Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] Iam uer appetebat; itaque Hannibal ex hibernis mouit, et nequiquam ante conatus transcendere Appenninum intolerandis frigoribus et cum ingenti periculo moratus ac metu. Galli, quos praedae populationumque conciuerat spes, postquam pro eo ut ipsi ex alieno agro raperent agerentque, suas terras sedem belli esse premique utriusque partis exercituum hibernis uidere, uerterunt retro in Hannibalem ab Romanis odia; petitusque saepe principum insidiis, ipsorum inter se fraude, eadem leuitate qua consenserant consensum indicantium, seruatus erat et mutando nunc uestem nunc tegumenta capitis errore etiam sese ab insidiis munierat. Ceterum hic quoque ei timor causa fuit maturius mouendi ex hibernis.

[1] Now spring was approaching; therefore Hannibal moved out from winter quarters, and, having previously attempted in vain to cross the Apennine, he had been delayed by intolerable cold and, with immense peril, by alarm. The Gauls, whom the hope of booty and of ravagings had stirred up, when they saw that, instead of themselves snatching and driving off from another’s fields, their own lands were the seat of war and were being pressed by the winter quarters of the armies of both sides, turned back upon Hannibal the hatreds they had held against the Romans; and he, often targeted by the plots of the chieftains, was saved by their mutual fraud—those who, with the same levity with which they had agreed, disclosed the compact—and, by changing now his clothing, now the covering of his head, had even by causing error fortified himself against ambushes. However, this fear too was a cause for him to move earlier from winter quarters.

Per idem tempus Cn. Seruilius consul Romae idibus Martiis magistratum iniit. Ibi cum de re publica rettulisset, redintegrata in C. Flaminium inuidia est: duos se consules creasse, unum habere; quod enim illi iustum imperium, quod auspicium esse? Magistratus id a domo, publicis priuatisque penatibus, Latinis feriis actis, sacrificio in monte perfecto, uotis rite in Capitolio nuncupatis, secum ferre; nec priuatum auspicia sequi nec sine auspiciis profectum in externo ea solo noua atque integra concipere posse.

At the same time Gnaeus Servilius, consul, at Rome on the Ides of March entered upon his magistracy. There, when he had brought up a motion about the commonwealth, the ill will against Gaius Flaminius was renewed: that they had created two consuls, but had one; for what rightful imperium had he, what auspice? A magistrate carries that from home, from the public and private Penates, the Latin holy days having been celebrated, the sacrifice on the Mount completed, the vows duly pronounced on the Capitol; nor can a private man follow the auspices, nor one who has set out without auspices take them anew and intact on foreign soil.

Augebant metum prodigia ex pluribus simul locis nuntiata: in Sicilia militibus aliquot spicula, in Sardinia autem in muro circumeunti uigilias equiti scipionem quem manu tenuerit arsisse et litora crebris ignibus fulsisse et scuta duo sanguine sudasse, et milites quosdam ictos fulminibus et solis orbem minui uisum, et Praeneste ardentes lapides caelo cecidisse, et Arpis parmas in caelo uisas pugnantemque cum luna solem, et Capenae duas interdiu lunas ortas, et aquas Caeretes sanguine mixtas fluxisse fontemque ipsum Herculis cruentis manasse respersum maculis, et in Antiati metentibus cruentas in corbem spicas cecidisse, et Faleriis caelum findi uelut magno hiatu uisum quaque patuerit ingens lumen effulsisse; sortes sua sponte attenuatas unamque excidisse ita scriptam: "Mauors telum suum concutit", et per idem tempus Romae signum Martis Appia uia ac simulacra luporum sudasse, et Capuae speciem caeli ardentis fuisse lunaeque inter imbrem cadentis. Inde minoribus etiam dictu prodigiis fides habita: capras lanatas quibusdam factas, et gallinam in marem, gallum in feminam sese uertisse. His, sicut erant nuntiata, expositis auctoribusque in curiam introductis consul de religione patres consuluit.

They augmented the fear, prodigies announced from several places at once: in Sicily the javelins of some soldiers, in Sardinia, moreover, as a cavalryman was making the rounds of the watches along the wall, the staff which he held in his hand caught fire, and the shores flashed with frequent fires, and two shields sweated blood, and certain soldiers were struck by lightning, and the orb of the sun seemed to be diminished; at Praeneste burning stones fell from the sky; at Arpi shields were seen in the sky, and the sun fighting with the moon; and at Capena two moons rose in full day; and at Caere the waters flowed mixed with blood, and the very spring of Hercules ran, spattered with bloody spots; and at Antium, while men were reaping, bloody ears of grain fell into the basket; and at Falerii the sky seemed to be split as by a great chasm, and wherever it gaped a vast light flashed forth. The lots were attenuated of their own accord, and one fell out inscribed thus: “Mavors shakes his spear”; and at the same time at Rome, by the Appian Way, the statue of Mars and the images of wolves sweated, and at Capua there was the appearance of a burning sky and of the moon falling amid a shower. Then credence was given even to prodigies smaller to tell: that to some their goats became woolly, and that a hen turned into a male, a cock into a female. With these, just as they had been reported, set forth, and the authors brought into the Curia, the consul consulted the Fathers on the matter of religion.

Decretum ut ea prodigia partim maioribus hostiis, partim lactentibus procurarentur et uti supplicatio per triduum ad omnia puluinaria haberetur; cetera, cum decemuiri libros inspexissent, ut ita fierent quemadmodum cordi esse [di sibi] diuinis carminibus praefarentur. Decemuirorum monitu decretum est Ioui primum donum fulmen aureum pondo quinquaginta fieret, Iunoni Mineruaeque ex argento dona darentur et Iunoni reginae in Auentino Iunonique Sospitae Lanuui maioribus hostiis sacrificaretur, matronaeque pecunia conlata quantum conferre cuique commodum esset donum Iunoni reginae in Auentinum ferrent lectisterniumque fieret, et ut libertinae et ipsae unde Feroniae donum daretur pecuniam pro facultatibus suis conferrent. Haec ubi facta, decemuiri Ardeae in foro maioribus hostiis sacrificarunt.

It was decreed that these prodigies be expiated partly with greater victims, partly with suckling ones, and that a supplication be held for three days at all the pulvinaries; as for the rest, when the decemvirs had inspected the books, that they be so done as in the divine songs they prefaced that it was pleasing [to the gods themselves] to their heart. On the monition of the decemvirs it was decreed that the first gift to Jupiter should be a golden thunderbolt, weighing fifty pounds; that gifts out of silver be given to Juno and Minerva; and that sacrifice with greater victims be offered to Juno the Queen on the Aventine and to Juno Sospita at Lanuvium; and that the matrons, a contribution of money having been made, each contributing as much as was convenient for her, should carry a gift to Juno the Queen on the Aventine, and that a lectisternium be made; and that the freedwomen also should contribute money according to their means, whence a gift might be given to Feronia. When these things had been done, the decemvirs at Ardea in the forum sacrificed with greater victims.

Postremo Decembri iam mense ad aedem Saturni Romae immolatum est, lectisterniumque imperatum—et eum lectum senatores strauerunt—et conuiuium publicum, ac per urbem Saturnalia diem ac noctem clamata, populusque eum diem festum habere ac seruare in perpetuum iussus.

Finally, with the month of December now arrived, a sacrifice was offered at the temple of Saturn at Rome, and a lectisternium was ordered—and the senators themselves spread that couch—and a public banquet; and throughout the city the Saturnalia was proclaimed day and night, and the people were commanded to hold and observe that day as a feast-day in perpetuity.

[2] Dum consul placandis Romae dis habendoque dilectu dat operam, Hannibal profectus ex hibernis, quia iam Flaminium consulem Arretium peruenisse fama erat, cum aliud longius, ceterum commodius ostenderetur iter, propiorem uiam per paludes petit, qua fluuius Arnus per eos dies solito magis inundauerat. Hispanos et Afros—id omne ueterani erat robur exercitus—admixtis ipsorum impedimentis necubi consistere coactis necessaria ad usus deessent, primos ire iussit; sequi Gallos, ut id agminis medium esset; nouissimos ire equites; Magonem inde cum expeditis Numidis cogere agmen, maxime Gallos, si taedio laboris longaeque uiae—ut est mollis ad talia gens—dilaberentur aut subsisterent, cohibentem. primi, qua modo praeirent duces, per praealtas fluuii ac profundas uoragines, hausti paene limo immergentesque se, tamen signa sequebantur.

[2] While the consul was giving attention at Rome to placating the gods and to holding a levy, Hannibal set out from his winter quarters; because the report was that the consul Flaminius had already reached Arretium, although another route, longer but otherwise more commodious, was pointed out, he sought the nearer way through the marshes, where the river Arno during those days had inundated more than usual. He ordered the Spaniards and Africans—the whole veteran strength of the army—to go first, with their own baggage mixed among them, lest, if they were forced to halt anywhere, the things necessary for use should be lacking; the Gauls to follow, so that this would be the middle of the column; the cavalry to go as the rearmost; and that Mago then, with light-armed Numidians, should drive the column, restraining especially the Gauls, if from weariness of toil and the long road—as the nation is soft for such things—they should scatter or stop. The first ranks, wherever the guides just then led the way, through the very deep parts of the river and deep sinkholes, almost swallowed by slime and plunging themselves in, nevertheless were following the standards.

Galli neque sustinere se prolapsi neque adsurgere ex uoraginibus poterant, neque aut corpora animis aut animos spe sustinebant, alii fessa aegre trahentes membra, alii, ubi semel uictis taedio animis procubuissent, inter iumenta et ipsa iacentia passim morientes; maximeque omnium uigiliae conficiebant per quadriduum iam et tres noctes toleratae. Cum omnia obtinentibus aquis nihil ubi in sicco fessa sternerent corpora inueniri posset, cumulatis in aqua sarcinis insuper incumbebant, [aut] Iumentorum itinere toto prostratorum passim acerui tantum quod exstaret aqua quaerentibus ad quietem parui temporis necessarium cubile dabant. Ipse Hannibal aeger oculis ex uerna primum intemperie uariante calores frigoraque, elephanto, qui unus superfuerat, quo altius ab aqua exstaret, uectus, uigiliis tamen et nocturno umore palustrique caelo grauante caput et quia medendi nec locus nec tempus erat altero oculo capitur.

The Gauls, once they had slipped, could neither keep themselves up nor rise from the bogs, nor did either their bodies sustain their spirits or their spirits sustain them by hope: some, dragging their weary limbs with difficulty; others, when once their spirits, conquered by weariness, had sunk down, dying here and there among the beasts of burden likewise lying. And most of all the vigils were wearing them out, now endured for four days and three nights. Since, with the waters occupying everything, nothing could be found on dry ground where they might lay their tired bodies, with packs heaped up in the water they would lean upon them on top; [or] heaps of draft animals, prostrate everywhere along the whole line of march, in so far as they stood out above the water, gave to those seeking rest a couch necessary for a little time. Hannibal himself, sick in his eyes from the springtime intemperance alternating heats and colds, was carried on the elephant—the one survivor—so that he might stand out higher above the water; yet, with the vigils and the nocturnal damp and the marshy sky weighing upon his head, and because there was neither place nor time for treating it, he is blinded in one eye.

[3] Multis hominibus iumentisque foede amissis cum tandem e paludibus emersisset, ubi primum in sicco potuit, castra locat, certumque per praemissos exploratores habuit exercitum Romanum circa Arreti moenia esse. Consulis deinde consilia atque animum et situm regionum itineraque et copias ad commeatus expediendos et cetera quae cognosse in rem erat summa omnia cum cura inquirendo exsequebatur. Regio erat in primis Italiae fertilis, Etrusci campi, qui Faesulas inter Arretiumque iacent, frumenti ac pecoris et omnium copia rerum opulenti; consul ferox ab consulatu priore et non modo legum aut patrum maiestatis sed ne deorum quidem satis metuens; hanc insitam ingenio eius temeritatem fortuna prospero ciuilibus bellicisque rebus successu aluerat.

[3] With many men and draught-animals foully lost, when at last he had emerged from the marshes, where first he could on dry ground he pitches camp, and through scouts sent ahead he had it as certain that the Roman army was around the walls of Arretium. Then he was prosecuting, by inquiring with the utmost care, the consul’s plans and spirit, and the siting of the regions and the routes, and the resources for expediting the supply, and the rest of the things which it was to the purpose to have known. The region was especially one of Italy’s most fertile, the Etruscan plains, which lie between Faesulae and Arretium, rich with abundance of grain and livestock and of all things; the consul, ferocious from his former consulship, was not sufficiently fearing the majesty not only of the laws or of the Fathers but not even of the gods; this temerity inborn in his nature fortune had fostered by prosperous success in civil and military affairs.

Itaque satis apparebat nec deos nec homines consulentem ferociter omnia ac praepropere acturum; quoque pronior esset in uitia sua, agitare eum atque inritare Poenus parat, et laeua relicto hoste Faesulas praeteriens medio Etruriae agro praedatum profectus, quantam maximam uastitatem potest caedibus incendiisque consuli procul ostendit. Flaminius, qui ne quieto quidem hoste ipse quieturus erat, tum uero, postquam res sociorum ante oculos prope suos ferri agique uidit, suum id dedecus ratus per mediam iam Italiam uagari Poenum atque obsistente nullo ad ipsa Romana moenia ire oppugnanda, ceteris omnibus in consilio salutaria magis quam speciosa suadentibus: collegam exspectandum, ut coniunctis exercitibus communi animo consilioque rem gererent, interim equitatu auxiliisque leuium armorum ab effusa praedandi licentia hostem cohibendum,—iratus se ex consilio proripuit, signumque simul itineris pugnaeque cum [iussisset pronuntiari] "immo Arreti ante moenia sedeamus" inquit, "hic enim patria et penates sunt. Hannibal emissus e manibus perpopuletur Italiam uastandoque et urendo omnia ad Romana moenia perueniat, nec ante nos hinc mouerimus quam, sicut olim Camillum ab Veiis, C. Flaminium ab Arretio patres acciuerint". Haec simul increpans cum ocius signa conuelli iuberet et ipse in equum insiluisset, equus repente corruit consulemque lapsum super caput effudit.

Accordingly it was quite apparent that, consulting neither gods nor men, he would do everything fiercely and overhastily; and the Carthaginian, that he might be the more prone to his own vices, prepares to goad and provoke him, and, leaving the enemy on his left and passing by Faesulae, he set out to plunder in the very midst of the Etrurian countryside, and showed to the consul from afar, by slaughters and burnings, the greatest devastation he could. Flaminius—who would not himself keep quiet even with the enemy quiet—then indeed, after he saw the goods of the allies being driven and carried off almost before his very eyes, thinking it his own disgrace that the Carthaginian was now roaming through the middle of Italy and, with no one opposing, was going to the very Roman walls to attack them, while all the rest in council were advising things more salutary than showy—to await his colleague, so that, the armies having been joined, they might conduct the affair with common spirit and counsel, and meanwhile to restrain the enemy from the unbridled license of plundering by the cavalry and light-armed auxiliaries—angry, he burst out of the council, and when at the same time he had ordered the signal for the march and for battle to be announced [he had ordered it to be proclaimed], “Nay, let us sit before the walls of Arretium,” he says; “for here are our fatherland and Penates. Let Hannibal, let loose from our hands, utterly ravage Italy, and by wasting and burning everything come to the Roman walls; nor shall we move from here before the Fathers have summoned Gaius Flaminius from Arretium, just as once they summoned Camillus from Veii.” While flinging out these rebukes, when he was ordering the standards to be pulled up more quickly and had himself leapt upon his horse, the horse suddenly fell and threw the consul, slipping, over its head.

Territis omnibus qui circa erant uelut foedo omine incipiendae rei, insuper nuntiatur signum omni ui moliente signifero conuelli nequire. Conuersus ad nuntium "num litteras quoque" inquit "ab senatu adfers quae me rem gerere uetant? Abi, nuntia, effodiant signum, si ad conuellendum manus prae metu obtorpuerit". Incedere inde agmen coepit primoribus, superquam quod dissenserant ab consilio, territis etiam duplici prodigio, milite in uolgus laeto ferocia ducis, cum spem magis ipsam quam causam spei intueretur.

With all who were around terrified as if by a foul omen for the undertaking to be begun, moreover it is reported that the standard could not be wrenched up, though the standard-bearer was exerting all his force. Turning to the messenger he said, "Are you also bringing letters from the senate which forbid me to conduct the affair? Begone, announce that they should dig out the standard, if for the pulling up the hands have gone numb from fear." Thereupon the column began to advance, the leading men, besides the fact that they had dissented from the counsel, being also terrified by the double prodigy, while the soldiery at large was glad at the ferocity of the leader, since it regarded the hope itself more than the cause of the hope.

[4] Hannibal quod agri est inter Cortonam urbem Trasumennumque lacum omni clade belli peruastat, quo magis iram hosti ad uindicandas sociorum iniurias acuat; et iam peruenerant ad loca nata insidiis, ubi maxime montes Cortonenses in Trasumennum sidunt. Via tantum interest perangusta, uelut ad [id] Ipsum de industria relicto spatio; deinde paulo latior patescit campus; inde colles adsurgunt. Ibi castra in aperto locat, ubi ipse cum Afris modo Hispanisque consideret; Baliares ceteramque leuem armaturam post montes circumducit; equites ad ipsas fauces saltus tumulis apte tegentibus locat, ut, ubi intrassent Romani, obiecto equitatu clausa omnia lacu ac montibus essent.

[4] Hannibal devastates with every calamity of war whatever land lies between the city of Cortona and Lake Trasimene, in order the more to sharpen the enemy’s wrath for avenging the injuries done to the allies; and already they had come to places born for ambushes, where most of all the Cortonan mountains sink down into Lake Trasimene. Only a road intervenes, very narrow, as if with space left for [that] very thing on purpose; then a plain opens out a little wider; from there hills rise. There he pitches camp in the open, where he himself took up position with the Africans and the Spaniards only; the Balearics and the rest of the light-armed he leads around behind the mountains; he stations the cavalry at the very jaws of the pass, the knolls suitably covering them, so that, when the Romans had entered, with the cavalry thrown in their way, everything would be shut in by the lake and the mountains.

Flaminius cum pridie solis occasu ad lacum peruenisset, inexplorato postero die uixdum satis certa luce angustiis superatis, postquam in patentiorem campum pandi agmen coepit, id tantum hostium quod ex aduerso erat conspexit: ab tergo ac super caput deceptae insidiae. Poenus ubi, id quod petierat, clausum lacu ac montibus et circumfusum suis copiis habuit hostem, signum omnibus dat simul inuadendi. Qui ubi, qua cuique proximum fuit, decucurrerunt, eo magis Romanis subita atque improuisa res fuit, quod orta ex lacu nebula campo quam montibus densior sederat agminaque hostium ex pluribus collibus ipsa inter se satis conspecta eoque magis pariter decucurrerant.

Flaminius, when on the previous day at sunset he had arrived at the lake, on the following day, without reconnaissance and with scarcely sufficiently certain light, after the narrows were overcome and the column began to spread out into the more open plain, saw only so many of the enemy as were opposite him: from the rear and over his head lay the ambush that had deceived them. The Punic commander, when he had what he had sought—an enemy shut in by the lake and the mountains and enveloped by his own forces—gave the signal to all to invade at once. When they then ran down, each by whatever approach was nearest to him, the affair was all the more sudden and unforeseen for the Romans, because a mist arisen from the lake had settled thicker on the plain than on the hills, and the battle-lines of the enemy, from several hills, being themselves sufficiently conspicuous to one another, had therefore the more in concert run down.

Romanus clamore prius undique orto quam satis cerneret se circumuentum esse sensit, et ante in frontem lateraque pugnari coeptum est quam satis instrueretur acies aut expediri arma stringique gladii possent.

The Roman, with clamor arising on every side, sensed only too late that he was surrounded, and fighting had been begun in front and on the flanks before the battle-line could be properly arrayed or the arms made ready and the swords drawn.

[5] Consul perculsis omnibus ipse satis ut in re trepida impauidus, turbatos ordines, uertente se quoque ad dissonos clamores, instruit ut tempus locusque patitur, et quacumque adire audirique potest, adhortatur ac stare ac pugnare iubet: nec enim inde uotis aut imploratione deum sed ui ac uirtute euadendum esse; per medias acies ferro uiam fieri et quo timoris minus sit, eo minus ferme periculi esse. Ceterum prae strepitu ac tumultu nec consilium nec imperium accipi poterat, tantumque aberat ut sua signa atque ordines et locum noscerent, ut uix ad arma capienda aptandaque pugnae competeret animus, opprimerenturque quidam onerati magis iis quam tecti. Et erat in tanta caligine maior usus aurium quam oculorum.

[5] The consul, with all struck with panic, himself, as is enough in a troubled situation, undaunted, arrays the disordered ranks, turning himself also toward the discordant shouts, as time and place allow, and wherever he can approach and be heard, he exhorts and bids them to stand and fight: for from there they must escape not by vows or by imploration of the gods, but by force and by virtue; a way must be made with iron through the midst of the battle-lines, and the less there is of fear, generally the less there is of danger. But because of the noise and tumult neither counsel nor command could be received, and they were so far from recognizing their own standards and ranks and place, that scarcely did their spirit suffice for taking up arms and fitting them for the fight, and some were overwhelmed, burdened by them rather than covered. And in so great a darkness there was greater use of the ears than of the eyes.

Ad gemitus uolnerum ictusque corporum aut armorum et mixtos strepentium pauentiumque clamores circumferebant ora oculosque. Alii fugientes pugnantium globo inlati haerebant; alios redeuntes in pugnam auertebat fugientium agmen. Deinde, ubi in omnes partes nequiquam impetus capti et ab lateribus montes ac lacus, a fronte et ab tergo hostium acies claudebat apparuitque nullam nisi in dextera ferroque salutis spem esse, tum sibi quisque dux adhortatorque factus ad rem gerendam, et noua de integro exorta pugna est, non illa ordinata per principes hastatosque ac triarios nec ut pro signis antesignani, post signa alia pugnaret acies nec ut in sua legione miles aut cohorte aut manipulo esset; fors conglobat et animus suus cuique ante aut post pugnandi ordinem dabat tantusque fuit ardor animorum, adeo intentus pugnae animus, ut eum motum terrae qui multarum urbium Italiae magnas partes prostrauit auertitque cursu rapidos amnes, mare fluminibus inuexit, montes lapsu ingenti proruit, nemo pugnantium senserit.

At the groans of wounds and the blows of bodies or arms, and at the mixed shouts of those clamoring and those panicking, they were whirling their faces and eyes around. Some, fleeing, were carried into and stuck fast in the mass of those fighting; others returning into the fight were turned aside by the column of fugitives. Then, when assaults had been attempted in all directions in vain, and the mountains and the lake shut them in on the flanks, and the battle line of the enemy from the front and from the rear, and it appeared that there was no hope of safety except in the right hand and in iron, then each man made himself both leader and exhorter for the doing of the deed, and a new fight arose afresh, not that one ordered by principes, hastati, and triarii, nor such that the antesignani should fight before the standards and another battle line behind the standards, nor such that a soldier should be in his own legion or cohort or maniple; chance conglobated them, and each one’s spirit assigned him the order of fighting before or behind; and so great was the ardor of souls, so intent the mind on fighting, that that movement of the earth which prostrated great parts of many cities of Italy and diverted in their course rapid rivers, brought the sea into the river-beds, overthrew mountains with a vast landslip, none of the combatants perceived.

[6] Tres ferme horas pugnatum est et ubique atrociter; circa consulem tamen acrior infestiorque pugna est. Eum et robora uirorum sequebantur et ipse, quacumque in parte premi ac laborare senserat suos, impigre ferebat opem, insignemque armis et hostes summa ui petebant et tuebantur ciues, donec Insuber eques—Ducario nomen erat—facie quoque noscitans consulem, "[En]" inquit "hic est" popularibus suis, "qui legiones nostras cecidit agrosque et urbem est depopulatus; iam ego hanc uictimam manibus peremptorum foede ciuium dabo". Subditisque calcaribus equo per confertissimam hostium turbam impetum facit obtruncatoque prius armigero, qui se infesto uenienti obuiam obiecerat, consulem lancea transfixit; spoliare cupientem triarii obiectis scutis arcuere. Magnae partis fuga inde primum coepit; et iam nec lacus nec montes pauori obstabant; per omnia arta praeruptaque uelut caeci euadunt, armaque et uiri super alium alii praecipitantur.

[6] For almost three hours they fought, and everywhere atrociously; yet around the consul the fight was sharper and more hostile. Both the core-strengths of men followed him, and he himself, wherever he sensed his own being pressed and hard-beset, briskly brought aid; conspicuous in his arms, both the enemies with utmost force assailed him and his fellow citizens protected him, until an Insubrian horseman—his name was Ducarius—recognizing the consul by his face as well, “[En]” he says, “here he is” to his compatriots, “the one who has cut down our legions and has depopulated our fields and our city; now I will give this victim to the Manes of the citizens foully slain.” And setting spurs to his horse he makes a charge through the most crowded throng of the enemy, and, after first cutting down the armor-bearer, who had thrown himself in the way to meet him as he came on hostile, he transfixed the consul with his lance; when he desired to despoil him, the Triarii, with shields thrust forward, warded him off. From there the flight of a great part first began; and now neither the lake nor the mountains stood in the way of their panic; through all the narrow and precipitous places, as though blind, they make their escape, and both arms and men are hurled headlong, some upon others.

Pars magna, ubi locus fugae deest, per prima uada paludis in aquam progressi, quoad capitibus [umeris] exstare possunt, sese immergunt; fuere quos inconsultus pauor nando etiam capessere fugam impulerit; quae ubi immensa ac sine spe erat, aut deficientibus animis hauriebantur gurgitibus aut nequiquam fessi uada retro aegerrime repetebant atque ibi ab ingressis aquam hostium equitibus passim trucidabantur. Sex milia ferme primi agminis per aduersos hostes eruptione impigre facta, ignari omnium quae post se agerentur, ex saltu euasere et, cum in tumulo quodam constitissent, clamorem modo ac sonum armorum audientes, quae fortuna pugnae esset neque scire nec perspicere prae caligine poterant. Inclinata denique re, cum incalescente sole dispulsa nebula aperuisset diem, tum liquida iam luce montes campique perditas res stratamque ostendere foede Romanam aciem.

A great part, where there is no place for flight, having advanced through the foremost shallows of the marsh into the water, plunge themselves in until they can keep their heads [shoulders] above; there were some whom inconsiderate panic drove to undertake flight even by swimming; and when this was immense and without hope, either, as their spirits failed, they were swallowed by the whirlpools, or, weary to no purpose, they with the utmost difficulty were retracing the shallows back, and there they were everywhere slaughtered by the enemy cavalry who had entered the water. About 6,000 of the van, a sally having been made vigorously through opposing enemies, unaware of everything that was being done behind them, escaped from the defile; and, when they had taken position on a certain mound, hearing only the shouting and the sound of arms, what the fortune of the battle was they could neither know nor discern because of the fog. At last, with the affair turned, when, as the sun grew hot, the dispersed mist had opened the day, then, in clear light now, the hills and plains displayed the ruined situation and the Roman battle-line foully strewn.

Itaque ne in conspectos procul immitteretur eques, sublatis raptim signis quam citatissimo poterant agmine sese abripuerunt. Postero die cum super cetera extrema fames etiam instaret, fidem dante Maharbale, qui cum omnibus equestribus copiis nocte consecutus erat, si arma tradidissent, abire cum singulis uestimentis passurum, sese dediderunt; quae Punica religione seruata fides ab Hannibale est atque in uincula omnes coniecti.

Therefore, lest the cavalry be sent against them when they were sighted from afar, with the standards hastily taken up they whisked themselves away in the swiftest column they could. On the next day, when, over and above the rest, extreme hunger too was pressing, with Mahrabal—who had come up by night with all the cavalry forces—giving a pledge that, if they handed over their arms, he would allow them to depart each with a single garment, they surrendered; which pledge, kept in Punic fashion, was “kept” by Hannibal, and all were cast into bonds.

[7] Haec est nobilis ad Trasumennum pugna atque inter paucas memorata populi Romani clades. Quindecim milia Romanorum in acie caesa sunt; decem milia sparsa fuga per omnem Etruriam auersis itineribus urbem petiere; duo milia quingenti hostium in acie, multi postea [utrimque] ex uolneribus periere. Multiplex caedes utrimque facta traditur ab aliis; ego praeterquam quod nihil auctum ex uano uelim, quo nimis inclinant ferme scribentium animi, Fabium, aequalem temporibus huiusce belli, potissimum auctorem habui.

[7] This is the noble battle at Trasimene and, among the few, a remembered calamity of the Roman people. Fifteen thousand Romans were cut down in the battle-line; ten thousand, scattered in flight through all Etruria by reversed routes, sought the city; two thousand five hundred of the enemy in the line, many afterward [on both sides], perished from their wounds. A manifold slaughter on both sides is reported by others; I—besides that I would wish nothing to be increased from the void, to which the minds of writers too commonly incline—have had Fabius, a contemporary with the times of this war, as my chief authority.

Hannibal captiuorum qui Latini nominis essent sine pretio dimissis, Romanis in uincula datis, segregata ex hostium coaceruatorum cumulis corpora suorum cum sepeliri iussisset, Flamini quoque corpus funeris causa magna cum cura inquisitum non inuenit. Romae ad primum nuntium cladis eius cum ingenti terrore ac tumultu concursus in forum populi est factus. Matronae uagae per uias, quae repens clades allata quaeue fortuna exercitus esset, obuios percontantur; et cum frequentis contionis modo turba in comitium et curiam uersa magistratus uocaret, tandem haud multo ante solis occasum M. Pomponius praetor "pugna" inquit "magna uicti sumus". Et quamquam nihil certius ex eo auditum est, tamen alius ab alio impleti rumoribus domos referunt: consulem cum magna parte copiarum caesum; superesse paucos aut fuga passim per Etruriam sparsos aut captos ab hoste.

Hannibal, after dismissing without price the captives who were of Latin name and delivering the Romans into chains, when he had ordered that the bodies of his own, segregated from the heaps of the piled-up enemy, be buried, did not find Flaminius’s body either, though searched for with great care for the sake of burial. At Rome, at the first report of that disaster, with huge terror and tumult, a rush of the people into the Forum was made. Matrons, wandering through the streets, question those they meet what sudden disaster had been brought and what the fortune of the army was; and when, in the manner of a crowded assembly, the mob, turned toward the Comitium and the Curia, was calling for the magistrates, at length, not much before sunset, the praetor M. Pomponius said, “In a great battle we have been defeated.” And although nothing more certain was heard from him, nevertheless, filled with rumors, they carry home from one to another: that the consul had been slain with a great part of the forces; that a few survived, either scattered in flight here and there through Etruria or taken by the enemy.

Quot casus exercitus uicti fuerant, tot in curas distracti animi eorum erant quorum propinqui sub C. Flaminio consule meruerant, ignorantium quae cuiusque suorum fortuna esset; nec quisquam satis certum habet quid aut speret aut timeat. Postero ac deinceps aliquot diebus ad portas maior prope mulierum quam uirorum multitudo stetit, aut suorum aliquem aut nuntios de iis opperiens; circumfundebanturque obuiis sciscitantes neque auelli, utique ab notis, priusquam ordine omnia inquisissent, poterant. Inde uarios uoltus digredientium ab nuntiis cerneres, ut cuique laeta aut tristia nuntiabantur, gratulantesque aut consolantes redeuntibus domos circumfusos.

As many mishaps as had befallen the defeated army, into so many anxieties were the minds torn of those whose relatives had served under the consul Gaius Flaminius, not knowing what the fortune of each of their own was; nor did anyone have sufficiently certain what he should either hope or fear. On the next day and for several days thereafter, at the gates there stood a multitude almost greater of women than of men, awaiting either some one of their own or messengers about them; and they would surround those they met, inquiring, nor could they be torn away—especially from acquaintances—before they had examined everything in due order. Thence you might have seen the varied faces of those departing from the messengers, as joyful or sad news was announced to each, and crowds surrounding those returning home, offering congratulations or consolation.

Feminarum praecipue et gaudia insignia erant et luctus. Vnam in ipsa porta sospiti filio repente oblatam in complexu eius exspirasse ferunt; alteram, cui mors filii falso nuntiata erat, maestam sedentem domi, ad primum conspectum redeuntis filii gaudio nimio exanimatam. Senatum praetores per dies aliquot ab orto usque ad occidentem solem in curia retinent, consultantes quonam duce aut quibus copiis resisti uictoribus Poenis posset.

Especially among the women there were both notable joys and griefs. One, right at the gate itself, when her son, safe, had been suddenly presented to her, is said to have breathed her last in his embrace; another, to whom the death of her son had been falsely announced, sitting sorrowful at home, at the first sight of her son returning was struck senseless by excessive joy. The praetors keep the senate for several days from sunrise to sunset in the curia, taking counsel by what leader or with what forces resistance could be made to the victorious Carthaginians.

[8] Priusquam satis certa consilia essent, repens alia nuntiatur clades, quattuor milia equitum cum C. Centenio propraetore missa ad collegam ab Seruilio consule in Vmbria, quo post pugnam ad Trasumennum auditam auerterant iter, ab Hannibale circumuenta. Eius rei fama uarie homines adfecit. Pars occupatis maiore aegritudine animis leuem ex comparatione priorum ducere recentem equitum iacturam; pars non id quod acciderat per se aestimare sed, ut in adfecto corpore quamuis leuis causa magis quam [in] ualido grauior sentiretur, ita tum aegrae et adfectae ciuitati quodcumque aduersi inciderit, non rerum magnitudine sed uiribus extenuatis, quae nihil quod adgrauaret pati possent, aestimandum esse.

[8] Before sufficiently certain counsels were formed, another sudden calamity is announced: four thousand cavalry, sent with Gaius Centenius the propraetor to his colleague by the consul Servilius in Umbria—whither, after the battle at Trasimene was heard, they had diverted their route—were surrounded by Hannibal. The report of this matter affected men in various ways. Some, their minds preoccupied with a greater affliction, counted the recent loss of the horsemen as light by comparison with the earlier disasters; others did not assess what had happened by itself, but, as in an afflicted body even a slight cause is felt more grievously than in a sound one, so then, for a sick and stricken commonwealth, whatever adverse thing has fallen is to be judged not by the magnitude of the events but by the weakened forces, which could endure nothing that would aggravate them.

itaque ad remedium iam diu neque desideratum nec adhibitum, dictatorem dicendum, ciuitas confugit; et quia et consul aberat, a quo uno dici posse uidebatur, nec per occupatam armis Punicis Italiam facile erat aut nuntium aut litteras mitti [nec dictatorem populus creare poterat], quod nunquam ante eam diem factum erat, dictatorem populus creauit Q. Fabium Maximum et magistrum equitum M. Minucium Rufum; iisque negotium ab senatu datum, ut muros turresque urbis firmarent et praesidia disponerent, quibus locis uideretur, pontesque rescinderent fluminum: pro urbe dimicandum esse ac penatibus quando Italiam tueri nequissent.

and so the community fled for refuge to the remedy long neither desired nor applied—the naming of a dictator; and because the consul too was absent, by whom alone he seemed able to be declared, and it was not easy, through Italy occupied by Punic arms, to send either a messenger or letters [nor could the people create a dictator], a thing which had never before that day been done, the people created as dictator Q. Fabius Maximus and as master of the horse M. Minucius Rufus; and to them the task was given by the senate, that they should strengthen the walls and towers of the city and deploy garrisons in whatever places should seem best, and cut the bridges of the rivers: that there must be fighting on behalf of the city and the household gods, since they had been unable to protect Italy.

[9] Hannibal recto itinere per Vmbriam usque ad Spoletium uenit. Inde, cum perpopulato agro urbem oppugnare adortus esset, cum magna caede suorum repulsus, coniectans ex unius coloniae minus prospere temptatae uiribus quanta moles Romanae urbis esset, in agrum Picenum auertit iter, non copia solum omnis generis frugum abundantem sed refertum praeda, quam effuse auidi atque egentes rapiebant. Ibi per dies aliquot statiua habita refectusque miles hibernis itineribus ac palustri uia proelioque magis ad euentum secundo quam leui aut facili adfectus.

[9] Hannibal came by a straight route through Umbria as far as Spoletium. From there, after he had thoroughly ravaged the countryside and set about to assault the city, he was repulsed with great slaughter of his own; and, inferring from the forces of a single colony, tried less prosperously, how great a mass the Roman city must be, he turned his march into the Picene country, abounding not only in supply of every kind of grain but crammed with booty, which men, lavishly greedy and needy, were snatching. There, a stationary camp was kept for several days, and the soldiery was refreshed from the winter marches and the marshy road, and was affected by a battle successful rather in its outcome than light or easy.

Vbi satis quietis datum praeda ac populationibus magis quam otio aut requie gaudentibus, profectus Praetutianum Hadrianumque agrum, Marsos inde Marrucinosque et Paelignos deuastat circaque Arpos et Luceriam proximam Apuliae regionem. Cn. Seruilius consul leuibus proeliis cum Gallis factis et uno oppido ignobili expugnato, postquam de collegae exercitusque caede audiuit, iam moenibus patriae metuens ne abesset in discrimine extremo, ad urbem iter intendit. Q. Fabius Maximus dictator iterum quo die magistratum iniit uocato senatu, ab dis orsus, cum edocuisset patres plus neglegentia caerimoniarum quam temeritate atque inscitia peccatum a C. Flaminio consule esse quaeque piacula irae deum essent ipsos deos consulendos esse, peruicit ut, quod non ferme decernitur nisi cum taetra prodigia nuntiata sunt, decemuiri libros Sibyllinos adire iuberentur.

When enough rest had been given—though they rejoiced more in booty and ravagings than in idleness or repose—he set out into the Praetutian and Hadrian country; thence he devastates the Marsi and then the Marrucini and the Paeligni, and, around Arpi and Luceria, the region nearest of Apulia. Cn. Servilius the consul, after fighting light engagements with the Gauls and storming one inglorious town, when he heard of the slaughter of his colleague and his army, now fearing for the walls of the fatherland, lest he be absent at the extreme crisis, directed his march to the city. Q. Fabius Maximus, dictator for the second time, on the day he entered upon his magistracy, the senate having been called, beginning from the gods, when he had fully informed the fathers that the sin of C. Flaminius the consul lay more in negligence of ceremonies than in temerity and ignorance, and that whatever piacular rites for the gods’ wrath there were, the gods themselves must be consulted, prevailed that—what is scarcely decreed except when loathsome prodigies have been announced—the decemvirs be ordered to approach the Sibylline books.

Qui inspectis fatalibus libris rettulerunt patribus, quod eius belli causa uotum Marti foret, id non rite factum de integro atque amplius faciundum esse, et Ioui ludos magnos et aedes Veneri Erycinae ac Menti uouendas esse, et supplicationem lectisterniumque habendum, et uer sacrum uouendum si bellatum prospere esset resque publica in eodem quo ante bellum fuisset statu permansisset. Senatus, quoniam Fabium belli cura occupatura esset, M. Aemilium praetorem, ex collegii pontificum sententia omnia ea ut mature fiant, curare iubet.

They, after the Sibylline Books had been inspected, reported to the Fathers that, since a vow to Mars had been made for that war, it had not been duly performed and must be done afresh and on a larger scale; and that Great Games should be vowed to Jupiter, and temples to Venus Erycina and to Mens (Mind); and that a supplication and a lectisternium should be held; and that a sacred spring (ver sacrum) should be vowed, if the campaigning were successful and the commonwealth remained in the same condition in which it had been before the war. The Senate, since the care of the war would occupy Fabius, orders Marcus Aemilius the praetor, in accordance with the opinion of the college of pontiffs, to see that all these things are done promptly.

[10] His senatus consultis perfectis, L. Cornelius Lentulus pontifex maximus consulente collegium praetore omnium primum populum consulendum de uere sacro censet: iniussu populi uoueri non posse. Rogatus in haec uerba populus: "Velitis iubeatisne haec sic fieri? Si res publica populi Romani Quiritium ad quinquennium proximum, sicut uelim [uou]eamque, salua seruata erit hisce duellis, quod duellum populo Romano cum Carthaginiensi est quaeque duella cum Gallis sunt qui cis Alpes sunt, tum donum duit populus Romanus Quiritium quod uer attulerit ex suillo ouillo caprino bouillo grege quaeque profana erunt Ioui fieri, ex qua die senatus populusque iusserit.

[10] With these senatorial decrees completed, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, pontifex maximus, the praetor consulting the college, is of opinion that first of all the people must be consulted concerning the sacred spring (ver sacrum): that it cannot be vowed without the order of the people. The people were asked in these words: "Do you will and order that these things be thus done? If the commonwealth of the Roman people, the Quirites, for the next quinquennium (five-year period), just as I should wish and vow, shall be safe and preserved in these wars, the war which the Roman people has with the Carthaginian and whatever wars there are with the Gauls who are on this side of the Alps, then let the Roman people, the Quirites, give as a gift what the spring shall have brought forth from the swine, ovine, caprine, and bovine herd, whatever shall be profane, to be offered to Jupiter, from the day on which the senate and people shall have ordered."

Qui faciet, quando uolet quaque lege uolet facito; quo modo faxit probe factum esto. Si id moritur quod fieri oportebit, profanum esto, neque scelus esto. Si quis rumpet occidetue insciens, ne fraus esto.

Whoever shall perform it, let him do so when he wishes and by whatever law he wishes; in whatever way he shall do it, let it be deemed properly done. If that which ought to be offered dies, let it be profane, and let it not be a crime. If anyone breaks it or kills it unknowingly, let there be no fraud.

Si quis clepsit, ne populo scelus esto neue cui cleptum erit. Si atro die faxit insciens, probe factum esto. Si nocte siue luce, si seruus siue liber faxit, probe factum esto.

If anyone has stolen, let there be no crime to the People nor to the one from whom it shall have been stolen. If he should do it unknowingly on a black day, let it be properly done. Whether by night or by day, whether slave or free should do it, let it be properly done.

Si antidea senatus populusque iusserit fieri ac faxitur, eo populus solutus liber esto". Eiusdem rei causa ludi magni uoti aeris trecentis triginta tribus milibus, [trecentis triginta tribus] triente, praeterea bubus Ioui trecentis, multis aliis diuis bubus albis atque ceteris hostiis. Votis rite nuncupatis supplicatio edicta; supplicatumque iere cum coniugibus ac liberis non urbana multitudo tantum sed agrestium etiam, quos in aliqua sua fortuna publica quoque contingebat cura. Tum lectisternium per triduum habitum decemuiris sacrorum curantibus: sex puluinaria in conspectu fuerunt, Ioui ac Iunoni unum, alterum Neptuno ac Mineruae, tertium Marti ac Veneri, quartum Apollini ac Dianae, quintum Volcano ac Vestae, sextum Mercurio et Cereri.

"If earlier the senate and the people shall have ordered it to be done and it is carried out, by that the people shall be released and free." For the same cause the Great Games were vowed, to the sum in bronze of three hundred thirty-three thousand, [three hundred thirty-three] and a third; besides, three hundred oxen for Jupiter, and for many other gods white cattle and other victims. With the vows duly pronounced, a public supplication was proclaimed; and they went to supplicate with their wives and children, not the urban multitude only but countryfolk as well, those on whom, along with their own condition, a public concern also impinged. Then a lectisternium was held for three days, the decemvirs of the sacred rites supervising: six couches were set out in view—one for Jupiter and Juno, a second for Neptune and Minerva, a third for Mars and Venus, a fourth for Apollo and Diana, a fifth for Vulcan and Vesta, a sixth for Mercury and Ceres.

Tum aedes uotae. Veneri Erycinae aedem Q. Fabius Maximus dictator uouit, quia ita ex fatalibus libris editum erat ut is uoueret cuius maximum imperium in ciuitate esset; Menti aedem T. Otacilius praetor uouit.

Then temples were vowed. To Venus Erycina, the dictator Q. Fabius Maximus vowed a temple, because thus from the fateful books it had been issued that he should vow it who had the greatest imperium in the state; to Mens, the praetor T. Otacilius vowed a temple.

[11] Ita rebus diuinis peractis, tum de bello reque [de] publica dictator rettulit quibus quotue legionibus uictori hosti obuiam eundum esse patres censerent. Decretum ut ab Cn. Seruilio consule exercitum acciperet; scriberet praeterea ex ciuibus sociisque quantum equitum ac peditum uideretur; cetera omnia ageret faceretque ut e re publica duceret. Fabius duas legiones se adiecturum ad Seruilianum exercitum dixit.

[11] Thus, the divine rites having been completed, then the dictator reported on the war and [about] the commonwealth, on the question with which and how many legions the victorious enemy ought to be met, as the Fathers might judge. It was decreed that he should receive the army from Cn. Servilius, the consul; that moreover he should enroll from the citizens and allies as much cavalry and infantry as should seem good; that he should do and make all other things as he should deem to be for the commonwealth. Fabius said that he would add two legions to the Servilian army.

Iis per magistrum equitum scriptis Tibur diem ad conueniendum edixit. Edictoque proposito ut, quibus oppida castellaque immunita essent, ut ii commigrarent in loca tuta, ex agris quoque demigrarent omnes regionis eius qua iturus Hannibal esset tectis prius incensis ac frugibus corruptis ne cuius rei copia esset, ipse uia Flaminia profectus obuiam consuli exercituque, cum ad Tiberim circa Ocriculum prospexisset agmen consulemque cum equitibus ad se progredientem, [substitit] uiatore misso qui consuli nuntiaret ut sine lictoribus ad dictatorem ueniret. Qui cum dicto paruisset congressusque eorum ingentem speciem dictaturae apud ciues sociosque uetustate iam prope oblitos eius imperii fecisset, litterae ab urbe allatae sunt naues onerarias commeatum ab Ostia in Hispaniam ad exercitum portantes a classe Punica circa portum Cosanum captas esse.

After written orders were sent to them through the Master of the Horse, he appointed a day at Tibur for assembling. And with an edict posted that those whose towns and forts were unfortified should migrate into safe places, and that from the fields as well all should remove from the region through which Hannibal was going to pass—with the buildings first set on fire and the crops spoiled, so that there might be no supply of anything—he himself set out by the Via Flaminia to meet the consul and the army; and when, by the Tiber near Ocriculum, he had sighted the column and the consul advancing toward him with his cavalry, he [halted], sending a viator to inform the consul that he should come to the dictator without lictors. When he had obeyed the order, and their meeting had produced a vast spectacle of the dictatorship among citizens and allies, by now through long lapse almost forgetful of that authority, letters were brought from the city that the cargo ships carrying provisions from Ostia to Spain for the army had been captured by the Punic fleet near the port of Cosa.

Itaque extemplo consul Ostiam proficisci iussus nauibusque quae ad urbem Romanam aut Ostiae essent completis milite ac naualibus sociis persequi hostium classem ac litora Italiae tutari. Magna uis hominum conscripta Romae erat; libertini etiam, quibus liberi essent et aetas militaris, in uerba iurauerant. Ex hoc urbano exercitu, qui minores quinque et triginta annis erant, in naues impositi, alii ut urbi praesiderent relicti.

Therefore at once the consul was ordered to set out to Ostia, and, once the ships which were at the city of Rome or at Ostia had been filled with soldiery and naval allies, to pursue the enemy’s fleet and to protect the littoral of Italy. A great force of men had been conscripted at Rome; freedmen also, who had children and were of military age, had sworn the oath. From this urban army, those who were under thirty-five years were put aboard the ships, others were left to garrison the city.

[12] Dictator exercitu consulis accepto a Fuluio Flacco legato per agrum Sabinum Tibur, quo diem ad conueniendum edixerat nouis militibus, uenit. inde Praeneste ac transuersis limitibus in uiam Latinam est egressus, unde itineribus summa cum cura exploratis ad hostem ducit, nullo loco, nisi quantum necessitas cogeret, fortunae se commissurus. Quo primum die haud procul Arpis in conspectu hostium posuit castra, nulla mora facta quin Poenus educeret in aciem copiamque pugnandi faceret.

[12] The Dictator, after receiving the consul’s army from the legate Fulvius Flaccus, came through the Sabine country to Tibur, where he had appointed a day for the new soldiers to assemble. Thence to Praeneste, and by transverse by-roads he came out onto the Via Latina; from there, with the routes reconnoitered with the utmost care, he leads toward the enemy, intending to commit himself to Fortune at no point except so far as necessity compelled. On the first day that he set his camp there, not far from Arpi and in the sight of the enemy, no delay was made before the Carthaginian led out into battle-line and afforded the opportunity of fighting.

Sed ubi quieta omnia apud hostes nec castra ullo tumultu mota uidet, increpans quidem uictos tandem illos Martios animos Romanis, debellatumque et concessum propalam de uirtute ac gloria esse, in castra rediit; ceterum tacita cura animum incessit quod cum duce haudquaquam Flamini Sempronique simili futura sibi res esset ac tum demum edocti malis Romani parem Hannibali ducem quaesissent. Et prudentiam quidem [non uim] dictatoris extemplo timuit; constantiam hauddum expertus, agitare ac temptare animum mouendo crebro castra populandoque in oculis eius agros sociorum coepit, et modo citato agmine ex conspectu abibat, modo repente in aliquo flexu uiae, si excipere degressum in aequum posset, occultus subsistebat. Fabius per loca alta agmen ducebat, modico ab hoste interuallo ut neque omitteret eum neque congrederetur.

Sed when he sees everything quiet among the enemy and the camp stirred by no tumult, rebuking, indeed, that those Martial spirits in the Romans had at last been conquered, and that the fight had been finished and it had been openly conceded on the matter of valor and glory, he returned to camp; however a silent care crept upon his mind, because with the leader the matter would be by no means as with Flaminius and Sempronius for him, and that only then, taught by misfortunes, the Romans had sought a leader equal to Hannibal. And the prudence [not the force] of the dictator he at once feared; his constancy not yet tried, he began to stir and to test his spirit by moving his camp frequently and by ravaging, in his very sight, the fields of the allies, and now with a quick column he would pass out of sight, now suddenly, at some bend of the road, if he could catch him as he descended into the level ground, he would halt concealed. Fabius led his column through high places, at a small interval from the enemy, so that he neither let him slip nor joined battle.

Castris, nisi quantum usus necessarii cogerent, tenebatur miles; pabulum et ligna nec pauci petebant nec passim; equitum leuisque armaturae statio, composita instructaque in subitos tumultus, et suo militi tuta omnia et infesta effusis hostium populatoribus praebebat; neque uniuerso periculo summa rerum committebatur et parua momenta leuium certaminum ex tuto coeptorum, finitimo receptu, adsuefaciebant territum pristinis cladibus militem minus iam tandem aut uirtutis aut fortunae paenitere suae. Sed non Hannibalem magis infestum tam sanis consiliis habebat quam magistrum equitum, qui nihil aliud quam quod impar erat imperio morae ad rem publicam praecipitandam habebat. Ferox rapidusque consiliis ac lingua immodicus, primo inter paucos, dein propalam in uolgus, pro cunctatore segnem, pro cauto timidum, adfingens uicina uirtutibus uitia, compellabat, premendoque superiorem, quae pessima ars nimis prosperis multorum successibus creuit, sese extollebat.

The soldier was kept to the camp, except insofar as necessary uses compelled; fodder and firewood were sought neither in small numbers nor in a scattered manner; a post of cavalry and light-armed troops, composed and arrayed for sudden tumults, made all things safe for their own soldiery and hostile to the enemy’s outpoured devastators; nor was the sum of affairs committed to universal peril, and the small turns of light skirmishes, begun from a safe position, with adjacent refuge, were habituating the soldier, terrified by former disasters, at last to repent less now either of his valor or of his fortune. But he had not Hannibal more hostile to such sound counsels than the Master of the Horse, who had no other impediment to precipitating the commonwealth than that he was unequal in imperium. Fierce and headlong in counsels and immoderate in tongue, first among a few, then openly to the populace, he addressed him—substituting for “delayer” sluggard, for “cautious” timid—affixing vices neighboring to virtues, and by pressing down his superior, which most pernicious art has grown too much through the over-prosperous successes of many, he was exalting himself.

[13] Hannibal ex Hirpinis in Samnium transit, Beneuentanum depopulatur agrum, Telesiam urbem capit, inritat etiam de industria Romanum ducem, si forte accensum tot indignitatibus [cladibus] sociorum detrahere ad aequum certamen possit. Inter multitudinem sociorum Italici generis, qui ad Trasumennum capti ab Hannibale dimissique fuerant, tres Campani equites erant, multis iam tum inlecti donis promissisque Hannibalis ad conciliandos popularium animos. Hi nuntiantes si in Campaniam exercitum admouisset Capuae potiendae copiam fore, cum res maior quam auctores esset, dubium Hannibalem alternisque fidentem ac diffidentem tamen ut Campaniam ex Samnio peteret mouerunt.

[13] Hannibal passes from the Hirpini into Samnium, devastates the Beneventan fields, takes the city of Telesia, and even deliberately provokes the Roman commander, in case perchance he might be able to draw him, inflamed by so many indignities [disasters] to the allies, down to an equal contest. Among the multitude of allies of the Italian race who at Trasimene had been captured by Hannibal and then released, there were three Campanian horsemen, already by that time enticed by many gifts and promises of Hannibal to win over the spirits of their compatriots. These men, announcing that, if he should move an army into Campania, there would be an opportunity to get possession of Capua, since the affair was greater than its informants, moved Hannibal—doubtful, and in turn confident and distrustful—to aim for Campania from Samnium nevertheless.

Monitos etiam atque etiam promissa rebus adfirmarent iussosque cum pluribus et aliquibus principum redire ad se dimisit. Ipse imperat duci ut se in agrum Casinatem ducat, edoctus a peritis regionum, si eum saltum occupasset, exitum Romano ad opem ferendam sociis interclusurum; sed Punicum abhorrens ab Latinorum nominum [locutione os, Casilinum] pro Casino dux ut acciperet, fecit, auersusque ab suo itinere per Allifanum Caiatinumque et Calenum agrum in campum Stellatem descendit. Vbi cum montibus fluminibusque clausam regionem circumspexisset, uocatum ducem percontatur ubi terrarum esset.

Having warned them again and again to affirm the promises with realities, and having ordered them to return to him with more men and with some of the chiefs, he dismissed them. He himself orders the guide to lead him into the Casinate territory, having been taught by experts in the regions that, if he should occupy that pass, he would interclude the Roman’s exit for bringing aid to the allies; but, being Punic and abhorrent from the pronunciation of Latin names [locutione os, Casilinum], he brought it about that the guide should take Casilinum instead of Casinum, and, turned away from his route, he descended through the Allifan, Caiatinian, and Calenian country into the Stellate plain. Where, when he had surveyed a region shut in by mountains and rivers, he called the guide and inquired where in the world he was.

cum is Casilini eo die mansurum eum dixisset, tum demum cognitus est error et Casinum longe inde alia regione esse; uirgisque caeso duce et ad reliquorum terrorem in crucem sublato, castris communitis Maharbalem cum equitibus in agrum Falernum praedatum dimisit. Vsque ad aquas Sinuessanas populatio ea peruenit. Ingentem cladem, fugam [tamen] terroremque latius Numidae fecerunt; nec tamen is terror, cum omnia bello flagrarent, fide socios dimouit, uidelicet quia iusto et moderato regebantur imperio nec abnuebant, quod unum uinculum fidei est, melioribus parere.

when he had said that he would remain that day at Casilinum, then at last the mistake was recognized, namely that Casinum was far from there in a different region; and with the guide beaten with rods and, for the terror of the rest, lifted onto a cross, after fortifying the camp he sent Maharbal with the cavalry into the Falernian territory to plunder. That ravaging reached as far as the Sinuessan waters. The Numidians wrought a huge disaster, and spread flight [however] and terror more widely; yet that terror, though everything was blazing with war, did not move the allies from their loyalty, evidently because they were governed by a just and moderate command and did not refuse—to obey their betters, which is the one bond of fidelity.

[14] Vt uero, [post]quam ad Volturnum flumen castra sunt posita, exurebatur amoenissimus Italiae ager uillaeque passim incendiis fumabant, per iuga Massici montis Fabio ducente, tum prope de integro seditio [ac de seditione] accensa; [quieti fuerant] enim per paucos dies, quia, cum celerius solito ductum agmen esset, festinari ad prohibendam populationibus Campaniam crediderant. Vt uero in extrema iuga Massici montis uentum est [et] hostes sub oculis erant Falerni agri colonorumque Sinuessae tecta urentes, nec ulla erat mentio pugnae, "spectatum huc" inquit Minucius, "ad rem fruendam oculis, sociorum caedes et incendia uenimus? Nec, si nullius alterius nos ne ciuium quidem horum pudet, quos Sinuessam colonos patres nostri miserunt, ut ab Samnite hoste tuta haec ora esset, quam nunc non uicinus Samnis urit sed Poenus aduena, ab extremis orbis terrarum terminis nostra cunctatione et socordia iam huc progressus?

[14] But truly, [post] when the camp was pitched at the River Volturnus, the most pleasant field of Italy was being scorched, and the villas everywhere were smoking with fires, as, along the ridges of Mount Massicus with Fabius leading, then almost anew sedition [ac de seditione] was kindled; for they [quieti fuerant] for a few days, because, when the column had been led more swiftly than usual, they had believed there was hurrying to prevent the ravagings in Campania. But when it was come to the farthest ridges of Mount Massicus [et] the enemies were under their eyes, burning the houses of the Falernian land and of the colonists of Sinuessa, and there was no mention of battle, “Have we come hither,” says Minucius, “to spectate, to enjoy with our eyes the slaughter and burnings of our allies? And if we are ashamed of no one else, are we not ashamed even for these citizens, whom our fathers sent as colonists to Sinuessa, that this shore might be safe from the Samnite enemy—what now is burned not by the neighboring Samnite but by the Carthaginian newcomer, who, from the farthest limits of the world, has already advanced hither by our delaying and sloth?”

Tantum pro. Degeneramus a patribus nostris ut, praeter quam [per] oram illi [suam] Punicas uagari classes dedecus esse imperii sui duxerint, eam nunc plenam hostium Numidarumque ac Maurorum iam factam uideamus? Qui modo Saguntum oppugnari indignando non homines tantum sed foedera et deos ciebamus, scandentem moenia Romanae coloniae Hannibalem laeti spectamus.

So much, then. Do we degenerate so far from our fathers that, whereas they judged it a disgrace of their empire for Punic fleets to roam beyond [their] [own] coast, we now see that coast made full of enemies, of Numidians and of Moors? We who but lately, in our indignant protest at Saguntum being besieged, summoned not men only but treaties and gods, now gladly watch Hannibal scaling the walls of a Roman colony.

Fumus ex incendiis uillarum agrorumque in oculos atque ora uenit; strepunt aures clamoribus plorantium sociorum, saepius nostram quam deorum inuocantium opem; nos hic pecorum modo per aestiuos saltus deuiasque calles exercitum ducimus, conditi nubibus siluisque. Si hoc modo peragrando cacumina saltusque M. Furius recipere a Gallis urbem uoluisset, quo hic nouus Camillus, nobis dictator unicus in rebus adfectis quaesitus, Italiam ab Hannibale reciperare parat, Gallorum Roma esset, quam uereor ne sic cunctantibus nobis Hannibali ac Poenis totiens seruauerint maiores nostri. Sed uir ac uere Romanus, quo die dictatorem eum ex auctoritate patrum iussuque populi dictum Veios allatum est, cum esset satis altum Ianiculum ubi sedens prospectaret hostem, descendit in aequum atque illo ipso die media in urbe, qua nunc busta Gallica sunt, et postero die citra Gabios cecidit Gallorum legiones.

Smoke from the burnings of villas and fields comes into our eyes and faces; our ears resound with the cries of our allies weeping, invoking our aid more often than that of the gods; while we here, like cattle, lead the army through summer mountain-pastures and trackless byways, hidden by clouds and woods. If in this way, by traversing peaks and passes, M. Furius had wished to recover the city from the Gauls—by which method this “new Camillus,” sought by us as the sole dictator in distressed affairs, prepares to recover Italy from Hannibal—Rome would be the Gauls’—which I fear our ancestors would have saved for Hannibal and the Carthaginians, had they delayed as we do. But a man, and truly Roman, on the day when word was brought to Veii that he had been named dictator by the authority of the Fathers and the command of the People, although the Janiculum was high enough that, sitting, he could look out upon the enemy, descended to the plain, and on that very day, in the middle of the city, where now the Gallic burial-mounds are, and on the next day on this side of Gabii, he cut down the legions of the Gauls.

Quid? Post multos annos cum ad Furculas Caudinas ab Samnite hoste sub iugum missi sumus, utrum tandem L. Papirius Cursor iuga Samni perlustrando an Luceriam premendo obsidendoque et lacessendo uictorem hostem depulsum ab Romanis ceruicibus iugum superbo Samniti imposuit? Modo C. Lutatio quae alia res quam celeritas uictoriam dedit, quod postero die quam hostem uidit classem grauem commeatibus, impeditam suomet ipsam instrumento atque apparatu, oppressit?

What? After many years, when at the Caudine Forks we were sent under the yoke by the Samnite enemy, was it then by L. Papirius Cursor’s traversing the ridges of Samnium, or by pressing upon Luceria, besieging and provoking, that he placed the yoke upon the proud Samnite, the victorious foe having been driven off from the necks of the Romans? Lately, to C. Lutatius what other thing than celerity gave victory, in that on the day after he saw the enemy he overwhelmed a fleet heavy with supplies, hampered by its own very instrument and apparatus?

Stultitia est sedendo aut uotis debellari credere posse. Arma capias oportet et descendas in aequum et uir cum uiro congrediaris. Audendo atque agendo res Romana creuit, non his segnibus consiliis quae timidi cauta uocant". Haec uelut contionanti Minucio circumfundebatur tribunorum equitumque Romanorum multitudo, et ad aures quoque militum dicta ferocia euoluebantur; ac si militaris suffragii res esset, haud dubie ferebant Minucium Fabio duci praelaturos.

"It is stupidity to believe that by sitting still or by vows the war can be debellated. You ought to take up arms and go down into the plain and have man meet man. By daring and by doing the Roman commonwealth has grown, not by these sluggish counsels which the timid call 'cautious'". These words, as to one haranguing, the multitude of Roman tribunes and knights gathered around Minucius, and the ferocious sayings were being wafted even to the soldiers’ ears; and if it had been a matter of military suffrage, without doubt they would have carried that Minucius be preferred to Fabius the leader.

[15] Fabius pariter in suos haud minus quam in hostes intentus, prius ab illis inuictum animum praestat. Quamquam probe scit non in castris modo suis sed iam etiam Romae infamem suam cunctationem esse, obstinatus tamen tenore eodem consiliorum aestatis reliquum extraxit, ut Hannibal destitutus ab spe summa ope petiti certaminis iam hibernis locum circumspectaret, quia ea regio praesentis erat copiae, non perpetuae, arbusta uineaeque et consita omnia magis amoenis quam necessariis fructibus. Haec per exploratores relata Fabio.

[15] Fabius, intent upon his own no less than upon the enemies, first makes sure that on their side the spirit remains unconquered. Although he knows full well that his delaying is infamous not only in his own camp but now even at Rome, yet, obstinate, he drew out the remainder of the summer with the same tenor of counsels, so that Hannibal, deprived of the hope of a battle sought with utmost effort, would now look around for a place for winter-quarters, because that region was of present, not perpetual, supply—vine arbors and vineyards, and everything planted with fruits more pleasant than necessary. These things were reported to Fabius by scouts.

Cum satis sciret per easdem angustias quibus intrauerat Falernum agrum rediturum, Calliculam montem et Casilinum occupat modicis praesidiis, quae urbs Volturno flumine dirempta Falernum a Campano agro diuidit; ipse iugis iisdem exercitum reducit, misso exploratum cum quadringentis equitibus sociorum L. Hostilio Mancino. Qui ex turba iuuenum audientium saepe ferociter contionantem magistrum equitum, progressus primo exploratoris modo ut ex tuto specularetur hostem, ubi uagos passim per uicos Numidas [peruastantes uidit,] per occasionem etiam paucos occidit, extemplo occupatus certamine est animus excideruntque praecepta dictatoris, qui quantum tuto posset progressum prius recipere sese iusserat quam in conspectum hostium ueniret. Numidae alii atque alii, occursantes refugientesque, ad castra prope eum cum fatigatione equorum atque hominum pertraxere.

Since he knew well enough that he would return through the same narrow passes by which he had entered the Falernian country, he occupies Mount Callicula and Casilinum with moderate garrisons—the city which, cut off by the river Volturnus, divides the Falernian from the Campanian territory; he himself leads the army back along those same ridges, having sent L. Hostilius Mancinus to reconnoiter with four hundred horse of the allies. He, being from the crowd of young men who had often listened to the master of the horse haranguing fiercely, having advanced at first in a scout’s manner to watch the enemy from a place of safety, when he saw Numidians roaming everywhere through the villages [devastating,] took the opportunity and even killed a few; at once his spirit was seized with the combat, and the dictator’s precepts slipped away—who had ordered that, having advanced as far as he could safely, he should withdraw himself before he came into the sight of the enemy. Numidians, one party after another, meeting and then fleeing back, dragged him, with the fatigue of horses and men, near to the camp.

Inde Carthalo, penes quem summa equestris imperii erat, concitatis equis inuectus, cum priusquam ad coniectum teli ueniret auertisset hostes, quinque ferme milia continenti cursu secutus est fugientes. Mancinus postquam nec hostem desistere sequi nec spem uidit effugiendi esse, cohortatus suos in proelium rediit, omni parte uirium impar. Itaque ipse et delecti equitum circumuenti occiduntur; ceteri effuso rursus cursu Cales primum, inde prope inuiis callibus ad dictatorem perfugerunt.

Then Carthalo, in whose hands was the supreme command of the cavalry, with the horses stirred up charged in, and, before he came within the cast of a missile, had turned the enemy to flight; he pursued the fugitives for almost five miles at a continuous gallop. Mancinus, after he saw that the foe did not cease from following and that there was no hope of escape, encouraged his men and returned into the fight, unequal in strength in every respect. And so he himself and the picked horsemen, surrounded, were cut down; the rest, in a headlong course again, fled for refuge—first to Cales, then by almost trackless bypaths to the dictator.

Eo forte die Minucius se coniunxerat Fabio missus ad firmandum praesidio saltum, qui super Tarracinam in artas coactus fauces imminet mari, ne ab Sinuessa Poenus Appiae limite peruenire in agrum Romanum posset. Coniunctis exercitibus dictator ac magister equitum castra in uiam deferunt qua Hannibal ducturus erat; duo inde milia hostes aberant.

On that very day by chance Minucius had joined himself to Fabius, having been sent to strengthen with a garrison the pass which, above Terracina, compressed into narrow throats, overhangs the sea, lest from Sinuessa the Carthaginian might be able to reach into Roman territory by the Appian boundary. With the armies joined, the dictator and the master of horse set the camp down on the road by which Hannibal was going to lead; from there the enemy were two miles away.

[16] Postero die Poeni quod uiae inter bina castra erat agmine compleuere. cum Romani sub ipso constitissent uallo haud dubie aequiore loco, successit tamen Poenus cum expeditis equitibusque ad lacessendum hostem. Carptim Poeni et procursando recipiendoque sese pugnauere; restitit suo loco Romana acies; lenta pugna et ex dictatoris magis quam Hannibalis uoluntate fuit.

[16] On the following day the Carthaginians filled with a marching column the stretch of road that lay between the two camps. Although the Romans had taken their stand right beneath the rampart, on ground without doubt more advantageous, the Carthaginian nevertheless advanced with light troops and cavalry to provoke the enemy. The Carthaginians fought by snatches, by running forward and then withdrawing; the Roman battle-line stood its ground; the fight was slow, and it was so more by the Dictator’s will than by Hannibal’s.

Ducenti ab Romanis, octingenti hostium cecidere. Inclusus inde uidere Hannibal uia ad Casilinum obsessa, cum Capua et Samnium et tantum ab tergo diuitum sociorum Romanis commeatus subueheret, Poenus inter Formiana saxa ac Literni harenas stagnaque et per horridas siluas hibernaturus esset; nec Hannibalem fefellit suis se artibus peti. Itaque cum per Casilinum euadere non posset petendique montes et iugum Calliculae superandum esset, necubi Romanus inclusum uallibus agmen adgrederetur, ludibrium oculorum specie terribile ad frustrandum hostem commentus, principio noctis furtim succedere ad montes statuit.

Two hundred of the Romans fell, eight hundred of the enemy. Then Hannibal saw himself shut in, the road to Casilinum blocked, while to the Romans from Capua and Samnium and from so many rich allies behind them supplies were being brought up, but the Carthaginian would have to winter among the Formian rocks and the Liternian sands and pools, and through rough forests; nor did it escape Hannibal that he was being assailed by his own arts. Therefore, since he could not get out through Casilinum, and must make for the mountains and surmount the ridge of Callicula, lest anywhere the Roman attack the column hemmed in by valleys, having devised a trick of the eyes, terrible in appearance, to baffle the enemy, at nightfall he resolved to steal up to the mountains.

Fallacis consilii talis apparatus fuit. Faces undique ex agris collectae fascesque uirgarum atque aridi sarmenti praeligantur cornibus boum, quos domitos indomitosque multos inter ceteram agrestem praedam agebat. Ad duo milia ferme boum effecta, Hasdrubalique negotium datum ut nocte id armentum accensis cornibus ad montes ageret, maxime, si posset, super saltus ab hoste insessos.

Such was the apparatus of the deceitful counsel. Torches gathered on all sides from the fields, and bundles of twigs and dry brushwood, are fast-bound to the horns of oxen, many of which, both tamed and untamed, he was driving among the rest of the rustic booty. When about two thousand oxen had been got together, the task was assigned to Hasdrubal to drive that herd by night, their horns ignited, toward the mountains—especially, if he could, over the passes occupied by the enemy.

[17] Primis tenebris silentio mota castra; boues aliquanto ante signa acti. Vbi ad radices montium uiasque angustas uentum est, signum extemplo datur, ut accensis cornibus armenta in aduersos concitentur montes; et metus ipse relucentis flammae a capite calorque iam ad uiuum ad imaque cornua ueniens uelut stimulatos furore agebat boues. Quo repente discursu, haud secus quam siluis montibusque accensis, omnia circum uirgulta ardere; capitumque inrita quassatio excitans flammam hominum passim discurrentium speciem praebebat.

[17] At the first darkness the camp was moved in silence; the oxen were driven somewhat before the standards. When they came to the foothills of the mountains and the narrow ways, a signal was given at once that, their horns having been kindled, the herds be driven toward the opposing mountains; and the very fear of the flame gleaming back from the head, and the heat now coming to the quick and to the very bases of the horns, drove the oxen as if goaded into frenzy. With this sudden running to and fro, just as if woods and mountains had been set ablaze, all the brushwood around began to burn; and the ineffectual shaking of their heads, arousing the flame, presented the appearance of men running everywhere.

Qui ad transitum saltus insidendum locati erant, ubi in summis montibus ac super se quosdam ignes conspexere, circumuentos se esse rati praesidio excessere. Qua minime densae micabant flammae, uelut tutissimum iter petentes summa montium iuga, tamen in quosdam boues palatos a suis gregibus inciderunt. Et primo cum procul cernerent, ueluti flammas spirantium miraculo attoniti constiterunt; deinde ut humana apparuit fraus, tum uero insidias rati esse, cum maiore tumultu concitant se in fugam.

Those who had been stationed to lie in ambush at the crossing of the pass, when on the highest mountains and above themselves they caught sight of certain fires, thinking that they were surrounded, left their post. Where the flames were flickering least densely, as though seeking the safest route, the highest ridges of the mountains, they nevertheless fell upon some oxen that had strayed from their herds. And at first, when they discerned them from afar, they stood amazed at the marvel, as it were, of creatures breathing flames; then, when the human fraud appeared, then indeed, thinking there were ambushes, they, with greater tumult, rouse themselves into flight.

Leui quoque armaturae hostium incurrere; ceterum nox aequato timore neutros pugnam incipientes ad lucem tenuit. Interea toto agmine Hannibal transducto per saltum et quibusdam in ipso saltu hostium oppressis in agro Allifano posuit castra.

Light-armed troops of the enemy also charged; but night, with fear equalized, held both sides, not beginning a battle, until daylight. Meanwhile, Hannibal, after leading his whole column across the pass and overwhelming some of the enemy in the pass itself, pitched camp in the Allifan territory.

[18] Hunc tumultum sensit Fabius; ceterum et insidias esse ratus et ab nocturno utique abhorrens certamine, suos munimentis tenuit. Luce prima sub iugo montis proelium fuit, quo interclusam ab suis leuem armaturam facile (etenim numero aliquantum praestabant) Romani superassent, nisi Hispanorum cohors ad id ipsum remissa ab Hannibale superuenisset. Ea adsuetior montibus et ad concursandum inter saxa rupesque aptior ac leuior cum uelocitate corporum, tum armorum habitu, campestrem hostem, grauem armis statariumque, pugnae genere facile elusit.

[18] Fabius sensed this tumult; but thinking there were ambushes as well and in any case abhorring a nocturnal contest, he kept his men within the muniments. At first light there was a battle beneath the ridge of the mountain, in which the Romans would easily (for they were somewhat superior in number) have overcome the light-armed troops, cut off from their own, had not a cohort of Spaniards, sent back by Hannibal for that very purpose, come up. That unit, more accustomed to mountains and fitter and lighter for skirmishing among rocks and crags, both by the swiftness of their bodies and by the fashion of their arms, easily eluded the enemy of the plains—heavy in arms and stationary—by its kind of fighting.

Ita haudquaquam pari certamine digressi, Hispani fere omnes incolumes, Romani aliquot suis amissis in castra contenderunt. Fabius quoque mouit castra transgressusque saltum super Allifas loco alto ac munito consedit. Tum per Samnium Romam se petere simulans Hannibal usque in Paelignos populabundus rediit; Fabius medius inter hostium agmen urbemque Romam iugis ducebat nec absistens nec congrediens.

Thus they withdrew by no means from an equal contest: the Spaniards nearly all unscathed, the Romans, with some of their own lost, made for the camp. Fabius also moved camp and, having crossed the pass, took up a position over Allifas on high and fortified ground. Then Hannibal, feigning that he was making for Rome through Samnium, returned plundering as far as the Paeligni; Fabius, in the middle between the enemy column and the city Rome, led along the ridges, neither desisting nor engaging.

Ex Paelignis Poenus flexit iter retroque Apuliam repetens Gereonium peruenit, urbem metu, quia conlapsa ruinis pars moenium erat, ab suis desertam: dictator in Larinate agro castra communiit. Inde sacrorum causa Romam reuocatus, non imperio modo sed consilio etiam ac prope precibus agens cum magistro equitum, ut plus consilio quam fortunae confidat et se potius ducem quam Sempronium Flaminiumque imitetur: ne nihil actum censeret extracta prope aestate per ludificationem hostis; medicos quoque plus interdum quiete quam mouendo atque agendo proficere; haud paruam rem esse ab totiens uictore hoste uinci desisse ac respirasse ab continuis cladibus,—haec nequiquam praemonito magistro equitum Romam est profectus.

From the Paeligni the Carthaginian bent his route and, retracing to Apulia, reached Gereonium, a city deserted by its own folk from fear, because a part of the walls had collapsed in ruins: the dictator fortified a camp in the Larinatian territory. Then, recalled to Rome for the sake of sacred rites, he dealt with the master of the horse not only by authority but also by counsel and almost by entreaties, that he trust more in counsel than in fortune, and imitate him as leader rather than Sempronius and Flaminius; that he not judge nothing to have been accomplished, though the summer had been well-nigh drawn out by the sport and mockery of the enemy; that physicians too sometimes make more progress by quiet than by moving and doing; that it is no small thing to have ceased to be beaten by an enemy so often the victor and to have taken breath from continual disasters,—these things having been premonished in vain to the master of the horse, he set out for Rome.

[19] Principio aestatis qua haec gerebantur in Hispania quoque terra marique coeptum bellum est. Hasdrubal ad eum nauium numerum, quem a fratre instructum paratumque acceperat, decem adiecit; quadraginta nauium classem Himilconi tradit atque ita Carthagine profectus nauibus prope terram, exercitum in litore ducebat, paratus confligere quacumque parte copiarum hostis occurrisset. Cn. Scipio postquam mouisse ex hibernis hostem audiuit, primo idem consilii fuit; deinde minus terra propter ingentem famam nouorum auxiliorum concurrere ausus, delecto milite ad naues imposito quinque et triginta nauium classe ire obuiam hosti pergit.

[19] At the beginning of the summer in which these things were being conducted, in Spain likewise war was commenced by land and sea. Hasdrubal added ten to that number of ships which he had received from his brother equipped and prepared; he entrusted a fleet of forty ships to Himilco, and thus, setting out from Carthage with the ships close to the land, he was leading the army along the shore, prepared to engage wherever the enemy should meet him with any part of his forces. Cn. Scipio, after he heard that the enemy had moved from winter quarters, was at first of the same plan; then, less daring to engage on land because of the tremendous report of new auxiliaries, with chosen soldiers put aboard the ships, he proceeds to go to meet the enemy with a fleet of thirty-five ships.

altero ab Tarracone die [ad] stationem decem milia passuum distantem ab ostio Hiberi amnis peruenit. Inde duae Massiliensium speculatoriae praemissae rettulere, classem Punicam stare in ostio fluminis castraque in ripa posita. Itaque ut improuidos incautosque uniuerso simul offuso terrore opprimeret, sublatis ancoris ad hostem uadit.

On the second day from Tarraco he reached a station ten miles distant from the mouth of the Hiberus river. From there two scouting vessels of the Massilians, sent ahead, reported that the Punic fleet was lying at the river’s mouth and that a camp had been set on the bank. Therefore, in order to crush the unprepared and incautious by a terror suddenly poured over all at once, with anchors weighed he goes against the enemy.

Multas et locis altis positas turres Hispania habet, quibus et speculis et propugnaculis aduersus latrones utuntur. Inde primo conspectis hostium nauibus datum signum Hasdrubali est, tumultusque prius in terra et castris quam ad mare et ad naues est ortus, nondum aut pulsu remorum strepituque alio nautico exaudito aut aperientibus classem promunturiis, cum repente eques alius super alium ab Hasdrubale missus uagos in litore quietosque in tentoriis suis, nihil minus quam hostem aut proelium eo die exspectantes, conscendere naues propere atque arma capere iubet: classem Romanam iam haud procul portu esse. haec equites dimissi passim imperabant; mox Hasdrubal ipse cum omni exercitu aderat, uarioque omnia tumultu strepunt ruentibus in naues simul remigibus militibusque, fugientium magis e terra quam in pugnam euntium modo.

Spain has many towers set in high places, which they use both as watchtowers and as bulwarks against pirates. Thence, when the enemy’s ships were first seen, a signal was given to Hasdrubal, and an uproar arose sooner on land and in the camp than at the sea and at the ships, the beat of oars and other nautical clamor not yet being heard, nor the promontories yet opening up the fleet, when suddenly horseman after horseman, sent by Hasdrubal, orders those wandering on the shore and those quiet in their tents—expecting that day nothing less than an enemy or a battle—to board the ships quickly and take up arms: the Roman fleet was now not far from the harbor. These orders the horsemen, sent out everywhere, were delivering; soon Hasdrubal himself was present with the whole army, and all things resound with varied tumult, as both oarsmen and soldiers rush together into the ships, in a manner more of men fleeing from land than going into battle.

Vixdum omnes conscenderant cum alii resolutis oris in ancoras euehuntur, alii, ne quid teneat, ancoralia incidunt; raptimque omnia [ac] praepropere agendo militum apparatu nautica ministeria impediuntur, trepidatione nautarum capere et aptare arma miles prohibetur. Et iam Romanus non appropinquabat modo sed direxerat etiam in pugnam naues. itaque non ab hoste et proelio magis Poeni quam suomet ipsi tumultu turbati, temptata uerius pugna quam inita in fugam auerterunt classem; et, cum aduersi amnis os lato agmini et tam multis simul uenientibus haud sane intrabile esset, in litus passim naues egerunt, atque alii uadis, alii sicco litore excepti, partim armati, partim inermes ad instructam per litus aciem suorum perfugere; duae tamen primo concursu captae erant Punicae naues, quattuor suppressae.

Hardly had all embarked when some, the mooring-cables loosened, were hauled off the anchors, others, lest anything hold them, cut the anchor-ropes; and by doing everything in a rush [and] over-hastily, the nautical services are impeded by the apparatus of the soldiers, and through the trepidation of the sailors the soldier is prevented from taking up and fitting on his arms. And now the Roman not only was approaching but had even directed his ships for battle. Accordingly the Carthaginians, thrown into confusion not so much by the enemy and the combat as by their own tumult, with the fight rather tried than entered, turned the fleet to flight; and, since the mouth of the opposing river was scarcely traversable for a broad column and for so many coming at once, they drove their ships everywhere onto the shore, and some, caught on the shallows, others on dry beach, some armed, some unarmed, fled for refuge to their battle-line drawn up along the shore; nevertheless, at the first clash two Punic ships had been captured, four were sunk.

[20] Romani, quamquam terra hostium erat armatamque aciem toto praetentam in litore cernebant, haud cunctanter insecuti trepidam hostium classem naues omnes, quae non aut perfregerant proras litori inlisas aut carinas fixerant uadis, religatas puppibus in altum extraxere; ad quinque et uiginti naues e quadraginta cepere. Neque id pulcherrimum eius uictoriae fuit sed quod una leui pugna toto eius orae mari potiti erant. Itaque ad Onusam classe prouecti; escensio ab nauibus in terram facta.

[20] The Romans, although it was the enemy’s land and they beheld an armed battle-line stretched along the whole shore, pursued without delay the panic-stricken fleet of the enemy; all the ships which had not either shattered their prows when dashed against the shore or fixed their keels in the shallows they, tied fast by the sterns, hauled out into the deep; they captured about 25 ships out of 40. Nor was that the most splendid part of that victory, but that with a single slight combat they had gotten possession of the whole sea of that coast. And so, having put out with the fleet to Onusa, a disembarkation from the ships onto the land was made.

Cum urbem ui cepissent captamque diripuissent, Carthaginem inde petunt, atque omnem agrum circa depopulati postremo tecta quoque coniuncta muro portisque incenderunt. Inde iam praeda grauis ad Longunticam peruenit classis, ubi uis magna sparti [erat] ad rem nauticam congesta ab Hasdrubale. Quod satis in usum fuit sublato ceterum omne incensum est.

When they had taken the city by force and plundered it, they then made for Carthage, and, having devastated all the country around, at last they also set fire to the buildings adjoining the wall and the gates. From there, now heavy with booty, the fleet reached Longuntica, where a great quantity of esparto had been heaped up by Hasdrubal for nautical use. What sufficed for use having been carried off, all the rest was burned.

Nec continentis modo praelecta est ora, sed in Ebusum insulam transmissum. Ibi urbe, quae caput insulae est, biduum nequiquam summo labore oppugnata, ubi in spem inritam frustra teri tempus animaduersum est, ad populationem agri uersi, direptis aliquot incensisque uicis maiore quam ex continenti praeda parta cum in naues se recepissent, ex Baliaribus insulis legati pacem petentes ad Scipionem uenerunt. Inde flexa retro classis reditumque in citeriora prouinciae, quo omnium populorum, qui [cis] Hiberum incolunt, multorum et ultimae Hispaniae legati concurrerunt; sed qui uere dicionis imperiique Romani facti sunt obsidibus datis, populi amplius fuere centum uiginti.

Nor was only the shore of the mainland skirted, but a crossing was made to the island Ebusus. There, the city which is the head of the island having been assaulted for two days in vain with utmost effort, when it was noticed that time was being spent to no purpose on an empty hope, they turned to the depredation of the countryside; after several villages had been plundered and burned, a booty greater than from the mainland having been gotten, when they had withdrawn to the ships, envoys from the Balearic islands came to Scipio seeking peace. Thence the fleet was turned back and there was a return to the Hither part of the province, whither envoys of all the peoples who dwell [on this side] of the Hiberus, and of many even of Farther Spain, flocked together; but those who, with hostages given, were truly made subject to the jurisdiction and command of the Roman people were more than one hundred twenty peoples.

Igitur terrestribus quoque copiis satis fidens Romanus usque ad saltum Castulonensem est progressus; Hasdrubal in Lusitaniam ac propius Oceanum concessit.

Therefore, quite trusting in his terrestrial forces as well, the Roman advanced as far as the Castulonian Pass; Hasdrubal withdrew into Lusitania and nearer to the Ocean.

[21] Quietum inde fore uidebatur reliquum aestatis tempus fuissetque per Poenum hostem; sed praeterquam quod ipsorum Hispanorum inquieta auidaque in nouas res sunt ingenia, Mandonius Indibilisque, qui antea Ilergetum regulus fuerat, postquam Romani ab saltu recessere ad maritimam oram, concitis popularibus in agrum pacatum sociorum Romanorum ad populandum uenerunt. Aduersus eos tribuni militum cum expeditis auxiliis a Scipione missi, leui certamine ut tumultuariam manum fudere mille hominibus occisis, quibusdam captis, magnaque parte armis exuta. Hic tamen tumultus cedentem ad Oceanum Hasdrubalem cis Hiberum ad socios tutandos retraxit.

[21] From then on the remaining time of summer seemed likely to be quiet, and would have been so on the part of the Punic enemy; but besides the fact that the Spaniards themselves have temperaments restless and eager for novelties, Mandonius and Indibilis, who earlier had been petty-king of the Ilergetes, after the Romans withdrew from the pass to the maritime shore, with their countrymen stirred up came into the pacified territory of the Roman allies to plunder. Against them the military tribunes, with unencumbered auxiliaries, were sent by Scipio; in a light engagement, as against a tumultuary band, they routed them, with a thousand men slain, some captured, and a great part stripped of their arms. Yet this commotion drew Hasdrubal, who was retiring toward the Ocean, back on this side of the Ebro to protect the allies.

Castra Punica in agro Ilergauonensium, castra Romana ad Nouam Classem erant cum fama repens alio auertit bellum. Celtiberi, qui principes regionis suae legatos [obuiam antea miserant] obsidesque dederant Romanis, nuntio misso a Scipione exciti arma capiunt prouinciamque Carthaginiensium ualido exercitu inuadunt. Tria oppida ui expugnant; inde cum ipso Hasdrubale duobus proeliis egregie pugnantes, quindecim milia hostium occiderunt, quattuor milia cum multis militaribus signis capiunt.

The Punic camp was in the territory of the Ilergavones, the Roman camp at New Fleet, when a sudden report diverted the war elsewhere. The Celtiberians, who as leaders of their region had [previously sent envoys to meet them] and had given hostages to the Romans, roused by a message sent by Scipio, take up arms and invade the province of the Carthaginians with a strong army. They storm three towns by force; then, fighting with great distinction against Hasdrubal himself in two battles, they slew 15,000 of the enemy, and capture 4,000 with many military standards.

[22] Hoc statu rerum in Hispania P. Scipio in prouinciam uenit, prorogato post consulatum imperio ab senatu missus, cum triginta longis nauibus et octo milibus militum magnoque commeatu aduecto. Ea classis ingens agmine onerariarum procul uisa cum magna laetitia ciuium sociorumque portum Tarraconis ex alto tenuit. Ibi milite exposito profectus Scipio fratri se coniungit, ac deinde communi animo consilioque gerebant bellum.

[22] In this state of affairs in Spain, Publius Scipio came into the province, sent by the senate with his imperium prolonged after his consulship, with thirty long ships and eight thousand soldiers, and with a great supply-train conveyed. That fleet, its vast column of transports seen from afar, with great rejoicing of the citizens and allies made the harbor of Tarraco from the deep. There, the soldiery having been disembarked, Scipio set out and joined himself to his brother, and thereafter they were conducting the war with a common spirit and counsel.

occupatis igitur Carthaginiensibus Celtiberico bello haud cunctanter Hiberum transgrediuntur nec ullo uiso hostes Saguntum pergunt ire, quod ibi obsides totius Hispaniae traditos ab Hannibale fama erat modico in arce custodiri praesidio. Id unum pignus inclinatos ad Romanam societatem omnium Hispaniae populorum animos morabatur, ne sanguine liberum suorum culpa defectionis lueretur. Eo uinculo Hispaniam uir unus sollerti magis quam fideli consilio exsoluit.

Accordingly, with the Carthaginians occupied by the Celtiberian war, they cross the Ebro without delay, and, no enemy having been seen, they proceed to go to Saguntum, because the report was that there the hostages of all Spain, handed over by Hannibal, were being kept in the citadel with a small garrison. That single pledge was delaying the minds of all the peoples of Spain, inclined toward Roman alliance, lest the guilt of defection be paid for with the blood of their children. From that bond Spain was freed by a single man, by a counsel more shrewd than faithful.

Abelux erat Sagunti nobilis Hispanus, fidus ante Poenis; tum, qualia plerumque sunt barbarorum ingenia, cum fortuna mutauerat fidem. Ceterum transfugam sine magnae rei proditione uenientem ad hostes nihil aliud quam unum uile atque infame corpus esse ratus, id agebat ut quam maximum emolumentum nouis sociis esset. circumspectis igitur omnibus quae fortuna potestatis eius poterat facere, obsidibus potissimum tradendis animum adiecit, eam unam rem maxime ratus conciliaturam Romanis principum Hispaniae amicitiam.

Abelux was a noble Spaniard at Saguntum, formerly loyal to the Carthaginians; then, as for the most part are the dispositions of barbarians, he had changed his faith with fortune. But, thinking that a defector coming to the enemies without the betrayal of some great matter was nothing other than a single vile and infamous body, he aimed that there should be the greatest possible emolument for his new allies. Therefore, after surveying all the things which fortune could accomplish within his power, he turned his mind especially to the handing over of the hostages, judging that this one act would most of all conciliate to the Romans the friendship of the princes of Spain.

Sed cum iniussu Bostaris praefecti satis sciret nihil obsidum custodes facturos esse, Bostarem ipsum arte adgreditur. Castra extra urbem in ipso litore habebat Bostar ut aditum ea parte intercluderet Romanis. Ibi eum in secretum abductum, uelut ignorantem, monet quo statu sit res: metum continuisse ad eam diem Hispanorum animos, quia procul Romani abessent; nunc cis Hiberum castra Romana esse, arcem tutam perfugiumque nouas uolentibus res; itaque quos metus non teneat beneficio et gratia deuinciendos esse.

But since he knew well enough that without the order of Bostar the prefect the guards of the hostages would do nothing, he approaches Bostar himself by craft. Bostar had his camp outside the city on the very shore, so that he might shut off access on that side to the Romans. There, having led him aside into a private place, as though unknowing, he informs him in what state the affair stands: that fear had held in check down to that day the spirits of the Spaniards, because the Romans were far away; now the Roman camp was on this side of the Ebro, the citadel was safe and a refuge for those desiring new things; and so those whom fear does not hold must be bound by benefaction and favor.

miranti Bostari percontantique quodnam id subitum tantae rei donum posset esse, "obsides" inquit, "in ciuitates remitte. Id et priuatim parentibus, quorum maximum nomen in ciuitatibus est suis, et publice populis gratum erit. Volt sibi quisque credi et habita fides ipsam plerumque obligat fidem.

To Bostar, marveling and asking what sudden gift could be for so great a matter, “hostages,” he says, “send back to their cities. That will be pleasing both privately to the parents—whose name has the greatest standing in their cities—and publicly to the peoples. Each person wants himself to be believed, and faith once given for the most part obligates faith.”

ministerium restituendorum domos obsidum mihimet deposco ipse, ut opera quoque impensa consilium adiuuem meum et rei suapte natura gratae quantam insuper gratiam possim adiciam". Homini non ad cetera Punica ingenia callido ut persuasit, nocte clam progressus ad hostium stationes, conuentis quibusdam auxiliaribus Hispanis et ab his ad Scipionem perductus, quid adferret expromit et fide accepta dataque ac loco et tempore constituto ad obsides tradendos Saguntum redit. Diem insequentem absumpsit cum Bostare mandatis ad rem agendam accipiendis. Dimissus, cum se nocte iturum ut custodias hostium falleret constituisset, ad compositam cum iis horam excitatis custodibus puerorum profectus, ueluti ignarus in praeparatas sua fraude insidias ducit.

"I myself demand for myself the service of restoring the hostages to their homes, so that by effort also expended I may assist my plan, and to a thing grateful by its own nature I may add as much favor besides as I can." As he persuaded the man—who was not clever in the manner of the other Punic dispositions—having advanced secretly by night to the enemy pickets, after meeting with certain Spanish auxiliaries and being conducted by them to Scipio, he discloses what he brings; and, with a pledge accepted and given and with the place and time set for delivering the hostages, he returns to Saguntum. He spent the following day with Bostar receiving mandates for carrying out the matter. Dismissed, since he had determined that he would go by night so as to deceive the enemy guards, at the hour arranged with them, having roused the guardians of the boys, he set out, and, as if unaware, leads them into ambushes prepared by his own fraud.

In castra Romana perducti; cetera omnia de reddendis obsidibus, sicut cum Bostare constitutum erat, acta per eundem ordinem quo si Carthaginiensium nomine sic ageretur. maior aliquanto Romanorum gratia fuit in re pari quam quanta futura Carthaginiensium fuerat. Illos enim graues [superbos] In rebus secundis expertos fortuna et timor mitigasse uideri poterat: Romanus primo aduentu, incognitus ante, ab re clementi liberalique initium fecerat et Abelux, uir prudens, haud frustra uidebatur socios mutasse.

They were led into the Roman camp; the rest, all about returning the hostages, was transacted in the same order as had been agreed with Bostar, just as if it were being done in the name of the Carthaginians. The Romans’ favor was somewhat greater in an equal matter than as great as the Carthaginians’ would have been. For those men, stern [haughty], men proved in prosperous circumstances, might seem to have been softened by fortune and by fear: the Roman, at his first arrival, previously unknown, had made his beginning from a clement and liberal act, and Abelux, a prudent man, seemed not to have changed allies to no purpose.

Itaque ingenti consensu defectionem omnes spectare; armaque extemplo mota forent, ni hiemps, quae Romanos quoque et Carthaginienses concedere in tecta coegit, interuenisset.

Therefore, with a vast consensus, all were looking toward defection; and arms would at once have been set in motion, had not winter intervened, which compelled both the Romans and the Carthaginians to withdraw under roofs.

[23] Haec in Hispania [quoque] secunda aestate Punici belli gesta, cum in Italia paulum interualli cladibus Romanis sollers cunctatio Fabi fecisset; quae ut Hannibalem non mediocri sollicitum cura habebat, tandem eum militiae magistrum delegisse Romanos cernentem, qui bellum ratione, non fortuna gereret, ita contempta erat inter ciues armatos pariter togatosque utique postquam absente eo temeritate magistri equitum laeto uerius dixerim quam prospero euentu pugnatum fuerat. Accesserant duae res ad augendam inuidiam dictatoris, una fraude ac dolo Hannibalis quod, cum a perfugis ei monstratus ager dictatoris esset, omnibus circa solo aequatis ab uno eo ferrum ignemque et uim omnem [hostium] abstineri iussit ut occulti alicuius pacti ea merces uideri posset, altera ipsius facto, primo forsitan dubio quia non exspectata in eo senatus auctoritas est, ad extremum haud ambigue in maximam laudem uerso. In permutandis captiuis, quod sic primo Punico bello factum erat, conuenerat inter duces Romanum Poenumque ut, quae pars plus reciperet quam daret, argenti pondo bina et selibras in militem praestaret.

[23] These things in Spain [also] were done in the second summer of the Punic War, when in Italy the clever cunctation of Fabius had made a small interval in the Roman disasters; which, in that it held Hannibal in no moderate anxious care, as he perceived that the Romans had at last chosen a master of soldiery who would wage war by reason, not by fortune, was nonetheless so despised among citizens armed and toga‑clad alike, especially after, in his absence, by the rashness of the master of the horse, a battle had been fought with an outcome glad—rather, I would say, than prosperous. Two circumstances had been added to augment the dictator’s unpopularity: one, by Hannibal’s fraud and guile, because, when the dictator’s field had been pointed out to him by deserters, with all the lands around leveled to the ground he ordered steel, fire, and every violence [of the enemy] to be kept away from that one place, so that this might seem the price of some secret pact; the other, by the deed of the man himself—at first perhaps dubious, because the authority of the senate had not been awaited in it—turned in the end, without ambiguity, to the greatest praise. In the exchanging of prisoners—because thus it had been done in the First Punic War—it had been agreed between the Roman and the Carthaginian commanders that whichever side received more than it gave should provide, in silver, two pounds and a half per soldier.

Ducentis quadraginta septem cum plures Romanus quam Poenus recepisset argentumque pro eis debitum, saepe iactata in senatu re, quoniam non consuluisset patres, tardius erogaretur, inuiolatum ab hoste agrum misso Romam Quinto filio uendidit, fidemque publicam impendio priuato exsoluit. Hannibal pro Gereoni moenibus, cuius urbis captae atque incensae ab se in usum horreorum pauca reliquerat tecta, in statiuis erat. Inde frumentatum duas exercitus partes mittebat; cum tertia ipse expedita in statione erat, simul castris praesidio et circumspectans necunde impetus in frumentatores fieret.

Since by 247 the Roman had received more than the Carthaginian, and the silver owed for them, the matter having been often bandied in the senate—because he had not consulted the Fathers—was being disbursed more slowly, he, having sent his son Quintus to Rome, sold the field inviolate from the enemy, and by private expenditure discharged the public faith. Hannibal was in a stationary camp before the walls of Gereonium, of which city, captured and burned by himself, he had left a few roofs for the use of granaries. From there he used to send two parts of the army to forage for grain; with the third he himself, lightly equipped, was on outpost duty, at once as a guard for the camp and looking round lest from anywhere an attack be made upon the foragers.

[24] Romanus tunc exercitus in agro Larinati erat; praeerat Minucius magister equitum profecto, sicut ante dictum est, ad urbem dictatore. ceterum castra, quae in monte alto ac tuto loco posita fuerant, iam in planum deferuntur; agitabanturque pro ingenio ducis consilia calidiora, ut impetus aut in frumentatores palatos aut in castra relicta cum leui praesidio fieret. Nec Hannibalem fefellit cum duce mutatam esse belli rationem et ferocius quam consultius rem hostes gesturos; ipse autem, quod minime quis crederet cum hostis propius esset, tertiam partem militum frumentatum duabus in castris retentis dimisit; dein castra ipsa propius hostem mouit, duo ferme a Gereonio milia, in tumulum hosti conspectum, ut intentum [se] sciret esse ad frumentatores, si qua uis fieret, tutandos.

[24] The Roman army was then in the Larinian territory; Minucius, the master of horse, was in command, the dictator having set out for the City, as was said before. But the camp, which had been pitched on a high and safe hill, was now being brought down into the plain; and, in keeping with the leader’s temperament, hotter counsels were being agitated, that an assault might be made either upon the foragers scattered about or upon the camp left with a light garrison. Nor did it escape Hannibal that, the leader being changed, the conduct of the war had been changed, and that the enemies would manage the affair more fiercely than advisedly; he himself, moreover—what least anyone would have believed when the enemy was nearer—sent a third part of the soldiers to forage, with two parts retained in the camps; then he moved the camp itself nearer to the enemy, about two miles from Gereonium, onto a knoll in the enemy’s sight, so that he might be known [himself] to be intent on protecting the foragers, should any force be brought to bear.

propior inde ei atque ipsis imminens Romanorum castris tumulus apparuit; ad quem capiendum si luce palam iretur quia haud dubie hostis breuiore uia praeuenturus erat, nocte clam missi Numidae ceperunt. Quos tenentes locum contempta paucitate Romani postero die cum deiecissent, ipsi eo transferunt castra. [tum ut] Itaque exiguum spatii uallum a uallo aberat et id ipsum totum ut prope compleuerat Romana acies, simul et per auersa castra [e castris Hannibalis] equitatus cum leui armatura emissus in frumentatores late caedem fugamque hostium palatorum fecit.

From there a knoll nearer to him and looming over the Romans’ very camp appeared; to seize which, if they were to go openly by daylight—since without doubt the enemy by a shorter route would forestall them—Numidians sent secretly by night took it. The Romans, despising their paucity, when on the next day they had dislodged those holding the place, transferred their camp there themselves. [then as] And so only a small interval of space separated rampart from rampart, and that very span the Roman battle-line had almost completely filled; at the same time, through the rear of the camp [from Hannibal’s camp], cavalry with light-armed troops sent out wrought, upon the foragers, a widespread slaughter and rout of the enemy stragglers.

Nec acie certare Hannibal ausus, quia tanta paucitate—pars exercitus aberat iam fame [grauante]—uix castra, si oppugnarentur, tutari poterat; iamque artibus Fabi sedendo et cunctando bellum gerebat receperatque suos in priora castra, quae pro Gereoni moenibus erant. Iusta quoque acie et conlatis signis dimicatum quidam auctores sunt; primo concursu Poenum usque ad castra fusum; inde eruptione facta repente uersum terrorem in Romanos; Numeri Decimi Samnitis deinde aduentu proelium restitutum. Hunc, principem genere ac diuitiis, non Bouiani modo—unde erat— sed toto Samnio, iussu dictatoris octo milia peditum et equites ad [quingentos] ducentem in castra, ab tergo cum apparuisset Hannibali, speciem parti utrique praebuisse noui praesidii cum Q. Fabio ab Roma uenientis.

Nor did Hannibal dare to contend in battle-line, because with so great a paucity—part of the army was absent, now with hunger [weighing heavily]—he could scarcely protect the camp, if it were attacked; and already by the arts of Fabius, by sitting and delaying, he was conducting the war, and had withdrawn his men into the former camps, which were before the walls of Gereonium. Some authorities also report that there was fighting in a regular line, with standards joined; at the first clash the Punic was driven in rout up to his camp; then, a sally having been made, suddenly the terror was turned upon the Romans; thereafter, by the arrival of Numerius Decimius, a Samnite, the battle was restored. This man, a chief in lineage and in riches, not only at Bovianum—whence he was—but in all Samnium, by order of the dictator, as he was leading eight thousand foot and about [500] horse to the camp, when he had appeared behind Hannibal’s back, is said to have presented to each party the appearance of a new relief coming with Q. Fabius from Rome.

Hannibalem, insidiarum quoque aliquid timentem, recepisse suos; Romanum insecutum adiuuante Samnite duo castella eo die expugnasse. Sex milia hostium caesa, quinque admodum Romanorum; tamen in tam pari prope clade famam [uanam] egregiae uictoriae cum uanioribus litteris magistri equitum Romam perlatam.

Hannibal, also fearing some ambush, had withdrawn his men; the Roman, pursuing, with the Samnite aiding, had that day stormed two forts. Six thousand of the enemy were slain, only five Romans; yet, in a disaster nearly so equal, the [vain] report of an outstanding victory, together with the still vainer letters of the master of the horse, was carried to Rome.

[25] De iis rebus persaepe et in senatu et in contione actum est. Cum laeta ciuitate dictator unus nihil nec famae nec litteris crederet, ut uera omnia essent, secunda se magis quam aduersa timere diceret, tum M. Metilius tribunus plebis id unum enimuero ferendum esse negat, non praesentem solum dictatorem obstitisse rei bene gerendae sed absentem etiam gestae obstare [et in ducendo bello] ac sedulo tempus terere quo diutius in magistratu sit solusque et Romae et in exercitu imperium habeat. Quippe consulum alterum in acie cecidisse, alterum specie classis Punicae persequendae procul ab Italia ablegatum; duos praetores Sicilia atque Sardinia occupatos, quarum neutra hoc tempore prouincia praetore egeat; M. Minucium magistrum equitum, ne hostem uideret, ne quid rei bellicae gereret, prope in custodia habitum.

[25] About these matters very often both in the senate and in the assembly it was dealt with. While, with the commonwealth joyful, the dictator alone believed nothing, neither report nor letters—granting that all were true—said that he feared favorable things more than adverse ones; then M. Metilius, tribune of the plebs, says that this one thing indeed is not to be borne: that not only, when present, the dictator has stood in the way of the affair’s being well managed, but, even when absent, he obstructs what has been accomplished [et in ducendo bello] and diligently wastes time, in order that he may be longer in magistracy and that he alone may hold command both at Rome and in the army. For one of the consuls has fallen in the battle-line, the other, under the pretext of pursuing the Punic fleet, has been sent far from Italy; the two praetors are kept occupied in Sicily and Sardinia, of which provinces neither at this time has need of a praetor; M. Minucius, the master of the horse, lest he see the enemy, lest he do anything of military business, has been kept almost in custody.

Itaque hercule non Samnium modo, quo iam tamquam trans Hiberum agro Poenis concessum sit, sed et Campanum Calenumque et Falernum agrum peruastatos esse sedente Casilini dictatore et legionibus populi Romani agrum suum tutante. Exercitum cupientem pugnare et magistrum equitum clausos prope intra uallum retentos; tamquam hostibus captiuis arma adempta. Tandem, ut abscesserit inde dictator, ut obsidione liberatos, extra uallum egressos fudisse ac fugasse hostes.

And so, by Hercules, not Samnium only—already, as though it were land beyond the Ebro, conceded to the Punics—but also the Campanian, Calenian, and Falernian territory have been devastated, while the dictator sat at Casilinum and the legions of the Roman people were guarding their own ground. An army eager to fight and the master of horse were shut up, kept well-nigh within the rampart; their arms taken away as if they were captive enemies. At length, when the dictator departed from there, as though freed from a blockade, having gone outside the rampart they routed and put the enemy to flight.

Quas ob res, si antiquus animus plebei Romanae esset, audaciter se laturum fuisse de abrogando Q. Fabi imperio; nunc modicam rogationem promulgaturum de aequando magistri equitum et dictatoris iure. Nec tamen ne ita quidem prius mittendum ad exercitum Q. Fabium quam consulem in locum C. Flamini suffecisset. Dictator contionibus se abstinuit in actione minime populari.

For which reasons, if the old spirit of the Roman plebs were present, he would boldly have proposed a bill for abrogating Q. Fabius’s command; now he would promulgate a moderate rogation about equalizing the power of the Master of the Horse and the Dictator. Nor yet, not even thus, ought Q. Fabius to be sent to the army before he had appointed a consul in the place of C. Flaminius. The Dictator abstained from the assemblies, in a line of action least popular.

Ne in senatu quidem satis aequis auribus audiebatur tunc, cum hostem uerbis extolleret bienniique clades per temeritatem atque inscientiam ducum acceptas referret, magistro equitum, quod contra dictum suum pugnasset, rationem diceret reddendam esse. Si penes se summa imperii consiliique sit, propediem effecturum ut sciant homines bono imperatore haud magni fortunam momenti esse, mentem rationemque dominari, et in tempore et sine ignominia seruasse exercitum quam multa milia hostium occidisse maiorem gloriam esse. Huius generis orationibus frustra habitis et consule creato M. Atilio Regulo ne praesens de iure imperii dimicaret, pridie quam rogationis ferendae dies adesset, nocte ad exercitum abiit.

Not even in the senate was he then heard with sufficiently equitable ears, when he would extol the enemy in words and would report that the disasters of the biennium had been incurred through the temerity and ignorance of the commanders, and would declare that the master of the horse, because he had fought contrary to his command, ought to render an account. If the supreme control of command and counsel were in his hands, he would soon bring it about that men know that, with a good commander, fortune is of no great moment, that mind and reason are dominant, and that to have preserved the army in due time and without ignominy is a greater glory than to have slain many thousands of the enemy. After delivering speeches of this sort to no effect, and with Marcus Atilius Regulus elected consul, in order not to contend in person over the right of command, on the day before the day for the bill to be brought came, by night he went away to the army.

Luce orta cum plebis concilium esset, magis tacita inuidia dictatoris fauorque magistri equitum animos uersabat quam satis audebant homines ad suadendum quod uolgo placebat prodire, et fauore superante auctoritas tamen rogationi deerat. Vnus inuentus est suasor legis C. Terentius Varro, qui priore anno praetor fuerat, loco non humili solum sed etiam sordido ortus. Patrem lanium fuisse ferunt, ipsum institorem mercis, filioque hoc ipso in seruilia eius artis ministeria usum.

At daybreak, when the assembly of the plebs was held, a silent envy of the dictator and a favor for the master of the horse were turning minds more than men dared enough to come forward to recommend what pleased the multitude; and though favor prevailed, authority was nevertheless lacking to the bill. One advocate of the bill was found, C. Terentius Varro, who in the previous year had been praetor, sprung from a station not only low but even sordid. They report his father to have been a butcher, he himself a dealer in merchandise, and that he made use of this very son in the servile services of that trade.

[26] Is iuuenis, ut primum ex eo genere quaestus pecunia a patre relicta animos ad spem liberalioris fortunae fecit, togaque et forum placuere, proclamando pro sordidis hominibus causisque aduersus rem et famam bonorum primum in notitiam populi, deinde ad honores peruenit, quaesturaque et duabus aedilitatibus, plebeia et curuli, postremo et praetura, perfunctus, iam ad consulatus spem cum attolleret animos, haud parum callide auram fauoris popularis ex dictatoria inuidia petit scitique plebis unus gratiam tulit. Omnes eam rogationem, quique Romae quique in exercitu erant, aequi atque iniqui, praeter ipsum dictatorem in contumeliam eius latam acceperunt. Ipse, qua grauitate animi criminantes se ad multitudinem inimicos tulerat, eadem et populi in se saeuientis iniuriam tulit; acceptisque in ipso itinere litteris [s. C.] de aequato imperio, satis fidens haudquaquam cum imperii iure artem imperandi aequatam, cum inuicto a ciuibus hostibusque animo ad exercitum rediit.

[26] This young man, as soon as money from that line of trade left by his father gave him heart for the hope of a more liberal fortune, and the toga and the forum pleased him, by proclaiming on behalf of sordid men and in causes against the interest and reputation of the good, first came into the people’s notice, then attained to honors, and, having discharged the quaestorship and the two aedileships, the plebeian and the curule, and finally also the praetorship, now when he was lifting his spirit to the hope of the consulship, not a little cleverly sought the breeze of popular favor out of the dictator’s unpopularity, and of the plebiscite that was passed he alone carried off the credit. All, both those who were at Rome and those who were in the army, fair and unfair alike, accepted that bill, except the dictator himself, as brought in insult against him. He himself, with the same weight of mind with which he had borne enemies accusing him to the multitude, in that same way bore the injury of the people raging against him; and, having received on the very journey letters [s. C.] about the equalized imperium, being confident enough that the art of commanding had by no means been equalized along with the legal right of command, with a spirit unconquered by citizens and enemies he returned to the army.

[27] Minucius uero cum iam ante uix tolerabilis fuisset rebus secundis ac fauore uolgi, tum utique immodice immodesteque non Hannibale magis uicto ab se quam Q. Fabio gloriari: illum in rebus asperis unicum ducem ac parem quaesitum Hannibali, maiorem minori, dictatorem magistro equitum, quod nulla memoria habeat annalium, iussu populi aequatum in eadem ciuitate, in qua magistri equitum uirgas ac secures dictatoris tremere atque horrere soliti sint; tantum suam felicitatem uirtutemque enituisse. ergo secuturum se fortunam suam, si dictator in cunctatione ac segnitie deorum hominumque iudicio damnata perstaret. Itaque quo die primum congressus est cum Q. Fabio, statuendum omnium primum ait esse quemadmodum imperio aequato utantur: se optimum ducere aut diebus alternis aut, si maiora interualla placerent, partitis temporibus alterius summum ius imperiumque esse, ut par hosti non solum consilio sed uiribus etiam esset, si quam occasionem rei gerendae habuisset.

[27] Minucius indeed, since even before he had been scarcely tolerable in prosperous circumstances and with the favor of the crowd, then assuredly immoderately and without modesty boasted not so much that Hannibal had been conquered by himself as that Q. Fabius had been: that that man, in hard times sought as the sole leader and as a peer matched for Hannibal—the greater to the lesser, the dictator to the master of the horse—by order of the people had been made equal, a thing of which no memory is held by the annals, in the same city in which masters of the horse were wont to tremble and shudder at the dictator’s rods and axes; to such a degree had his own good fortune and valor shone forth. Therefore he would follow his own fortune, if the dictator should persist in delay and sluggishness, condemned by the judgment of gods and men. And so, on the day he first met with Q. Fabius, he said that the very first thing to be settled was how they should use the equalized imperium: he deemed it best that either on alternate days, or, if longer intervals were preferred, in allotted periods, the supreme right and command should belong to the one or the other, so that he might be a match for the enemy not only in counsel but also in forces, if he should have any opportunity for carrying on the business.

Q. Fabio haudquaquam id placere: omnia fortunam eam habitura quamcumque temeritas collegae habuisset; sibi communicatum cum alio, non ademptum imperium esse; itaque se nunquam uolentem parte, qua posset, rerum consilio gerendarum cessurum, nec se tempora aut dies imperii cum eo, exercitum diuisurum suisque consiliis, quoniam omnia non liceret, quae posset seruaturum. Ita obtinuit ut legiones, sicut consulibus mos esset, inter [se] diuiderent. Prima et quarta Minucio, secunda et tertia Fabio euenerunt.

Q. Fabius by no means approved this: everything would have whatever fortune the temerity of his colleague would have; to him the command had been shared with another, not taken away; and so he would never willingly, so far as he could, withdraw from the conduct of affairs by counsel, nor would he divide either the times or days of command with him, nor the army; and by his own counsels, since it would not be permitted to do everything, he would preserve what he could. Thus he carried it that the legions, as was the custom with consuls, be divided between them. The first and the fourth fell to Minucius, the second and the third to Fabius.

Item equites pari numero sociumque et Latini nominis auxilia diuiserunt. Castris quoque separari magister equitum uoluit.

Likewise they divided the cavalry in equal number, and the auxiliaries of the allies and of the Latin Name. The Master of the Horse also wished the camps to be separate.

[28] Duplex inde Hannibali gaudium fuit; neque enim quicquam eorum quae apud hostes agerentur eum fallebat et perfugis multa [non] Indicantibus et per suos explorantem: nam et liberam Minuci temeritatem se suo modo captaturum et sollertiae Fabi dimidium uirium decessisse. Tumulus erat inter castra Minuci et Poenorum, quem qui occupasset haud dubie iniquiorem erat hosti locum facturus. Eum non tam capere sine certamine uolebat Hannibal, quamquam id operae pretium erat, quam causam certaminis cum Minucio, quem semper occursurum ad obsistendum satis sciebat, contrahere.

[28] Thence a double joy accrued to Hannibal; for nothing of what was being done among the enemy escaped him, with many things being indicated by deserters and by reconnoitering through his own men: for he would both, in his own way, ensnare the unrestrained temerity of Minucius, and the cleverness of Fabius had been deprived of half its forces. There was a mound between the camp of Minucius and that of the Punic side, which whoever had occupied would, without doubt, have made the ground more unfavorable to the enemy. Hannibal wished not so much to seize it without a contest—though that was worth the effort—as to draw together a cause of combat with Minucius, whom he knew full well would always run to meet him to oppose.

Ager omnis medius erat prima specie inutilis insidiatori, quia non modo siluestre quicquam sed ne uepribus quidem uestitum habebat, re ipsa natus tegendis insidiis, eo magis quod in nuda ualle nulla talis fraus timeri poterat; et erant in anfractibus cauae rupes, ut quaedam earum ducenos armatos possent capere. In has latebras, quot quemque locum apte insidere poterant, quinque milia conduntur peditum equitumque. Necubi tamen aut motus alicuius temere egressi aut fulgor armorum fraudem in ualle tam aperta detegeret, missis paucis prima luce ad capiendum quem ante diximus tumulum auertit oculos hostium.

The whole middle ground was at first sight useless to an ambusher, because it had not only nothing wooded but was not even clothed with brambles—yet in reality it was born for covering ambushes, all the more because in a naked valley no such fraud would be feared; and there were in the windings hollow rocks, such that some of them could hold two hundred armed men. Into these hiding-places, as many as could suitably occupy each spot, five thousand infantry and cavalry are concealed. Yet, lest anywhere either the movement of someone rashly stepping out or the gleam of arms should disclose the stratagem in so open a valley, with a few men sent at first light to seize the hill which we mentioned before, he diverted the eyes of the enemy.

Primo statim conspectu contempta paucitas ac sibi quisque deposcere pellendos inde hostes ac locum capiendum; dux ipse inter stolidissimos ferocissimosque ad arma uocat et uanis minis increpat hostem. Principio leuem armaturam emittit, deinde conferto agmine [mitti] equites; postremo, cum hostibus quoque subsidia mitti uideret, instructis legionibus procedit. et Hannibal laborantibus suis alia atque alia accrescente certamine mittens auxilia peditum equitumque iam iustam expleuerat aciem, ac totis utrimque uiribus certatur.

At the very first sight their paucity was contemned, and each man for his own part demanded that the enemies be driven from there and the position seized; the leader himself, among the most stolid and most ferocious, calls to arms and reproaches the enemy with vain menaces. At the beginning he sends out the light-armed, then orders the equites [to be sent] in close-packed column; finally, when he saw reserves too being sent to the enemy, he advances with the legions drawn up. And Hannibal, as his men were laboring, sending one after another supports of infantry and cavalry as the struggle grew, had now filled out a full regular line of battle, and with all forces on both sides they contend.

Prima leuis armatura Romanorum, praeoccupatum [ex] inferiore loco succedens tumulum, pulsa detrusaque terrorem in succedentem intulit equitem et ad signa legionum refugit. Peditum acies inter perculsos impauida sola erat uidebaturque, si iusta ac directa pugna esset, haudquaquam impar futura; tantum animorum fecerat prospere ante paucos dies res gesta; sed exorti repente insidiatores eum tumultum terroremque in latera utrimque ab tergoque incursantes fecerunt ut neque animus ad pugnam neque ad fugam spes cuiquam superesset.

The first light-armed troops of the Romans, advancing to the knoll preoccupied [from] the lower ground, being routed and driven down, brought terror upon the cavalry as they were coming up and fled back to the standards of the legions. The battle-line of the infantry alone was undaunted amid the panic-stricken, and it seemed that, if there were a regular and straightforward battle, it would by no means be unequal; so much spirit had the deed successfully accomplished a few days before produced. But the ambushers, suddenly arising and charging upon the flanks on both sides and from the rear, created such tumult and terror that neither courage for fighting nor hope for flight remained to anyone.

[29] Tum Fabius, primo clamore pauentium audito, dein conspecta procul turbata acie, "ita est" inquit; "non celerius quam timui deprendit fortuna temeritatem. Fabio aequatus imperio Hannibalem et uirtute et fortuna superiorem uidet. Sed aliud iurgandi suscensendique tempus erit: nunc signa extra uallum proferte; uictoriam hosti extorqueamus, confessionem erroris ciuibus". Iam magna ex parte caesis aliis, aliis circumspectantibus fugam, Fabiana se acies repente uelut caelo demissa ad auxilium ostendit.

[29] Then Fabius, when first the shout of the panic-stricken was heard, then, when the battle-line, seen from afar, was in turmoil, said, "so it is; no more quickly than I feared has Fortune caught rashness. The man equated with Fabius in imperium sees Hannibal superior both in virtue and in fortune. But there will be another time for wrangling and resentful anger: now carry the standards outside the rampart; let us extort victory from the enemy, a confession of error from our fellow citizens." By now, with some for the greatest part cut down, others looking round for flight, the Fabian line suddenly showed itself, as if sent down from heaven, for aid.

Itaque priusquam ad coniectum teli ueniret aut manum consereret, et suos a fuga effusa et ab nimis feroci pugna hostes continuit. Qui solutis ordinibus uage dissipati erant undique confugerunt ad integram aciem; qui plures simul terga dederant conuersi in hostem uoluentesque orbem nunc sensim referre pedem, nunc conglobati restare. Ac iam prope una acies facta erat uicti atque integri exercitus inferebantque signa in hostem, cum Poenus receptui cecinit, palam ferente Hannibale ab se Minucium, se ab Fabio uictum.

Accordingly, before he came within the cast of a missile or joined battle hand to hand, he restrained both his own men from a poured-out flight and the enemy from a too ferocious fight. Those whose ranks had been loosened and who were in loose disorder scattered wanderedly, from all sides took refuge with the intact line; those who had turned their backs together in greater numbers wheeled about against the enemy, and, wheeling the circle, now gradually drew back a step, now, massed together, stood fast. And now almost one single battle-line had been made of the beaten and the intact army, and they were bearing their standards against the enemy, when the Carthaginian sounded the retreat, Hannibal openly declaring that Minucius had been overcome by himself, and he himself by Fabius.

Ita per uariam fortunam diei maiore parte exacta cum in castra reditum esset, Minucius conuocatis militibus "saepe ego" inquit, "audiui, milites, eum primum esse uirum qui ipse consulat quid in rem sit, secundum eum qui bene monenti oboediat; qui nec ipse consulere nec alteri parere sciat, eum extremi ingenii esse. Nobis quoniam prima animi ingeniique negata sors est, secundam ac mediam teneamus et, dum imperare discimus, parere prudenti in animum inducamus. Castra cum Fabio iungamus.

Thus, through the varied fortune of the day, with the greater part spent and a return made to camp, Minucius, having called the soldiers together, said: "I have often heard, soldiers, that he is the first man who consults for himself what is to the advantage; the second, he who obeys one advising well; he who neither can consult for himself nor knows how to obey another is a man of the lowest intelligence. Since to us the first place of spirit and genius has been denied by lot, let us hold the second and the middle, and, while we are learning to command, let us bring ourselves to obey the prudent man. Let us join our camp with Fabius."

Ad praetorium eius signa cum tulerimus, ubi ego eum parentem appellauero, quod beneficio eius erga nos ac maiestate eius dignum est, uos, milites, eos quorum uos modo arma dexterae texerunt patronos salutabitis, et, si nihil aliud, gratorum certe nobis animorum gloriam dies hic dederit."

"When we have borne the standards to his praetorium, where I shall call him ‘father,’ as is worthy of his beneficence toward us and his majesty, you, soldiers, will salute as patrons those whose right hands just now protected your arms; and, if nothing else, this day will certainly have given to us the glory of grateful hearts."

[30] Signo dato conclamatur inde ut colligantur uasa. Profecti et agmine incedentes in dictatoris castra in admirationem et ipsum et omnes qui circa erant conuerterunt. Vt constituta sunt ante tribunal signa, progressus ante alios magister equitum, cum patrem Fabium appellasset circumfusosque militum eius totum agmen patronos consalutasset, "parentibus" inquit, "meis, dictator, quibus te modo nomine quod fando possum aequaui, uitam tantum debeo, tibi cum meam salutem, tum omnium horum.

[30] At the signal being given, the shout is raised thereupon that the baggage be collected. Having set out and marching in a column into the dictator’s camp, they turned both himself and all who were around into admiration. When the standards were set up before the tribunal, the master of the horse, having advanced before the others, when he had addressed Fabius as “father” and had hailed as “patrons” the whole column of his soldiers massed around, said: “To my parents, dictator—whom just now by name, so far as speaking allows, I have equated with you—I owe only life; to you I owe both my own safety and that of all these.”

Itaque plebei scitum, quo oneratus [sum] magis quam honoratus, primus antiquo abrogoque et, quod exercitibus his tuis quod tibi mihique seruato ac conseruatori sit felix, sub imperium auspiciumque tuum redeo et signa haec legionesque restituo. tu, quaeso, placatus me magisterium equitum, hos ordines suos quemque tenere iubeas". Tum dextrae interiunctae militesque contione dimissa ab notis ignotisque benigne atque hospitaliter inuitati laetusque dies ex admodum tristi paulo ante ac prope exsecrabili factus. Romae, ut est perlata fama rei gestae, dein litteris non magis ipsorum imperatorum quam uolgo militum ex utroque exercitu adfirmata, pro se quisque Maximum laudibus ad caelum ferre.

Therefore the plebiscite, by which I have been burdened rather than honored, I, the first, reject and abrogate; and—may it be fortunate for these your armies, for you, and for me saved and preserver—I return under your imperium and auspices and restore these standards and legions. You, I pray, when appeased, order that I retain the Mastership of the Horse, and that these men each keep his own ranks." Then right hands were joined, and, the assembly dismissed, the soldiers were kindly and hospitably invited by acquaintances and by strangers, and the day, a little before very gloomy and well-nigh execrable, was made joyous. At Rome, when the report of the deed done was conveyed, then by letters confirmed not so much by the generals themselves as by the common soldiery from both armies, each man, for his part, was bearing Maximus to the sky with praises.

Par gloria apud Hannibalem hostesque Poenos erat; ac tum demum sentire cum Romanis atque in Italia bellum esse; nam biennio ante adeo et duces Romanos et milites spreuerant, ut uix cum eadem gente bellum esse crederent cuius terribilem [eam] famam a patribus accepissent. Hannibalem quoque ex acie redeuntem dixisse ferunt tandem eam nubem, quae sedere in iugis montium solita sit, cum procella imbrem dedisse.

Equal glory was on the side of Hannibal and the Punic enemy; and only then did they realize that there was war with the Romans and in Italy; for two years before they had so spurned both the Roman commanders and the soldiers that they scarcely believed there was war with the same nation whose terrible fame they had received from their fathers. They report that Hannibal too, returning from the battle-line, said that at last that cloud, which was wont to sit on the ridges of the mountains, had with a squall given rain.

[31] Dum haec geruntur in Italia, Cn. Seruilius Geminus consul cum classe [centum uiginti] nauium circumuectus Sardiniae et Corsicae oram, et obsidibus utrimque acceptis in Africam transmisit et, priusquam in continentem escensiones faceret, Menige insula uastata et ab incolentibus Cercinam, ne et ipsorum ureretur diripereturque ager, decem talentis argenti acceptis ad litora Africae accessit copiasque exposuit. Inde ad populandum agrum ducti milites naualesque socii iuxta effusi ac si [in] insulis cultorum egentibus praedarentur. Itaque in insidias temere inlati, cum a frequentibus palantes et locorum ignari ab gnaris circumuenirentur, cum multa caede ac foeda fuga retro ad naues compulsi sunt.

[31] While these things are being done in Italy, Cn. Servilius Geminus, consul, with a fleet of [one hundred twenty] ships, having coasted around the shore of Sardinia and Corsica, and hostages having been taken from both, crossed over into Africa; and, before he made landings on the continent, the island of Meninx having been laid waste and from the inhabitants of Cercina—lest their own fields be burned and plundered—ten talents of silver having been received, he approached the shores of Africa and put his forces ashore. From there the soldiers and the naval allies, led out to ravage the countryside, scattered indiscriminately, as if they were plundering on islands lacking cultivators. And so, rashly borne into ambushes, since, straggling and ignorant of the terrain, they were surrounded by men both numerous and knowing of the places, with much slaughter and a shameful rout they were driven back to the ships.

Ad mille hominum cum Ti. Sempronio Blaeso quaestore amissum, classis ab litoribus hostium plenis trepide soluta in Siciliam cursum tenuit, traditaque Lilybaei T. Otacilio praetori, ut ab legato eius P. Cincio Romam reduceretur. Ipse per Siciliam pedibus profectus freto in Italiam traiecit, litteris Q. Fabi accitus et ipse et collega eius M. Atilius, ut exercitus ab se exacto iam prope semenstri imperio acciperent. Omnium prope annales Fabium dictatorem aduersus Hannibalem rem gessisse tradunt; Caelius etiam eum primum a populo creatum dictatorem scribit.

About a thousand men, together with the quaestor Ti. Sempronius Blaesus, were lost; the fleet, loosed in trepidation from shores full of enemies, held its course to Sicily and, delivered at Lilybaeum to the praetor T. Otacilius, was to be brought back to Rome by his legate P. Cincius. He himself, setting out on foot through Sicily, crossed over into Italy by the strait, he and his colleague M. Atilius being summoned by letters of Q. Fabius, in order that they might receive the armies from him, his command of now nearly a half-year being run out. Nearly all the annals relate that Fabius, as dictator, conducted the matter against Hannibal; Caelius even writes that he was the first dictator created by the people.

Sed et Caelium et ceteros fugit uni consuli Cn. Seruilio, qui tum procul in Gallia prouincia aberat, ius fuisse dicendi dictatoris; quam moram quia exspectare territa iam clade ciuitas non poterat, eo decursum esse ut a populo crearetur qui pro dictatore esset; res inde gestas gloriamque insignem ducis et augentes titulum imaginis posteros, ut qui pro dictatore [creatus erat, dictator] crederetur, facile obtinuisse.

But both Caelius and the others failed to notice that the right of naming a dictator belonged to the one consul, Cn. Servilius, who was then far away in his province in Gaul; since the state, already terrified by the disaster, could not await that delay, recourse was had to have a man created by the people to be in place of a dictator; the deeds done thereafter and the distinguished glory of the leader, and descendants who augmented the title of the image, easily brought it about that he who had been created in place of a dictator was believed [to have been created, dictator].

[32] Consules Atilius Fabiano, Geminus Seruilius Minuciano exercitu accepto, hibernaculis mature communitis, [quod reli]quum autumni erat Fabi artibus cum summa inter se concordia bellum gesserunt. Frumentatum exeunti Hannibali diuersis locis opportuni aderant, carpentes agmen palatosque excipientes; in casum uniuersae dimicationis, quam omnibus artibus petebat hostis, non ueniebant, adeoque inopia est coactus Hannibal ut, nisi cum fugae specie abeundum timuisset, Galliam repetiturus fuerit, nulla spe relicta alendi exercitus in eis locis si insequentes consules eisdem artibus bellum gererent. Cum ad Gereonium iam hieme impediente constitisset bellum, Neapolitani legati Romam uenere.

[32] The consuls—Atilius, after receiving Fabius’s army, and Servilius Geminus, after receiving Minucius’s—having promptly fortified their winter quarters, waged war by Fabius’s methods, with the greatest concord between themselves, during [what re]mained of autumn. As Hannibal went out to forage, they were advantageously at hand in diverse places, nibbling at the column and catching those who were scattered; they did not come to the hazard of a general engagement, which the enemy sought by every art. Hannibal was so constrained by lack of supplies that, had he not feared to depart with the appearance of flight, he would have been for returning to Gaul, with no hope left of feeding his army in those regions if the pursuing consuls should wage war by the same arts. When the war had now settled at Gereonium with winter hindering, Neapolitan envoys came to Rome.

Ab iis quadraginta paterae aureae magni ponderis in curiam inlatae atque ita uerba facta ut dicerent: scire sese populi [Romani] aerarium bello exhauriri et, cum iuxta pro urbibus agrisque sociorum ac pro capite atque arce Italiae urbe Romana atque imperio geratur, aequum censuisse Neapolitanos, quod auri sibi cum ad templorum ornatum tum ad subsidium fortunae a maioribus relictum foret, eo iuuare populum Romanum. Si quam opem in sese crederent, eodem studio fuisse oblaturos. Gratum sibi patres Romanos populumque facturum si omnes res Neapolitanorum suas duxissent, dignosque iudicauerint ab quibus donum animo ac uoluntate eorum qui libentes darent quam re maius ampliusque acciperent.

By them 40 golden libation-bowls of great weight were brought into the curia, and words were thus spoken to the effect that they said: that they knew the treasury of the [Roman] people was being exhausted by war, and that, since the war was being waged close at hand for the cities and fields of the allies and for the head and citadel of Italy—the Roman city and the empire—the Neapolitans had judged it equitable to aid the Roman people with that gold which had been left to them by their ancestors both for the adornment of temples and as a reserve of fortune. If they believed any help lay in themselves, they would with the same zeal have offered it. They would take it as a favor if the Roman senators and people would reckon all the interests of the Neapolitans as their own, and would judge them worthy, from whom they would receive a gift greater and more ample in spirit and goodwill on the part of those who gladly gave than in the thing itself.

Legatis gratiae actae pro munificentia curaque; patera, quae ponderis minimi fuit, accepta.

Thanks were given to the envoys for their munificence and care; the patera, which was of the least weight, was accepted.

[33] Per eosdem dies speculator Carthaginiensis, qui per biennium fefellerat, Romae deprensus praecisisque manibus dimissus, et serui quinque et uiginti in crucem acti, quod in campo Martio coniurassent; indici data libertas et aeris grauis uiginti milia. Legati et ad Philippum Macedonum regem missi ad deposcendum Demetrium Pharium, qui bello uictus ad eum fugisset, et alii [in] Ligures ad expostulandum quod Poenum opibus auxiliisque suis iuuissent, simul ad uisendum ex propinquo quae in Boiis atque Insubribus gererentur. Ad Pinnem quoque regem in Illyrios legati missi ad stipendium, cuius dies exierat, poscendum aut, si diem proferri uellet, obsides accipiendos.

[33] During those same days a Carthaginian spy, who had deceived them for two years, was caught at Rome and, his hands cut off, was released; and twenty-five slaves were crucified because they had conspired on the Campus Martius; to the informer freedom was given and twenty thousand asses of heavy bronze. Envoys were also sent to Philip, king of the Macedonians, to demand Demetrius of Pharos, who, defeated in war, had fled to him; and others to the Ligurians to remonstrate because they had helped the Carthaginian with their resources and aids, at the same time to survey from close at hand what was being done among the Boii and the Insubres. To King Pinnes likewise in Illyria envoys were sent to demand the tribute, whose due date had expired, or, if he wished the date to be extended, to receive hostages.

Adeo, etsi bellum ingens in ceruicibus erat, nullius usquam terrarum rei cura Romanos, ne longinquae quidem effugiebat. In religionem etiam uenit aedem Concordiae, quam per seditionem militarem biennio ante L. Manlius praetor in Gallia uouisset, locatam ad id tempus non esse. Itaque duumuiri ad eam rem creati a M. Aemilio praetore urbano, C. Pupius et Caeso Quinctius Flamininus, aedem in arce faciendam locauerunt.

So much so that, although a huge war was upon their necks, the care of no affair anywhere on earth escaped the Romans, not even of those far-distant. It even came into religion that the temple of Concord, which L. Manlius, praetor in Gaul, had vowed during a military sedition two years before, had not up to that time been contracted. And so duumvirs were created for that matter by M. Aemilius, the urban praetor—C. Pupius and Caeso Quinctius Flamininus—who let out on contract the construction of the temple on the citadel.

Ab eodem praetore ex senatus consulto litterae ad consules missae ut, si iis uideretur, alter eorum ad consules creandos Romam ueniret; se in eam diem quam iussissent comitia edicturum. Ad haec a consulibus rescriptum sine detrimento rei publicae abscedi non posse ab hoste; itaque per interregem comitia habenda esse potius quam consul alter a bello auocaretur. Patribus rectius uisum est dictatorem a consule dici comitiorum habendorum causa.

From the same praetor, by decree of the senate, letters were sent to the consuls, that, if it seemed good to them, one of them should come to Rome to create the consuls; that he would proclaim the comitia for whatever day they had ordered. To these things the consuls wrote back that they could not withdraw from the enemy without detriment to the republic; and so the comitia ought rather to be held through an interrex than that one of the consuls be called away from the war. To the Fathers it seemed more correct that a dictator be named by the consul for the purpose of holding the comitia.

Dictus L. Veturius Philo M. Pomponium Mathonem magistrum equitum dixit. Iis uitio creatis iussisque die quarto decimo se magistratu abdicare, ad interregnum res rediit.

Appointed, Lucius Veturius Philo named Marcus Pomponius Matho master of the horse. As they had been created with a flaw and were ordered to abdicate their magistracy on the fourteenth day, the matter returned to an interregnum.

[34] Consulibus prorogatum in annum imperium. Interreges proditi sunt a patribus C. Claudius Appi filius Cento, inde P. Cornelius Asina. In eius interregno comitia habita magno certamine patrum ac plebis.

[34] The consuls had their imperium prorogued for a year. Interreges were put forward by the patres: C. Claudius Cento, son of Appius, then P. Cornelius Asina. In his interregnum the elections (comitia) were held with a great contest between the patricians and the plebs.

C. Terentio Varroni, quem sui generis hominem, plebi insectatione principum popularibusque artibus conciliatum, ab Q. Fabi opibus et dictatorio imperio concusso aliena inuidia splendentem uolgus extrahere ad consulatum nitebatur, patres summa ope obstabant ne se insectando sibi aequari adsuescerent homines. Q. Baebius Herennius tribunus plebis, cognatus C. Terenti, criminando non senatum modo sed etiam augures, quod dictatorem prohibuissent comitia perficere, per inuidiam eorum fauorem candidato suo conciliabat: ab hominibus nobilibus, per multos annos bellum quaerentibus, Hannibalem in Italiam adductum; ab iisdem, cum debellari possit, fraude bellum trahi. Cum quattuor legionibus uniuersis pugnari posse apparuisset eo quod M. Minucius absente Fabio prospere pugnasset, duas legiones hosti ad caedem obiectas, deinde ex ipsa caede ereptas ut pater patronusque appellaretur qui prius uincere prohibuisset Romanos quam uinci.

Against Gaius Terentius Varro—an everyman of his own sort, won over to the plebs by assailing the leading men and by popular arts, battered by the resources and dictatorial imperium of Quintus Fabius yet gleaming with another’s odium, whom the mob was striving to drag out to the consulship—the Fathers with all their might stood in the way, lest by being attacked they accustom men to make themselves their equals. Quintus Baebius Herennius, tribune of the plebs, a kinsman of Gaius Terentius, by arraigning not only the senate but even the augurs, because they had forbidden the dictator to complete the comitia, was winning favor for his candidate through their unpopularity: that by nobles, who for many years had been seeking a war, Hannibal had been brought into Italy; by these same men, when it could be brought to an end, the war was being prolonged by fraud. Since it had become apparent that with all four legions together battle could be joined, for the reason that Marcus Minucius had fought successfully in Fabius’s absence, two legions had been thrown to the enemy for slaughter, then snatched back from that very slaughter, in order that he might be called “father and patron” who had earlier forbidden the Romans to conquer than to be conquered.

Consules deinde Fabianis artibus, cum debellare possent, bellum traxisse. Id foedus inter omnes nobiles ictum nec finem ante belli habituros quam consulem uere plebeium, id est, hominem nouum fecissent; nam plebeios nobiles iam eisdem initiatos esse sacris et contemnere plebem, ex quo contemni patribus desierint, coepisse. Cui non apparere id actum et quaesitum esse ut interregnum iniretur, ut in patrum potestate comitia essent?

Then the consuls, by Fabian arts, although they could have put an end to the war, prolonged the war. That compact was struck among all the nobles, that they would have no end of the war before they had made a consul truly plebeian, that is, a new man (novus homo); for the plebeian nobles, now initiated into the same sacred rites, had begun to contemn the plebs, from the time they ceased to be contemned by the patres. To whom is it not apparent that this was done and contrived so that an interregnum might be entered upon, in order that the comitia might be in the power of the patres?

Id consules ambos ad exercitum morando quaesisse; id postea, quia inuitis iis dictator esset dictus comitiorum causa, expugnatum esse ut uitiosus dictator per augures fieret. Habere igitur interregnum eos; consulatum unum certe plebis Romanae esse; populum liberum habiturum ac daturum ei qui [magis] uere uincere quam diu imperare malit.

That both consuls had sought this by lingering with the army; that afterwards, because a dictator had been named for the sake of the elections against their will, it was forced through that a faulty (vitiosus) dictator be made by the augurs. Therefore they have an interregnum; that at least one consulship surely belongs to the Roman plebs; that the people, being free, will hold it and will bestow it upon the one who would prefer [more] truly to conquer than to wield command for long.

[35] Cum his orationibus accensa plebs esset, tribus patriciis petentibus, P. Cornelio Merenda L. Manlio Volsone M. Aemilio Lepido, duobus nobilium iam familiarum plebeiis, C. Atilio Serrano et Q. Aelio Paeto, quorum alter pontifex, alter augur erat, C. Terentius consul unus creatur, ut in manu eius essent comitia rogando collegae. Tum experta nobilitas parum fuisse uirium in competitoribus eius, L. Aemilium Paulum, qui cum M. Liuio consul fuerat et damnatione collegae sui prope ambustus euaserat, infestum plebei, diu ac multum recusantem ad petitionem compellit. Is proximo comitiali die concedentibus omnibus, qui cum Varrone certauerant, par magis in aduersandum quam collega datur consuli.

[35] When the plebs had been inflamed by these speeches, with three patricians seeking the office—P. Cornelius Merenda, L. Manlius Volso, M. Aemilius Lepidus—and two plebeians of families now noble, C. Atilius Serranus and Q. Aelius Paetus, of whom the one was a pontiff, the other an augur, C. Terentius is elected sole consul, so that the elections for choosing a colleague might be in his hand. Then the nobility, having found that there had been too little strength in his competitors, compels L. Aemilius Paulus—who had been consul with M. Livius and had escaped, all but scorched, by the condemnation of his colleague—hostile to the plebs and long and much refusing, to stand for the office. He, on the next comitial day, with all who had contended with Varro yielding, is given to the consul as a colleague, a match more for opposing than for partnering.

Inde praetorum comitia habita. Creati M. Pomponius Matho et P. Furius [Philus]; Philo Romae iuri dicundo urbana sors, Pomponio inter ciues Romanos et peregrinos euenit; additi duo praetores, M. Claudius Marcellus in Siciliam, L. Postumius Albinus in Galliam. Omnes absentes creati sunt nec cuiquam eorum praeter Terentium consulem mandatus honos quem non iam antea gessisset, praeteritis aliquot fortibus ac strenuis uiris, quia in tali tempore nulli nouus magistratus uidebatur mandandus.

Then the elections of the praetors were held. M. Pomponius Matho and P. Furius [Philus] were elected; to Philo the urban lot fell for pronouncing law at Rome, to Pomponius the one for cases between Roman citizens and peregrines; two praetors were added, M. Claudius Marcellus for Sicily, L. Postumius Albinus for Gaul. All were elected in absentia, and to none of them, except the consul Terentius, was an honor entrusted which he had not already previously borne, with some brave and strenuous men passed over, because in such a time a new magistracy seemed fit to be entrusted to no one.

[36] Exercitus quoque multiplicati sunt; quantae autem copiae peditum equitumque additae sint adeo et numero et genere copiarum uariant auctores, ut uix quicquam satis certum adfirmare ausus sim. Decem milia nouorum militum alii scripta in supplementum, alii nouas quattuor legiones ut octo legionibus rem gererent; numero quoque peditum equitumque legiones auctas milibus peditum et centenis equitibus in singulas adiectis, ut quina milia peditum, treceni equites essent, socii duplicem numerum equitum darent, peditis aequarent, septem et octoginta milia armatorum et ducentos in castris Romanis [fuisse] cum pugnatum ad Cannas est quidam auctores sunt. Illud haudquaquam discrepat maiore conatu atque impetu rem actam quam prioribus annis, quia spem posse uinci hostem dictator praebuerat.

[36] The armies too were multiplied; but as to how many forces of infantry and cavalry were added, the authors vary so much both in the number and in the kind of forces that I scarcely dare to affirm anything sufficiently certain. Some say that ten thousand new soldiers were enrolled as a supplement; others, that four new legions were raised, so that the business might be conducted with eight legions. Also, in the number of infantry and cavalry the legions were increased, thousands of infantry and hundreds of horsemen being added to each, so that there were five thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry; the allies were to furnish a double number of horse and to equal the foot. Some authors assert that there were seventy‑eight thousand and two hundred armed men in the Roman camps [to have been] when it was fought at Cannae. This, however, does not at all differ: that the matter was carried on with greater effort and impetus than in prior years, because the dictator had offered hope that the enemy could be conquered.

Ceterum priusquam signa ab urbe nouae legiones mouerent, decemuiri libros adire atque inspicere iussi propter territos uolgo homines nouis prodigiis. Nam et Romae in Auentino et Ariciae nuntiatum erat sub idem tempus lapidibus pluuisse, et multo cruore signa in Sabinis, Caeretes aquas [fonte callidos] manasse; id quidem etiam, quod saepius acciderat, magis terrebat; et in uia fornicata, quae ad Campum erat, aliquot homines de caelo tacti exanimatique fuerant. Ea prodigia ex libris procurata.

But before the new legions should move their standards from the city, the decemvirs were ordered to go to and inspect the books, because the common people were alarmed by new prodigies. For both at Rome on the Aventine and at Aricia it had been reported that at about the same time it had rained stones, and that the statues in the Sabine country ran with much blood, and that at Caere waters [hot from a spring] had flowed; that indeed also, because it had happened more often, terrified the more; and in the arched way which was toward the Field, several men had been struck from the sky and killed. These prodigies were expiated from the books.

Legati a Paesto pateras aureas Romam attulerunt. Iis, sicut Neapolitanis, gratiae actae, aurum non acceptum.

Legates from Paestum brought golden paterae to Rome. To them, as to the Neapolitans, thanks were given; the gold was not accepted.

[37] Per eosdem dies ab Hierone classis Ostia cum magno commeatu accessit. legati in senatum introducti nuntiarunt caedem C. Flamini consulis exercitusque allatam adeo aegre tulisse regem Hieronem ut nulla sua propria regnique sui clade moueri magis potuerit. Itaque, quamquam probe sciat magnitudinem populi Romani admirabiliorem prope aduersis rebus quam secundis esse, tamen se omnia quibus a bonis fidelibusque sociis bella iuuari soleant misisse; quae ne accipere abnuant magno opere se patres conscriptos orare.

[37] In those same days a fleet from Hieron put in at Ostia with a great convoy of supplies. The legates, introduced into the senate, announced that King Hieron had taken so grievously the report of the slaughter of the consul Gaius Flaminius and of his army that by no personal disaster to himself or to his kingdom could he have been more moved. Therefore, although he knows full well that the greatness of the Roman people is almost more admirable in adverse circumstances than in prosperous, nevertheless he has sent everything with which wars are wont to be aided by good and faithful allies; and he earnestly begs the Conscript Fathers not to refuse to accept these things.

Iam omnium primum ominis causa Victoriam auream pondo ducentum ac uiginti adferre sese. Acciperent eam tenerentque et haberent propriam et perpetuam. Aduexisse etiam trecenta milia modium tritici, ducenta hordei, ne commeatus deessent, et quantum praeterea opus esset quo iussissent subuecturos.

First of all, for the sake of an omen, they were bringing a Golden Victory weighing two hundred and twenty pounds. Let them receive it, keep it, and hold it as their own and perpetual. They had also conveyed three hundred thousand modii of wheat and two hundred thousand of barley, lest provisions be lacking; and whatever else there was need of, to whatever place they should order, they would bring up.

Milite atque equite scire nisi Romano Latinique nominis non uti populum Romanum: leuium armorum auxilia etiam externa uidisse in castris Romanis. Itaque misisse mille sagittariorum ac funditorum, aptam manum aduersus Baliares ac Mauros pugnacesque alias missili telo gentes. Ad ea dona consilium quoque addebant ut praetor, cui prouincia Sicilia euenisset, classem in Africam traiceret, ut et hostes in terra sua bellum haberent minusque laxamenti daretur iis ad auxilia Hannibali summittenda.

That in soldiery and in cavalry the Roman people used none save of the Roman and the Latin name; that light-armed auxiliaries, even foreign, had been seen in Roman camps. Accordingly he had sent a thousand archers and slingers, a band apt against the Balearics and the Moors and other pugnacious nations who fight with the missile weapon. To these gifts they were adding counsel as well: that the praetor to whom the province of Sicily had fallen should carry a fleet over into Africa, so that the enemies too might have the war in their own land, and less leeway be given them for sending auxiliaries to Hannibal.

Ab senatu ita responsum regi est: uirum bonum egregiumque socium Hieronem esse atque uno tenore, ex quo in amicitiam populi Romani uenerit, fidem coluisse ac rem Romanam omni tempore ac loco munifice adiuuisse. Id perinde ac deberet gratum populo Romano esse. aurum et a ciuitatibus quibusdam allatum, gratia rei accepta, non accepisse populum Romanum; Victoriam omenque accipere sedemque ei se diuae dare dicare Capitolium, templum Iouis optimi maximi, in ea arce urbis Romanae sacratam uolentem propitiamque, firmam ac stabilem fore populo Romano.

Thus the senate replied to the king: that Hiero is a good man and an outstanding ally, and, with uniform tenor, from the time he came into the friendship of the Roman People, he has cultivated good faith and has munificently aided the Roman commonwealth at every time and place. That, just as it ought, is pleasing to the Roman People. The Roman People, gratitude for the act being accepted, did not accept the gold—even that brought by certain communities; they accept Victory and the omen, and they give and dedicate to that goddess a seat—the Capitol, the temple of Jupiter Best and Greatest—consecrated in that citadel of the Roman city; and that she, willing and propitious, will be firm and stable for the Roman People.

Funditores sagittariique et frumentum traditum consulibus. quinqueremes ad [quinquaginta] nauium classem quae cum T. Otacilio propratore in Sicilia erat quinque et uiginti additae, permissumque est ut, si e re publica censeret esse, in Africam traiceret.

Slingers, archers, and grain were handed over to the consuls. To the fleet of [50] ships which was with T. Otacilius, propraetor, in Sicily, twenty-five quinqueremes were added, and it was permitted that, if he judged it to be in the interest of the Republic, he should cross over into Africa.

[38] Dilectu perfecto consules paucos morati dies dum ab sociis ac nomine Latino uenirent milites. Tum, quod nunquam antea factum erat, iure iurando ab tribunis militum adacti milites; nam ad eam diem nihil praeter sacramentum fuerat iussu consulum conuenturos neque iniussu abituros; et ubi ad decuriandum aut centuriandum conuenissent, sua uoluntate ipsi inter sese decuriati equites, centuriati pedites coniurabant sese fugae atque formidinis ergo non abituros neque ex ordine recessuros nisi teli sumendi aut petendi et aut hostis feriendi aut ciuis seruandi causa. Id ex uoluntario inter ipsos foedere ad tribunos ac legitimam iuris iurandi adactionem translatum.

[38] With the levy perfected, the consuls delayed a few days while soldiers were coming from the allies and from the Latin Name. Then, what had never before been done, the soldiers were bound by oath by the military tribunes; for up to that day nothing beyond the sacramentum had existed: that they would assemble at the order of the consuls and would not depart without an order; and when they had convened for decuriating or centuriating, of their own will they themselves, the horsemen decuriated, the foot-soldiers centuriated, swore together that on account of flight and fear they would not depart nor leave their rank, except for the purpose of taking up or seeking a missile, and either striking an enemy or saving a citizen. This, from a voluntary pact among themselves, was transferred to the tribunes and to a lawful administration of oath-taking.

Contiones, priusquam ab urbe signa mouerentur, consulis Varronis multae ac feroces fuere denuntiantis bellum arcessitum in Italiam ab nobilibus mansurumque in uisceribus rei publicae, si plures Fabios imperatores haberet, se quo die hostem uidisset perfecturum. Collegae eius Pauli una, pridie quam ex urbe proficisceretur, contio fuit, uerior quam gratior populo, qua nihil inclementer in Varronem dictum nisi id modo mirari se quidni qui dux priusquam aut suum aut hostium exercitum locorum situm naturam regionis nosset, iam nunc togatus in urbe sciret quae sibi agenda armato forent, [et] diem quoque praedicere posset qua cum hoste signis conlatis esset dimicaturus: se, quae consilia magis res dent hominibus quam homines rebus, ea ante tempus immatura non praecepturum; optare ut quae caute ac consulte gesta essent satis prospere euenirent; temeritatem, praeterquam quod stulta sit, infelicem etiam ad id locorum fuisse. Et sua sponte apparebat tuta celeribus consiliis praepositurum, et, quo id constantius perseueraret, Q. Fabius Maximus sic eum proficiscentem adlocutus fertur.

The assemblies, before the standards were moved from the city, of the consul Varro were many and fierce, proclaiming that the war had been summoned into Italy by the nobles and would abide in the very vitals of the commonwealth, if it should have more Fabii as commanders; he himself would finish it on the day he had seen the enemy. His colleague Paulus had one assembly, the day before he set out from the city, truer rather than more pleasing to the people, in which nothing was said harshly against Varro, save only this he marveled at: why the leader—before he had come to know either his own or the enemy’s army, the lie of the places, the nature of the region—already now, in toga in the city, knew what things must be done by him under arms, [and] could even proclaim the day on which he was going to fight with the enemy with standards joined. He would not, before the time, lay down immature precepts for those plans which situations rather give to men than men to situations; he wished that what had been done cautiously and with deliberate counsel might turn out prosperously enough; rashness, besides being foolish, had also up to that time been unfortunate. And it was apparent of itself that he would prefer the safe to the swift counsels; and, that he might the more steadfastly persevere in this, Q. Fabius Maximus is said thus to have addressed him as he was setting out.

[39] "Si aut collegam, id quod mallem, tui similem, L. Aemili, haberes aut tu collegae tui esses similis, superuacanea esset oratio mea; nam et duo boni consules, etiam me indicente, omnia e re publica fide uestra faceretis, et mali nec mea uerba auribus uestris nec consilia animis acciperetis. Nunc et collegam tuum et te talem uirum intuenti mihi tecum omnis oratio est, quem uideo nequiquam et uirum bonum et ciuem fore, si altera parte claudente re publica malis consiliis idem ac bonis iuris et potestatis erit. erras enim, L. Paule, si tibi minus certaminis cum C. Terentio quam cum Hannibale futurum censes; nescio an infestior hic aduersarius quam ille hostis maneat; cum illo in acie tantum, cum hoc omnibus locis ac temporibus certaturus es; aduersus Hannibalem legionesque eius tuis equitibus ac peditibus pugnandum tibi est, Varro dux tuis militibus te est oppugnaturus.

[39] "If either you had, which I would prefer, a colleague like yourself, Lucius Aemilius, or you yourself were like your colleague, my speech would be superfluous; for as two good consuls, even if I did not indicate it, you would do everything for the commonwealth in your good faith, and as bad, neither my words would you receive with your ears nor my counsels with your minds. Now, as I look at both your colleague and you, such a man, all my speech is with you, whom I see will be in vain both a good man and a citizen, if, with the commonwealth limping on one side through bad counsels, the same right and power shall belong to the bad as to the good. You err, Lucius Paulus, if you suppose there will be less of a contest for you with Gaius Terentius than with Hannibal; I know not whether this adversary will prove more hostile than that enemy; with that one you will contend only in the battle-line, with this one you will contend in all places and at all times; against Hannibal and his legions you must fight with your cavalry and infantry, Varro as commander is going to assault you with your own soldiers.

Ominis etiam tibi causa absit C. Flamini memoria. Tamen ille consul demum et in prouincia et ad exercitum coepit furere: hic, priusquam peteret consulatum, deinde in petendo consulatu, nunc quoque consul, priusquam castra uideat aut hostem, insanit. Et qui tantas iam nunc procellas proelia atque acies iactando inter togatos ciet, quid inter armatam iuuentutem censes facturum et ubi extemplo res uerba sequitur?

Let the memory of C. Flaminius be no omen to you as well. Yet that consul only then began to rave—both in his province and at the army; this man, before he sought the consulship, then in seeking the consulship, now also as consul, before he sees a camp or an enemy, is raving. And he who already now, by vaunting battles and battle-lines among the toga-clad, is stirring up such tempests—what do you think he will do among an armed youth, where straightway deed follows word?

Atqui si hic, quod facturum se denuntiat, extemplo pugnauerit, aut ego rem militarem, belli hoc genus, hostem hunc ignoro, aut nobilior alius Trasumenno locus nostris cladibus erit. Nec gloriandi tempus aduersus unum est, et ego contemnendo potius quam appetendo gloriam modum excesserim; sed ita res se habet: una ratio belli gerendi aduersus Hannibalem est qua ego gessi. Nec euentus modo hoc docet—stultorum iste magister est—sed eadem ratio, quae fuit futuraque donec res eaedem manebunt, immutabilis est.

But if this man, as he gives warning that he will do, fights forthwith, either I am ignorant of the military art, of this genus of war, of this enemy, or there will be some place more notorious than Trasimene for our disasters. Nor is it a time for glorying against a single man, and I would have exceeded the measure in despising glory rather than in seeking it; but thus the matter stands: there is one method of waging war against Hannibal—the one by which I have waged it. Nor does the outcome alone teach this—that is the teacher of fools—but the same rationale, which has been and will be, so long as the same conditions remain, is immutable.

In Italia bellum gerimus, in sede ac solo nostro; omnia circa plena ciuium ac sociorum sunt; armis, uiris, equis, commeatibus iuuant iuuabuntque,—id iam fidei documentum in aduersis rebus nostris dederunt; meliores, prudentiores, constantiores nos tempus diesque facit. Hannibal contra in aliena, in hostili est terra inter omnia inimica infestaque, procul ab domo, ab patria; neque illi terra neque mari est pax; nullae eum urbes accipiunt, nulla moenia; nihil usquam sui uidet, in diem rapto uiuit; partem uix tertiam exercitus eius habet quem Hiberum amnem traiecit; plures fame quam ferro absumpti; nec his paucis iam uictus suppeditat. Dubitas ergo quin sedendo superaturi simus eum qui senescat in dies, non commeatus, non supplementum, non pecuniam habeat?

In Italy we wage war, on our own seat and soil; all around is full of citizens and allies; with arms, men, horses, provisions they aid and will aid,—of this they have already given a proof of fidelity in our adverse circumstances; time and the days make us better, more prudent, more constant. Hannibal, by contrast, is in a foreign, hostile land amid all things inimical and infested, far from home, from his fatherland; neither on land nor at sea is there peace for him; no cities receive him, no walls; he sees nothing anywhere of his own, he lives day by day on plunder; he has scarcely a third part of the army with which he crossed the river Iberus; more have been consumed by hunger than by iron; nor now do victuals suffice even for these few. Do you then doubt that by sitting still we shall overmaster him, who grows old day by day, and has neither supplies, nor reinforcement, nor money?

Quamdiu pro Gereoni, castelli Apuliae inopis, tamquam pro Carthaginis moenibus sedet? Ne aduersus te quidem de me gloriabor: Seruilius atque Atilius, proximi consules, uide quemadmodum eum ludificati sint. Haec una salutis est uia, L. Paule, quam difficilem infestamque ciues tibi magis quam hostes facient.

How long does he sit encamped at Geronium, a poor little castle of Apulia, as though for the walls of Carthage? Nor will I, not even against you, boast of myself: see how Servilius and Atilius, the most recent consuls, have made sport of him. This is the one path of safety, L. Paule, which your fellow citizens will make for you more difficult and more hostile than your enemies will.

Idem enim tui quod hostium milites uolent; idem Varro consul Romanus quod Hannibal Poenus imperator cupiet. Duobus ducibus unus resistas oportet. Resistes autem, aduersus famam rumoresque hominum si satis firmus steteris, si te neque collegae uana gloria neque tua falsa infamia mouerit.

For your own soldiers will want the same as the enemy’s; likewise Varro, the Roman consul, will desire the same as Hannibal, the Punic commander. Against two commanders, one man must make a stand. And you will stand—against the fame and the rumors of men—if you stand firm enough, if neither your colleague’s vain glory nor your own false infamy moves you.

Veritatem laborare nimis saepe aiunt, exstingui nunquam. Gloriam qui spreuerit, ueram habebit. Sine timidum pro cauto, tardum pro considerato, imbellem pro perito belli uocent.

They say that truth is too often hard-pressed, never extinguished. He who has spurned glory will have the true glory. Let them call you timid in place of cautious, tardy in place of deliberate, unwarlike in place of skilled in war.

Malo te sapiens hostis metuat quam stulti ciues laudent. Omnia audentem contemnet Hannibal, nihil temere agentem metuet. Nec ego ut nihil agatur [hortor] sed ut agentem te ratio ducat, non fortuna; tuae potestatis semper tu tuaque omnia sint; armatus intentusque sis; neque occasioni tuae desis neque suam occasionem hosti des.

I prefer that a wise enemy fear you rather than that foolish citizens praise you. Hannibal will contemn one who dares everything; he will fear one who does nothing rashly. Nor do I [urge] that nothing be done, but that, as you act, reason lead you, not fortune; that you and all yours be always within your own power; that you be armed and intent; and that you neither fail your own occasion nor give the enemy his occasion.

Omnia non properanti clara certaque erunt; festinatio improuida est et caeca."

All things will be clear and certain to one who does not hasten; haste is improvident and blind."

[40] Aduersus ea consulis oratio haud sane laeta fuit, magis fatentis ea quae diceret uera quam facilia factu esse; dictatori magistrum equitum intolerabilem fuisse; quid consuli aduersus collegam seditiosum ac temerarium uirium atque auctoritatis fore? Se populare incendium priore consulatu semustum effugisse; optare ut omnia prospere euenirent; sed si quid aduersi caderet, hostium se telis potius quam suffragiis iratorum ciuium caput obiecturum. Ab hoc sermone profectum Paulum tradunt prosequentibus primoribus patrum: plebeium consulem sua plebes prosecuta, turba conspectior cum dignitates deessent.

[40] Against these proposals the consul’s speech was assuredly not cheerful, confessing rather that the things he said were true than that they were easy to do; that to the dictator the Master of the Horse had been intolerable—what strength and authority would there be for a consul against a seditious and temerarious colleague? He said that in his former consulship he had escaped half-burned from a popular conflagration; he wished that all might turn out prosperously; but if anything adverse should befall, he would expose his head to the weapons of enemies rather than to the suffrages of irate citizens. From this speech, they hand down that Paulus set out, the foremost of the senators accompanying him: the plebeian consul was escorted by his own plebs—a crowd the more conspicuous when dignitaries were lacking.

Vt in castra uenerunt, permixto nouo exercitu ac uetere, castris bifariam factis, ut noua minora essent propius Hannibalem, in ueteribus maior pars et omne robur uirium esset, consulum anni prioris M. Atilium, aetatem excusantem, Romam miserunt, Geminum Seruilium in minoribus castris legioni Romanae et socium peditum equitumque duobus milibus praeficiunt. Hannibal quamquam parte dimidia auctas hostium copias cernebat, tamen aduentu consulum mire gaudere. Non solum enim nihil ex raptis in diem commeatibus superabat sed ne unde raperet quidem quicquam reliqui erat, omni undique frumento, postquam ager parum tutus erat, in urbes munitas conuecto, ut uix decem dierum, quod compertum postea est, frumentum superesset Hispanorumque ob inopiam transitio parata fuerit, si maturitas temporum exspectata foret.

When they came into the camp, with the new army and the old intermingled, the camps having been made in two divisions—so that the new forces, smaller, were nearer to Hannibal, and in the old [camp] the greater part and all the strength of the forces was—they sent to Rome M. Atilius, the consul of the previous year, pleading his age; they put Geminus Servilius in command in the smaller camp over the Roman legion and two thousand of the allies’ infantry and cavalry. Hannibal, although he perceived that the enemy’s forces had been increased by one half, nevertheless rejoiced marvelously at the arrival of the consuls. For not only did nothing remain over from the rations snatched up for the day, but there was not even anything left from which to snatch, since all the grain from every side, after the countryside was insufficiently safe, had been conveyed into fortified cities, so that scarcely ten days’ grain—as was learned afterward—was left; and a crossing-over of the Spaniards, on account of want, would have been ready, if the ripeness of the times had been awaited.

[41] Ceterum temeritati consulis ac praepropero ingenio materiam etiam fortuna dedit, quod in prohibendis praedatoribus tumultuario proelio ac procursu magis militum quam ex praeparato aut iussu imperatorum orto haudquaquam par Poenis dimicatio fuit. Ad mille et septingenti caesi, non plus centum Romanorum sociorumque occisis. Ceterum uictoribus effuse sequentibus metu insidiarum obstitit Paulus consul, cuius eo die—nam alternis imperitabant—imperium erat, Varrone indignante ac uociferante emissum hostem e manibus debellarique ni cessatum foret potuisse.

[41] However, to the consul’s temerity and over-hasty disposition Fortune also supplied material, because, in the attempt to prohibit the raiders, in a tumultuary battle and a sally arising more from the soldiers’ impromptu rush than from any preparation or the command of the generals, the engagement was by no means equal to the Carthaginians. About 1,700 were cut down, with not more than 100 Romans and allies slain. However, as the victors followed in headlong pursuit, the consul Paulus, for fear of ambushes, checked them—whose on that day—for they commanded on alternate days—was the authority in force—while Varro was indignant and vociferating that the enemy had been let slip from their hands and that the war could have been finished off, had there not been delay.

Hannibal id damnum haud aegerrime pati; quin potius credere uelut inescatam temeritatem ferocioris consulis ac nouorum maxime militum esse. Et omnia ei hostium haud secus quam sua nota erant: dissimiles discordesque imperitare, duas prope partes tironum militum in exercitu esse. Itaque locum et tempus insidiis aptum se habere ratus, nocte proxima nihil praeter arma ferente secum milite castra plena omnis fortunae publicae priuataeque relinquit, transque proximos montes laeua pedites instructos condit, dextra equites, impedimenta per conuallem mediam traducit, ut diripiendis uelut desertis fuga dominorum castris occupatum impeditumque hostem opprimeret.

Hannibal endured that loss by no means very grievously; nay rather, he believed that the temerity of the more ferocious consul, and most of all of the new soldiers, had been, as it were, baited. And all the affairs of the enemy were known to him no less than his own: that dissimilar and discordant men held command, that nearly two-thirds of the army were tyros. Therefore, thinking that he had a place and time suitable for an ambush, on the next night, with the soldier carrying with him nothing besides his arms, he leaves the camp full of every sort of public and private property, and, across the nearest hills, he posts the infantry drawn up on the left, the cavalry on the right, and leads the baggage-train through the middle valley, in order that he might overwhelm the enemy, occupied and hampered with despoiling a camp as if deserted by the flight of its masters.

Crebri relicti in castris ignes, ut fides fieret dum ipse longius spatium fuga praeciperet falsa imagine castrorum, sicut Fabium priore anno frustratus esset, tenere in locis consules uoluisse.

Numerous fires were left in the camp, to create the impression, while he himself was securing a longer lead in flight, that by the false image of a camp—just as he had frustrated Fabius the year before—he meant to keep the consuls in their places.

[42] Vbi inluxit, subductae primo stationes, deinde propius adeuntibus insolitum silentium admirationem fecit. Tum satis comperta solitudine in castris concursus fit ad praetoria consulum nuntiantium fugam hostium adeo trepidam ut tabernaculis stantibus castra reliquerint, quoque fuga obscurior esset, crebros etiam relictos ignes. Clamor inde ortus ut signa proferri iuberent ducerentque ad persequendos hostes ac protinus castra diripienda et consul alter uelut unus turbae militaris erat: Paulus etiam atque etiam dicere prouidendum praecauendumque esse; postremo, cum aliter neque seditionem neque ducem seditionis sustinere posset, Marium Statilium praefectum cum turma Lucana exploratum mittit.

[42] When it grew light, the outposts were first withdrawn; then, as they came nearer, an unusual silence caused amazement. Then, the solitude in the camp being sufficiently ascertained, there is a rush to the consuls’ praetoria, announcing a flight of the enemy so panic‑stricken that they had left the camp with the tents still standing, and, that the flight might be more obscured, numerous fires were also left behind. A clamor then arose that the standards be brought forth, that they lead out to pursue the enemies, and straightway to plunder the camp; and one consul was, as it were, a single man of the military mob: Paulus again and again kept saying that provision must be made and precautions taken; finally, since otherwise he could not withstand either the sedition or the leader of the sedition, he sends Marius Statilius, a prefect, with a Lucanian squadron to reconnoiter.

Qui ubi adequitauit portis, subsistere extra munimenta ceteris iussis ipse cum duobus equitibus uallum intrauit speculatusque omnia cum cura renuntiat insidias profecto esse: ignes in parte castrorum quae uergat in hostem relictos; tabernacula aperta et omnia cara in promptu relicta; argentum quibusdam locis temere per uias uel[ut] obiectum ad praedam uidisse. Quae ad deterrendos a cupiditate animos nuntiata erant, ea accenderunt, et clamore orto a militibus, ni signum detur, sine ducibus ituros, haudquaquam dux defuit; nam extemplo Varro signum dedit proficiscendi. Paulus, cum ei sua sponte cunctanti pulli quoque auspicio non addixissent, nuntiari iam efferenti porta signa collegae iussit.

When he had ridden up to the gates, having ordered the rest to halt outside the fortifications, he himself with two horsemen entered within the rampart; and, having reconnoitered everything with care, he reports that there are assuredly ambushes: fires left in that part of the camp which faces toward the enemy; the tents open and all valuables left in plain view; he had seen silver in some places recklessly along the roads, [as if] thrown out for plunder. The very things that had been reported to deter minds from greed inflamed them, and, a shout having arisen from the soldiers that, unless the signal were given, they would go without leaders, by no means was a leader lacking; for at once Varro gave the signal to set out. Paulus, since, as he was delaying of his own accord, the sacred chickens had also not given assent in the auspices, ordered word to be sent to his colleague, who was already carrying the standards out through the gate.

Quod quamquam Varro aegre est passus, Flamini tamen recens casus Claudique consulis primo Punico bello memorata naualis clades religionem animo incussit. Di prope ipsi eo die magis distulere quam prohibuere imminentem pestem Romanis; nam forte ita euenit ut, cum referri signa in castra iubenti consuli milites non parerent, serui duo Formiani unus, alter Sidicini equitis, qui Seruilio atque Atilio consulibus inter pabulatores excepti a Numidis fuerant, profugerent eo die ad dominos; deductique ad consules nuntiant omnem exercitum Hannibalis trans proximos montes sedere in insidiis. Horum opportunus aduentus consules imperii potentes fecit, cum ambitio alterius suam primum apud eos praua indulgentia maiestatem soluisset.

Although Varro bore it with difficulty, yet the recent disaster of Flaminius and the naval calamity of the consul Claudius, remembered from the First Punic War, struck a religious scruple into his mind. The gods themselves that day rather deferred than prevented the imminent pest to the Romans; for it so chanced that, when the soldiers did not obey the consul ordering the standards to be carried back into camp, two slaves—one of a Formian knight, the other of a Sidicinian knight—who, in the consulship of Servilius and Atilius, had been captured among the foragers by Numidians, fled back that day to their masters; and, led to the consuls, they announce that the whole army of Hannibal is sitting in ambush across the nearest hills. Their opportune arrival made the consuls potent in command, whereas the ambition of the other had at first, by a perverse indulgence, loosened their own majesty among the troops.

[43] Hannibal postquam motos magis inconsulte Romanos quam ad ultimum temere euectos uidit, nequiquam detecta fraude in castra rediit. Ibi plures dies propter inopiam frumenti manere nequit, nouaque consilia in dies non apud milites solum mixtos ex conluuione omnium gentium sed etiam apud ducem ipsum oriebantur. Nam cum initio fremitus, deinde aperta uociferatio fuisset exposcentium stipendium debitum querentiumque annonam primo, postremo famem, et mercennarios milites, maxime Hispani generis, de transitione cepisse consilium fama esset, ipse etiam interdum Hannibal de fuga in Galliam dicitur agitasse ita ut relicto peditatu omni cum equitibus se proriperet.

[43] After Hannibal saw that the Romans had been stirred more inconsiderately than carried headlong to the last degree, he returned to camp, his fraud having been detected to no purpose. There he could not remain for many days because of the want of grain, and new counsels were arising day by day not only among the soldiers, mixed from the confluence of all nations, but even in the leader himself. For at the beginning there had been a murmuring, then an open vociferation of those demanding the due stipend and complaining first of the ration, finally of hunger; and there was a report that the mercenary soldiers, especially of the Spanish genus, had taken counsel about a transition; he himself, too, Hannibal, is said at times to have agitated the idea of flight into Gaul, to the point that, leaving all the infantry behind, he would rush off with the cavalry.

Cum haec consilia atque hic habitus animorum esset in castris, mouere inde statuit in calidiora atque eo maturiora messibus Apuliae loca, simul ut, quo longius ab hoste recessisset, eo transfugia impeditiora leuibus ingeniis essent. Profectus est nocte ignibus similiter factis tabernaculisque paucis in speciem relictis, ut insidiarum par priori metus contineret Romanos. Sed per eundem Lucanum Statilium omnibus ultra castra transque montes exploratis, cum relatum esset uisum procul hostium agmen, tum de insequendo eo consilia agitari coepta.

When such counsels and such a temper of spirits were in the camp, he decided to move from there into the warmer and thereby more mature-for-harvest places of Apulia, at the same time in order that, the farther he had withdrawn from the enemy, by so much desertions might be more impeded for light-minded temperaments. He set out by night, with fires likewise maintained and a few tents left behind for show, so that a fear of ambush equal to the former might restrain the Romans. But through that same Lucanus Statilius, after everything beyond the camp and across the mountains had been reconnoitered, when it was reported that the column of the enemy had been seen far off, then deliberations began to be held about pursuing it.

Cum utriusque consulis eadem quae ante semper fuisset sententia, ceterum Varroni fere omnes, Paulo nemo praeter Seruilium, prioris anni consulem, adsentiretur, [ex] maioris partis sententia ad nobilitandas clade Romana Cannas urgente fato profecti sunt. Prope eum uicum Hannibal castra posuerat auersa a Volturno uento, qui campis torridis siccitate nubes pulueris uehit. Id cum ipsis castris percommodum fuit, tum salutare praecipue futurum erat cum aciem dirigerent, ipsi auersi terga tantum adflante uento in occaecatum puluere offuso hostem pugnaturi.

When the opinion of both consuls was the same as it had always been before, but nearly all assented to Varro, and to Paulus no one except Servilius, the consul of the previous year, by the opinion of the greater part they set out for Cannae—fate pressing—to make Cannae renowned by a Roman disaster. Near that village Hannibal had pitched his camp, turned away from the Volturnus wind, which on parched plains by drought carries clouds of dust. This was very convenient for the camp itself, and would be especially salutary when they should draw up the battle-line, since they, turned away, with the wind blowing only on their backs, were to fight an enemy blinded in a dust poured over him.

[44] Consules satis exploratis itineribus sequentes Poenum, ut uentum ad Cannas est et in conspectu Poenum habebant, bina castra communiunt, eodem ferme interuallo quo ad Gereonium sicut ante copiis diuisis. Aufidus amnis, utrisque castris adfluens, aditum aquatoribus ex sua cuiusque opportunitate haud sine certamine dabat; ex minoribus tamen castris, quae posita trans Aufidum erant, liberius aquabantur Romani, quia ripa ulterior nullum habebat hostium praesidium. Hannibal spem nanctus locis natis ad equestrem pugnam, qua parte uirium inuictus erat, facturos copiam pugnandi consules, dirigit aciem lacessitque Numidarum procursatione hostes.

[44] The consuls, the routes having been sufficiently reconnoitered, following the Carthaginian, when they came to Cannae and had the Carthaginian in sight, fortify two camps, at nearly the same interval as at Gereonium, with the forces divided as before. The river Aufidus, flowing past both camps, gave access to the water-carriers, each from its own convenience, not without contest; yet from the smaller camp, which had been placed across the Aufidus, the Romans drew water more freely, because the farther bank had no enemy garrison. Hannibal, finding hope in ground born for equestrian combat—in which arm of strength he was unconquered—that the consuls would make an opportunity for fighting, draws up his battle line and provokes the enemy by a skirmishing advance of the Numidians.

Inde rursus sollicitari seditione militari ac discordia consulum Romana castra, cum Paulus Sempronique et Flamini temeritatem Varroni Varro speciosum timidis ac segnibus ducibus exemplum Fabium obiceret testareturque deos hominesque hic nullam penes se culpam esse, quod Hannibal iam uel[ut] usu cepisset Italiam; se constrictum a collega teneri; ferrum atque arma iratis et pugnare cupientibus adimi militibus; ille, si quid proiectis ac proditis ad inconsultam atque improuidam pugnam legionibus accideret, se omnis culpae exsortem, omnis euentus participem fore diceret; uideret ut quibus lingua prompta ac temeraria, aeque in pugna uigerent manus.

Then again the Roman camp was being agitated by military sedition and by the discord of the consuls, since Paulus would cast in Varro’s teeth the temerity of Sempronius and Flaminius, and Varro would oppose Fabius as a specious example for timid and sluggish generals, and he would call gods and men to witness that no blame rested with him, that Hannibal had now, as it were, seized Italy by use; that he was held bound by his colleague; that steel and arms were being taken away from soldiers who were irate and eager to fight; the other said that, if anything should befall the legions, cast away and betrayed into an unconsidered and improvident battle, he would be exempt from all blame, yet a sharer in every outcome; let him see to it that those whose tongue is prompt and rash should have hands equally vigorous in the fight.

[45] Dum altercationibus magis quam consiliis tempus teritur, Hannibal ex acie, quam ad multum diei tenuerat instructam, cum in castra ceteras reciperet copias, Numidas ad inuadendos ex minoribus castris Romanorum aquatores trans flumen mittit. Quam inconditam turbam cum uixdum in ripam egressi clamore ac tumultu fugassent, in stationem quoque pro uallo locatam atque ipsas prope portas euecti sunt. Id uero indignum uisum ab tumultuario auxilio iam etiam castra Romana terreri, ut ea modo una causa ne extemplo transirent flumen dirigerentque aciem tenuerit Romanos quod summa imperii eo die penes Paulum fuerit.

[45] While time was being wasted in altercations rather than in counsels, Hannibal, from the line of battle which he had kept drawn up for much of the day, when he was taking the rest of his forces back into camp, sends the Numidians across the river to assault the Roman water-carriers from the smaller camp. When, scarcely having set foot upon the bank, they had routed that disordered crowd with shouting and tumult, they were borne forward even against the outpost stationed before the rampart and almost to the very gates. This indeed seemed unworthy—that by a tumultuary auxiliary even the Roman camp was now being alarmed—so that this one cause alone kept the Romans from crossing the river forthwith and forming their battle line: that the supreme command on that day was in the hands of Paulus.

Itaque postero die Varro, cui sors eius diei imperii erat, nihil consulto collega signum proposuit instructasque copias flumen traduxit, sequente Paulo quia magis non probare quam non adiuuare consilium poterat. Transgressi flumen eas quoque quas in castris minoribus habuerant copias suis adiungunt atque ita instructa acie in dextro cornu—id erat flumini propius—Romanos equites locant, deinde pedites: laeuum cornu extremi equites sociorum, intra pedites, ad medium iuncti legionibus Romanis, tenuerunt: iaculatores ex ceteris leuium armorum auxiliis prima acies facta. Consules cornua tenuerunt, Terentius laeuum, Aemilius dextrum: Gemino Seruilio media pugna tuenda data.

Itaque on the next day Varro, to whom the lot of command for that day had fallen, without consulting his colleague posted the signal and led the drawn-up forces across the river, with Paulus following, since he could rather disapprove than not lend aid to the plan. Having crossed the river, they also join to their own those troops which they had in the smaller camps, and with the battle-line thus arranged, on the right wing—which was nearer the river—they place the Roman cavalry, then the infantry: on the left wing the cavalry of the allies held the outermost position, the infantry within, joined to the Roman legions toward the middle; the javelin-men from the other light-armed auxiliaries were made the first line. The consuls held the wings, Terentius the left, Aemilius the right: to Geminus Servilius the task of holding the center of the battle was assigned.

[46] Hannibal luce prima Baliaribus leuique alia armatura praemissa transgressus flumen, ut quosque traduxerat, ita in acie locabat, Gallos Hispanosque equites prope ripam laeuo in cornu aduersus Romanum equitatum; dextrum cornu Numidis equitibus datum media acie peditibus firmata ita ut Afrorum utraque cornua essent, interponerentur his medii Galli atque Hispani. Afros Romanam [magna ex parte] crederes aciem; ita armati erant armis et ad Trebiam ceterum magna ex parte ad Trasumennum captis. Gallis Hispanisque scuta eiusdem formae fere erant, dispares ac dissimiles gladii, Gallis praelongi ac sine mucronibus, Hispano, punctim magis quam caesim adsueto petere hostem, breuitate habiles et cum mucronibus.

[46] At first light Hannibal, with the Balearics and other light armature sent ahead, after crossing the river, was stationing in the battle-line each unit as he brought it across: the Gallic and Spanish horse near the bank on the left wing, opposite the Roman cavalry; the right wing assigned to the Numidian horse, the middle of the line made firm with infantry, in such a way that both wings of the infantry were Africans, and between these in the middle were interposed the Gauls and Spaniards. You would have taken the Africans for a Roman battle-line [for the most part]; so were they armed with arms captured at the Trebia and, for the rest, for the most part at Trasimene. The Gauls and Spaniards had shields of nearly the same form, but their swords were different and dissimilar: the Gauls’ were very long and without points, while the Spaniard—accustomed to seek the enemy more by stabbing than by cutting—had blades handy by their shortness and with points.

Ante alios habitus gentium harum cum magnitudine corporum, tum specie terribilis erat: Galli super umbilicum erant nudi: Hispani linteis praetextis purpura tunicis, candore miro fulgentibus, constiterant. Numerus omnium peditum qui tum stetere in acie milium fuit quadraginta, decem equitum. Duces cornibus praeerant sinistro Hasdrubal, dextro Maharbal; mediam aciem Hannibal ipse cum fratre Magone tenuit.

Before others, the dress of these nations was terrible, both by the magnitude of their bodies and by their aspect: the Gauls were naked above the navel; the Spaniards had taken their stand in linen tunics fringed with purple, shining with wondrous whiteness. The number of all the infantry who then stood in the battle-line was 40,000, of cavalry 10,000. The commanders presided over the wings—on the left Hasdrubal, on the right Maharbal; Hannibal himself held the middle line with his brother Mago.

Sol seu de industria ita locatis seu quod forte ita stetere peropportune utrique parti obliquus erat Romanis in meridiem, Poenis in septentrionem uersis; uentus—Volturnum regionis incolae uocant—aduersus Romanis coortus multo puluere in ipsa ora uoluendo prospectum ademit.

Whether by design with them thus posted, or because by chance they had so stood, the sun was oblique to both sides—the Romans turned to the south, the Carthaginians to the north; the wind—Volturnus the inhabitants of the region call it—arising against the Romans, by rolling much dust into their very faces, took away their view.

[47] Clamore sublato procursum ab auxiliis et pugna leuibus primum armis commissa; deinde equitum Gallorum Hispanorumque laeuum cornu cum dextro Romano concurrit, minime equestris more pugnae; frontibus enim aduersis concurrendum erat, quia nullo circa ad euagandum relicto spatio hinc amnis, hinc peditum acies claudebant. In derectum utrimque nitentes, stantibus ac confertis postremo turba equis uir uirum amplexus detrahebat equo. Pedestre magna iam ex parte certamen factum erat; acrius tamen quam diutius pugnatum est pulsique Romani equites terga uertunt.

[47] With a shout raised, a sally was made by the auxiliaries, and battle was joined first by the light-armed; then the left wing of the Gallic and Spanish cavalry clashed with the Roman right, by no means in the cavalry’s customary manner of combat; for they had to collide with fronts opposed, since, with no space left around for roaming out, on this side the river, on that side the infantry battle-line hemmed them in. Pressing straight forward on both sides, with the horses at last standing and crowded in a throng, man, grappling man, was dragging him from his horse. The contest had already for the most part become pedestrian; yet they fought more fiercely than for long, and the Roman horsemen, driven back, turn their backs.

Sub equestris finem certaminis coorta est peditum pugna, primo et uiribus et animis par dum constabant ordines Gallis Hispanisque; tandem Romani, diu ac saepe conisi, aequa fronte acieque densa impulere hostium cuneum nimis tenuem eoque parum ualidum, a cetera prominentem acie. Impulsis deinde ac trepide referentibus pedem institere ac tenore uno per praeceps pauore fugientium agmen in mediam primum aciem inlati, postremo nullo resistente ad subsidia Afrorum peruenerunt, qui utrimque reductis alis constiterant media, qua Galli Hispanique steterant, aliquantum prominente acie. Qui cuneus ut pulsus aequauit frontem primum, deinde cedendo etiam sinum in medio dedit, Afri circa iam cornua fecerant inruentibusque incaute in medium Romanis circumdedere alas; mox cornua extendendo clausere et ab tergo hostes.

At the end of the equestrian engagement the infantry fight arose; at first both in strength and in spirits they were equal, so long as the ranks of Gauls and Spaniards stood fast; at length the Romans, after long and frequent efforts, with a level front and a dense battle-line drove in the enemies’ wedge, too thin and therefore too little strong, projecting from the rest of the line. Then, when they had been driven and were nervously taking a backward step, they pressed on, and with a single tenor, borne headlong by the panic of the fugitives, they were carried first into the very middle line, and at last, no one resisting, they reached the reserves of the Africans, who, with their wings drawn back on both sides, had taken their stand, their line projecting somewhat at the center where the Gauls and Spaniards had stood. When that wedge, once beaten, first made its front level, then by yielding even made a bay in the middle, the Africans had already formed around the flanks; and as the Romans, incautiously rushing into the middle, they folded their wings around them; soon by extending the horns they closed them in and had the enemy at their back.

Hinc Romani, defuncti nequiquam [de] proelio uno, omissis Gallis Hispanisque, quorum terga ceciderant, [et] aduersus Afros integram pugnam ineunt, non tantum [in] eo iniquam quod inclusi aduersus circumfusos sed etiam quod fessi cum recentibus ac uegetis pugnabant.

From here the Romans, having to no purpose finished [of] one engagement, with the Gauls and Spaniards—whose backs they had cut down—[and] left aside, enter upon an entire battle against the Africans, unfair not only [in] this respect: that, enclosed, they fought against those surrounding them, but also because the weary were fighting with the recent and vigorous.

[48] Iam et sinistro cornu Romanis, ubi sociorum equites aduersus Numidas steterant, consertum proelium erat, segne primo et a Punica coeptum fraude. Quingenti ferme Numidae, praeter solita arma telaque gladios occultos sub loricis habentes, specie transfugarum cum ab suis parmas post terga habentes adequitassent, repente ex equis desiliunt parmisque et iaculis ante pedes hostium proiectis in mediam aciem accepti ductique ad ultimos considere ab tergo iubentur. Ac dum proelium ab omni parte conseritur, quieti manserunt; postquam omnium animos oculosque occupauerat certamen, tum arreptis scutis, quae passim inter aceruos caesorum corporum strata erant, auersam adoriuntur Romanam aciem, tergaque ferientes ac poplites caedentes stragem ingentem ac maiorem aliquanto pauorem ac tumultum fecerunt.

[48] Already too on the left wing for the Romans, where the allied horsemen had stood against the Numidians, the battle was joined, sluggish at first and begun by Punic fraud. About five hundred Numidians, in addition to their usual arms and missiles having swords hidden under their cuirasses, with the appearance of deserters, when from their own side, having small shields (parmae) behind their backs, they had ridden up, suddenly leap down from their horses, and, after throwing their small shields and javelins before the feet of the enemy, once received into the middle of the battle-line and led to the far rear, they are ordered to take position behind. And while the battle was being engaged on every side, they remained quiet; after the contest had occupied everyone’s minds and eyes, then, snatching up shields which were strewn everywhere among the heaps of slain bodies, they attack the Roman line from the rear, and striking backs and cutting the hamstrings, they made an immense slaughter and produced a somewhat greater panic and tumult.

Cum alibi terror ac fuga, alibi pertinax in mala iam spe proelium esset, Hasdrubal qui ea parte praeerat, subductos ex media acie Numidas, quia segnis eorum cum aduersis pugna erat, ad persequendos passim fugientes mittit, Hispanos et Gallos pedites Afris prope iam fessis caede magis quam pugna adiungit.

While elsewhere there was terror and flight, elsewhere the battle was pertinacious, with hope now desperate; Hasdrubal, who was in command on that side, having withdrawn the Numidians from the center of the line—since their combat against their adversaries was sluggish—sends them to pursue the fugitives scattered everywhere, and he joins the Spanish and Gallic infantry to the Africans, by now weary more from slaughter than from fighting.

[49] Parte altera pugnae Paulus, quamquam primo statim proelio funda grauiter ictus fuerat, tamen et occurrit saepe cum confertis Hannibali et aliquot locis proelium restituit, protegentibus eum equitibus Romanis, omissis postremo equis, quia consulem et ad regendum equum uires deficiebant. Tum denuntianti cuidam iussisse consulem ad pedes descendere equites dixisse Hannibalem ferunt: "quam mallem, uinctos mihi traderet". Equitum pedestre proelium, quale iam haud dubia hostium uictoria, fuit, cum uicti mori in uestigio mallent quam fugere, uictores morantibus uictoriam irati trucidarent quos pellere non poterant. Pepulerunt tamen iam paucos superantes et labore ac uolneribus fessos.

[49] On the other part of the fight Paulus, although at the very first encounter he had been grievously struck by a sling, nevertheless both often met Hannibal with serried ranks and in several places restored the battle, the Roman cavalry protecting him, having at last abandoned their horses, because the consul’s strength—even for guiding a horse—was failing. Then, when someone reporting said that the consul had ordered the horsemen to dismount, they say Hannibal remarked: "How much rather would I have it that he deliver them to me in bonds." The cavalry’s combat on foot was such as it is when the enemy’s victory is now beyond doubt: the defeated preferred to die in their tracks rather than flee, while the victors, angered at those delaying their victory, butchered those whom they could not drive off. They did drive off, however, the few survivors now remaining, worn out by toil and wounds.

Inde dissipati omnes sunt, equosque ad fugam qui poterant repetebant. Cn. Lentulus tribunus militum cum praeteruehens equo sedentem in saxo cruore oppletum consulem uidisset, "L. Aemili" inquit, "quem unum insontem culpae cladis hodiernae dei respicere debent, cape hunc equum, dum et tibi uirium aliquid superest [et] comes ego te tollere possum ac protegere. Ne funestam hanc pugnam morte consulis feceris; etiam sine hoc lacrimarum satis luctusque est". Ad ea consul: "tu quidem, Cn. Corneli, macte uirtute esto; sed caue, frustra miserando exiguum tempus e manibus hostium euadendi absumas.

Thence all were scattered, and those who could were getting back their horses for flight. Cn. Lentulus, tribune of soldiers, when, riding by on horseback, he had seen the consul sitting on a rock, drenched with gore, said, "L. Aemili, whom alone, innocent of the blame for today’s disaster, the gods ought to look upon, take this horse, while there still remains to you some strength [and] while I, as companion, can lift you up and protect you. Do not make this ill-omened battle fatal by the death of the consul; even without this there is tears and mourning enough." To this the consul: "Do you indeed, Cn. Corneli, be honored for your valor; but beware lest, by pitying me to no purpose, you waste the scant time for escaping from the hands of the enemy."

Abi, nuntia publice patribus urbem Romanam muniant ac priusquam uictor hostis adueniat praesidiis firment; priuatim Q. Fabio L. Aemilium praeceptorum eius memorem et uixisse [et] adhuc et mori. Me in hac strage militum meorum patere exspirare, ne aut reus iterum e consulatu sim [aut] accusator collegae exsistam ut alieno crimine innocentiam meam protegam." Haec eos agentes prius turba fugientium ciuium, deinde hostes oppressere; consulem ignorantes quis esset obruere telis, Lentulum in tumultu abripuit equus. Tum undique effuse fugiunt.

“Go, announce publicly to the fathers that they should fortify the Roman city and, before the victorious enemy arrives, strengthen it with garrisons; privately to Q. Fabius, that L. Aemilius has been mindful of his precepts, both in having lived so and still now, and so in dying. Allow me, in this carnage of my soldiers, to expire, lest I either again be a defendant on quitting the consulship, or become an accuser of my colleague, that I may protect my innocence by another’s crime.” While they were doing this, first a crowd of fleeing citizens, then the enemies, pressed them down; not knowing who he was, they overwhelmed the consul with missiles, and a horse snatched Lentulus away in the tumult. Then on every side they flee in a rout.

Septem milia hominum in minora castra, decem in maiora, duo ferme in uicum ipsum Cannas perfugerunt, qui extemplo a Carthalone atque equitibus nullo munimento tegente uicum circumuenti sunt. Consul alter, seu forte seu consilio nulli fugientium insertus agmini, cum quinquaginta fere equitibus Venusiam perfugit. Quadraginta quinque milia quingenti pedites, duo milia septingenti equites, et tantadem prope ciuium sociorumque pars, caesi dicuntur; in his ambo consulum quaestores, L. Atilius et L. Furius Bibaculus, et undetriginta tribuni militum, consulares quidam praetoriique et aedilicii—inter eos Cn. Seruilium Geminum et M. Minucium numerant, qui magister equitum priore anno, [consul] aliquot annis ante fuerat—octoginta praeterea aut senatores aut qui eos magistratus gessissent unde in senatum legi deberent cum sua uoluntate milites in legionibus facti essent.

Seven thousand men took refuge in the smaller camp, ten thousand in the larger, about two thousand in the village of Cannae itself; these were at once surrounded by Carthalo and the cavalry, since no fortification protected the village. The other consul, whether by chance or by design being joined to no column of fugitives, with about fifty horsemen fled to Venusia. Forty-five thousand five hundred infantry, two thousand seven hundred cavalry—and nearly the same share of citizens and allies—are said to have been cut down; among these, both the quaestors of the consuls, L. Atilius and L. Furius Bibaculus, and twenty-nine military tribunes, certain men of consular, praetorian, and aedilician rank—among them they number Cn. Servilius Geminus and M. Minucius, who had been master of the horse the previous year, [consul] some years before—and, besides, eighty either senators, or men who had held those magistracies from which they ought to be chosen into the senate, since of their own will they had been made soldiers in the legions.

Capta eo proelio tria milia peditum et equites mille et quingenti dicuntur.

It is said that in that battle three thousand infantry and one thousand five hundred cavalry were captured.

[50] Haec est pugna [Cannensis], Alliensi cladi nobilitate par, ceterum ut illis quae post pugnam accidere leuior, quia ab hoste est cessatum, sic strage exercitus grauior foediorque. Fuga namque ad Alliam sicut urbem prodidit, ita exercitum seruauit: ad Cannas fugientem consulem uix quinquaginta secuti sunt, alterius morientis prope totus exercitus fuit. Binis in castris cum multitudo semiermis sine ducibus esset, nuntium qui in maioribus erant mittunt, dum proelio, deinde ex laetitia epulis fatigatos quies nocturna hostes premeret ut ad se transirent: uno agmine Canusium abituros esse.

[50] This is the battle [of Cannae], equal in nobility to the disaster at the Allia, but otherwise—though in those things which happened after the battle it was lighter, because there was a cessation on the enemy’s part—yet in the massacre of the army it was heavier and more foul. For the flight at the Allia, just as it betrayed the city, so it saved the army; at Cannae scarcely fifty followed the consul as he fled, while the other, dying, had nearly the whole army about him. When in the two camps the multitude, half-armed and without leaders, was, they send a message to those who were in the larger camp, that, while the enemies, wearied first by battle and then by banquets from joy, were pressed by nocturnal quiet, they should pass over to them: they would depart in one column to Canusium.

eam sententiam alii totam aspernari; cur enim illos, qui se arcessant, ipsos non uenire, cum aeque coniungi possent? Quia uidelicet plena hostium omnia in medio essent, et aliorum quam sua corpora tanto periculo mallent obicere. Aliis non tam sententia displicere quam animus deesse: P. Sempronius Tuditanus tribunus militum "capi ergo mauoltis" inquit, "ab auarissimo et crudelissimo hoste aestimarique capita uestra et exquiri pretia ab interrogantibus Romanus ciuis sis an Latinus socius, et ex tua contumelia et miseria alteri honos quaeratur?

some utterly spurn that opinion; for why, indeed, should those who summon them not come themselves, since they could just as well be joined? Because, clearly, everything in the midst was full of enemies, and they preferred to expose others’ bodies rather than their own to so great a danger. To others it was not so much the opinion that displeased as that their spirit was lacking: P. Sempronius Tuditanus, tribune of the soldiers, says, “So you prefer, then, to be captured by a most avaricious and most cruel enemy, and to have your heads appraised and ransoms sought out by interrogators asking whether you are a Roman citizen or a Latin ally, and that from your contumely and misery honor be sought for another?”

Non tu, si quidem L. Aemili consulis, qui se bene mori quam turpiter uiuere maluit, et tot fortissimorum uirorum qui circa eum cumulati iacent ciues estis. Sed antequam opprimit lux maioraque hostium agmina obsaepiunt iter, per hos, qui inordinati atque incompositi obstrepunt portis, erumpamus. Ferro atque audacia uia fit quamuis per confertos hostes.

Not you—if indeed you are citizens of the consul L. Aemilius, who preferred to die well rather than live disgracefully, and of so many most valiant men who lie heaped around him. But before the light overwhelms and the larger columns of the enemy fence off the way, through these men who, disordered and unarrayed, are making a din at the gates, let us burst out. By iron and audacity a way is made, even through close‑packed enemies.

Cuneo quidem hoc laxum atque solutum agmen, ut si nihil obstet, disicias. Itaque ite mecum qui et uosmet ipsos et rem publicam saluam uoltis". Haec ubi dicta dedit, stringit gladium cuneoque facto per medios uadit hostes et, cum in latus dextrum quod patebat Numidae iacularentur, translatis in dextrum scutis in maiora castra ad sescenti euaserunt atque inde protinus alio magno agmine adiuncto Canusium incolumes perueniunt. Haec apud uictos magis impetu animorum, quos ingenium suum cuique aut fors dabat, quam ex consilio ipsorum aut imperio cuiusquam agebatur.

With a wedge indeed you would scatter this loose and slack column, as though nothing hindered. Therefore go with me, you who wish both yourselves and the commonwealth safe." When he had given these words, he draws his sword, and, a wedge having been formed, goes through the midst of the enemy; and, when the Numidians were casting javelins into the right flank which lay open, with their shields shifted to the right, up to about 600 escaped to the larger camp, and from there straightway, after another great column had been joined to them, they arrive at Canusium unharmed. This, among the vanquished, was being done more by impetus of spirits—which either each one’s nature or chance supplied—than from their own counsel or the command of anyone.

[51] Hannibali uictori cum ceteri circumfusi gratularentur suaderentque ut, tanto perfunctus bello, diei quod reliquum esset noctisque insequentis quietem et ipse sibi sumeret et fessis daret militibus, Maharbal praefectus equitum, minime cessandum ratus, "immo ut quid hac pugna sit actum scias, die quinto" inquit, "uictor in Capitolio epulaberis. Sequere; cum equite, ut prius uenisse quam uenturum sciant, praecedam." Hannibali nimis laeta res est uisa maiorque quam ut eam statim capere animo posset. Itaque uoluntatem se laudare Maharbalis ait; ad consilium pensandum temporis opus esse.

[51] While the rest, crowding round Hannibal the victor, were congratulating him and advising that, having been discharged from so great a war, he both take for himself and grant to the weary soldiers the rest of the day and the following night for repose, Maharbal, prefect of cavalry, thinking that there must by no means be any delaying, said: "Nay rather, that you may know what has been done by this battle, on the fifth day," he says, "you will banquet as victor on the Capitol. Follow; with the cavalry I will go ahead, so that they may know that we have arrived before we are expected to arrive." To Hannibal the proposal seemed too joyous, and greater than that he could immediately seize in mind. And so he said that he praised Maharbal’s intention; that time was needed for weighing the counsel.

Tum Maharbal: "non omnia nimirum eidem di dedere. Vincere scis, Hannibal; uictoria uti nescis." mora eius diei satis creditur saluti fuisse urbi atque imperio. Postero die ubi primum inluxit, ad spolia legenda foedamque etiam hostibus spectandam stragem insistunt.

Then Maharbal: "Surely the gods have not given everything to the same man. You know how to conquer, Hannibal; you do not know how to use victory." The delay of that day is believed to have been sufficient for the safety of the city and the empire. On the next day, as soon as it grew light, they set to gathering the spoils and to a carnage foul to behold even for enemies.

Iacebant tot Romanorum milia, pedites passim equitesque, ut quem cuique fors aut pugna iunxerat aut fuga; adsurgentes quidam ex strage media cruenti, quos stricta matutino frigore excitauerant uolnera, ab hoste oppressi sunt; quosdam et iacentes uiuos succisis feminibus poplitibusque inuenerunt nudantes ceruicem iugulumque et reliquum sanguinem iubentes haurire; inuenti quidam sunt mersis in effossam terram capitibus quos sibi ipsos fecisse foueas obruentesque ora superiecta humo interclusisse spiritum apparebat. Praecipue conuertit omnes subtractus Numida mortuo superincubanti Romano uiuus naso auribusque laceratis, cum manibus ad capiendum telum inutilibus, in rabiem ira uersa laniando dentibus hostem exspirasset.

So many thousands of Romans lay scattered, infantry and cavalry alike, just as chance or battle or flight had yoked each to each; some, bloodied, rising up from the midst of the carnage, whom wounds stiffened by the morning chill had roused, were overpowered by the enemy; and some they found lying alive with thighs and hamstrings slashed, baring neck and throat and bidding them drain the remaining blood; some were found with their heads plunged into earth dug out, and it was apparent that they had made pits for themselves and, covering their faces with the soil heaped over them, had shut off their breath. Above all, one sight turned everyone: a Numidian, drawn out alive from beneath a dead Roman lying atop him, with nose and ears torn, his hands useless for grasping a weapon, had, his anger turned into rabies-like frenzy, expired while mangling the enemy with his teeth.

[52] Spoliis ad multum diei lectis, Hannibal ad minora ducit castra oppugnanda et omnium primum brachio obiecto [a] flumine eos excludit; ceterum omnibus labore, uigiliis, uolneribus etiam fessis maturior ipsius spe deditio est facta. Pacti ut arma atque equos traderent, in capita Romana trecenis nummis quadrigatis, in socios ducenis, in seruos centenis et ut eo pretio persoluto cum singulis abirent uestimentis, in castra hostes acceperunt traditique in custodiam omnes sunt, seorsum ciues sociique. dum ibi tempus teritur, interea cum ex maioribus castris, quibus satis uirium aut animi fuit, ad quattuor milia hominum et ducenti equites, alii agmine, alii palati passim per agros, quod haud minus tutum erat, Canusium perfugissent, castra ipsa ab sauciis timidisque eadem condicione qua altera tradita hosti.

[52] After the spoils had been gathered until far on in the day, Hannibal leads his men against the smaller camp to be stormed, and first of all, with a embankment thrown across [a] river, he excludes them from the water; but though all were weary with toil, sleeplessness, and even wounds, the surrender was made earlier than he himself had hoped. They agreed that they would hand over their arms and horses; for Roman heads three hundred quadrigati-coins, for allies two hundred, for slaves one hundred; and that, the price having been paid, they should depart with a single garment apiece: the enemy received them into the camp, and all were handed over into custody, citizens and allies separately. While time is being wasted there, meanwhile from the larger camp, those who had enough strength or spirit—about four thousand men and two hundred horsemen—some in a column, others scattered here and there through the fields (which was no less safe), had fled for refuge to Canusium; the camp itself was surrendered by the wounded and the timid to the enemy on the same terms as the other.

Praeda ingens parta est, et praeter equos uirosque et si quid argenti (quod plurimum in phaleris equorum erat; nam ad uescendum facto perexiguo, utique militantes, utebantur) omnis cetera praeda diripienda data est. Tum sepeliendi causa conferri in unum corpora suorum iussit; ad octo milia fuisse dicuntur fortissimorum uirorum. consulem quoque Romanum conquisitum sepultumque quidam auctores sunt.

An immense booty was obtained, and—apart from the horses and the men and whatever silver (the greatest part of which was in the phalerae of the horses; for for eating they used very little plate, especially when campaigning)—all the rest of the booty was given over for plundering. Then, for the purpose of burial, he ordered the bodies of his own to be brought together into one place; they are said to have been about eight thousand of the bravest men. Some authors also relate that the Roman consul was sought out and buried.

Eos qui Canusium perfugerant mulier Apula nomine Busa, genere clara ac diuitiis, moenibus tantum tectisque a Canusinis acceptos, frumento, ueste, uiatico etiam iuuit, pro qua ei munificentia postea bello perfecto ab senatu honores habiti sunt.

Those who had fled to Canusium a woman of Apulia named Busa, illustrious in lineage and in riches, who, though received by the Canusines with walls and roofs only, aided with grain, clothing, and even viaticum; for which munificence, after the war was finished, honors were paid to her by the Senate.

[53] Ceterum cum ibi tribuni militum quattuor essent, Fabius Maximus de legione prima, cuius pater priore anno dictator fuerat, et de legione secunda L. Publicius Bibulus et P. Cornelius Scipio et de legione tertia Ap. Claudius Pulcher, qui proxime aedilis fuerat, omnium consensu ad P. Scipionem admodum adulescentem et ad Ap. Claudium summa imperii delata est. Quibus consultantibus inter paucos de summa rerum nuntiat P. Furius Philus, consularis uiri filius, nequiquam eos perditam spem fouere; desperatam comploratamque rem esse publicam; nobiles iuuenes quosdam, quorum principem L. Caecilium Metellum, mare ac naues spectare, ut deserta Italia ad regum aliquem transfugiant. Quod malum, praeterquam atrox, super tot clades etiam nouum, cum stupore ac miraculo torpidos defixisset qui aderant et consilium aduocandum de eo censerent, negat consilii rem esse [Scipio] Iuuenis, fatalis dux huiusce belli: audendum atque agendum, non consultandum ait in tanto malo esse.

[53] However, since there were four tribunes of the soldiers there—Fabius Maximus from the first legion, whose father had been dictator the previous year, and from the second legion L. Publicius Bibulus and P. Cornelius Scipio, and from the third legion Ap. Claudius Pulcher, who had most recently been aedile—by the consent of all the supreme command was conferred upon P. Scipio, a very young man, and upon Ap. Claudius. While they were consulting among a few about the sum of affairs, P. Furius Philus, the son of a consular man, announces that they are vainly fostering a ruined hope; that the commonwealth is despaired of and bewailed as lost; that certain noble youths, whose leader is L. Caecilius Metellus, have their eyes on the sea and the ships, in order that, with Italy deserted, they may defect to some king. This evil—besides being atrocious, and, on top of so many disasters, also new—when it had fixed those present, benumbed with stupor and wonder, and they were of the opinion that a council should be called about it, the [Scipio] young man, the fated leader of this war, says that the matter is not for deliberation: in so great an ill there must be daring and doing, not consulting.

Irent secum extemplo armati qui rem publicam saluam uellent; nulla uerius quam ubi ea cogitentur hostium castra esse. Pergit ire sequentibus paucis in hospitium Metelli et, cum concilium ibi iuuenum de quibus allatum erat inuenisset, stricto super capita consultantium gladio, "ex mei animi sententia" inquit, "ut ego rem publicam populi Romani non deseram neque alium ciuem Romanum deserere patiar; si sciens fallo, tum me, Iuppiter optime maxime, domum, familiam remque meam pessimo leto adficias. In haec uerba, L. Caecili, iures postulo, ceterique qui adestis.

Let those who wish the commonwealth safe go with me at once armed; nowhere is there more truly an enemy’s camp than where such things are being contemplated. He proceeds, with a few following, to the lodging of Metellus; and when he had found there a council of the youths about whom the report had been brought, with his sword drawn above the heads of the deliberators he said, “In accordance with the judgment of my own mind: that I will not desert the commonwealth of the Roman people, nor allow any other Roman citizen to desert it; if I knowingly deceive, then may you, Jupiter Best and Greatest, afflict my house, my family, and my property with the worst death. Upon these words, L. Caecili, I demand that you swear, and the rest of you who are present.”

Qui non iurauerit in se hunc gladium strictum esse sciat". Haud secus pauidi quam si uictorem Hannibalem cernerent, iurant omnes custodiendosque semet ipsos Scipioni tradunt.

"Let whoever does not swear know that this drawn sword is against himself." No less fearful than if they were beholding Hannibal victorious, they all swear, and they hand themselves over to Scipio to be kept in custody.

[54] Eo tempore quo haec Canusi agebantur Venusiam ad consulem ad quattuor milia et quingenti pedites equitesque, qui sparsi fuga per agros fuerant, peruenere. Eos omnes Venusini per familias benigne accipiendos curandosque cum diuisissent, in singulos equites togas et tunicas et quadrigatos nummos quinos uicenos, et pediti denos et arma quibus deerant dederunt, ceteraque publice ac priuatim hospitaliter facta certatumque ne a muliere Canusina populus Venusinus officiis uinceretur. Sed grauius onus Busae multitudo faciebat; et iam ad decem milia hominum erant, Appiusque et Scipio, postquam incolumem esse alterum consulem acceperunt, nuntium extemplo mittunt quantae secum peditum equitumque copiae essent sciscitatumque simul utrum Venusiam adduci exercitum an manere iuberet Canusi.

[54] At the time when these things were being done at Canusium, there came to Venusia to the consul about 4,500 infantry and cavalry who had been scattered in flight through the fields. After the men of Venusia had divided them by households to be kindly received and cared for, they gave to each horseman togas and tunics and twenty-five quadrigati coins, and to the foot-soldier ten, and arms where they lacked them; and the rest, both publicly and privately, was done hospitably, and there was rivalry lest the people of Venusia be surpassed in services by the Canusian woman. But the multitude was laying a heavier burden upon Busa; and already there were up to 10,000 men; and Appius and Scipio, after they had received word that the other consul was unharmed, immediately send a messenger to inquire how great forces of infantry and cavalry were with him, and at the same time to ask whether he ordered the army to be led to Venusia or to remain at Canusium.

Varro ipse Canusium copias traduxit; et iam aliqua species consularis exercitus erat moenibusque se certe, si non armis, ab hoste uidebantur defensuri. Romam ne has quidem reliquias superesse ciuium sociorumque sed occidione occisum cum duobus [consularibus ducibus] exercitum deletasque omnes copias allatum fuerat. Nunquam salua urbe tantum pauoris tumultusque intra moenia Romana fuit.

Varro himself led the forces across to Canusium; and already there was some semblance of a consular army, and they seemed likely to defend themselves from the enemy by their walls at least, if not by arms. To Rome it had been reported that not even these remnants of citizens and allies survived, but that the army had been slain to extermination along with the two [consular commanders], and that all forces had been wiped out. Never, while the city was still safe, was there so great a fear and tumult within the Roman walls.

Itaque succumbam oneri neque adgrediar narrare quae edissertando minora uero faciam. consule exercituque ad Trasumennum priore anno amisso non uolnus super uolnus sed multiplex clades, cum duobus consulibus duo consulares exercitus amissi nuntiabantur nec ulla iam castra Romana nec ducem nec militem esse; Hannibalis Apuliam, Samnium ac iam prope totam Italiam factam. Nulla profecto alia gens tanta mole cladis non obruta esset.

Therefore I shall succumb to the burden and will not attempt to narrate things which, by expounding them, I would make smaller than the truth. With the consul and the army at Trasimene lost the previous year, it was not wound upon wound but a manifold disaster, since with two consuls two consular armies were being reported lost, and that now there were no Roman camps, no leader, no soldier; that Apulia, Samnium, and now nearly all Italy had been made Hannibal’s. Surely no other nation would have been anything but overwhelmed by so great a mass of calamity.

compares cladem ad Aegates insulas Carthaginiensium proelio nauali acceptam, qua fracti Sicilia ac Sardinia cessere, inde uectigales ac stipendiarios fieri se passi sunt, aut pugnam aduersam in Africa, cui postea hic ipse Hannibal succubuit; nulla ex parte comparandae sunt nisi quod minore animo latae sunt.

he compares the disaster at the Aegates Islands, received by the Carthaginians in a naval battle, by which, shattered, they gave up Sicily and Sardinia, and thereafter allowed themselves to be made tributary and stipendary; or the adverse battle in Africa, to which afterward this same Hannibal succumbed; in no respect are they to be compared, except that they were borne with lesser spirit.

[55] P. Furius Philus et M. Pomponius praetores senatum in curiam Hostiliam uocauerunt, ut de urbis custodia consulerent; neque enim dubitabant deletis exercitibus hostem ad oppugnandam Romam, quod unum opus belli restaret, uenturum. Cum in malis sicuti ingentibus ita ignotis ne consilium quidem satis expedirent obstreperetque clamor lamentantium mulierum et nondum palam facto uiui mortuique et per omnes paene domos promiscue complorarentur, tum Q. Fabius Maximus censuit equites expeditos et Appia et Latina uia mittendos, qui obuios percontando—aliquos profecto ex fuga passim dissipatos fore—referant quae fortuna consulum atque exercituum sit et, si quid di immortales miseriti imperii reliquum Romani nominis fecerint, ubi eae copiae sint; quo se Hannibal post proelium contulerit, quid paret, quid agat acturusque sit. Haec exploranda noscendaque per impigros iuuenes esse; illud per patres ipsos agendum, quoniam magistratuum parum sit, ut tumultum ac trepidationem in urbe tollant, matronas publico arceant continerique intra suum quamque limen cogant, comploratus familiarum coerceant, silentium per urbem faciant, nuntios rerum omnium ad praetores deducendos curent, suae quisque fortunae domi auctorem exspectent, custodesque praeterea ad portas ponant qui prohibeant quemquam egredi urbe cogantque homines nullam nisi urbe ac moenibus saluis salutem sperare.

[55] P. Furius Philus and M. Pomponius, praetors, summoned the senate into the Curia Hostilia, to take counsel concerning the guarding of the city; for they did not doubt that, the armies having been annihilated, the enemy would come to assault Rome, the one task of the war that remained. Since amid disasters as huge as they were unknown they could not even disentangle counsel sufficiently, and the clamor of lamenting women was drowning them out, and, with it not yet made public who were living or dead, men and women alike were being bewailed indiscriminately through almost all houses, then Q. Fabius Maximus proposed that unencumbered cavalry be sent out along the Appian and the Latin Way, who, by questioning those they met—some surely would have been scattered everywhere in flight—should report what the fortune of the consuls and the armies is, and, if the immortal gods, taking pity on the imperium, have left anything remaining of the Roman name, where those forces are; whither Hannibal betook himself after the battle, what he is preparing, what he is doing and will do. These things were to be scouted out and learned by energetic youths; that other business was to be transacted by the senators themselves, since the magistrates were insufficient: namely, that they remove tumult and trepidation in the city, keep matrons from the public and compel them to be confined within each one’s own threshold, restrain the lamentations of households, enforce silence throughout the city, see to it that messengers of all matters be brought to the praetors, let each man await at home an authoritative account of his own fortune, and, besides, post guards at the gates to prevent anyone from going out of the city and to compel people to hope for no safety save with the city and its walls safe.

Vbi conticuerit [recte] tumultus, tum in curiam patres reuocandos consulendumque de urbis custodia esse.

When the tumult has fallen silent [rightly], then the senators are to be called back into the Curia, and there must be deliberation about the city's custody.

[56] Cum in hanc sententiam pedibus omnes issent summotaque foro [a] magistratibus turba patres diuersi ad sedandos tumultus discessissent, tum demum litterae a C. Terentio consule allatae sunt: L. Aemilium consulem exercitumque caesum; sese Canusi esse, reliquias tantae cladis uelut ex naufragio colligentem; ad decem milia militum ferme esse incompositorum inordinatorumque; Poenum sedere ad Cannas, in captiuorum pretiis praedaque alia nec uictoris animo nec magni ducis more nundinantem. Tum priuatae quoque per domos clades uolgatae sunt adeoque totam urbem oppleuit luctus ut sacrum anniuersarium Cereris intermissum sit, quia nec lugentibus id facere est fas nec ulla in illa tempestate matrona expers luctus fuerat. Itaque ne ob eandem causam alia quoque sacra publica aut priuata desererentur, senatus consulto diebus triginta luctus est finitus.

[56] When everyone had gone over to this opinion by foot, and, with the crowd removed from the forum by the magistrates, the senators had dispersed in different directions to calm the tumults, then at last letters from the consul Gaius Terentius were brought: that the consul Lucius Aemilius and the army had been cut down; that he himself was at Canusium, gathering the remnants of so great a disaster as if from a shipwreck; that there were about ten thousand soldiers, unassembled and disordered; that the Carthaginian was sitting at Cannae, huckstering over the prices of captives and other booty neither with a victor’s spirit nor in the manner of a great commander. Then private disasters too were made public through the homes, and grief so filled the whole city that the annual sacred rite of Ceres was discontinued, because it is not lawful for mourners to perform it, and in that season no matron was free from mourning. And so, lest for the same reason other public or private sacred rites also be abandoned, by decree of the senate mourning was limited to thirty days.

Ceterum cum sedato urbis tumultu reuocati in curiam patres essent, aliae insuper ex Sicilia litterae allatae sunt ab T. Otacilio propraetore, regnum Hieronis classe Punica uastari; cui cum opem imploranti ferre uellent [praefecti ab se missi], nuntiatum his esse aliam classem ad Aegates insulas stare paratam instructamque, ut, ubi se uersum ad tuendam Syracusanam oram Poeni sensissent, Lilybaeum extemplo prouinciamque aliam Romanam adgrederentur; itaque classe opus esse, si regem socium Siciliamque tueri uellent.

However, when, the tumult of the city having been calmed, the senators had been recalled into the curia, further letters besides were brought from Sicily by T. Otacilius, propraetor: the realm of Hiero was being ravaged by a Punic fleet; and when they wished to bring help to him imploring aid [prefects sent by himself], it was reported to these that another fleet was stationed at the Aegates islands, prepared and equipped, so that, once the Poeni perceived their turn toward guarding the Syracusan shore, they would forthwith attack Lilybaeum and another Roman province; and so there was need of a fleet, if they wished to protect the allied king and Sicily.

[57] Litteris consulis praetorisque [lectis censuere patres] M. Claudium, qui classi ad Ostiam stanti praeesset, Canusium ad exercitum mittendum scribendumque consuli et, cum praetori exercitum tradidisset, primo quoque tempore, quantum per commodum rei publicae fieri posset, Romam ueniret. Territi etiam super tantas clades cum ceteris prodigiis, tum quod duae Vestales eo anno, Opimia atque Floronia, stupri compertae et altera sub terra, uti mos est, ad portam Collinam necata fuerat, altera sibimet ipsa mortem consciuerat; L. Cantilius scriba pontificius, quos nunc minores pontifices appellant, qui cum Floronia stuprum fecerat, a pontifice maximo eo usque uirgis in comitio caesus erat ut inter uerbera exspiraret. hoc nefas cum inter tot, ut fit, clades in prodigium uersum esset, decemuiri libros adire iussi sunt et Q. Fabius Pictor Delphos ad oraculum missus est sciscitatum quibus precibus suppliciisque deos possent placare et quaenam futura finis tantis cladibus foret.

[57] After the letters of the consul and the praetor were read [the senators decreed] that M. Claudius, who was in command of the fleet lying off Ostia, be sent to Canusium to the army, and that a dispatch be written to the consul; and that, when he had handed over the army to the praetor, he should come to Rome at the earliest possible time, in so far as it could be done with advantage to the commonwealth. They were terrified, besides such great disasters, both by the other prodigies and especially because two Vestals that year, Opimia and Floronia, had been found guilty of a sexual crime: the one had been put to death beneath the earth, as is the custom, at the Colline Gate; the other had made away with herself. Lucius Cantilius, the pontifical scribe—those whom they now call the lesser pontiffs—who had committed a sexual crime with Floronia, had been beaten with rods by the pontifex maximus in the Comitium until, amid the blows, he expired. Since this nefarious deed, amid so many disasters as often happens, had been turned into a prodigy, the decemvirs were ordered to consult the books, and Q. Fabius Pictor was sent to Delphi to the oracle to inquire by what prayers and supplications they might appease the gods, and what end there would be to such great disasters.

Interim ex fatalibus libris sacrificia aliquot extraordinaria facta, inter quae Gallus et Galla, Graecus et Graeca in foro bouario sub terram uiui demissi sunt in locum saxo consaeptum, iam ante hostiis humanis, minime Romano sacro, imbutum. Placatis satis, ut rebantur, deis M. Claudius Marcellus ab Ostia mille et quingentos milites quos in classem scriptos habebat Romam, ut urbi praesidio essent, mittit; ipse legione classica—ea legio tertia erat—cum tribunis militum Teanum Sidicinum praemissa, classe tradita P. Furio Philo collegae paucos post dies Canusium magnis itineribus contendit. Inde dictator ex auctoritate patrum dictus M. Iunius et Ti. Sempronius magister equitum dilectu edicto iuniores ab annis septemdecim et quosdam praetextatos scribunt; quattuor ex his legiones et mille equites effecti.

Meanwhile, from the fated books several extraordinary sacrifices were performed, among which a Gaul and a Gaulish woman, a Greek man and a Greek woman were let down alive beneath the earth in the Forum Boarium into a place fenced with stone, already before steeped with human victims—a rite least Roman. The gods being appeased enough, as they supposed, M. Claudius Marcellus sends from Ostia one thousand five hundred soldiers, whom he had enrolled for the fleet, to Rome, to be a garrison for the city; he himself, the naval legion—this was the Third Legion—having been sent ahead with the military tribunes to Teanum Sidicinum, the fleet handed over to his colleague P. Furius Philus, after a few days hastened to Canusium by forced marches. Then, by the authority of the Fathers, M. Junius was named dictator and Ti. Sempronius master of the horse; with a levy proclaimed they enroll the younger men from seventeen years and some praetextati; out of these four legions and one thousand horsemen were formed.

Item ad socios Latinumque nomen ad milites ex formula accipiendos mittunt. Arma, tela, alia parari iubent et uetera spolia hostium detrahunt templis porticibusque. Et aliam formam noui dilectus inopia liberorum capitum ac necessitas dedit: octo milia iuuenum ualidorum ex seruitiis, prius sciscitantes singulos uellentne militare, empta publice armauerunt.

Likewise they send to the allies and the Latin Name to receive soldiers according to the formula. They order arms, missiles, and other things to be prepared, and they strip the old spoils of the enemy from temples and porticoes. And the scarcity of freeborn persons and necessity gave another form of new levy: eight thousand robust youths from the servile ranks, first asking each individually whether he was willing to serve as a soldier, they purchased at public expense and armed.

Hic miles magis placuit, cum pretio minore redimendi captiuos copia fieret.

This soldiery was more pleasing, since an opportunity to ransom captives was available at a lower price.

[58] Namque Hannibal secundum tam prosperam ad Cannas pugnam uictoris magis quam bellum gerentis intentus curis, cum captiuis productis segregatisque socios, sicut ante ad Trebiam Trasumennumque lacum, benigne adlocutus sine pretio dimisisset, Romanos quoque uocatos, quod nunquam alias antea, satis miti sermone adloquitur: non interneciuum sibi esse cum Romanis bellum; de dignitate atque imperio certare. Et patres uirtuti Romanae cessisse et se id adniti ut suae in uicem simul felicitati et uirtuti cedatur. Itaque redimendi se captiuis copiam facere; pretium fore in capita equiti quingenos quadrigatos nummos, trecenos pediti, seruo centenos.

[58] For Hannibal, after so prosperous a battle at Cannae, intent with the concerns of a victor rather than of one waging war, when the prisoners had been brought forward and the allies separated out, as before at the Trebia and at Lake Trasimene, having addressed them kindly, sent them away without a price; and the Romans too, when summoned—which he had never done before—he addresses with a speech mild enough: that his war with the Romans was not internecine; they were contending about dignity and imperium. Both that the Fathers had yielded to Roman virtus, and that he strove that in turn there be yielding to his own good fortune and valor as well. And so he gives the opportunity to the prisoners to ransom themselves; the price per head will be 500 quadrigatus coins for a horseman, 300 for a foot-soldier, 100 for a slave.

Quamquam aliquantum adiciebatur equitibus ad id pretium quo pepigerant dedentes se, laeti tamen quamcumque condicionem paciscendi acceperunt. Placuit suffragio ipsorum decem deligi qui Romam ad senatum irent, nec pignus aliud fidei quam ut iurarent se redituros acceptum. Missus cum his Carthalo, nobilis Carthaginiensis, qui, si forte ad pacem inclinaret animus, condiciones ferret.

Although somewhat was added for the horsemen to that price at which they had stipulated when surrendering themselves, yet they gladly accepted whatever condition of making a pact. It pleased, by their own suffrage, that ten be chosen to go to Rome to the senate, and no other pledge of good faith was accepted than that they should swear to return. Carthalo, a noble Carthaginian, was sent with them, to carry conditions, if perchance the disposition inclined toward peace.

Cum egressi castris essent, unus ex iis, minime Romani ingenii homo uelut aliquid oblitus, iuris iurandi soluendi causa cum in castra redisset, ante noctem comites adsequitur. Vbi Romam uenire eos nuntiatum est, Carthaloni obuiam lictor missus, qui dictatoris uerbis nuntiaret ut ante noctem excederet finibus Romanis.

When they had gone out from the camp, one of them, a man least of Roman disposition, as though having forgotten something, returned into the camp for the purpose of unbinding his sworn oath, and before nightfall overtook his companions. When it was reported that they were coming to Rome, a lictor was sent to meet Carthalo, to announce in the dictator’s words that he should depart from Roman borders before night.

[59] Legatis captiuorum senatus ab dictatore datus est, quorum princeps: "M. Iuni uosque, patres conscripti" inquit, "nemo nostrum ignorat nulli unquam ciuitati uiliores fuisse captiuos quam nostrae; ceterum, nisi nobis plus iusto nostra placet causa, non alii unquam minus neglegendi uobis quam nos in hostium potestatem uenerunt. Non enim in acie per timorem arma tradidimus sed cum prope ad noctem superstantes cumulis caesorum corporum proelium extraxissemus, in castra recepimus nos; diei reliquum ac noctem insequentem, fessi labore ac uolneribus, uallum sumus tutati; postero die, cum circumsessi ab exercitu uictore aqua arceremur nec ulla iam per confertos hostes erumpendi spes esset nec esse nefas duceremus quinquaginta milibus hominum ex acie nostra trucidatis aliquem ex Cannensi pugna Romanum militem restare, tunc demum pacti sumus pretium quo redempti dimitteremur, arma in quibus nihil iam auxilii erat hosti tradidimus. Maiores quoque acceperamus se a Gallis auro redemisse et patres uestros, asperrimos illos ad condiciones pacis, legatos tamen [ad] captiuorum redimendorum gratia Tarentum misisse.

[59] An audience of the senate was granted by the dictator to the envoys of the captives, whose leader said: "M. Junius, and you, Conscript Fathers, none of us is unaware that to no city have captives ever been of less value than to our own; but, unless our own cause pleases us more than is just, no others have ever come into the power of the enemy less deserving to be neglected by you than we. For we did not hand over our arms on the field through fear, but when, standing over heaps of slaughtered bodies, we had prolonged the battle nearly to nightfall, we withdrew into the camp; the remainder of the day and the following night, weary with toil and wounds, we defended the rampart; on the next day, when, surrounded by the victorious army, we were shut off from water, and when there was now no hope of breaking out through the massed enemies, and we did not deem it impious that, with fifty thousand men cut down from our battle line, some Roman soldier should remain alive from the Cannae fight, then at last we bargained for the price at which, ransomed, we would be released, we handed over to the enemy our arms, in which there was now no help. We had also received that our ancestors ransomed themselves from the Gauls with gold, and that your fathers—those most austere toward terms of peace—nevertheless sent envoys to Tarentum for the sake of redeeming captives."

Atqui et [ad] Alliam cum Gallis et ad Heracleam cum Pyrrho utraque non tam clade infamis quam pauore et fuga pugna fuit: Cannenses campos acerui Romanorum corporum tegunt, nec supersumus pugnae nisi in quibus trucidandis et ferrum et uires hostem defecerunt. Sunt etiam de nostris quidam qui ne in acie quidem fuerunt sed praesidio castris relicti, cum castra traderentur, in potestatem hostium uenerunt. Haud equidem ullius ciuis et commilitonis fortunae aut condicioni inuideo, nec premendo alium me extulisse uelim: ne illi quidem, nisi pernicitatis pedum et cursus aliquod praemium est, qui plerique inermes ex acie fugientes non prius quam Venusiae aut Canusii constiterunt, se nobis merito praetulerint gloriatique sint in se plus quam in nobis praesidii rei publicae esse.

And yet both [at] the Allia with the Gauls and at Heraclea with Pyrrhus, each battle was infamous not so much for slaughter as for panic and flight: the Cannaean fields are covered by heaps of Roman bodies, nor are there survivors of the battle except those in whose slaughter the enemy’s steel and strength failed. There are even some of our men who were not even in the battle-line, but, left as a garrison for the camp, came into the power of the enemy when the camp was surrendered. I for my part do not envy the fortune or condition of any fellow citizen and comrade-in-arms, nor would I wish to have raised myself by pressing down another: nor should even those men—unless there is some prize for fleetness of feet and running—who for the most part, unarmed, fled from the line of battle and did not halt until at Venusia or at Canusium, justly prefer themselves to us and boast that there is more safeguard of the commonwealth in them than in us.

Sed illis et bonis ac fortibus militibus utemini et nobis etiam promptioribus pro patria, quod beneficio uestro redempti atque in patriam restituti fuerimus. Dilectum ex omni aetate et fortuna habetis; octo milia seruorum audio armari. Non minor numerus noster est nec maiore pretio redimi possumus quam ii emuntur; nam si conferam nos cum illis, iniuriam nomini Romano faciam.

But you will employ both those men, good and brave soldiers, and us as well, even more prompt for the fatherland, because by your beneficence we shall have been redeemed and restored to our fatherland. You have a levy from every age and condition; I hear that eight thousand slaves are being armed. Our number is no smaller, nor can we be redeemed at a greater price than they are bought; for if I should compare us with them, I would do an injury to the Roman name.

Illud etiam in tali consilio animaduertendum uobis censeam, patres conscripti, si iam duriores esse uelitis, quod nullo nostro merito faciatis, cui nos hosti relicturi sitis. Pyrrho uidelicet, qui [uos] hospitum numero captiuos habuit? An barbaro ac Poeno, qui utrum auarior an crudelior sit uix existimari potest?

This too, in such a deliberation, I judge must be taken note of by you, Conscript Fathers: if now you should wish to be harsher—which you would do with no deserving on our part—to what enemy you are about to leave us. Pyrrhus, forsooth, who held you, though captives, in the number of guests? Or to the barbarian and Punic foe, of whom it can scarcely be determined whether he is more avaricious or more cruel?

Si uideatis catenas, squalorem, deformitatem ciuium uestrorum, non minus profecto uos ea species moueat quam si ex altera parte cernatis stratas Cannensibus campis legiones uestras. Intueri potestis sollicitudinem et lacrimas in uestibulo curiae stantium cognatorum nostrorum exspectantiumque responsum uestrum. Cum ii pro nobis proque iis qui absunt ita suspensi ac solliciti sint, quem censetis animum ipsorum esse quorum in discrimine uita libertasque est?

If you were to see the chains, the squalor, the deformity of your fellow citizens, assuredly that spectacle would move you no less than if on the other side you beheld your legions strewn upon the Cannaean fields. You can behold the solicitude and the tears in the vestibule of the curia, where our kinsmen stand awaiting your response. Since they are thus in suspense and anxious on behalf of us and of those who are absent, what do you suppose is the state of mind of those whose life and liberty are in jeopardy?

Si, mediusfidius, ipse in nos mitis Hannibal contra naturam suam esse uelit, nihil tamen nobis uita opus esse censeamus cum indigni ut redimeremur a uobis uisi simus. Rediere Romam quondam remissi a Pyrrho sine pretio captiui; sed rediere cum legatis, primoribus ciuitatis, ad redimendos sese missis. Redeam ego in patriam trecentis nummis non aestimatus ciuis?

If, by my good faith, Hannibal himself should wish to be gentle toward us, against his nature, yet let us deem that life is of no use to us, since we have seemed unworthy to be ransomed by you. Captives once returned to Rome, sent back by Pyrrhus without a price; but they returned with legates, the foremost men of the state, sent to ransom themselves. Shall I return to my fatherland, a citizen not valued at 300 coins?

Suum quisque animum, patres conscripti. Scio in discrimine esse uitam corpusque meum; magis me famae periculum mouet, ne a uobis damnati ac repulsi abeamus; neque enim uos pretio pepercisse homines credent."

Each man has his own mind, Conscript Fathers. I know that my life and body are in peril; the danger to my reputation moves me more, lest we go away condemned and rejected by you; for men will not believe that you spared the price."

[60] Vbi is finem fecit, extemplo ab ea turba, quae in comitio erat, clamor flebilis est sublatus manusque ad curiam tendebant orantes ut sibi liberos, fratres, cognatos redderent. Feminas quoque metus ac necessitas in foro [ac] turbae uirorum immiscuerat. Senatus summotis arbitris consuli coeptus.

[60] When he had finished, at once from that crowd which was in the Comitium a doleful clamor was raised, and they were stretching their hands toward the Curia, beseeching that their children, brothers, and kinsmen be given back to them. Fear and necessity had also mingled women in the Forum [and] in the crowd of men. The senate, the onlookers having been removed, began to be consulted.

Ibi cum sententiis uariaretur et alii redimendos de publico, alii nullam publice impensam faciendam nec prohibendos ex priuato redimi; si quibus argentum in praesentia deesset, dandam ex aerario pecuniam mutuam praedibusque ac praediis cauendum populo censerent, tum T. Manlius Torquatus, priscae ac nimis durae, ut plerisque uidebatur, seueritatis, interrogatus sententiam ita locutus fertur: "si tantummodo postulassent legati pro iis qui in hostium potestate sunt ut redimerentur, sine ullius insectatione eorum breui sententiam peregissem; quid enim aliud quam admonendi essetis ut morem traditum a patribus necessario ad rem militarem exemplo seruaretis? Nunc autem, cum prope gloriati sint quod se hostibus dediderint, praeferrique non captis modo in acie ab hostibus sed etiam iis qui Venusiam Canusiumque peruenerunt atque ipsi C. Terentio consuli aequum censuerint, nihil uos eorum, patres conscripti, quae illic acta sunt ignorare patiar. Atque utinam haec, quae apud uos acturus sum, Canusii apud ipsum exercitum agerem, optimum testem ignauiae cuiusque et uirtutis, aut unus hic saltem adesset P. Sempronius, quem si isti ducem secuti essent, milites hodie in castris Romanis non captiui in hostium potestate essent.

There, while opinions were varying—some declaring that they should be ransomed at public expense, others that no public expenditure should be made and that men should not be hindered from being ransomed out of private means; and, if ready silver were lacking to any at the moment, that a loan of money should be given from the treasury and that security for the People should be taken upon sureties and estates—then T. Manlius Torquatus, a man of ancient and, as it seemed to most, overly harsh severity, when asked his opinion, is reported to have spoken thus: “If the envoys had merely requested, on behalf of those who are in the power of the enemy, that they be ransomed, I would have concluded my opinion briefly without any pursuit of them; for what else would you need but to be reminded that you should preserve the custom handed down by the fathers, made necessary to the military art by its precedent? But now, since they have well-nigh bragged that they surrendered themselves to the foes, and have judged it equitable that they be preferred not only to those taken in line of battle by the enemy, but even to those who made their way to Venusia and Canusium and to C. Terentius the consul himself, I, Conscript Fathers, will not allow you to be ignorant of the things that were done there. And would that I were transacting these matters which I am about to lay before you at Canusium before the army itself—the best witness of each man’s cowardice and valor—or that at least P. Sempronius were present here alone; if those men had followed him as their leader, the soldiers today would be in Roman camps, not captives in the power of the enemy.”

Sed cum fessis pugnando hostibus, tum uictoria laetis et ipsis plerique regressis in castra sua, noctem ad erumpendum liberam habuissent et septem milia armatorum hominum erumpere etiam [per] confertos hostes possent, neque per se ipsi id facere conati sunt neque alium sequi uoluerunt. Nocte prope tota P. Sempronius Tuditanus non destitit monere, adhortari eos, dum paucitas hostium circa castra, dum quies ac silentium esset, dum nox inceptum tegere posset, se ducem sequerentur: ante lucem peruenire in tuta loca, in sociorum urbes posse. Si ut auorum memoria P. Decius tribunus militum in Samnio, si ut nobis adulescentibus priore Punico bello Calpurnius Flamma trecentis uoluntariis, cum ad tumulum eos capiendum situm inter medios duceret hostes, dixit "moriamur, milites, et morte nostra eripiamus ex obsidione circumuentas legiones", si hoc P. Sempronius diceret, nec uiros quidem nec Romanos uos duceret, si nemo tantae uirtutis exstitisset comes.

Sed when the enemies, weary from fighting, and themselves joyful with victory, most of them having returned to their own camp, had a night free for breaking out, and seven thousand armed men could even break out [through] densely massed enemies, they neither tried to do this by themselves nor were willing to follow another. For nearly the whole night P. Sempronius Tuditanus did not cease to warn and exhort them, that, while there was a small number of enemies around the camp, while there was quiet and silence, while the night could cover the undertaking, they should follow him as leader: that before daylight they could arrive at safe places, in the cities of the allies. If, as within our grandfathers’ memory, P. Decius, tribune of soldiers, in Samnium—if, as when we were young men in the First Punic War, Calpurnius Flamma, with three hundred volunteers, when he was leading them to seize a mound situated in the midst among the enemies, said, “let us die, soldiers, and by our death let us snatch the legions surrounded out of the siege”—if P. Sempronius were saying this, he would count you neither men nor Romans, if no one had stood forth as a companion of so great virtue.

Viam non ad gloriam magis quam ad salutem ferentem demonstrat; reduces in patriam ad parentes, ad coniuges ac liberos facit. Vt seruemini, deest uobis animus: quid, si moriendum pro patria esset, faceretis? Quinquaginta milia ciuium sociorumque circa uos eo ipso die caesa iacent.

He points out a way leading not so much to glory as to safety; he brings you back to the fatherland, to parents, to wives and children. That you may be saved, you lack courage: what would you do, if you had to die for the fatherland? Fifty thousand citizens and allies lie slain around you on this very day.

Si tot exempla uirtutis non mouent, nihil unquam mouebit; si tanta clades uilem uitam non fecit, nulla faciet. Liberi atque incolumes desiderate patriam; immo desiderate, dum patria est, dum ciues eius estis. Sero nunc desideratis, deminuti capite, [abalienati iure ciuium] serui Carthaginiensium facti.

If so many exemplars of virtue do not move you, nothing will ever move you; if so great a disaster has not made life cheap, none will. As free and unscathed, long for your fatherland; nay rather, long for it while there is a fatherland, while you are its citizens. Too late now you long for it, diminished in civil status, [alienated from the right of citizens], made slaves of the Carthaginians.

Pretio redituri estis eo unde ignauia ac nequitia abistis? P. Sempronium ciuem uestrum non audistis arma capere ac sequi se iubentem; Hannibalem post paulo audistis castra prodi et arma tradi iubentem. Quam[quam quid] ego ignauiam istorum accuso, cum scelus possim accusare?

Are you going to return for a price to that place whence you departed through cowardice and worthlessness? You did not heed P. Sempronius, your fellow citizen, bidding you to take up arms and follow him; a little later you listened to Hannibal bidding that the camp be betrayed and the arms be handed over. Although [why] do I accuse the cowardice of those men, when I can accuse a crime?

Non modo enim sequi recusarunt bene monentem sed obsistere ac retinere conati sunt, ni strictis gladiis uiri fortissimi inertes summouissent. Prius, inquam, P. Sempronio per ciuium agmen quam per hostium fuit erumpendum. Hos ciues patria desideret, quorum si ceteri similes fuissent, neminem hodie ex iis qui ad Cannas pugnauerunt ciuem haberet?

For not only did they refuse to follow the one giving good counsel, but they tried to oppose and to hold him back, had not the bravest men, with drawn swords, removed the inert. Sooner, I say, had P. Sempronius to break out through a column of citizens than through that of enemies. Let the fatherland miss these citizens? If the rest had been like them, today it would have not a single citizen from among those who fought at Cannae?

Ex milibus septem armatorum sescenti exstiterunt qui erumpere auderent, qui in patriam liberi atque armati redirent, neque his sescentis hostes obstitere; quam tutum iter duarum prope legionum agmini futurum censetis fuisse? Haberetis hodie uiginti milia armatorum Canusii fortia, fidelia, patres conscripti. Nunc autem quemadmodum hi boni fidelesque—nam "fortes" ne ipsi quidem dixerint - ciues esse possunt?

Out of seven thousand armed men there emerged six hundred who would dare to break out, who would return to their fatherland free and armed, nor did enemies stand in the way of these six hundred; how safe do you judge the march would have been for the column of nearly two legions? You would today have twenty thousand armed men at Canusium, brave and faithful, Conscript Fathers. Now, however, how can these good and faithful— for "brave" not even they themselves would say - citizens be?

Nisi quis credere potest aut adfuisse erumpentibus qui, ne erumperent, obsistere conati sunt, aut non inuidere eos cum incolumitati, tum gloriae illorum per uirtutem partae, cum sibi timorem ignauiamque seruitutis ignominiosae causam esse sciant. Maluerunt in tentoriis latentes simul lucem atque hostem exspectare, cum silentio noctis erumpendi occasio esset. [at] ad erumpendum e castris defuit animus, ad tutanda fortiter castra animum habuerunt; dies noctesque aliquot obsessi uallum armis, se ipsi tutati uallo sunt; tandem ultima ausi passique, cum omnia subsidia uitae deessent adfectisque fame uiribus arma iam sustinere nequirent, necessitatibus magis humanis quam armis uicti sunt.

Unless anyone can believe either that those who tried to oppose them, so that they might not break out, were present to those breaking out, or that they did not envy them both their safety and the glory won through their virtue, since they know that for themselves fear and cowardice are the cause of ignominious servitude. They preferred, lurking in tents, to await at once the light and the enemy, when in the silence of night there was an occasion for breaking out. [at] but for breaking out from the camp spirit was lacking; for bravely defending the camp they had spirit; for several days and nights, besieged, they defended the rampart with arms; they themselves were protected by the rampart. At length, having dared and endured the last extremities, when all the resources of life were lacking and, their strength impaired by hunger, they could now no longer sustain their arms, they were conquered more by human necessities than by arms.

Orto sole ab hostibus ad uallum accessum; ante secundam horam, nullam fortunam certaminis experti, tradiderunt arma ac se ipsos. Haec uobis istorum per biduum militia fuit. Cum in acie stare ac pugnare decuerat, [cum] In castra refugerunt; cum pro uallo pugnandum erat, castra tradiderunt, neque in acie neque in castris utiles.

With the sun risen, the enemy made an approach to the rampart; before the second hour, having tried no fortune of combat, they handed over their arms and themselves. This, for you, was the militia of those men for two days. When it was proper to stand in the battle-line and fight, [when] they fled back into the camp; when it was to be fought before the rampart, they surrendered the camp—useful neither in the battle-line nor in the camp.

Et uos redimam? Cum erumpere e castris oportet, cunctamini ac manetis; cum manere [et] castra tutari armis necesse est, et castra et arma et uos ipsos traditis hosti. Ego non magis istos redimendos, patres conscripti, censeo quam illos dedendos Hannibali qui per medios hostes e castris eruperunt ac per summam uirtutem se patriae restituerunt."

And am I to ransom you? When it is proper to break out of the camp, you hesitate and remain; when it is necessary to remain [and] to defend the camp with arms, you hand over both the camp and the arms and your very selves to the enemy. I, Conscript Fathers, am of the opinion that these men are no more to be ransomed than those to be surrendered to Hannibal who broke out of the camp through the midst of the enemies and by consummate valor restored themselves to their fatherland."

[61] Postquam Manlius dixit, quamquam patrum quoque plerosque captiui cognatione attingebant, praeter exemplum ciuitatis minime in captiuos iam inde antiquitus indulgentis, pecuniae quoque summa homines mouit, quia nec aerarium exhauriri, magna iam summa erogata in seruos ad militiam emendos armandosque, nec Hannibalem, maxime huiusce rei, ut fama erat, egentem, locupletari uolebant. Cum triste responsum non redimi captiuos redditum esset nouusque super ueterem luctus tot iactura ciuium adiectus esset, cum magnis fletibus questibus legatos ad portam prosecuti sunt. Vnus ex iis domum abiit, quod fallaci reditu in castra iure iurando se exsoluisset.

[61] After Manlius spoke, although the captives also touched many of the senators by kinship, contrary to the precedent of a commonwealth least indulgent toward captives from antiquity onward, the sum of money likewise moved the men, because they wished neither that the treasury be exhausted—since a great sum had already been expended to buy and arm slaves for military service—nor that Hannibal, as rumor had it most in need of this very thing, be enriched. When the grim answer had been returned that the captives were not to be ransomed, and new mourning was added atop the old by so great a loss of citizens, with great weeping and lamentations they escorted the envoys to the gate. One of them went home, because by a deceitful return to the camp he had released himself from his oath.

quod ubi innotuit relatumque ad senatum est, omnes censuerunt comprehendendum et custodibus publice datis deducendum ad Hannibalem esse. Est et alia de captiuis fama: decem primos uenisse; de eis cum dubitatum in senatu esset admitterentur in urbem necne, ita admissos esse ne tamen iis senatus daretur; morantibus deinde longius omnium spe alios tres insuper legatos uenisse, L. Scribonium et C. Calpurnium et L. Manlium; tum demum ab cognato Scriboni tribuno plebis de redimendis captiuis relatum esse nec censuisse redimendos senatum; et nouos legatos tres ad Hannibalem reuertisse, decem ueteres remansisse, quod per causam recognoscendi nomina captiuorum ad Hannibalem ex itinere regressi religione sese exsoluissent; de iis dedendis magna contentione actum in senatu esse uictosque paucis sententiis qui dedendos censuerint; ceterum proximis censoribus adeo omnibus notis ignominiisque confectos esse ut quidam eorum mortem sibi ipsi extemplo consciuerint, ceteri non foro solum omni deinde uita sed prope luce ac publico caruerint. Mirari magis adeo discrepare inter auctores quam quid ueri sit discernere queas.

When this became known and was reported to the senate, all decreed that that man should be apprehended and, guards publicly assigned, be conducted to Hannibal. There is also another report about the captives: that ten came first; regarding them, when it was in doubt in the senate whether they should be admitted into the city or not, they were thus admitted, yet that a session of the senate should not be granted to them; then, as they delayed longer than everyone expected, three other legates besides came, L. Scribonius and C. Calpurnius and L. Manlius; then at last it was brought up by their kinsman Scribonius, tribune of the plebs, concerning ransoming the captives, and the senate judged that they were not to be ransomed; and the three new legates returned to Hannibal, the ten former remained, because, on the pretext of reviewing the names of the captives, having turned back to Hannibal from the journey, they had freed themselves from their religious obligation; in the senate there was great contention about surrendering them, and those who judged that they should be surrendered were defeated by a few votes; however, at the next censorship they were so overwhelmed with every mark and ignominy that some of them at once made away with themselves, the rest thereafter were deprived not only of the forum for all their life but almost of the light and the public. One may rather marvel that the authors differ so widely than be able to discern what is true.

Quanto autem maior ea clades superioribus cladibus fuerit uel ea res indicio [est quod fides socio]rum, quae ad eam diem firma steterat, tum labare coepit nulla profecto alia de re quam quod desperauerant de imperio. Defecere autem ad Poenos hi populi: Atellani, Calatini, Hirpini, Apulorum pars, Samnites praeter Pentros, Bruttii omnes, Lucani, praeter hos Vzentini, et Graecorum omnis ferme ora, Tarentini, Metapontini, Crotonienses Locrique, et Cisalpini omnes Galli. Nec tamen eae clades defectionesque sociorum mouerunt ut pacis usquam mentio apud Romanos fieret neque ante consulis Romam aduentum nec postquam is rediit renouauitque memoriam acceptae cladis; quo in tempore ipso adeo magno animo ciuitas fuit ut consuli ex tanta clade, cuius ipse causa maxima fuisset, redeunti et obuiam itum frequenter ab omnibus ordinibus sit et gratiae actae quod de re publica non desperasset; qui si Carthaginiensium ductor fuisset, nihil recusandum supplicii foret.

How much greater that disaster was than the earlier disasters, even this is an indication [is that the loyalty of the allies], which had stood firm down to that day, then began to waver, assuredly for no other matter than that they had despaired of the dominion. And these peoples defected to the Carthaginians: the Atellani, the Calatini, the Hirpini, part of the Apulians, the Samnites except the Pentri, all the Bruttians, the Lucanians, besides these the Vzentini, and well-nigh the entire seaboard of the Greeks—the Tarentines, Metapontines, Crotoniates, and Locrians—and all the Cisalpine Gauls. Yet neither did those disasters and the defections of the allies move them to let mention of peace be made anywhere among the Romans, neither before the consul’s arrival at Rome nor after he returned and renewed the memory of the disaster received; at which very time the commonwealth was of so great a spirit that to the consul returning from so great a disaster, of which he himself had been the greatest cause, men of all orders went out often to meet him, and thanks were given because he had not despaired of the republic; whereas, if he had been a leader of the Carthaginians, no punishment would have been refused.