at Tarentum; Fulvius in Lucania and
Bruttium. Marcus Claudius was continued in command for the year. The
praetors then cast lots for their provinces. Caius Hostilius Tubulus
obtained the city jurisdiction; Lucius Veturius Philo the foreign,
with Gaul; Titus Quinctius Crispinus, Capua; Caius Aurunculeius,
Sardinia. The troops were thus distributed through the provinces:
Fulvius received the two legions which Marcus Valerius Laevinus had in
Sicily; Quintus Fabius, those which Caius Calpurnius had commanded
in Etruria. The city troops were to succeed those in Etruria; Caius
Calpurnius commanding the same province and the army. Titus Quinctius
was to take the command of Capua, and the army which had served under
Quintus Fulvius there. Lucius Veturius was to succeed Caius Laetorius,
propraetor, in his province and the command of the army, which was
then at Ariminum. Marcus Marcellus had the legions with which he had
been successful when consul. To Marcus Valerius together with Lucius
Cincius, for these also were continued in command in Sicily, the
troops which had fought at Cannae were given, with orders to recruit
them out of the surviving soldiers of the legions of Cneius Fulvius.
These were collected and sent by the consuls into Sicily, and the same
ignominious condition of service was added, under which the troops
which had fought at Cannae served, and to those troops belonging to
the army of Cneius Fulvius, the praetor, which had been sent thither
by the senate through displeasure occasioned by a similar flight.
Caius Aurunculeius was appointed to command, in Sardinia, the same
legions with which Publius Manlius Vulso had occupied that province.
Publius Sulpicius was continued in command for the year, with orders
to hold Macedonia with the same legion and fleet. Orders were given
to send thirty quinqueremes from Sicily to Tarentum, to the consul
Fabius. With the rest of the ships, orders were given that Marcus
Valerius Laevinus should either pass over himself into Africa to
ravage the country, or send either Lucius Cincius or Marcus Valerius
Messala. With regard to Spain, no alteration was made, except that
Scipio and Silanus were continued in command, not for the year, but
until they should be recalled by the senate. In such manner were the
provinces and the commands of the armies distributed for this year.
8. Amid concerns of greater importance, an old dispute was revived at
the election of a chief curio, when a priest was appointed to succeed
Marcus Aemilius; the patricians denying that Caius Mamilius Vitulus,
who was a plebeian candidate, ought to be allowed to stand, because no
one before his time had held that priesthood who was not a patrician.
The tribunes, on being appealed to, referred the matter to the senate.
The senate left it to the decision of the people. Thus Caius Mamilius
Vitulus was the first plebeian created chief curio. Publius Licinius,
chief pontiff, compelled Caius Valerius Flaccus to be inaugurated
flamen of Jupiter, against his will. Caius Valerius Laetorius was
created decemvir for the performance of sacred rites, in the room of
Quintus Mucius Scaevola, deceased. I should willingly have passed over
in silence the reason of a flamen's being compelled to be inaugurated,
had he not become a good, from having been a bad character. In
consequence of having spent his youth in idleness and debauchery,
vices for which he had incurred the displeasure of his own brother,
Lucius Flaccus, and the rest of his kinsmen, Caius Flaccus was chosen
flamen by Publius Licinius, chief pontiff. As soon as his mind became
occupied with the care of the sacred rites and ceremonies, he soon so
completely divested himself of his former habits, that no one among
all the youth was more esteemed, or enjoyed in a greater degree the
approbation of the chief of the patricians, whether relations or
aliens. Being raised by this generally good character to a proper
confidence in himself, he claimed to be admitted into the senate; a
thing intermitted for many years, on account of the worthlessness of
former flamens. On entering the senate, Lucius Licinius, the praetor,
led him out; on which the flamen appealed to the tribunes of the
people. He demanded back the ancient privilege of his priesthood,
which was given, together with the purple-bordered robe, and the
curule chair, to the office of flamen. The praetor wished the question
to rest not on the precedents contained in the annals, which were
obsolete from their antiquity, but on the usual practice in all the
cases of most recent date; urging, that no flamen of Jupiter, in
the memory of their fathers or their grandfathers, had taken up that
privilege. The tribunes giving it as their opinion, that justice
required, that as the obliteration of the privilege was occasioned by
the negligence of the flamens, the consequences ought to fall upon the
flamens themselves, and not upon the office, led the flamen into the
senate, with the general approbation of the fathers, and without any
opposition, even from the praetor himself; while all were of opinion
that the flamen had obtained his object more from the purity of his
life, than any right appertaining to the priesthood. The consuls,
before they departed to their provinces, raised two legions for the
city, and as many soldiers as were necessary to make up the numbers
of the other armies. The consul Fulvius appointed his brother, Caius
Fulvius Flaccus, lieutenant-general, to march the old city army into
Etruria, and to bring to Rome the legions which were in Etruria. And
the consul Fabius ordered his son, Quintus Fabius Maximus, to lead the
remains of the army of Fulvius, which had been collected, amounting
to three thousand three hundred and thirty-six, into Sicily to Marcus
Valerius, the proconsul, and to receive from him two legions and
thirty quinqueremes. The withdrawing of these legions from the island
did not at all diminish the force employed for the protection of that
province, either in effect or appearance; for though, in addition to
two veteran legions which were most effectively reinforced, he had
a great number of Numidian deserters, both horse and foot, he raised
also a body of Sicilian troops, consisting of men who had served in
the armies of Epicydes and the Carthaginians, and were experienced
in war. Having added these foreign auxiliaries to each of the Roman
legions, he preserved the appearance of two armies. With one he
ordered Lucius Cinctius to protect that portion of the island which
had formed the kingdom of Hiero, with the other he himself guarded the
rest of the island, which was formerly divided by the boundary of the
Roman and Carthaginian dominions. He divided also the fleet of seventy
ships, in order that it might protect the sea-coast, through the
entire extent of its shores. He himself went through the island with
the cavalry of Mutines to inspect the lands, observe those which were
cultivated and those which were not, and, accordingly, either praise
or reprove the owners. By this diligence so large a quantity of corn
was produced, that he both sent some to Rome, and collected at Catana
corn which might serve as a supply for the army, which was about to
pass the summer at Tarentum.
9. But the transportation of the soldiers into Sicily, and they
consisted chiefly of Latins and allies, had very nearly caused a
serious commotion; from such trifling circumstances do events of great
importance frequently arise. A murmuring arose among the Latins and
allies at their meetings. They said, that "they had been drained by
levies and contributions for ten years. That almost every year they
fought with the most disastrous consequences. That some of them
were slain in the field, others were carried off by disease. That a
countryman of theirs who was enlisted by the Romans was more lost to
them than one who was taken prisoner by the Carthaginians; for the
latter was sent back to his country by the enemy without ransom, while
the former was sent beyond the limits of Italy, into exile rather than
military service. That the troops which fought at Cannae were growing
old there, for eight years, and would die there before the enemy,
who was now more than ever flourishing and vigorous would depart from
Italy. If the old soldiers did not return to their country, and fresh
ones were enlisted, that in a short time there would be no one left.
That, therefore, they must refuse to the Roman people, before they
came to utter desolation and want, what shortly their very condition
would refuse. If the Romans saw their allies unanimous on this
point that they would then certainly think of making peace with the
Carthaginians; otherwise, Italy would never be without war while
Hannibal was alive." Thus they discoursed in their meetings. The Roman
people had at that time thirty colonies. Twelve of these, for they all
had embassies in Rome, told the consuls that they had not whence to
furnish either men or money. The twelve were Ardea, Nepete Sutrium,
Alba, Carseoli, Cora, Suessa, Cerceii, Setia, Cales Narnia, Interamna.
The consuls, astonished at this new proceeding, were desirous to deter
them from so hateful a measure and, considering that they could effect
this better by censure and remonstrance than by mild means, said that
"they had dared to say to the consuls what the consuls could not bring
their minds to declare in the senate; for that this was not refusal to
perform military service, but an open defection from the Roman people.
They desired, therefore, that they would return to their colonies
speedily, and that, considering the subject as untouched, as they had
only spoken of, but not attempted, so impious a business, they would
consult with their countrymen. That they would warn them that they
were not Campanians or Tarentines, but Romans; that from thence they
derived their origin, and thence were sent out into colonies and lands
captured from the enemy, for the purpose of increasing the population.
That they owed to the Romans what children owed to parents, if they
possessed any natural affection, or any gratitude towards their mother
country. That they should, therefore, consider the matter afresh; for
that certainly what they then so rashly meditated, was the betraying
the Roman empire, and putting the victory in the hands of Hannibal."
The consuls having spent a long time in exchanging arguments of this
kind, the ambassadors, who were not at all moved by what they said,
declared, that "they had nothing which they could carry home, nor
had their senate any thing fresh to devise, having neither men to be
enlisted, nor money to be furnished for pay." The consuls, seeing that
they were inflexible, laid the matter before the senate; where the
alarm excited in the minds of all was so great, that "the greater
part declared it was all over with the empire; that the rest of the
colonies would take the same course, and that all the allies had
conspired to betray the city of Rome to Hannibal."
10. The consuls endeavoured to encourage and console the senate,
telling them that "the other colonies would maintain their allegiance,
and continue in their former state of dutiful obedience, and that
those very colonies who had renounced their allegiance, would be
inspired with respect for the empire, if ambassadors were sent round
to them to reprove and not entreat them." The senate having given them
permission to do and to act as they might conceive best for the state;
after sounding the intentions of the other colonies, the consuls
summoned their ambassadors, and asked them whether they had their
soldiers ready according to the roll? Marcus Sextilius of Fregellae
replied, in behalf of the eighteen colonies, that "they both had their
soldiers ready according to the roll, and if more were wanting would
furnish more, and would perform with all diligence whatever else the
Roman people commanded and wished; that to do this they wanted not
means, and of inclination they had more than enough." The consuls,
having first told them that any praises bestowed by themselves alone
seemed too little for their deserts, unless the whole body of the
fathers should thank them in the senate-house, led them before the
senate. The senate, having voted an address to them conceived in the
most honourable terms, charged the consuls to take them before the
assembly of the people; and, among the many other distinguished
services rendered to themselves and their ancestors, to make mention
also of this recent obligation conferred upon the state. Nor even at
the present day, after the lapse of so many ages let their names be
passed over in silence, nor let them be defrauded of the praise due
to them. They were the people of Signia, Norba, Saticulum, Brundusium,
Fregellae, Lucerium Venusia, Adria, Firma, Ariminum; on the other
sea, Pontius Paestum, and Cosa; and in the inland parts Beneventum,
Aesernia, Spoletum, Placentia, and Cremona. By the support of these
colonies the empire of the Roman people then stood; and the thanks
both of the senate and the people were given to them. As to the twelve
other colonies which refused obedience, the fathers forbade that their
names should be mentioned, that their ambassadors should either be
dismissed or retained, to be addressed by the consuls. Such a tacit
reproof appears most consistent with the dignity of the Roman people.
While the consuls were getting in readiness all the other things which
were necessary for the war, it was resolved that the vicesimary gold,
which was preserved in the most sacred part of the treasury as a
resource in cases of extreme exigencies should be drawn out. There
were drawn out as many as four thousand pounds of gold, from which
five hundred pounds each were given to the consuls, to Marcus
Marcellus and Publius Sulpicius, proconsuls, and Lucius Veturius,
the praetor, who had by lot obtained Gaul as his province; and in
addition, one hundred pounds of gold were given to the consul Fabius,
as an extraordinary grant to be carried into the citadel of Tarentum.
The rest they employed in contracts, for ready money, for clothing
for the army which was carrying on the war in Spain, to their own and
their general glory.
11. It was resolved also, that the prodigies should be expiated before
the consuls set out from the city. In the Alban mount, the statue of
Jupiter and a tree near the temple were struck by lightning; at Ostia,
a grove; at Capua, a wall and the temple of Fortune; at Sinuessa, a
wall and a gate. Some also asserted, that water at Alba had flowed
tinged with blood. That at Rome, within the cell of Fors Fortuna, an
image, which was in the crown of the goddess, had fallen spontaneously
from her head into her hands. At Privernum, it was satisfactorily
established that an ox spoke, and that a vulture flew down into
a shop, while the forum was crowded. And that a child was born at
Sinuessa, of ambiguous sex, between a male and female, such as are
commonly called Androgynes, a term derived from the Greek language,
which is better adapted, as for most other purposes, so for the
composition of words; also that it rained milk, and that a boy was
born with the head of an elephant. These prodigies were then expiated
with victims of the larger kind, and a supplication at every shrine
and an offering up of prayers, was proclaimed for one day. It was also
decreed, that Caius Hostilius, the praetor, should vow and perform
the games in honour of Apollo as they had of late years been vowed and
performed. During the same time, Quintus Fulvius, the consul, held an
election for the creation of censors. Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, and
Publius Sempronius Tuditanus, both of whom had not yet been consuls,
were created censors. The question was put to the people on the
authority of the fathers, and the people ordered that these censors
should let to farm the Campanian lands. The choosing of the senate
was delayed by a dispute which arose between the censors about the
selection of a chief of the senate. The choice belonged to Sempronius;
but Cornelius contended that the custom handed down by their fathers
must be followed, which was, that they should choose him as chief of
the senate who was first censor of those who were then alive; this was
Titus Manlius Torquatus. Sempronius rejoined, that to whom the gods
had given the lot of choosing, to him the same gods had given the
right of exercising his discretion freely. That he would act in this
affair according to his own free will, and would choose Quintus Fabius
Maximus, whom he would prove to be the first man in the Roman state,
even in the judgment of Hannibal. After a long verbal dispute, his
colleague giving up the point, Quintus Fabius Maximus, the consul, was
chosen, by Sempronius, chief of the senate. Another senate was then
chosen, and eight names were passed over; among which was that
of Lucius Caecilius Metellus, disrespected as the adviser of the
abandonment of Italy, after the defeat at Cannae. In censuring those
of the equestrian order, the same ground was acted upon, but there
were very few to whom that disgrace belonged. All of the equestrian
order belonging to the legions who had fought at Cannae, and were then
in Sicily, were deprived of their horses. To this severe punishment
they added another relating to time, which was, that the past campaign
which they had served on horses furnished at the public expense should
not be reckoned to them, but that they should serve ten campaigns on
horses furnished at their own expense. They also searched for, and
discovered, a great number of those who ought to have served in the
cavalry; and all those who were seventeen years old at the beginning
of the war and had not served, they disfranchised. They then
contracted for the restoration of the seven shops, the shamble and the
royal palace, situated round the forum, and which had been consumed by
fire.
12. Having finished every thing which was to be done in Rome, the
consuls set out for the war. Fulvius first went advance to Capua; in
a few days Fabius followed. He implored his colleague in person,
and Marcellus by a letter use the most vigorous measures to detain
Hannibal, while he was making an attack upon Tarentum. That when that
city was taken from the enemy, who had been repulsed on all sides and
had no place where he might make a stand or look back up as a safe
retreat, he would not then have even a pretext for remaining in Italy.
He also sent a messenger to Rhegium, the praefect of the garrison,
which had been placed there the consul Laevinus, against the
Bruttians, and consisted eight thousand men, the greater part of
whom had been brought from Agathyrna in Sicily, as has been before
mentioned, and were men who had been accustomed to live by rapine. To
these were added fugitives of the Bruttians natives of that country,
equal to them in daring, and under an equal necessity of braving
every thing. This band ordered to be marched, first, to lay waste the
Bruttian territory, and then to attack the city Caulonia. After having
executed the order, not only with alacrity, but avidity, and having
pillaged and put to flight the cultivators of the land they attacked
the city with the utmost vigour. Marcellus incited by the letter of
the consul, and because he had made up his mind that no Roman general
was so good a match for Hannibal as himself, set out from his winter
quarters as soon as there was plenty of forage in the fields, and met
Hannibal at Canusium. The Carthaginian was then endeavouring to induce
the Canusians to revolt, but as soon as he heard that Marcellus was
approaching, he decamped thence. The country was open, without any
covers adapted for an ambuscade; he therefore began to retire thence
into woody districts. Marcellus closely pursued him, pitched his camp
close to his, and when he had completed his works, led out his troops
into the field. Hannibal engaged in slight skirmishes, and sent
out single troops of horse and the spearmen from his infantry, not
considering it necessary to hazard a general battle. He was, however,
drawn on to a contest of that kind which he was avoiding. Hannibal had
decamped by night, but was overtaken by Marcellus in a plain and open
country. Then, while encamping, Marcellus, by attacking the workmen
on all hands, prevented the completion of his works. Thus a pitched
battle ensued, and all their forces were brought into action; but
night coming on, they retired from an equal contest. They then hastily
fortified their camps, which were a small space apart, before night.
The next day, as soon as it was light, Marcellus led out his troops
into the field; nor did Hannibal decline the challenge, but exhorted
his soldiers at great length, desiring them "to remember Trasimenus
and Cannae, and thus quell the proud spirit of their enemies." He
said, "the enemy pressed upon him, and trod upon their heels; that he
did not allow them to pass unmolested, pitch their camp, or even take
breath and look around them; that every day, the rising sun and the
Roman troops in battle-array were to be seen together on the plains.
But if in one battle he should retire from the field, not without loss
of blood, he would then prosecute the war more steadily and quietly."
Fired by these exhortations, and at the same time wearied with the
presumption of the enemy, who daily pressed upon them and provoked
them to an engagement, they commenced the battle with spirit. The
battle continued for more than two hours, when the right wing of
the allies and the chosen band began to give way on the part of the
Romans; which Marcellus perceiving, led the eighteenth legion to the
front. While some were retiring in confusion, and others were
coming up reluctantly, the whole line was thrown into disorder, and
afterwards completely routed; while their fears getting the better of
their sense of shame, they turned their backs. In the battle and in
the flight there fell as many as two thousand seven hundred of the
citizens and allies; among which were four Roman centurions and two
military tribunes, Marcus Licinius and Marcus Helvius. Four military
standards were lost by the wing which first fled, and two belonging to
the legion which came up in place of the retiring allies.
13. Marcellus, on his return to the camp, delivered an address to
his soldiers so severe and acrimonious, that the words of their
exasperated general were more painful to them than what they had
suffered in the unsuccessful battle during the whole day. "I praise
and thank the immortal gods," said he "that in such an affair the
victorious enemy did not assail our very camp, when you were hurrying
into the rampart and the gates with such consternation. There can be
no doubt but you would have abandoned the camp with the same cowardice
with which you gave up the battle. What panic was this? What terror?
What sudden forgetfulness of who you are, and who the persons with
whom you were fighting, took possession of your minds? Surely these
are the same enemies in conquering and pursuing whom when conquered
you spent the preceding summer; whom latterly you have been closely
pursuing while they fled before you night and day; whom you have
wearied by partial battles; whom yesterday you would not allow either
to march or encamp. I pass over those things in which you might be
allowed to glory; I will mention a circumstance which of itself ought
to fill you with shame and remorse. Yesterday you separated from the
enemy on equal terms. What alteration has last night, what on this
day, produced? Have your forces been diminished by them, or theirs
increased? I verily do not seem to be talking to my own troops, or
to Roman soldiers. The bodies and the arms are the same. Had you
possessed the same spirit, would the enemy have seen your backs? Would
they have carried off a standard from any company or cohort? Hitherto
he was wont to boast of having cut to pieces the Roman legions, but
yesterday you gave him the glory, for the first time, of having put
to flight an army." On this many soldiers began to call upon him to
pardon them for that day, and entreat that he would now, whenever he
pleased, make trial of the courage of his soldiers. "I will indeed
make trial of you," said he, "and to-morrow I will lead you into the
field, that in the character of conquerors, rather than conquered men,
you may obtain the pardon you seek." To the cohorts which had
lost their standards, he ordered that barley should be given. The
centurions of the Campanians, whose standards were lost, he left to
stand without their girdles and with their swords drawn; and gave
orders that all, both horse and foot, should be ready under arms
on the following day. Thus the assembly was dismissed; the soldiers
confessing that they had been justly and deservedly rebuked; and that
there was no one in the whole Roman army who had acquitted himself
like a man, except the general, to whom they were bound to make
atonement, either by their death or a glorious victory. The next
day they appeared in readiness, according to the order, armed and
equipped. The general praised them, and gave out, that "he should
lead into the first line those who had commenced the flight on the
preceding day, and those cohorts which had lost their standards. He
now charged them all to fight and conquer, and exert every effort, one
and all, that the intelligence of yesterday's flight might not arrive
at Rome before that of this day's victory." They were then ordered
to refresh themselves with food, in order that, if the fight should
continue longer than might be expected, their strength might not fail.
After every thing had been done and said, by which the courage of the
soldiers might be roused, they advanced into the field.
14. Hannibal, on receiving intelligence of this, said, "surely the
enemy we have to do with can neither bear good nor bad fortune. If he
is victorious, he fiercely pursues the vanquished. If conquered, he
renews the contest with the victors." He then ordered the signal to
be given, and led out his forces. The battle was fought on both sides
with much more spirit than the day before. The Carthaginians exerting
themselves to the utmost, to keep the glory they had acquired
yesterday; the Romans, to remove their disgrace. On the side of the
Romans, the left wing, and the cohorts which had lost their standards,
fought in the first line, and the twentieth legion was drawn up on
the right wing. Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Caius Claudius Nero,
lieutenant-generals, commanded the wings, Marcellus gave vigour to the
centre by his presence, as an encourager and a witness. On the part
of Hannibal, the Spaniards, who were the flower of his whole army,
occupied the front line. After the battle had continued doubtful for
a long time, Hannibal ordered the elephants to be advanced into the
front line, if by that means any confusion or panic could be created.
At first, they threw the troops into confusion and broke their ranks,
and treading some under foot, and dispersing others who were round
them by the alarm they created, had made an opening in one part of the
Roman line; and the flight would have spread more widely had not Caius
Decimus Flavius, a military tribune seizing the standard of the first
maniple of the spearmen ordered that maniple to follow him. He led
them to the spot where the elephants, collected in a body, were
creating the greatest confusion, and ordered them to discharge their
javelins at them. As there was no difficulty in hitting such bulky
bodies at a short distance, and where so many were crowded together,
all their javelins stuck in them. But they were not all wounded, so
those in whose hides the javelins stuck, as that race of animals is
not to be depended on, by taking themselves to flight, drove away
those also which were untouched. At that moment not only one maniple,
but all the soldiers who could but overtake the body of retreating
elephants, threw their javelins at them, each man exerting himself to
his utmost. With so much greater impetuosity did the animals rush upon
their own men, and so much greater carnage did they make amongst
them than they had made amongst their enemies, in proportion as the
violence with which they are impelled, and the consternation produced
by them when under the influence of fear, is greater than when they
are ruled by their masters seated on their backs. The Roman infantry
bore their standards against the line of the enemy when thrown into
disorder by the elephants which had crossed over to them, and,
thus scattered and confused, led them to flight without any great
opposition. Marcellus sent his cavalry after them as they fled;
nor did they desist from the pursuit till they were driven in
consternation to their camp. For in addition to the other causes which
occasioned terror and dismay, two elephants had fallen just by the
gate, and the soldiers were compelled to rush into the camp over the
ditch and rampart. Here the greatest slaughter of the enemy occurred.
There fell as many as eight thousand men and five elephants. Nor did
the Romans gain a bloodless victory; about seventeen hundred of the
two legions, and thirteen hundred of the allies were slain; a great
number of the Romans and allies were wounded. The following night
Hannibal decamped. The great number of the wounded prevented Marcellus
from following him, as he desired.
15. The spies who were sent to watch his movements brought word back
the next day that Hannibal was making for Bruttium. Much about
the same time the Hirpinians, Lucanians, and Volcentes surrendered
themselves to the consul, Quintus Fulvius, delivering up the garrisons
of Hannibal which they had in their cities. They were mildly received
by the consul, with only a verbal reproof for their past error. To
the Bruttians also similar hopes of pardon were held out, when two
brothers, Vibius and Pactius, by far the most illustrious persons of
that nation, came from them to solicit the same terms of surrender
which had been given to the Lucanians. Quintus Fabius, the consul,
took by storm Manduria, a town in the territory of Sallentum, where
as many as four thousand men were made prisoners, and much booty taken
besides. Proceeding thence to Tarentum, he pitched his camp in the
very mouth of the harbour: of the ships which Livius had employed for
protecting convoys, some he loaded with engines and implements for
attacking walls, others he furnished with machines for discharging
missiles, and with stones and missiles of every kind; not only those
which were impelled with oars, but the storeships also, in order that
some might carry the engines and ladders to the walls, while others
might wound the defenders of the walls by discharging missiles from
the ships at a distance. These ships were fitted up and prepared
to attack the town from the open sea; and the sea was free from the
Carthaginian fleet, which had crossed over to Corcyra on account of
Philip's preparing to attack the Aetolians. Meanwhile, those who were
attacking Caulon, in the territory of Bruttium, fearful lest they
should be overpowered, had retired on the approach of Hannibal to an
eminence, secure from an immediate attack. While Fabius was besieging
Tarentum, he received assistance in the accomplishment of that great
object by a circumstance which in the mere mention, is unimportant.
Tarentum was occupied by a garrison of Bruttians, given them by
Hannibal and the commander of that garrison was desperately in love
with a girl, whose brother was in the army of the consul Fabius. Being
informed, by a letter from his sister, of the new acquaintance she
had formed with a wealthy stranger and one so honoured among his
countrymen, and conceiving a hope that the lover, by means of his
sister, might be induced to any thing she pleased, he acquainted
the consul with the hope he had formed. His reasoning appeared not
altogether unfounded, and he was desired to go to Tarentum as a
deserter and having gained the confidence of the praefect by means of
his sister, he began by sounding his disposition in a covert manner,
and then, having sufficiently ascertained his weakness, induced him,
by the aid of female fascinations, to the betrayal of that custody of
the place to which he was appointed. After the method to be pursued
and the time for putting the plan into effect had been agreed upon, a
soldier, who was sent out of the city by night clandestinely, through
the intervals between the guards, related to the consul what had been
done, and what had been agreed upon to be done. At the first watch,
Fabius, on a signal given to those who were in the citadel, and those
who had the custody of the harbour went himself round the harbour, and
took up a position of concealment, on the side of the city which faced
the east. Then the trumpets began to sound at once from the citadel,
the harbour, and the ships which had been brought to the shore from
the open sea, and a shout was purposely raised, accompanied with the
greatest confusion, in whatever quarter there was the least danger.
Meanwhile, the consul kept the men in silence. Democrates, therefore,
who had formerly commanded the fleet, and happened to be in command in
the quarter, seeing that all was quiet around him, while other parts
of the city resounded with such a din that sometimes shout like that
of a captured city was raised, and fearing loss while he hesitated,
the consul should make some attack and advance his standards, led
his party over to the citadel, from which the most alarming noise
proceeded. Fabius, concluding that the guard was withdrawn, both from
the time which had elapsed and from the silence which prevailed, for
not a voice met the ear from a quarter where a little while ago the
noise and bustle of men resounded, rousing and calling each other to
arms, ordered the ladders to be carried to that part of the wall where
the person who had contrived the plot for betraying the city, had
informed him that the Bruttian cohort kept guard. The wall was first
captured in that quarter, the Bruttians aiding and receiving the
Romans; and here they got over into the city: after which the nearest
gate was broken open in order that the troops might enter in a large
body. Then raising a shout, they proceeded to the forum, where they
arrived much about daybreak, without meeting a single armed man; and
drew upon themselves the attention of all the troops in every quarter,
which were fighting at the citadel and at the harbour.
16. A battle was fought in the entrance of the forum, with greater
impetuosity than perseverance. The Tarentines were not equal to the
Romans in spirit, in their arms, in tactics, in activity or strength
of body. Accordingly, having just discharged their javelins, they
turned their backs almost before they had joined battle, and escaped
in different directions through the streets of the city, with which
they were acquainted, to their own houses and those of their friends.
Two of their leaders, Nico and Democrates, fell while fighting
bravely. Philomenus, who was the author of the plot for betraying the
city to Hannibal, rode away from the battle at full speed. Shortly
after, his horse, which was loose and straying through the city,
was recognised, but his body could not be found any where. It was
generally believed that he had pitched headlong from his horse into an
open well. Carthalo, the praefect of the Carthaginian garrison, while
coming to the consul unarmed, to put him in mind of a connexion of
hospitality which subsisted between their fathers, was put to death
by a soldier who met him. The rest were put to the sword on all hands,
armed and unarmed indiscriminately, Carthaginians and Tarentines
without distinction. Many of the Bruttians also were slain either by
mistake or on account of an old grudge entertained against them, or
else with a view to the report that the city was betrayed; in order
that Tarentum might rather appear to have been captured by force of
arms. The troops then ran off in all directions from the slaughter,
to plunder the city. Thirty thousand slaves are said to have
been captured; an immense quantity of silver, wrought and coined;
eighty-three thousand pounds of gold; of statues and pictures so many
that they almost equalled the decorations of Syracuse. But Fabius,
with more magnanimity than Marcellus, abstained from booty of that
kind. When his secretary asked him what he wished to be done with the
statues of their gods, which are of immense size and represented as
fighting, each having his peculiar habit, he gave orders that their
angry gods should be left in the possession of the Tarentines. After
this, the wall which separated the city from the citadel was razed and
demolished. While things were going on thus at Tarentum, Hannibal,
to whom the troops engaged in the siege of Caulonia had surrendered
themselves, hearing of the siege of Tarentum, marched with the
greatest expedition both night and day; but hearing that the city was
taken, as he was hastening to bring assistance to it, he exclaimed,
"the Romans too have their Hannibal. We have lost Tarentum by the same
arts by which we took it." However, that he might not appear to have
turned his army in the manner of a fugitive, he encamped where he
had halted, about five miles from the city. After staying there a
few days, he retired to Metapontum, from which place he sent two
Metapontines with letters from the principal men in the state to
Fabius at Tarentum, to the effect, that they would accept of his
promise that their past conduct should be unpunished, on condition
of their betraying Metapontum together with the Carthaginian garrison
into his hands. Fabius, who supposed that the communication they
brought was genuine, appointed a day on which he would go to
Metapontum, and gave the letters to the nobles, which were put into
the hands of Hannibal. He, forsooth, delighted at the success of his
stratagem, which showed that not even Fabius was proof against his
cunning, planted an ambuscade not far from Metapontum. But when Fabius
was taking the auspices, before he took his departure from Tarentum,
the birds more than once refused approval. Also, on consulting the
gods after sacrificing a victim, the aruspex forewarned him to be on
his guard against hostile treachery and ambuscade. After the day fixed
for his arrival had passed without his coming, the Metapontines were
sent again to encourage him, delaying, but they were instantly seized,
and, from apprehension of a severer mode of examination, disclosed the
plot.
17. In the beginning of the summer during which these events occurred,
after Publius Scipio had employed the whole of the winter in Spain in
regaining the affections of the barbarians, partly by presents, and
partly by sending home their hostages and prisoners, Edesco, a man
distinguished among the Spanish commanders, came to him. His wife and
children were in the hands of the Romans; but besides this motive,
he was influenced by that apparently fortuitous turn in the state of
feeling which had converted the whole of Spain from the Carthaginian
to the Roman cause. The same motive induced Indibilis and Mandonius,
who were undoubtedly the principal men in all Spain, to desert
Hasdrubal and withdraw with the whole body of their countrymen to the
eminences which overhung his camp, from which they had a safe retreat
along a chain of hills to the Romans. Hasdrubal, perceiving that the
strength of the enemy was increasing by such large accessions, while
his own was diminishing, and that events would continue to flow in the
same course they had taken, unless by a bold effort he effected some
alteration, resolved to come to an engagement as soon as possible.
Scipio was still more eager for a battle, as well from hope which
the success attending his operations had increased, as because he
preferred, before the junction of the enemy's forces, to fight with
one general and one army, rather than with their united troops.
However, in case he should be obliged to fight with more armies than
one at the same time, he had with some ingenuity augmented his forces;
for seeing that there was no necessity for ships, as the whole coast
of Spain was clear of Carthaginian fleets, he hauled his ships on
shore at Tarraco and added his mariners to his land forces. He
had plenty of arms for them, both those which had been captured at
Carthage, and those which he had caused to be made after its capture,
so large a number of workmen having been employed. With these forces,
setting out from Tarraco at the commencement of the spring, for
Laelius had now returned from Rome, without whom he wished nothing
of very great importance to be attempted, Scipio marched against the
enemy. Indibilis and Mandonius, with their forces, met him while on
his march; passing through every place Without molestation, his
allies receiving him courteously, and escorting him as he passed the
boundaries of each district. Indibilis, who spoke for both, addressed
him by no means stupidly and imprudently like a barbarian, but with a
modest gravity, rather excusing the change as necessary, than glorying
that the present opportunity had been eagerly seized as the first
which had occurred. "For he well knew," he said, "that the name of
a deserter was an object of execration to former allies, and of
suspicion to new ones; nor did he blame the conduct of mankind in
this respect, provided, however, that the cause, and not the name,
occasioned the twofold hatred." He then recounted the services they
had rendered the Carthaginian generals, and on the other hand their
rapacity and insolence, together with the injuries of every kind
committed against themselves and their countrymen. "On this account,"
he said, "his person only up to that time had been with them, his
heart had long since been on that side where he believed that
right and justice were respected. That people sought for refuge,
as suppliants, even with the gods when they could not endure the
oppression and injustice of men. What he had to entreat of Scipio
was, that their passing over to him might neither be the occasion of
a charge of fraud nor a ground for respect, but that he would estimate
their services according to what sort of men he should find them to be
from experience from that day." The Roman replied, that "he would do
so in every particular; nor would he consider those men as deserters
who did not look upon an alliance as binding where no law, divine or
human, was unviolated." Their wives and children were then brought
before them and restored to them; on which occasion they wept for joy.
On that day they were conducted to a lodging; on the following they
were received as allies, by a treaty, after which they were sent to
bring up their forces. From that time they had their tents in the same
camp with the Romans, until under their guidance they had reached the
enemy.
18. The army of Hasdrubal, which was the nearest of the Carthaginian
armies, lay near the city Baecula. Before his camp he had outposts
of cavalry. On these the light-armed, those who fought before the
standards and those who composed the vanguard, as they came up
from their march, and before they chose the ground for their camp,
commenced an attack in so contemptuous a manner, that it was perfectly
evident what degree of spirit each party possessed. The cavalry were
driven into their camp in disorderly flight, and the Roman standards
were advanced almost within their very gates. Their minds on that day
having only been excited to a contest, the Romans pitched their camp.
At night Hasdrubal withdrew his forces to an eminence, on the summit
of which extended a level plain. There was a river on the rear, in
front and on either side a kind of steep bank completely surrounded
its extremity. Beneath this and lower down was another plain of
gentle declivity, which was also surrounded by a similar ridge equally
difficult of ascent. Into this lower plain Hasdrubal, the next day,
when he saw the troops of the enemy drawn up before their camp, sent
his Numidian cavalry and light-armed Baleares. Scipio riding out to
the companies and battalions, pointed out to them, that "the enemy
having abandoned, beforehand, all hope of being able to withstand
them on level ground, had resorted to hills: where they stood in view,
relying on the strength of their position, and not on their valour and
arms." But the walls of Carthage, which the Roman soldiers had scaled,
were still higher. That neither hills, nor a citadel, nor even the sea
itself, had formed an impediment to their arms. That the heights
which the enemy had occupied would only have the effect of making it
necessary for them to leap down crags and precipices in their flight,
but he would even cut off that kind of retreat. He accordingly gave
orders to two cohorts, that one of them should occupy the entrance of
the valley down which the river ran, and that the other should block
up the road which led from the city into the country, over the side
of the hill. He himself led the light troops, which the day before
had driven in the advanced guard of the enemy, against the light-armed
troops which were stationed on the lower ridge. At first they marched
through rugged ground, impeded by nothing except the road; afterwards,
when they came within reach of the darts, an immense quantity of
weapons of every description was showered upon them; while on their
part, not only the soldiers, but a multitude of servants mingled with
the troops, threw stones furnished by the place, which were spread
about in every part, and for the most part convenient as missiles. But
though the ascent was difficult, and they were almost overwhelmed with
stones and darts, yet from their practice in approaching walls and
their inflexibility of mind, the foremost succeeded in getting up.
These, as soon as they got upon some level ground and could stand with
firm footing, compelled the enemy, who were light-armed troops adapted
for skirmishing, and could defend themselves at a distance, where an
elusive kind of fight is carried on by the discharge of missiles, but
yet wanted steadiness for a close action, to fly from their position;
and, killing a great many, drove them to the troops which stood above
them on the higher eminence. Upon this Seipio, having ordered the
victorious troops to mount up and attack the centre of the enemy,
divided the rest of his forces with Laelius; whom he directed to go
round the hill to the right till he could find a way of easier ascent,
while he himself, making a small circuit to the left, charged the
enemy in flank. In consequence of this their line was first thrown
into confusion, while they endeavoured to wheel round and face about
their ranks towards the shouts which resounded from every quarter
around them. During this confusion Laelius also came up, and while the
enemy were retreating, that they might not be exposed to wounds from
behind, their front line became disjoined, and a space was left
for the Roman centre to mount up; who, from the disadvantage of the
ground, never could have done so had their ranks stood unbroken with
the elephants stationed in front. While the troops of the enemy were
being slain on all sides, Scipio, who with his left wing had charged
the right of the enemy, was chiefly employed in attacking their naked
flank. And now there was not even room to fly; for parties of the
Roman troops had blocked up the roads on both sides, right and left,
and the gate of the camp was closed by the flight of the general and
principal officers; added to which was the fright of the elephants,
who, when in consternation, were as much feared by them as the enemy
were. There were, therefore, slain as many as eight thousand men.
19. Hasdrubal, having seized upon the treasure before he engaged, now
sent the elephants in advance, and collecting as many of the flying
troops as he could, directed his course along the river Tagus to
the Pyrenees. Scipio, having got possession of the enemy's camp, and
giving up all the booty to the soldiers, except the persons of free
condition, found, on counting the prisoners, ten thousand foot and two
thousand horse. Of these, all who were Spaniards he sent home without
ransom; the Africans he ordered the quaestor to sell. After this, a
multitude of Spaniards, consisting of those who had surrendered to
him before and those whom he had captured the preceding day, crowding
around, one and all saluted him as king; when Scipio, after the
herald had obtained silence, declared that "in his estimation the most
honourable title was that of general, which his soldiers had conferred
upon him. That the name of king, which was in other countries revered,
could not be endured at Rome. That they might tacitly consider his
spirit as kingly, if they thought that the highest excellence which
could be attributed to the human mind, but that they must abstain from
the use of the term." Even barbarians were sensible of the greatness
of mind which could from such an elevation despise a name, at the
greatness of which the rest of mankind were overawed. Presents
were then distributed to the petty princes and leading men of
the Spaniards, and out of the great quantity of horses which were
captured, he desired Indibilis to select those he liked best to the
number of three hundred. While the quaestor was selling the Africans,
according to the command of the general, he found among them a
full-grown youth remarkably handsome; and hearing that he was of royal
blood, he sent him to Scipio. On being asked by Scipio "who he was,
of what country, and why at that age he was in the camp?" he replied,
"that he was a Numidian, that his countrymen called him Massiva; that
being left an orphan by his father, he was educated by his maternal
grandfather, Gala, the king of the Numidians. That he had passed over
into Spain with his uncle Masinissa, who had lately come with a body
of cavalry to assist the Carthaginians. That having been prohibited by
Masinissa on account of his youth, he had never before been in battle.
That the day on which the battle took place with the Romans, he had
clandestinely taken a horse and arms, and, without the knowledge of
his uncle, gone out into the field, where his horse falling forward,
he was thrown headlong, and taken prisoner by the Romans." Scipio,
having ordered that the Numidian should be taken care of, completed
the business which remained to be done on the tribunal, and returning
to his pavilion, asked him, when he had been called to him, whether he
wished to return to Masinissa? Upon his replying, with tears of joy,
that he did indeed desire it, he presented the youth with a gold ring,
a vest with a broad purple border, a Spanish cloak with a gold clasp,
and a horse completely caparisoned, and then dismissed him, ordering a
party of horse to escort him as far as he chose.
20. A council was then held respecting the war; when some advised that
he should endeavour to overtake Hasdrubal forthwith. But thinking that
hazardous, lest Mago and the other Hasdrubal should unite their forces
with his, he sent a body of troops to occupy the pass of the Pyrenees,
and employed the remainder of the summer in receiving the states of
Spain into his alliance. A few days after the battle of Baecula, when
Scipio on his return to Tarraco had now cleared the pass of Castulo,
the generals, Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, and Mago came from the farther
Spain and joined Hasdrubal; a late assistance after the defeat he had
sustained, though their arrival was somewhat seasonable, for counsel
with respect to the further prosecution of the war. They then
consulted together as to what was the feeling of the Spaniards in the
quarters where their several provinces were situated, when Hasdrubal,
son of Gisgo, alone gave it as his opinion, that the remotest tract of
Spain which borders on the ocean and Gades, was, as yet, unacquainted
with the Romans, and might therefore be somewhat friendly to the
Carthaginians. Between the other Hasdrubal and Mago it was agreed,
that "Scipio by his good offices had gained the affections of all,
both publicly and privately; and that there would be no end of
desertions till all the Spanish soldiers were removed to the remotest
parts of Spain, or were marched over into Gaul. That, therefore,
though the Carthaginian senate had not decreed it, Hasdrubal must,
nevertheless, march into Italy, the principal seat and object of the
war; and thus at the same time lead away all the Spanish soldiers out
of Spain far from the name of Scipio. That the army, which had been
diminished by desertions and defeats, should be recruited by Spanish
soldiers. That Mago, having delivered over his army to Hasdrubal, son
of Gisgo, should himself pass over to the Baleares with a large sum of
money to hire auxiliaries; that Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, should
retire with the army into the remotest part of Lusitania, and avoid an
encounter with the Romans. That a body of three thousand horse should
be made up for Masinissa, the flower of the whole cavalry; and that
he, shifting about from place to place throughout hither Spain should
succour their allies and commit depredations on the towns and lands
of their enemies." Having adopted these resolutions, the generals
departed to put in execution what they had resolved on. Such were the
transactions in Spain of this year. At Rome the reputation of Scipio
increased daily. The capture of Tarentum, though effected by artifice
more than valour, was considered honourable to Fabius. The fame of
Fulvius was on the wane. Marcellus was even under an ill report, not
only because he had failed in his first battle, but further, because
while Hannibal was going wherever he pleased throughout Italy, he had
led his troops to Venusia in the midst of summer to lodge in houses.
Caius Publicius Bibulus, a tribune of the people, was hostile to him.
This man, ever since the time of his first battle which had failed,
had in constant harangues made Claudius obnoxious and odious to the
people; and now his object was to deprive him of his command. The
connexions of Marcellus, however, then obtained leave that Marcellus,
leaving a lieutenant-general at Venusia, should return to Rome to
clear himself of the charges which his enemies were urging, and that
the question of depriving him of his command should not be agitated
during his absence. It happened that nearly at the same time,
Marcellus, and Quintius Fulvius the consul, came to Rome, the former
to exonerate himself from ignominy, the latter on account of the
elections.
21. The question touching Marcellus's command was debated in the
Flaminian circus, in the presence of an immense concourse of plebeians
and persons of every rank. The plebeian tribune accused, not only
Marcellus, but the nobility generally. "It was owing," he said, "to
their dishonesty and dilatory conduct, that Hannibal occupied Italy,
as though it were his province, for now ten years; that he had passed
more of his life there than at Carthage. That the Roman people were
enjoying the fruits of the prolonged command of Marcellus; that his
army, after having been twice defeated, was now spending the summer
at Venusia lodged in houses." Marcellus so completely destroyed the
effect of this harangue of the tribune, by the recital of the services
he had rendered, that not only the bill for depriving him of his
command was thrown out, but the following day he was created consul
by the votes of all the centuries with wonderful unanimity. Titus
Quinctius Crispinus, who was then praetor, was joined with him as his
colleague. The next day Publius Licinius Crassus Dives, then chief
pontiff, Publius Licinius Varus, Sextus Julius Caesar, and Quintus
Claudius Flamen were created praetors. At the very time of the
election, the public were thrown into a state of anxiety relative to
the defection of Etruria. Caius Calpurnius, who held that province as
propraetor, had written word that the Arretians had originated such
a scheme. Accordingly Marcellus, consul elect, was immediately sent
thither to look into the affair, and if it should appear to him of
sufficient consequence, to send for his army and transfer the war from
Apulia to Etruria. The Tuscans, checked by the alarm thus occasioned,
desisted. To the ambassadors of Tarentum, who solicited a treaty of
peace securing to them their liberty and the enjoyment of their own
laws, the senate answered, that they might return when the consul
Fabius came to Rome. The Roman and plebeian games were this year
repeated each for one day. The curule aediles were, Lucius Cornelius
Caudinus and Servius Sulpicius Galba; the plebeian aediles, Caius
Servilius and Quintus Caecilius Metellus. It was asserted that
Servilius was not qualified to be plebeian tribune or aedile, because
it was satisfactorily established that his father, who, for ten years,
was supposed to have been killed by the Boii in the neighbourhood of
Mutina, when acting as triumvir for the distribution of lands, was
alive and in the hands of the enemy.
22. In the eleventh year of the Punic war, Marcus Marcellus, for the
fifth time, reckoning in the consulate in which he did not act in
consequence of an informality in his creation, and Titus Quinctius
Crispinus entered upon the office of consuls. To both the consuls the
province of Italy was decreed, with both the consular armies of the
former year; (the third was then at Venusia, being that which Marcus
Marcellus had commanded.) That out of the three armies the consuls
might, choose whichever two they liked, and that the third should
be delivered to him to whose lot the province of Tarentum and the
territory of Sallentum fell. The other provinces were thus distributed
among the praetors: Publius Licinius Varus had the city jurisdiction,
Publius Licinius Crassus, chief pontiff, the foreign, and wherever
the senate though proper. Sextus Julius Caesar had Sicily, and Quintus
Claudius Flamen, Tarentum. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus was to continue
in command for a year, and hold the province of Capua, which had been
held by Titus Quinctius, with one legion. Caius Hostilius Tubulus
was also continued in command, with orders to go into Etruria, in the
capacity of propraetor, and succeed Caius Calpurnius in the command
of the two legions there. Lucius Veturius Philo was also continued in
command, to hold in the capacity of propraetor the same province of
Gaul with the same two legions with which he had held it as praetor.
The senate decreed the same with respect to Caius Aurunculeius, who,
as praetor, had held the province of Sardinia with two legions,
which it did in the case of Lucius Veturius, and the question of the
continuation of his command was proposed to the people. He had in
addition, for the protection of the province, fifty ships which
Publius Scipio had sent from Spain. To Publius Scipio and Marcus
Silanus, their present province of Spain and their present armies were
assigned. Of the eighty ships which he had with him, some taken from
Italy and others captured at Carthage, Scipio was ordered to send
fifty to Sardinia, in consequence of a report that great naval
preparations were making at Carthage that year; and that the intention
of the Carthaginians was to blockade the whole coasts of Italy,
Sicily, and Sardinia with two hundred ships. In Sicily also the
following distribution was made: to Sextus Caesar the troops of Cannae
were assigned; Marcus Valerius Laevinus, who was also continued in
command, was to have the fleet of seventy ships which was at Sicily,
adding to it the thirty ships which the preceding year were stationed
at Tarentum. With this fleet of a hundred ships he was ordered to pass
over into Africa, if he thought proper, and collect booty. Publius
Sulpicius was also continued in command for a year, to hold the
province of Macedonia and Greece, with the same fleet. No alteration
was made with regard to the two legions which were at Rome. Permission
was given to the consuls to enlist as many troops as were necessary
to complete the numbers. This year the Roman empire was defended by
twenty-one legions. Publius Licinius Varus, the city praetor, was also
commissioned to repair the thirty old men of war which lay at Ostia,
and to man twenty new ones with full complements, in order that he
might defend the sea-coast in the neighbourhood hood of Rome with a
fleet of fifty ships. Caius Calpurnius was ordered not to move his
army from Arretium till his successor had arrived. Both he and Tubulus
were ordered to be particularly careful, lest any new plots should be
formed in that quarter.
23. The praetors set out for their provinces. The consul were detained
by religious affairs; for receiving intelligence of several prodigies,
they could not easily obtain a favourable appearance from the victims.
It was reported from Campania, that two temples, those of Fortune
and Mars, and several sepulchres, had been struck by lightning. From
Cumae, so does superstition connect the deities with the most trifling
circumstances, that mice had gnawed some gold in the temple of
Jupiter. That an immense swarm of bees had settled in the forum at
Casinum. That at Ostia a wall and gate had been struck by lightning.
At Caere, that a vulture had flown into the temple of Jupiter.
That blood had flowed from a lake at Volsinii. On account of these
prodigies, a supplication was performed for one day. For several days,
victims of the larger kind were sacrificed without any favourable
appearance, and for a long time the good will of the gods could not be
obtained. The fatal event indicated by these portents pointed to the
persons of the consuls, the state being unaffected. The Apollinarian
games were first celebrated by Publius Cornelius Sulla, the city
praetor, in the consulate of Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius; from
that time all the city praetors in succession had performed them;
but they vowed them for one year only, and fixed no day for their
performance. This year a grievous pestilence attacked the city and the
country; it showed itself, however, in protracted rather than fatal
diseases. On account of this pestilence supplication was performed in
every street throughout the city; and Publius Licinius Varus, the city
praetor, was ordered to propose to the people a law to the effect,
that a vow should be made to perform these games on a stated day for
ever. He himself was the first who vowed them in this manner, and he
celebrated them on the third day of the nones of July, a day which was
henceforth kept sacred.
24. The reports respecting the people of Arretium became daily more
serious, and the anxiety of the fathers increased. A letter was
therefore written to Caius Hostilius, directing him not to delay
taking hostages from that people; and Caius Terentius Varro was sent,
with a command, to receive from him the hostages and convey them to
Rome. On his arrival, Hostilius immediately ordered one legion, which
was encamped before the city, to march into it; and having posted
guards in suitable places, he summoned the senate into the forum and
demanded hostages of them. On the senate's requesting a delay of two
days to consider the matter, he declared that they must themselves
give them forthwith, or he would the next day take all the children of
the senators. After this the military tribunes, the praefects of the
allies, and the centurions, were ordered to keep watch at the gates,
that no one might go out by night. This duty was not performed with
sufficient care and attention, for seven of the principal senators,
with their children, escaped before night, and before the guards were
posted at the gates. The next day, as soon as it was light, the senate
began to be summoned into the forum, when they were missed and their
goods were sold. From the rest of the senators one hundred and twenty
hostages, consisting of their own children, were taken and delivered
over to Caius Terentius to be conveyed to Rome. Before the senate he
made every thing more suspected than before. Considering, therefore,
that there was imminent danger of a commotion in Tuscany, they ordered
Caius Terentius himself to lead one of the city legions to Arretium,
and to employ it for the protection of the city. It was also resolved,
that Caius Hostilius, with the other army, should traverse the whole
province, and use precautions, that no opportunity might be afforded
to those who were desirous of altering the state of things. On his
arrival at Arretium with the legion, Terentius asked the magistrates
for the keys of the gates, when they declared they could not be found;
but he, believing that they had been put out of the way with some bad
intention rather than lost through negligence, took upon himself to
have fresh locks put upon all the gates, and used diligent care to
keep every thing in his own power. He earnestly cautioned Hostilius
to rest his hope in this; that the Tuscans would remain quiet, if he
should take care that not a step could be taken.
25. The case of the Tarentines was then warmly debated in the senate,
Fabius being present, and himself defending those whom he had subdued
by force of arms, while others entertained an angry feeling towards
them; the greater part comparing them with the Campanians in guilt
and punishment. A decree of the senate was passed conformably to
the opinion of Manius Acilius, that the town should be guarded by
a garrison, and that all the Tarentines should be kept within their
walls; and further, that the question touching their conduct should be
hereafter laid before the senate afresh when the state of Italy should
be more tranquil. The case of Marcus Livius, praefect of the citadel
of Tarentum, was also debated with no less warmth; some proposing a
vote of censure against the praefect on the ground that Tarentum was
betrayed to the enemy through his negligence, others proposing rewards
for having defended the citadel for five years, and because Tarentum
had been recovered chiefly by his single efforts; while some, adopting
an intermediate course, declared that it appertained to the censors,
and not to the senate, to take cognizance of his case; and of this
latter opinion was Fabius, who added, however, "that he admitted that
the recovery of Tarentum was owing to the efforts of Livius, as his
friends openly boasted in the senate, but that there would have been
no necessity for its recovery, had it not been lost." One of the
consuls, Titus Quinctius Crispinus, set out for Lucania, with some
troops to make up the numbers, to take the command of the army which
had served under Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. Marcellus was detained by
a succession of religious scruples, which presented themselves to his
mind. One of which was, that when in the Gallic war at Clastidium he
had vowed a temple to Honour and Valour, its dedication was impeded
by the pontiffs, who said, that one shrine could not with propriety
be dedicated to two deities; because if it should be struck with
lightning or any kind of portent should happen in it, the expiation
would be attended with difficulty as it could not be ascertained
to which deity sacrifice ought to be made; nor could one victim
be lawfully offered to two deities, unless in particular cases.
Accordingly another temple to Virtue was erected with all speed.
Nevertheless, these temples were not dedicated by Marcellus himself.
Then at length he set out, with the troops raised to fill up the
numbers, to the army he had left the preceding year at Venusia.
Crispinus, who endeavoured to reduce Locri in Bruttium by a siege,
because he considered that the affair of Tarentum had added greatly to
the fame of Fabius, had sent for every kind of engine and machine from
Sicily; he also sent for ships from the same place to attack that part
of the city which lay towards the sea. But this siege was raised by
Hannibal's bringing his forces to Lacinium, and in consequence of a
report, that his colleague, with whom he wished to effect a junction,
had now led his army from Venusia. He therefore returned from Bruttium
into Apulia, and the consuls took up a position in two separate camps,
distant from each other less than three miles, between Venusia and
Bantia. Hannibal, after diverting the war from Locri, returned also
into the same quarter. Here the consuls, who were both of sanguine
temperament, almost daily went out and drew up their troops for
action, confidently hoping, that if the enemy would hazard an
engagement with two consular armies united, they might put an end to
the war.
26. As Hannibal, who gained one and lost the other of the two battles
which he fought the preceding year with Marcellus, would have equal
grounds for hope and fear, should he encounter the same general
again; so was he far from thinking himself a match for the two consuls
together. Directing his attention, therefore, wholly to his own
peculiar arts, he looked out for an opportunity for planting an
ambuscade. Slight battles, however, were fought between the two camps
with varying success. But the consuls, thinking it probable that the
summer would be spun out in engagements of this kind, and being of
opinion that the siege of Locri might be going on notwithstanding,
wrote to Lucius Cincius to pass over to Locri with his fleet from
Sicily. And that the walls might be besieged by land also, they
ordered one half of the army, which formed the garrison of Tarentum,
to be marched thither. Hannibal having found from certain Thurians
that these things would be done, sent a body of troops to lie in
ambush on the road leading from Tarentum. There, under the hill of
Petelia, three thousand cavalry and two thousand foot were placed in
concealment. The Romans, who proceeded without exploring their way,
having fallen into the ambuscade, as many as two thousand soldiers
were slain, and about twelve hundred made prisoners. The others, who
were scattered in flight through the fields and forests, returned to
Tarentum. There was a rising ground covered with wood situated between
the Punic and Roman camps, which was occupied at first by neither
party, because the Romans were unacquainted with its nature on that
side which faced the enemy's camp, while Hannibal had supposed it
better adapted for an ambuscade than a camp. Accordingly, he had sent
thither, by night, several troops of Numidians, concealing them in the
midst of the wood. Not one of them stirred from his position by day,
lest their arms or themselves should be observed from a distance.
There was a general murmur in the Roman camp, that this eminence ought
to be occupied and secured by a fort, lest if it should be seized
by Hannibal they should have the enemy, as it were, immediately over
their heads. Marcellus was moved by this consideration, and observed
to his colleague, "Why not go ourselves with a few horsemen and
reconnoitre? The matter being examined with our own eyes, will make
our measures more certain." Crispinus consenting, they set out with
two hundred and twenty horsemen, of which forty were Fregellans, the
rest Tuscans. Marcus Marcellus, the consul's son, and Aulus Manlius,
military tribunes, together with two prefects of the allies, Lucius
Arennius and Manius Aulius, accompanied them. Some historians have
recorded, that Marcellus had offered sacrifices on that day, and that
in the first victim slain, the liver was found without its head; in
the second, that all the usual parts were present, and that there was
also an excrescence in the head. That the aruspex was not, indeed,
pleased that the entrails should first have appeared mutilated and
foul, and then too exuberant.
27. But the consul Marcellus was influenced by so ardent a desire
of engaging with Hannibal, that he never thought their camps close
enough. At that time also, as he quitted the rampart, he gave orders
that the troops should be ready when occasion required, in order
that if the hill, which they were going to examine, were thought
convenient, they might collect their baggage and follow them. Before
the camp there was a small plain; the road thence to the hill was open
and exposed to view on all sides. A watchman who was stationed, not
under the expectation of so important an event, but in order that they
might be able to intercept any stragglers who had gone too far from
the camp in search of wood or forage, gave a signal to the Numidians
to rise simultaneously one and all from their concealment. Those who
were to rise from the very summit of the hill, and meet the enemy,
did not show themselves until those whose business it was to intercept
their passage in the rear, had gone round. Then they all sprang up
from every side, and, raising a shout, commenced an attack. Although
the consuls were in such a position in the valley that they could
neither make good their way up the hill, which was occupied by the
enemy, nor retreat as they were intercepted in the rear, yet the
contest might have been continued longer had not a retreat, commenced
by the Tuscans, dismayed the rest of the troops. The Fregellans,
however, did not give over fighting, though deserted by the Tuscans,
while the consuls, uninjured, kept up the battle by encouraging
their men and fighting themselves. But when they saw both the consuls
wounded, and Marcellus transfixed with a lance and falling lifeless
from his horse, then they too, and but a very few survived, betook
themselves to flight, together with Crispinus the consul, who had
received two javelin wounds, and young Marcellus, who was himself also
wounded. Aulus Manlius, a military tribune, was slain, and of the two
praefects of allies, Manius Aulius was slain, Lucius Arennius made
prisoner. Five of the consul's lictors fell into the enemy's hands
alive, the rest were either slain or fled with the consul. Forty-three
horsemen fell in the battle or in the flight, and eighteen were taken
alive. An alarm had been excited in the camp, and the troops were
hastening to go and succour the consuls, when they saw one of the
consuls and the son of the other wounded, and the scanty remains
of this unfortunate expedition returning to the camp. The death
of Marcellus was an event to be deplored, as well from other
circumstances which attended it, as because that in a manner
unbecoming his years, for he was then more than sixty, and
inconsistently with the prudence of a veteran general, he had so
improvidently plunged into ruin himself, his colleague, and almost the
whole commonwealth. I should launch out into too many digressions
for a single event, were I to relate all the various accounts which
authors give respecting the death of Marcellus. To pass over others,
Lucius Caelius gives three narratives ranged under different heads;
one as it is handed down by tradition; a second, written in the
panegyric of his son, who was engaged in the affair; a third, which
he himself vouched for, being the result of his own investigation. The
accounts, however, though varying in other points, agree for the most
part in the fact, that he went out of the camp for the purpose of
viewing the ground; and all state that he was cut off by an ambuscade.
28. Hannibal, concluding that the enemy were greatly dismayed by one
of their consuls being slain and the other wounded, that he might
not be wanting on any opportunity presenting itself, immediately
transferred his camp to the eminence on which the battle had been
fought. Here he found the body of Marcellus, and interred it.
Crispinus, disheartened by the death of his colleague and his own
wound, set out during the silence of the following night, and encamped
upon the nearest mountains he could reach, in a position elevated and
secured on all sides. Here the two generals exerted their sagacity,
the one in effecting, the other in guarding against, a deception.
Hannibal got possession of the ring of Marcellus, together with his
body. Crispinus, fearing lest any artifice should be practised by the
Carthaginian's employing this signet as the means of deception, had
sent round messengers to the neighbouring states, informing them, that
"his colleague had been slain, and that the enemy were in possession
of his seal, and that they must not give credit to any letters written
in the name of Marcellus." This message of the consul arrived at
Salapia a little before a letter was brought from Hannibal, written in
the name of Marcellus, to the effect, that "he should come to Salapia
on the night which followed that day; that the soldiers in the
garrison should hold themselves in readiness, in case he might want
to employ them on any service." The Salapians were aware of the fraud,
and concluding that an opportunity for punishing them was sought by
Hannibal, from resentment, not only on account of their defection,
but also because they slew his horsemen, sent his messenger, who was a
deserter from the Romans, back again, in order that the soldiers might
do what was thought necessary, without his being privy to it, and then
placed the townsmen in parties to keep guard along the walls, and in
convenient parts of the city. The guards and watches they formed with
extraordinary care for that night, and on each side of the gate at
which they supposed the enemy would come, they opposed to them the
choicest of the troops in the garrison. About the fourth watch,
Hannibal approached the city. His vanguard was composed of Roman
deserters, with Roman arms. These, all of whom spoke the Latin
language, when they reached the gate, called up the guards, and
ordered the gate to be opened, for the consul had arrived. The guards,
as if awakened at their call, began to be in a hurry and bustle, and
exert themselves in opening the gate, which was closed by letting down
the portcullis; some raised this with levers, others drew it up with
ropes to such a height that the men could come in without stooping.
The opening was scarcely wide enough, when the deserters eagerly
rushed through the gate, and after about six hundred had got in, the
rope being let go by which it was suspended, the portcullis fell with
a loud noise. Some of the Salapians fell upon the deserters, who were
carrying their arms carelessly suspended upon their shoulders, as is
customary after a march, as if among friends; others frightened away
the enemy by discharging stones, pikes, and javelins from the tower
adjoining the gate and from the walls. Thus Hannibal withdrew, having
been caught by his own stratagem, and proceeded to raise the siege of
Locri, which Cincius was carrying on with the greatest vigour, with
works and engines of every kind, which were brought from Sicily. Mago,
who by that time almost despaired of retaining and defending the
town, derived his first gleam of hope on the death of Marcellus being
reported. This was followed by a message, that Hannibal had despatched
his Numidian cavalry in advance, and was himself following them with
all possible speed with a body of infantry. As soon, therefore, as he
was informed, by a signal displayed from the watch-towers, that
the Numidians were drawing near, suddenly throwing open the gate he
sallied out boldly upon the enemy, and at first, more because he
had done it unexpectedly than from the equality of his strength, the
contest was doubtful; but afterwards, when the Numidians came up, the
Romans were so dismayed that they fled on all hands to the sea and
their ships, leaving their works and the engines with which they
battered the walls. Thus the siege of Locri was raised by the approach
of Hannibal.
29. When Crispinus found that Hannibal had gone into Bruttium, he
ordered Marcus Marcellus, a military tribune, to march the army, which
his colleague had commanded, to Venusia. Having set out himself with
his own legions for Capua, though scarcely able to endure the motion
of the litter, from the severity of his wounds, he sent a letter to
Rome stating the death of his colleague, and in how great danger he
himself was. He said, "it was impossible for him to go to Rome to hold
the election, both because he did not think he could bear the fatigue
of the journey, and because he was anxious about Tarentum, lest
Hannibal should direct his course thither from Bruttium. That it
was expedient that commissioners should be sent to him, men of sound
judgment, with whom he might communicate, when he pleased, respecting
the commonwealth." The reading of this letter excited great grief for
the death of one of the consuls, and apprehension for the safety of
the other. They therefore sent Quintus Fabius the younger to Venusia
to the army; and to the consul three commissioners, Sextus Julius
Caesar, Lucius Licinius Pollio, and Lucius Cincius Alimentus, though
but a few days before he had returned from Sicily. These were directed
to convey a message to the consul, to the effect, that if he could not
himself go to Rome to hold the election, he should nominate a dictator
within the Roman territory for that purpose. If the consul should have
gone to Tarentum, that it was the pleasure of the senate that Marcus
Claudius, the praetor, should march off his legions to that quarter
in which he could protect the greatest number of the cities of the
allies. The same summer Marcus Valerius crossed over from Sicily into
Africa with a fleet of a hundred ships, and making a descent near the
city Clupea, devastated the country to a wide extent, scarcely meeting
with a single person in arms. Afterwards the troops employed in making
these depredations were hastily led back to their ships, and a report
had suddenly reached them that a Carthaginian fleet was drawing near.
It consisted of eighty-three ships. With these the Romans fought
successfully, not far from the city Clupea, and after taking eighteen
and putting the rest to flight, returned to Lilybaeum with a great
deal of booty gained both by land and sea. The same summer also Philip
gave assistance to the suppliant Achaeans. They were harassed
by Machanidas, tyrant of the Lacedaemonians, with a war in their
immediate neighbourhood; and the Aetolians, having passed over an army
in ships through the strait which runs between Naupactus and Patrae,
called by the neighbouring people Rhion, had devastated their country.
It was reported also, that Attalus, king of Asia, would pass over into
Europe, because the Aetolians, in their last council, had offered to
him the office of chief magistrate of their nation.
30. Philip, when marching down into Greece, for these reasons, was met
at the city Lamia by the Aetolians, under the command of Pyrrhias,
who had been created praetor that year jointly with Attalus, who was
absent. They had with them also auxiliaries from Attalus, and about a
thousand men sent from the Roman fleet by Publius Sulpicius. Against
this general and these forces, Philip fought twice successfully, and
slew full a thousand of his enemies in each battle. Whence, as the
Aetolians were compelled by fear to keep themselves under the walls of
Lamia, Philip led back his army to Phalara. This place is situated in
the Malian bay, and was formerly thickly inhabited on account of its
excellent harbour, the safe anchorage in its neighbourhood, and other
conveniences of sea and land. Hither came ambassadors from Ptolemy,
king of Egypt, the Rhodians, Athenians, and Chians, to put a stop
to hostilities between the Aetolians and Philip. The Aetolians also
called in one of their neighbours as a mediator, Amynander, king of
the Athamanians. But all these were less concerned for the Aetolians,
whose arrogance of disposition exceeded that of any other nation of
Greece, than lest Philip and his empire, which was likely to prove
injurious to the cause of liberty, should be intermixed with the
affairs of Greece. The deliberations concerning a peace were put off,
to a council of the Achaeans, for which a place and certain day were
fixed upon; for the mean time a truce of thirty days was obtained. The
king, setting out thence, went through Thessaly and Boeotia to Chalcis
in Euboea, to prevent Attalus, who he heard was about to come to
Euboea with a fleet, from entering the harbours and approaching the
coasts. Leaving a force to oppose Attalus, in case he should cross
over in the mean time, he set out thence with a small body of cavalry
and light-armed troops, and came to Argos. Here the superintendence
of the Heraean and Nemaean games having been conferred upon him by the
suffrages of the people, because the kings of the Macedonians trace
their origin from that state, after completing the Heraean games, he
set out directly after the celebration for Aegium, to the council
of allies, fixed some time before. Here measures were proposed for
putting an end to the Aetolian war, in order that neither the Romans
nor Attalus might have a pretext for entering Greece; but they
were all upset by the Aetolians, before the period of the truce had
scarcely expired, after they heard that Attalus had arrived at Aegina,
and that a Roman fleet was stationed at Naupactus. For when called
into the council of the Achaeans, where the same embassies were
present which had negotiated for peace at Phalara, they at first
complained of some trifling acts committed during the period of the
truce, contrary to the faith of the convention; but at last they
asserted, that it was impossible the war could be terminated unless
the Achaeans gave back Pylus to the Messenians, unless Atintania was
restored to the Romans, and Ardyaea to Scerdilaedus and Pleuratus.
But Philip, conceiving it an indignity that the vanquished should
presumptuously dictate terms to him the victor, said, "that he did not
before either listen to proposals for peace, or agree to a truce, from
any hope he entertained that the Aetolians would remain quiet, but
in order that he might have all the allies as witnesses that he was
desirous of peace, and that they were the occasion of this war." Thus,
without effecting a peace, he dismissed the council; and leaving four
thousand troops for the protection of the Achaeans, and receiving five
men of war, with which, if he could have joined them to the fleet of
the Carthaginians lately sent to him, and the ships which were coming
from Bithynia, from king Prusias, he had resolved to challenge the
Romans, who had long been masters of the sea in that quarter, to a
naval battle, the king himself went back from the congress to Argos;
for now the time for celebrating the Nemaean games was approaching,
which he wished to be celebrated in his presence.
31. While the king was occupied with the exhibition of the games, and
was indulging himself during the days devoted to festivity with more
freedom than in time of war, Publius Sulpicius, setting out from
Naupactus, brought his fleet to the shore, between Sicyon and Corinth,
and devastated without restraint a country of the most renowned
fertility. Intelligence of this proceeding called Philip away from the
games. He set out hastily with his cavalry, ordering his infantry to
follow him closely; and attacking the Romans as they were scattered
through the fields and loaded with booty, like men who feared nothing
of the kind, drove them to their ships. The Roman fleet returned to
Naupactus by no means pleased with their booty. The fame of a victory
gained by Philip over the Romans, of whatever magnitude, increased
the celebrity of the remaining part of the games. The festival was
celebrated with extraordinary mirth, the more so as the king, in order
to please the people, took the diadem off his head, and laid aside
his purple robe with the other royal apparel, and placed himself, with
regard to appearance, on an equality with the rest, than which nothing
is more gratifying to free states. By this conduct he would have
afforded the strongest hopes of the enjoyment of liberty, had he not
debased and marred all by his intolerable lust; for he ranged
night and day through the houses of married people with one or two
companions, and in proportion as he was less conspicuous by lowering
his dignity to a private level, the less restraint he felt; thus
converting that empty show of liberty, which he had made to others,
into a cover for the gratification of his own unbounded desires. For
neither did he obtain his object in all cases by money or seductive
arts, but he also employed violence in the accomplishment of his
flagitious purposes; and it was dangerous both to husbands and parents
to have presented any impediment to the gratification of royal lust,
by an unseasonable strictness. From one man, Aratus, of the highest
rank among the Achaeans, his wife, named Polycratia, was taken away
and conveyed into Macedonia under the hope of a matrimonial connexion
with royalty. After passing the time appointed for the celebration
of the Nemaean games, and a few days more, in the commission of these
profligate acts, he set out for Dymae to expel the garrison of the
Aetolians, which had been invited by the Eleans, and received into the
town. Cycliadas, who had the chief direction of affairs, met the king
at Dymae, together with the Achaeans, who were inflamed with hatred
against the Eleans, because they had disunited themselves from the
rest of the Achaeans, and were incensed against the Aetolians, because
they considered that they had stirred up a Roman war against them.
Setting out from Dymae, and uniting their forces, they passed the
river Larissus, which separates the Elean from the Dymaean territory.
32. The first day on which they entered upon the enemy's confines,
they employed in plundering. The following day they approached the
city in battle-array, having sent their cavalry in advance, in order
that, by riding up to the gates, they might provoke the Aetolians to
make a sally, a measure to which they were naturally inclined. They
were not aware that Sulpicius had passed over from Naupactus to
Cyllene with fifteen ships, and landing four thousand armed men, had
entered Elis during the dead of night, that his troops might not be
seen. Accordingly, when they recognised the Roman standards and arms
among the Aetolians, so unexpected an event occasioned the greatest
terror; and at first the king had wished to withdraw his troops; but
afterwards, an engagement having taken place between the Aetolians and
Trallians, a tribe of Illyrians, when he saw his men hard pressed, the
king himself with his cavalry charged a Roman cohort. Here his horse
being pierced with a javelin threw the king, who fell over his head;
when a conflict ensued, which was desperate on both sides; the Romans
making a furious attack upon the king, and the royal party protecting
him. His own conduct was highly meritorious, when though on foot he
was obliged to fight among horsemen. Afterwards, when the contest
was unequal, many were falling and being wounded around him, he was
snatched away by his soldiers, and, being placed upon another horse,
fled from the field. On that day he pitched his camp five miles from
the city of the Eleans, and the next day led out all his forces to a
fort called Pyrgus, whither he had heard that a multitude of rustics
had resorted through fear of being plundered. This unorganized and
unarmed multitude he took immediately on his approach, from the first
effects of alarm; and by this capture compensated for the disgrace
sustained at Elis. While engaged in distributing the spoil and
captives, and there were four thousand men and as many as twenty
thousand head of cattle of every kind, intelligence reached him
from Macedonia that one Eropus had gained possession of Lychnidus by
bribing the praefect of the citadel and garrison; that he held also
certain towns of the Dassaretians, and that he was endeavouring
to incite the Dardanians to arms. Desisting from the Achaean war,
therefore, but still leaving two thousand five hundred armed troops of
every description under the generals Menippus and Polyphantas for the
protection of his allies, he set out from Dymae, and passing through
Achaea, Boeotia, and Euboea, arrived on the tenth day at Demetrias in
Thessaly.
33. Here he was met by other messengers with intelligence of still
greater commotions; that the Dardanians, having poured into Macedonia,
were in possession of Orestis, and had descended into the Argestaean
plain; and that there was a general report among the barbarians that
Philip was slain. In that expedition in which he fought with the
plundering party near Sicyon, being carried by the fury of his horse
against a tree, he broke off the extremity of one of the horns of his
helmet against a projecting branch; which being found by a certain
Aetolian and carried into Aetolia to Scerdilaedus, who knew it to
be the ornament of his helmet, spread the report that the king was
killed. After the king had departed from Achaea, Sulpicius, going to
Aegina with his fleet, formed a junction with Attalus. The Achaeans
fought successfully with the Aetolians and Eleans not far from
Messene. King Attalus and Publius Sulpicius wintered at Aegina. In the
close of this year Titus Quinctius Crispinus, the consul, after having
nominated Titus Manlius Torquatus dictator for the purpose of holding
the election and celebrating the games, died of his wound. Some say
that he died at Tarentum, others in Campania. The death of the two
consuls, who were slain without having fought any memorable battle, a
coincidence which had never occurred in any former war, had left the
commonwealth in a manner orphan. The dictator, Manlius, appointed as
his master of the horse Caius Servilius, then curule aedile. On the
first day of its meeting the senate ordered the dictator to celebrate
the great games which Marcus Aemilius, the city praetor, had
celebrated in the consulship of Caius Flaminius and Cneius Servilius,
and had vowed to be repeated after five years. The dictator then both
performed the games and vowed them for the following lustrum. But as
the two consular armies without commanders were so near the enemy,
disregarding every thing else, one especial care engrossed the fathers
and the people, that of creating the consuls as soon as possible; and
that they might create those in preference whose valour was least in
danger from Carthaginian treachery; since, through the whole period
of the war, the precipitate and hot tempers of their generals had been
detrimental, and this very year the consuls had fallen into a snare
for which they were not prepared, in consequence of their excessive
eagerness to engage the enemy, but the immortal gods, in pity to the
Roman name, had spared the unoffending armies, and doomed the consuls
to expiate their temerity with their own lives.
34. On the fathers' looking round to see whom they should appoint as
consuls, Caius Claudius Nero appeared pre-eminently. They then looked
out for a colleague for him, and although they considered him a man of
the highest talents, they also were of opinion that he was of a more
forward and vehement disposition than the circumstances of the war, or
the enemy, Hannibal, required, they resolved that it would be right to
qualify the impetuosity of his temper by uniting with him a cool and
prudent colleague. The person fixed upon was Marcus Livius, who, many
years ago, was, on the expiration of his consulship, condemned in a
trial before the people; a disgrace which he took so much to heart,
that he retired into the country, and for many years absented himself
from the city, and avoided all public assemblies. Much about the
eighth year after his condemnation, Marcus Claudius Marcellus and
Marcus Valerius Laevinus, the consuls, had brought him back into the
city; but he appeared in a squalid dress, his hair and beard allowed
to grow, and exhibiting in his countenance and attire the deep
impression of the disgrace he had sustained. Lucius Veturius and
Publius Licinius, the censors, compelled him to have his beard and
hair trimmed, to lay aside his squalid garb, to come into the senate,
and discharge other public duties. But even then he either gave his
assent by a single word, or signified his vote by walking to one side
of the house, till the trial of Marcus Livius Macatus, a kinsman
of his, whose character was at stake, obliged him to deliver his
sentiments in the senate upon his legs. On being heard in the senate
on this occasion, after so long an interval, he drew the eyes of all
upon him, and gave occasion to conversations to the following effect:
"That the people had injuriously disgraced a man who was undeserving
of it and that it had been greatly detrimental to the state that,
in so important a war, it had not had the benefit of the service
and counsels of such a man. That neither Quintus Fabius nor Marcus
Valerius Laevinus could be given to Caius Nero as colleagues, because
it was not allowed for two patricians to be elected. That the
same cause precluded Titus Manlius, besides that he had refused a
consulship when offered to him, and would refuse it. That they would
have two most distinguished consuls if they should add Marcus Livius
as a colleague to Caius Claudius." Nor did the people despise a
proposal, the mention of which originated with the fathers. The only
person in the state who objected to the measure was the man to whom
the honour was offered, who accused his countrymen of inconstancy,
saying, "that, having withheld their pity from him when arrayed in a
mourning garment and a criminal, they now forced upon him the white
gown against his will; that honours and punishments were heaped upon
the same person. If they esteemed him a good man, why had they thus
passed a sentence of condemnation upon him as a wicked and guilty one?
If they had proved him a guilty man, why should they thus trust him
with a second consulate after having improperly committed to him the
first?" While thus remonstrating and complaining, the fathers rebuked
him, putting him in mind, that "Marcus Furius too, being recalled from
exile, had reinstated his country when shaken from her very base.
That we ought to soothe the anger of our country as we would that of
parents, by patience and resignation." All exerting themselves to the
utmost, they succeeded in uniting Marcus Livius in the consulate with
Caius Claudius.
35. The third day afterwards the election of praetors was held. The
praetors created were, Lucius Porcius Licinus, Caius Mamilius, Aulus
Hostilius Cato, and Caius Hostilius Cato. The election completed, and
the games celebrated, the dictator and master of the horse abdicated
their offices. Caius Terentius Varro was sent as propraetor into
Etruria, in order that Caius Hostilius might quit that province and
go to Tarentum to that army which Titus Quinctius, the consul, had
commanded, and that Lucius Manlius might go as ambassador across the
sea, and observe what was going on there; and at the same time, as
the games at Olympia, which were attended by the greatest concourse
of persons of any solemnity in Greece, were about to take place that
summer, that if he could without danger from the enemy, he might go to
that assembly, in order that any Sicilians who might be there, having
been driven away by the war, or any Tarentine citizens banished by
Hannibal, might return to their homes, and be informed that the Roman
people would restore to them every thing which they had possessed
before the war. As a year of the most dangerous character seemed to
threaten them, and there were no consuls to direct the government, all
men fixed their attention on the consuls elect, wishing them to
draw lots for their provinces, as soon as possible, and determine
beforehand what province and what enemy each should have. The senate
also took measures, at the instance of Quintus Fabius Maximus, to
effect a reconciliation between them. For the enmity between them was
notorious; and in the case of Livius his misfortunes rendered it more
inveterate and acrimonious, as he considered that in that situation
he had been treated with contempt. He was, therefore, the more
inexorable, and said, "that there was no need of a reconciliation, for
that they would use greater diligence and activity in every thing they
did for fear lest they should give their colleague, who was an enemy,
an opportunity of advancing himself at their expense." However, the
authority of the senate prevailed; and, laying aside their private
differences, they conducted the affairs of the state in friendship
and unanimity. Their provinces were not districts bordering upon
each other, as in former years, but quite separate, in the remotest
confines of Italy. To one was decreed Bruttium and Lucania, to act
against Hannibal; to the other Gaul, to act against Hasdrubal, who, it
was reported, was now approaching the Alps; and that he to whose lot
Gaul fell should choose whichever he pleased of the two armies, one of
which was in Gaul, the other in Etruria, and receive the city legions
in addition; and that he to whose lot Bruttium fell, should, after
enlisting fresh legions for the city, take the army of whichever
of the consuls of the former year he pleased. That Quintus Fulvius,
proconsul, should take the army which was left by the consul, and that
his command should last for a year. To Caius Hostilius, to whom they
had given the province of Tarentum in exchange for Etruria, they gave
Capua instead of Tarentum, with one legion which Fulvius had commanded
the preceding year.
36. The anxiety respecting the approach of Hasdrubal to Italy
increased daily. At first, ambassadors from the Massilians had brought
word that he had passed over into Gaul and that the expectations
of the Gauls were raised by his coming, as he was reported to
have brought a large quantity of gold for the purpose of hiring
auxiliaries. Afterwards, Sextus Antistius and Marcus Raecius, who were
sent from Rome, together with these persons, as ambassadors, to look
into the affair, had brought word back that they had sent persons
with Massilian guides, who, through the medium of Gallic chieftains
connected with them by hospitality, might bring back all ascertained
particulars; that they found that Hasdrubal, who had already collected
an immense army, would cross the Alps the ensuing spring; and that the
only cause which delayed him there was, that the passage of the
Alps was closed by winter. Publius Aelius Paetus was created and
inaugurated in the office of augur in the room of Marcus Marcellus and
Cneius Cornelius Dolabella was inaugurated king of the sacred rites in
the room of Marcus Marcius, who had died two years before. This same
year, for the first time since Hannibal came into Italy, the lustrum
was closed by the censors Publius Sempronius Tuditanus and Marcus
Cornelius Cethegus. The citizens numbered in the census were one
hundred and thirty-seven thousand one hundred and eight, a number
considerably smaller than before the war. This year it is recorded
that the Comitium was covered, and that the Roman games were repeated
once by the curule aediles, Quintus Metellus and Caius Servilius; and
that the plebeian games were repeated twice by Quintus Mamilius and
Marcus Caecilius Metellus, plebeian aediles. The same persons also
gave three statues for the temple of Ceres, and there was a feast in
honour of Jupiter on occasion of the games. After this Caius Claudius
Nero and Marcus Livius a second time entered upon their consulate;
and as they had already, while consuls elect, drawn lots for their
provinces, they ordered the praetors to draw lots for theirs. Caius
Hostilius had the city jurisdiction, to which the foreign was added,
in order that three praetors might go out to the provinces. Aulus
Hostilius had Sardinia, Caius Mamilius, Sicily, Lucius Porcius,
Gaul. The total amount of legions employed in the provinces was
twenty-three, which were so distributed that the consuls might have
two each; Spain, four; the three praetors in Sicily, Sardinia, and
Gaul, two each; Caius Terentius, two in Etruria; Quintus Fulvius, two
in Bruttium; Quintus Claudius two in the neighbourhood of Tarentum and
the territory of Sallentum; Caius Hostilius Tubulus, one at Capua;
and two were ordered to be enlisted for the city. For the first four
legions the people elected tribunes, the consuls sent those for the
rest.
37. Before the consuls set out, the nine days' sacred rite was
performed, as a shower of stones had fallen from the sky at Veii.
After the mention of one prodigy, others also were reported, as usual.
At Minturnae, that the temple of Jupiter and the grove of Marica, and
at Atella also that a wall and gate, had been struck by lightning.
The people of Minturnae added what was more alarming, that a stream of
blood had flowed at their gate. At Capua, a wolf, which had entered at
the gate by night, had torn a watchman. These prodigies were expiated
with victims of the larger kind, and a supplication for one day was
made, according to a decree of the pontiffs. The nine days' sacred
rite was then performed again, because a shower of stones had been
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