Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] Hannibal post Cannensem pugnam [castraque] capta ac direpta confestim ex Apulia in Samnium moverat, accitus in Hirpinos a Statio [Trebio] pollicente se Compsam traditurum. Compsanus erat Trebius nobilis inter suos; sed premebat eum Mopsiorum factio, familiae per gratiam Romanorum potentis. Post famam Cannensis pugnae volgatumque Trebi sermonibus adventum Hannibalis cum Mopsiani urbe excessissent, sine certamine tradita urbs Poeno praesidiumque acceptum est.

[1] Hannibal, after the battle of Cannae and [the camps] captured and plundered, had immediately moved from Apulia into Samnium, having been called into the Hirpini by Statius [Trebius], who was promising that he would hand over Compsa. Trebius was a man of Compsa, noble among his own; but the faction of the Mopsii, a family powerful through the favor of the Romans, was pressing him. After the report of the battle of Cannae and, by Trebius’s speeches, the arrival of Hannibal had been spread abroad, when the Mopsiani had left the city, the city was handed over to the Carthaginian without contest, and a garrison was received.

Ibi praeda omni atque impedimentis relictis, exercitu partito Magonem regionis eius urbes aut deficientes ab Romanis accipere aut detractantes cogere ad defectionem iubet, ipse per agrum Campanum mare inferum petit, oppugnaturus Neapolim, ut urbem maritimam haberet. Ubi fines Neapolitanorum intravit, Numidas partim in insidiis—et pleraeque cavae sunt viae sinusque occulti—quacumque apte poterat disposuit, alios prae se actam praedam ex agris ostentantes obequitare portis iussit. In quos, quia nec multi et incompositi videbantur, cum turma equitum erupisset, ab cedentibus consulto tracta in insidias circumuenta est; nec euasisset quisquam, ni mare propinquum et haud procul litore naves, piscatoriae pleraeque, conspectae peritis nandi dedissent effugium.

There, with all the booty and the impediments left behind, and the army divided, he orders Mago to receive the cities of that region either defecting from the Romans or to compel the reluctant into defection; he himself, through the Campanian countryside, made for the Tyrrhenian Sea, intending to attack Naples, so that he might have a maritime city. When he entered the borders of the Neapolitans, he stationed some of the Numidians in ambush—and the roads are for the most part hollow and the bends hidden—wherever he suitably could; others he ordered to ride up to the gates, ostentating booty driven before them from the fields. Against these, because they seemed neither many nor in orderly array, when a troop of horse sallied out, it was drawn by those purposely retiring into the ambush and surrounded; nor would anyone have escaped, had not the nearby sea and, not far from the shore, ships—most of them fishing vessels—being sighted, given an escape to those skilled in swimming.

Aliquot tamen eo proelio nobiles iuvenes capti caesique, inter quos et Hegeas, praefectus equitum, intemperantius cedentes secutus cecidit. Ab urbe oppugnanda Poenum absterruere conspecta moenia haudquaquam prompta oppugnanti.

Several, however, in that battle noble youths were captured and cut down, among whom was Hegeas as well, prefect of cavalry; having followed those retreating too intemperately, he fell. From attacking the city the Carthaginian was deterred by the sight of the walls, by no means ready for an assailant.

[2] Inde Capuam flectit iter, luxuriantem longa felicitate atque indulgentia fortunae, maxime tamen inter corrupta omnia licentia plebis sine modo libertatem exercentis. Senatum et sibi et plebi obnoxium Pacuvius Calavius fecerat, nobilis idem ac popularis homo, ceterum malis artibus nanctus opes. Is cum eo forte anno, quo res male gesta ad Trasumennum est, in summo magistratu esset, iam diu infestam senatui plebem ratus per occasionem novandi res magnum ausuram facinus ut, si in ea loca Hannibal cum victore exercitu venisset, trucidato senatu traderet Capuam Poenis, improbus homo sed non ad extremum perditus, cum mallet incolumi quam euersa re publica dominari, nullam autem incolumem esse orbatam publico consilio crederet, rationem iniit qua et senatum servaret et obnoxium sibi ac plebi faceret.

[2] Thence he turns his march to Capua, luxuriating in long felicity and the indulgence of fortune, yet above all, amid everything corrupted, by the license of the plebs exercising freedom without measure. Pacuvius Calavius had made the senate beholden both to himself and to the plebs, a man both noble and popular, but having obtained wealth by evil arts. He, being by chance in the highest magistracy in that very year in which the affair was ill-conducted at Trasimene, thinking that the plebs, long hostile to the senate, would, upon the opportunity of revolutionizing affairs, venture a great crime—namely, that, if Hannibal came with a victorious army into those regions, after the senate was butchered he would hand over Capua to the Punics—an unscrupulous man, but not ruined to the last extremity, since he preferred to rule with the commonwealth intact rather than overthrown, and believed that no commonwealth is intact when bereft of its public counsel, entered upon a plan by which he might both preserve the senate and make it beholden to himself and to the plebs.

Vocato senatu cum sibi defectionis ab Romanis consilium placiturum nullo modo, nisi necessarium fuisset, praefatus esset, quippe qui liberos ex Ap. Claudi filia haberet filiamque Romam nuptum M. Liuio dedisset; ceterum maiorem multo rem magisque timendam instare; non enim per defectionem ad tollendum ex civitate senatum plebem spectare sed per caedem senatus vacuam rem publicam tradere Hannibali ac Poenis velle; eo se periculo posse liberare eos si permittant sibi et certaminum in re publica obliti credant,—cum omnes victi metu permitterent, "claudam" inquit "in curia vos et, tamquam et ipse cogitati facinoris particeps, approbando consilia quibus nequiquam adversarer viam saluti vestrae inveniam. In hoc fidem, quam voltis ipsi, accipite." Fide data egressus claudi curiam iubet praesidiumque in vestibulo relinquit ne quis adire curiam iniussu suo neve inde egredi possit.

Having called the senate, he prefaced by saying that a plan of defection from the Romans would in no way have commended itself to him, had it not been necessary—since he had children by the daughter of Ap. Claudius and had given his own daughter at Rome in marriage to M. Livius; but that a much greater matter and more to be feared was pressing: for the plebs were not aiming, by defection, at removing the senate from the state, but wished, through a slaughter of the senate, to hand over an empty republic to Hannibal and the Carthaginians; that he could free them from that danger if they would allow him and, forgetful of the contests in the republic, put their trust in him,—when all, overcome by fear, permitted it, “I shall shut you in the senate-house,” he says, “and, as though I myself were a partner in the contemplated crime, by approving the counsels which I would oppose in vain, I shall find a way to your safety. In this accept the pledge which you yourselves desire.” The pledge having been given, he went out, orders the senate-house to be shut, and leaves a guard in the vestibule, that no one may approach the senate-house without his order nor go out from it.

[3] Tum vocato ad contionem populo "quod saepe" inquit "optastis, Campani, ut supplicii sumendi vobis ex improbo ac detestabili senatu potestas esset, eam non per tumultum expugnantes domos singulorum, quas praesidiis clientium servorumque tuentur, cum summo vestro periculo, sed tutam habetis ac liberam; clausos omnes in curia accipite, solos, inermes. Nec quicquam raptim aut forte temere egeritis; de singulorum capite vobis ius sententiae dicendae faciam, ut quas quisque meritus est poenas pendat; sed ante omnia ita vos irae indulgere oportet, ut potiorem ira salutem atque utilitatem vestram habeatis. Etenim hos, ut opinor, odistis senatores, non senatum omnino habere non voltis; quippe aut rex, quod abominandum, aut, quod unum liberae civitatis consilium est, senatus habendus est.

[3] Then, the people having been called to an assembly, he says: "That which you have often desired, Campanians—that the power of exacting punishment from the depraved and detestable senate should be yours—you have it safe and free, not by tumult, storming the houses of individuals, which they protect with guards of clients and slaves, with your utmost peril, but: receive them all shut up in the curia, alone, unarmed. Nor will you do anything in haste or at random rashly; I will grant to you the right of pronouncing sentence on the head of individuals, so that each may pay the penalties he has deserved; but before all it is fitting that you indulge anger in such a way that you hold safety and your advantage as preferable to anger. For these men, as I suppose, you hate—the senators; you do not wish not to have a senate at all; for either a king—which is abominable—must be had, or the senate, which alone is the council of a free state, must be had."

Itaque duae res simul agendae vobis sunt, ut et veterem senatum tollatis et nouum cooptetis. Citari singulos senatores iubebo de quorum capite vos consulam; quod de quoque censueritis fiet; sed prius in eius locum virum fortem ac strenuum nouum senatorem cooptabitis quam de noxio supplicium sumatur." Inde consedit et nominibus in urnam coniectis citari quod primum sorte nomen excidit ipsumque e curia produci iussit. Ubi auditum est nomen, malum et improbum pro se quisque clamare et supplicio dignum.

"Therefore two things must be done by you at the same time: both that you remove the old senate and that you co-opt a new one. I will order the individual senators to be summoned, concerning whose case I will consult you; whatever you have decreed about each will be done; but first into his place you shall co-opt a brave and strenuous man as a new senator before punishment is exacted from the guilty." Then he sat down, and the names having been thrown into an urn, he ordered that the first name which by lot fell out be summoned, and that the man himself be brought out from the curia. When the name was heard, each for his own part cried out that he was evil and wicked and worthy of punishment.

Tum Pacuuius: "uideo quae de hoc sententia sit; date igitur pro malo atque improbo bonum senatorem et iustum." Primo silentium erat inopia potioris subiciundi; deinde cum aliquis omissa verecundia quempiam nominasset, multo maior extemplo clamor oriebatur, cum alii negarent nosse, alii nunc probra, nunc humilitatem sordidamque inopiam et pudendae artis aut quaestus genus obicerent. Hoc multo magis in secundo ac tertio citato senatore est factum, ut ipsius paenitere homines appareret, quem autem in eius substituerent locum deesse, quia nec eosdem nominari attinebat, nihil aliud quam ad audienda probra nominatos, et multo humiliores obscurioresque ceteri erant eis qui primi memoriae occurrebant. Ita dilabi homines, notissimum quodque malum maxime tolerabile dicentes esse iubentesque senatum ex custodia dimitti.

Then Pacuvius: "I see what the judgment about this is; therefore give, in place of the bad and immoral man, a good and just senator." At first there was silence from lack of someone better to put forward; then, when someone, modesty laid aside, had named somebody, a much greater outcry arose at once, since some said they did not know him, others now threw at him reproaches, now lowliness and sordid poverty, and the kind of shameful art (craft) or gain he pursued. This happened much more when the second and third senator were summoned, so that it appeared men repented of the man himself, but lacked someone to substitute in his place, because it did not suit that the same persons be named again—named for nothing else than to hear reproaches—and the rest were much humbler and more obscure than those who first occurred to memory. Thus the men began to slip away, saying that the most notorious evil is the most tolerable, and bidding that the senate be released from custody.

[4] Hoc modo Pacuvius cum obnoxium vitae beneficio senatum multo sibi magis quam plebi fecisset, sine armis iam omnibus concedentibus dominabatur. Hinc senatores omissa dignitatis libertatisque memoria plebem adulari; salutare, benigne invitare, apparatis accipere epulis, eas causas suscipere, ei semper parti adesse, secundum eam litem iudices dare quae magis popularis aptiorque in volgus favori conciliando esset; iam vero nihil in senatu agi aliter quam si plebis ibi esset concilium. Prona semper civitas in luxuriam non ingeniorum modo vitio sed afluenti copia voluptatium et illecebris omnis amoenitatis maritimae terrestrisque, tum vero ita obsequio principum et licentia plebei lascivire ut nec libidini nec sumptibus modus esset.

[4] In this way, since Pacuvius had made the senate, beholden for their life as a benefit, much more to himself than to the plebs, he ruled without arms, with all now conceding. Hence the senators, with the memory of dignity and liberty set aside, to flatter the plebs; to salute, to invite kindly, to receive with prepared banquets, to take up those causes, to be always present to that party, to appoint judges according to that side in a suit which was more popular and more apt for conciliating favor in the common crowd; and now indeed nothing to be done in the senate otherwise than as if there were there a council of the plebs. The community, always prone to luxury not only by the vice of dispositions but by the affluent abundance of pleasures and the allurements of every amenity both maritime and terrestrial, then indeed ran riot so by the compliance of the leading men and the license of the plebs that there was no measure either to lust or to expenditures.

Ad contemptum legum, magistratuum, senatus accessit tum, post Cannensem cladem, ut, cvius aliqua verecundia erat, Romanum quoque spernerent imperium. Id modo erat in mora ne extemplo deficerent, quod conubium vetustum multas familias claras ac potentes Romanis miscuerat, et, quod maximum vinculum erat, trecenti equites, nobilissimus quisque Campanorum, cum militarent aliquando apud Romanos in praesidia Sicularum urbium delecti ab Romanis ac missi.

To their contempt of the laws, the magistrates, the senate there was then added, after the Cannae disaster, that even those who had some modesty would spurn the Roman imperium as well. Only this was a delay preventing them from defecting immediately: that an ancient connubium had mingled many illustrious and powerful families with the Romans, and—what was the greatest bond—three hundred equestrians, each the most noble of the Campanians, when they once served among the Romans, had been chosen by the Romans and sent into the garrisons of the Sicilian cities.

[5] Horum parentes cognatique aegre peruicerunt ut legati ad consulem Romanum mitterentur. Ii nondum Canusium profectum sed Venusiae cum paucis ac semiermibus consulem invenerunt, quam poterant maxime miserabilem bonis sociis, superbis atque infidelibus, ut erant Campani, spernendum. Et auxit rerum suarum suique contemptum consul nimis detegendo cladem nudandoque.

[5] The parents and kinsmen of these with difficulty prevailed that envoys be sent to the Roman consul. They found the consul not yet departed to Canusium, but at Venusia with a few and half-armed men, one as miserable as could be to good allies, and to the proud and faithless—such as the Campanians—one to be spurned. And the consul augmented the contempt for his affairs and for himself by too much revealing and baring the defeat.

Nam cum legati aegre ferre senatum populumque Campanum adversi quicquam euenisse Romanis nuntiassent pollicerenturque omnia quae ad bellum opus essent, "morem magis" inquit "loquendi cum sociis servastis, Campani, iubentes quae opus essent ad bellum imperare, quam convenienter ad praesentem fortunae nostrae statum locuti estis. Quid enim nobis ad Cannas relictum est ut, quasi aliquid habeamus, id quod deest expleri ab sociis velimus? Pedites vobis imperemus tamquam equites habeamus?

For when the envoys had reported that the Campanian senate and people took it ill that anything adverse had happened to the Romans and were promising all things that were requisite for war, “you have rather kept the custom of speaking with allies, Campanians,” he said, “by bidding that whatever was needful for the war be levied, than spoken suitably to the present status of our fortune. For what was left to us at Cannae, that, as if we had anything, we should wish that what is lacking be made up by the allies? Should we levy infantry from you as though we had cavalry?

Pecuniam deesse dicamus tamquam ea tantum desit? Nihil, ne quod suppleremus quidem, nobis reliquit fortuna. Legiones, equitatus, arma, signa, equi virique, pecunia, commeatus aut in acie aut binis postero die amissis castris perierunt.

Shall we say that money is lacking, as though that alone were lacking? Fortune has left us nothing, not even anything with which to make good the loss. The legions, the cavalry, arms, standards, horses and men, money, provisions—either in the battle line, or with both camps lost on the following day—have perished.

Itaque non iuvetis nos in bello oportet, Campani, sed paene bellum pro nobis suscipiatis. Veniat in mentem, ut trepidos quondam maiores vestros intra moenia compulsos, nec Samnitem modo hostem sed etiam Sidicinum pauentes, receptos in fidem [ad] Saticulam defenderimus coeptumque propter vos cum Samnitibus bellum per centum prope annos variante fortuna euentum tulerimus. Adicite ad haec, quod foedus aequum deditis, quod leges vestras, quod ad extremum, id quod ante Cannensem certe cladem maximum fuit, civitatem nostram magnae parti vestrum dedimus communicavimusque vobiscum.

Therefore it is not fitting that you assist us in war, Campanians, but that you almost undertake the war on our behalf. Let it come to mind how we once defended your ancestors, alarmed and driven within the walls, fearing not only the Samnite enemy but also the Sidicinian, when, received into our protection [at] Saticula; and that, on your account, we carried through to the outcome a war begun with the Samnites for nearly a hundred years, fortune varying. Add to these that you have an equitable treaty, that you have your own laws, and, finally—that which before the Cannae disaster was certainly the greatest—that we gave our citizenship to a great part of you and shared it with you.

Itaque communem vos hanc cladem quae accepta est credere, Campani, oportet, communem patriam tuendam arbitrari esse. Non cum Samnite aut Etrusco res est ut quod a nobis ablatum sit in Italia tamen imperium maneat; Poenus hostis ne Africae quidem indigenam ab ultimis terrarum oris, freto Oceani Herculisque columnis, expertem omnis iuris et condicionis et linguae prope humanae militem trahit. Hunc natura et moribus immitem ferumque insuper dux ipse efferavit, pontibus ac molibus ex humanorum corporum strue faciendis et, quod proloqui etiam piget, vesci corporibus humanis docendo.

Therefore you ought, Campanians, to believe that this disaster which has been incurred is common, to judge that the common fatherland is to be defended. The matter is not with a Samnite or an Etruscan, such that, though something be taken from us, nevertheless dominion in Italy remains; the Punic enemy draws as soldier not even an indigene of Africa, but from the farthest shores of the lands, from the strait of Ocean and the Pillars of Hercules, a man devoid of all law and status and almost of human language. This man, harsh and savage by nature and by morals, the leader himself has, moreover, brutalized, by teaching him to make bridges and moles from a heap of human bodies, and—what it irks even to utter—to feed on human bodies.

His infandis pastos epulis, quos contingere etiam nefas sit, videre atque habere dominos et ex Africa et a Carthagine iura petere et Italiam Numidarum ac Maurorum pati provinciam esse, cui non, genito modo in Italia, detestabile sit? Pulchrum erit, Campani, prolapsum clade Romanum imperium vestra fide, vestris viribus retentum ac reciperatum esse. Triginta milia peditum, quattuor milia equitum arbitror ex Campania scribi posse; iam pecuniae adfatim est frumentique.

To see, and to have as masters, men fed on unspeakable banquets—whom it is even a sacrilege to touch—and to seek laws from Africa and from Carthage, and to allow Italy to be a province of Numidians and Moors—who, merely born in Italy, would not find it detestable? It will be noble, Campanians, that the Roman imperium, fallen by disaster, has been held fast and recuperated by your loyalty and your forces. I judge that 30,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry can be enrolled from Campania; already there is money and grain in ample supply.

Si parem fortunae vestrae fidem habetis, nec Hannibal se vicisse sentiet nec Romani victos esse."

If you possess a faith equal to your fortune, neither will Hannibal feel that he has conquered nor will the Romans [feel] that they have been conquered."

[6] [Ab] hac oratione consulis dimissis redeuntibusque domum legatis unus ex iis Vibius Virrius tempus venisse ait, quo Campani non agrum solum ab Romanis quondam per iniuriam ademptum reciperare sed imperio etiam Italiae potiri possint; foedus enim cum Hannibale quibus velint legibus facturos; neque controversiam fore quin, cum ipse confecto bello Hannibal victor in Africam decedat exercitumque deportet, Italiae imperium Campanis relinquatur. Haec Virrio loquenti assensi omnes ita renuntiant legationem uti deletum omnibus videretur nomen Romanum. Extemplo plebes ad defectionem ac pars maior senatus spectare; extracta tamen auctoritatibus seniorum per paucos dies est res.

[6] [From] this oration of the consul, the legates having been dismissed and returning home, one of them, Vibius Virrius, says that the time has come when the Campanians may not only recover the land once unjustly taken away by the Romans, but also get possession of the imperium of Italy; for they would make a foedus with Hannibal on whatever terms they wish; nor would there be controversy that, when Hannibal himself, the war completed, should withdraw to Africa as victor and transport his army, the imperium of Italy would be left to the Campanians. To Virrius speaking these things all assented, and thus report the legation, as if to all the Roman name seemed erased. Forthwith the plebs and the greater part of the senate look toward defection; however, the matter was drawn out for a few days by the auctoritas of the elders.

Postremo vicit sententia plurium ut iidem legati qui ad consulem Romanum ierant ad Hannibalem mitterentur. Quo priusquam iretur certumque defectionis consilium esset, Romam legatos missos a Campanis in quibusdam annalibus invenio, postulantes ut alter consul Campanus fieret, si rem Romanam adiuvari vellent; indignatione orta summoveri a curia iussos esse, missumque lictorem qui ex urbe educeret eos atque eo die manere extra fines Romanos iuberet. Quia nimis compar Latinorum quondam postulatio erat Coeliusque et alii id haud sine causa praetermiserint scriptores, ponere pro certo sum veritus.

At last the opinion of the majority prevailed, that the same envoys who had gone to the Roman consul should be sent to Hannibal. But before this was proceeded with and a settled plan of defection existed, I find in certain annals that envoys were sent to Rome by the Campanians, demanding that one of the consuls be made a Campanian, if they wished the Roman commonwealth to be aided; that, indignation having arisen, they were ordered to be removed from the Curia, and that a lictor was sent to lead them out of the city and to order them on that day to remain beyond the Roman frontiers. Because the demand was too comparable to that once made by the Latins, and because Coelius and other writers have passed it over not without cause, I have been afraid to set it down as certain.

[7] Legati ad Hannibalem venerunt pacemque cum eo condicionibus fecerunt ne quis imperator magistratusue Poenorum ius ullum in civem Campanum haberet neue civis Campanus invitus militaret munusve faceret; ut suae leges, sui magistratus Capuae essent; ut trecentos ex Romanis captiuis Poenus daret Campanis, quos ipsi elegissent, cum quibus equitum Campanorum, qui in Sicilia stipendia facerent, permutatio fieret. Haec pacta: illa insuper quam quae pacta erant facinora Campani ediderunt: nam praefectos socium civesque Romanos alios, partim aliquo militiae munere occupatos, partim privatis negotiis implicitos, plebs repente omnes comprehensos velut custodiae causa balneis includi iussit, ubi fervore atque aestu anima interclusa foedum in modum exspirarent. Ea ne fierent neu legatio mitteretur ad Poenum, summa ope Decius Magius, vir cui ad summam auctoritatem nihil praeter sanam civium mentem defuit, restiterat.

[7] Legates came to Hannibal and made peace with him on conditions that no commander or magistrate of the Carthaginians should have any right over a Campanian citizen, and that no Campanian citizen should serve under arms unwillingly or perform any duty; that their own laws and their own magistrates should be at Capua; that the Carthaginian should give to the Campanians three hundred of the Roman captives, whom they themselves had chosen, with whom an exchange should be effected for the Campanian cavalrymen who were doing service in Sicily. These were the terms agreed: over and above the things that were agreed, the Campanians perpetrated crimes: for the commons suddenly ordered that the prefects of the allies and certain other Roman citizens—some occupied with some military duty, others entangled in private business—after being all seized, be shut up in the baths, as if for safekeeping, where, their breath cut off by heat and swelter, they expired in a foul manner. That these things might not be done and that no embassy be sent to the Carthaginian, Decius Magius, with utmost effort—a man to whom nothing was lacking for the highest authority save the sound mind of his fellow citizens—had resisted.

Ut vero praesidium mitti ab Hannibale audivit, Pyrrhi superbam dominationem miserabilemque Tarentinorum servitutem exempla referens, primo ne reciperetur praesidium palam vociferatus est, deinde ut receptum aut eiceretur aut, si malum facinus quod a vetustissimis sociis consanguineisque defecissent forti ac memorabili facinore purgare vellent, ut interfecto Punico praesidio restituerent Romanis se. Haec—nec enim occulta agebantur—cum relata Hannibali essent, primo misit qui vocarent Magium ad sese in castra; deinde, cum is ferociter negasset se iturum nec enim Hannibali ius esse in civem Campanum, concitatus ira Poenus comprehendi hominem vinctumque attrahi ad sese iussit. Veritus deinde ne quid inter vim tumultus atque ex concitatione animorum inconsulti certaminis oreretur, ipse praemisso nuntio ad Marium Blossium, praetorem Campanum, postero die se Capuae futurum, proficiscitur e castris cum modico praesidio. Marius contione advocata edicit, ut frequentes cum coniugibus ac liberis obviam irent Hannibali.

But when he heard that a garrison was being sent by Hannibal, adducing as examples Pyrrhus’s proud domination and the pitiable servitude of the Tarentines, at first he vociferated openly that the garrison ought not to be received; then, when it had been received, that it either be cast out, or—if they wished to purge the evil deed, that they had defected from their most ancient allies and kinsmen, by a brave and memorable deed—that, with the Punic garrison slain, they restore themselves to the Romans. When these things—for they were not being done in secret—had been reported to Hannibal, at first he sent men to summon Magius to himself in the camp; then, when he had fiercely refused that he would go—for Hannibal, he said, had no right over a Campanian citizen—the Carthaginian, stirred by anger, ordered the man seized and, bound, dragged to himself. Then, fearing lest amid the violence of a tumult and from the agitation of spirits an unconsidered combat might arise, he himself, after a message had been sent ahead to Marius Blossius, the Campanian praetor, that on the next day he would be at Capua, sets out from the camp with a small garrison. With an assembly convened, Marius proclaims that they should go in great numbers, with their wives and children, to meet Hannibal.

Ab universis id non obedienter modo sed enixe, favore etiam volgi et studio visendi tot iam victoriis clarum imperatorem, factum est. Decius Magius nec obviam egressus est nec, quo timorem aliquem ex conscientia significare posset, privatim se tenuit; in foro cum filio clientibusque paucis otiose inambulavit trepidante tota civitate ad excipiendum Poenum visendumque. Hannibal ingressus urbem senatum extemplo postulat, precantibusque inde primoribus Campanorum ne quid eo die seriae rei gereret diemque ut ipse, adventu suo festum, laetus ac libens celebraret, quamquam praeceps ingenio in iram erat, tamen, ne quid in principio negaret, visenda urbe magnam partem diei consumpsit.

By all this was done not only obediently but eagerly, with the favor also of the populace and the zeal for seeing the commander already renowned by so many victories. Decius Magius neither went out to meet him nor, so as to signify some fear from conscience, kept himself in private; in the forum he strolled at leisure with his son and a few clients, while the whole city was in a flutter to receive and to see the Carthaginian. Hannibal, upon entering the city, immediately demands the senate, and when the leading men of the Campanians there entreated that he conduct no serious business on that day and that he himself, the day being festal by his arrival, celebrate it gladly and willingly, although by temperament he was headlong into anger, nevertheless, in order to refuse nothing at the outset, he spent a great part of the day in viewing the city.

[8] Deversatus est apud Ninnios Celeres, Sthenium Pacuuiumque, inclitos nobilitate ac divitiis. Eo Pacuvius Calauius, de quo ante dictum est, princeps factionis eius quae traxerat rem ad Poenos, filium iuvenem adduxit abstractum ab Deci Magi latere, cum quo ferocissime pro Romana societate adversus Punicum foedus steterat, nec eum aut inclinata in partem alteram civitas aut patria maiestas sententia depulerat. Huic tum pater iuveni Hannibalem deprecando magis quam purgando placavit, victusque patris precibus lacrimisque etiam ad cenam eum cum patre vocari iussit, cui convivio neminem Campanum praeterquam hospites Vibelliumque Tauream, insignem bello virum, adhibiturus erat.

[8] He lodged with the Ninnii Celeres, Sthenius and Pacuvius, illustrious in nobility and riches. There Pacuvius Calavius, of whom mention was made before, the leader of the faction which had drawn the affair over to the Carthaginians, brought his young son, taken away from the side of Decius Magius, with whom he had stood most fiercely for the Roman alliance against the Punic treaty; nor had either the state inclined to the other side or the majesty of the fatherland driven him from his opinion. Then the father appeased Hannibal toward this young man more by entreating than by excusing, and, overcome by the father’s prayers and tears, he even ordered him to be invited to dinner with his father, to which banquet he had been about to admit no Campanian except his hosts and Vibellius Taurea, a man distinguished in war.

Epulari coeperunt de die, et convivium non ex more Punico aut militari disciplina esse sed, ut in civitate atque etiam domo diti ac luxuriosa, omnibus voluptatium inlecebris instructum. Unus nec dominorum invitatione nec ipsius interdum Hannibalis Calavius filius perlici ad vinum potuit, ipse valetudinem excusans patre animi quoque eius haud mirabilem perturbationem causante. Solis ferme occasu patrem Calauium ex convivio egressum secutus filius, ubi in secretum—hortus erat posticis aedium partibus— pervenerunt, "consilium" inquit "adfero, pater, quo non veniam solum peccati, quod defecimus ad Hannibalem, impetraturi ab Romanis sed in multo maiore dignitate et gratia simus Campani [futuri] quam unquam fuimus.

They began to feast in broad daylight, and the banquet was not according to Punic custom or military discipline, but, as in a wealthy and luxurious city and even household, furnished with all the enticements of pleasures. One person could not be enticed to wine, neither by the invitation of the masters nor at times by Hannibal himself—the son of Calavius—he himself excusing his health, while his father also alleged as a cause the hardly remarkable perturbation of his mind. Near sunset the son, having followed his father Calavius as he came out from the banquet, when they reached a private place—the garden was in the rear parts of the house—said, “I bring a plan, father, by which we shall obtain from the Romans not only pardon for the sin that we have defected to Hannibal, but we Campanians shall be in much greater dignity and favor than we have ever been.”

Cum mirabundus pater quidnam id esset consilii quaereret, toga reiecta ab umero latus succinctum gladio nudat. "Iam ego" inquit "sanguine Hannibalis sanciam Romanum foedus. Te id prius scire volui, si forte abesse, dum facinus patratur, malles."

When his father, in astonishment, asked what sort of counsel that was, with his toga thrown back from his shoulder he lays bare his side girded with a sword. "Now I," he says, "with the blood of Hannibal will sanction the Roman treaty. I wished you to know this first, in case you would prefer to be absent while the deed is being perpetrated."

[9] Quae ubi vidit audivitque senex, velut si iam agendis quae audiebat interesset, amens metu "per ego te" inquit, "fili, quaecumque iura liberos iungunt parentibus, precor quaesoque ne ante oculos patris facere et pati omnia infanda velis. Paucae horae sunt intra quas iurantes per quidquid deorum est, dextrae dextras iungentes, fidem obstrinximus—ut sacratas fide manus, digressi a conloquio, extemplo in eum armaremus? Ab hospitali mensa surgis, ad quam tertius Campanorum adhibitus es ab Hannibale,—ut eam ipsam mensam cruentares hospitis sanguine?

[9] When the old man saw and heard these things, as if he already had a part in the deeds he was hearing were to be done, out of his mind with fear he said, "By— I implore you, son, by whatever laws join children to parents, I pray and beseech that you not wish, before a father’s eyes, to do and to suffer all unspeakable things. It is only a few hours within which, swearing by whatever of the gods there is, right hands joining right hands, we bound our faith— that we, our hands consecrated by faith, after departing from the colloquy, should immediately arm them against him? You rise from the hospitable table, to which, as the third Campanian, you were admitted by Hannibal— that you should stain that very table with your host’s blood?"

Hannibalem pater filio meo potui placare, filium Hannibali non possum? Sed sit nihil sancti, non fides, non religio, non pietas; audeantur infanda, si non perniciem nobis cum scelere ferunt. Unus adgressurus es Hannibalem?

Was I, as father, able to placate Hannibal toward my son, and can I not placate the son toward Hannibal? But let there be nothing sacred—no faith, no religion, no piety; let unspeakable things be dared, if only they do not bring ruin upon us along with crime. Are you, alone, going to assail Hannibal?

Quid illa turba tot liberorum servorumque? Quid in unum intenti omnium oculi? Quid tot dextrae?

What is that crowd of so many freeborn and slaves? What of the eyes of all fixed upon one? What of so many right hands?

Torpescent in amentia illa? Voltum ipsius Hannibalis, quem armati exercitus sustinere n[equeunt], quem horret populus Romanus, tu sustinebis? Ut alia auxilia desint, me ipsum ferire corpus meum opponentem pro corpore Hannibalis sustinebis?

Will they grow torpid in that insanity? The very countenance of Hannibal, which armed armies cannot sustain, which the Roman people shudder at—will you sustain it? Granted that other aids are lacking, will you bear to strike me myself, as I set my body in opposition in place of Hannibal’s body?

Atqui per meum pectus petendus ille tibi transfigendusque est. Sed hic te deterreri sine potius quam illic vinci. Valeant preces apud te meae, sicut pro te hodie ualuerunt." Lacrimantem inde iuvenem cernens medium complectitur atque osculo haerens non ante precibus abstitit quam peruicit, ut gladium poneret fidemque daret nihil facturum tale.

“And yet, through my breast must he be sought by you and be transfixed. But allow yourself to be deterred here rather than be conquered there. May my prayers prevail with you, just as today they have prevailed on your behalf.” Seeing the youth then weeping, she embraces him about the middle and, clinging with a kiss, did not desist from her prayers until she prevailed that he put down the sword and gave his pledge to do nothing of the sort.

Tum iuvenis "ego quidem" inquit, "quam patriae debeo pietatem exsoluam patri. Tuam doleo vicem, cui ter proditae patriae sustinendum est crimen, semel cum defectionem inisti ab Romanis, iterum cum pacis cum Hannibale fuisti auctor, tertio hodie, cum restituendae Romanis Capuae mora atque impedimentum es. Tu, patria, ferrum, quo pro te armatus hanc arcem hostium inii, quoniam parens extorquet, recipe." Haec cum dixisset, gladium in publicum trans maceriam horti abiecit et, quo minus res suspecta esset, se ipse convivio reddidit.

Then the young man said, "I indeed will discharge toward my father the piety which I owe to my fatherland. I grieve for your lot, who must bear the charge of a fatherland betrayed three times: once when you entered upon a defection from the Romans; again when you were the author of peace with Hannibal; a third time today, when you are a delay and an impediment to Capua being restored to the Romans. You, fatherland, take back the steel with which, armed for you, I entered this citadel of the enemy, since my parent wrests it away." When he had said these things, he threw the sword into the public way across the garden wall, and, so that the matter might be the less suspected, he returned himself to the banquet.

[10] Postero die senatus frequens datus Hannibali; ubi prima eius oratio perblanda ac benigna fuit, qua gratias egit Campanis quod amicitiam suam Romanae societati praeposuissent, [et] inter cetera magnifica promissa pollicitus brevi caput Italiae omni Capuam fore iuraque inde cum ceteris populis Romanum etiam petiturum. Unum esse exsortem Punicae amicitiae foederisque secum facti, quem neque esse Campanum neque dici debere, Magium Decium; eum postulare ut sibi dedatur, ac se praesente de eo referatur senatusque consultum fiat. Omnes in eam sententiam ierunt, quamquam magnae parti et vir indignus ea calamitate et haud parvo initio minui videbatur ius libertatis.

[10] On the next day a full senate was granted to Hannibal; where his first oration was very coaxing and benign, in which he gave thanks to the Campanians because they had preferred his friendship to the Roman association, [and], among other magnificent promises, he pledged that shortly Capua would be the head of all Italy, and that from it, together with the other peoples, even the Roman people would seek their rights. There was one exempt from Punic friendship and from the treaty made with himself—who was neither a Campanian nor ought to be called one—Decius Magius; he demanded that he be handed over to him, and that, with himself present, the matter be proposed concerning him and a decree of the senate be made. All went over into that opinion, although to a great part both the man seemed unworthy of that calamity and it seemed that by no small beginning the right of liberty was being diminished.

Egressus curia in templo magistratuum consedit comprehendique Decium Magium atque ante pedes destitutum causam dicere iussit. Qui cum manente ferocia animi negaret lege foederis id cogi posse, tum iniectae catenae ducique ante lictorem in castra est iussus. Quoad capite aperto est ductus, contionabundus incessit, ad circumfusam undique multitudinem vociferans: "Habetis libertatem, Campani, quam petistis.

Having gone out from the curia he sat down in the temple of the magistrates, and he ordered Decius Magius to be seized and, set down before his feet, to plead his case. He, with the fierceness of spirit remaining, denied that by the law of the foedus that could be compelled; then chains were thrown upon him, and he was ordered to be led, with a lictor going before, into the camp. So long as he was led with head uncovered, he advanced haranguing, vociferating to the multitude surrounding on every side: “You have the liberty, Campanians, which you sought.”

Foro medio, luce clara, videntibus vobis nulli Campanorum secundus vinctus ad mortem rapior. Quid violentius capta Capua fieret? Ite obviam Hannibali, exornate urbem diemque adventus eius consecrate, ut hunc triumphum de cive vestro spectetis." Haec vociferanti, cum moveri volgus videretur, obvolutum caput est ociusque rapi extra portam iussus.

In the middle of the forum, in bright light, with you looking on, I, second to none of the Campanians, am dragged bound to death. What more violent would be done if Capua were taken? Go to meet Hannibal, adorn the city and consecrate the day of his advent, so that you may behold this triumph over your fellow-citizen." As he was vociferating these things, when the crowd seemed to be moved, his head was veiled and he was ordered to be hurried off outside the gate.

Ita in castra perducitur extemploque impositus in navem et Carthaginem missus, ne motu aliquo Capuae ex indignitate rei orto senatum quoque paeniteret dediti principis et legatione missa ad repetendum eum aut negando rem quam primam peterent offendendi sibi novi socii aut tribuendo habendus Capuae esset seditionis ac turbarum auctor. Navem Cyrenas detulit tempestas, quae tum in dicione regum erant. Ibi cum Magius ad statuam Ptolomaei regis confugisset, deportatus a custodibus Alexandream ad Ptolomaeum, cum eum docuisset contra ius foederis vinctum se ab Hannibale esse, vinclis liberatur, permissumque ut rediret seu Romam seu Capuam mallet.

Thus he is led into the camp and immediately placed on a ship and sent to Carthage, lest, with some commotion at Capua arising from the indignity of the affair, the senate too should repent of having surrendered their leading man, and, an embassy having been sent to demand him back, either by denying the thing which they would seek first their new allies be offended at them, or by granting it he would have to be kept at Capua as an author of sedition and tumults. A storm carried the ship to the Cyrenae, which were then under the dominion of kings. There, when Magius had taken refuge at a statue of King Ptolemy, he was carried off by the guards to Alexandria, to Ptolemy; and when he had informed him that, contrary to the law of the treaty, he had been bound by Hannibal, he was freed from his chains, and it was permitted that he return either to Rome or to Capua, whichever he preferred.

Nec Magius Capuam sibi tutam dicere et Romam eo tempore quo inter Romanos Campanosque bellum sit transfugae magis quam hospitis fore domicilium; nusquam malle quam in regno eius vivere quem vindicem atque auctorem habeat libertatis.

Nor did Magius say that Capua was safe for himself, and that Rome at that time—when there was war between Romans and Campanians—would be a domicile for a defector rather than a guest; he preferred to live nowhere other than in the kingdom of the man whom he had as vindicator and author of his liberty.

[11] Dum haec geruntur, Q. Fabius Pictor legatus a Delphis Romam rediit responsumque ex scripto recitavit. Divi divaeque in eo erant quibus quoque modo supplicaretur; tum: "Si ita faxitis, Romani, vestrae res meliores facilioresque erunt magisque ex sententia res publica vestra vobis procedet victoriaque duelli populi Romani erit. Pythio Apollini re publica vestra bene gesta servataque lucris meritis donum mittitote deque praeda manubiis spoliisque honorem habetote; lasciviam a vobis prohibetote." Haec ubi ex Graeco carmine interpretata recitavit, tum dixit se oraculo egressum extemplo iis omnibus divis rem divinam ture ac vino fecisse, iussumque ab templi antistite, sicut coronatus laurea corona et oraculum adisset et rem divinam fecisset, ita coronatum navem adscendere nec ante deponere eam quam Romam pervenisset; se, quaecumque imperata sint, cum summa religione ac diligentia exsecutum coronam Romae in aram Apollinis deposuisse.

[11] While these things were being transacted, Q. Fabius Pictor, legate, returned to Rome from Delphi and read out the response from a written document. The gods and goddesses were in it, to whom and in what manner supplication should be made; then: "If you do thus, Romans, your affairs will be better and easier, and your commonwealth will proceed more according to your sentiment for you, and the victory of the war will belong to the Roman people. To Pythian Apollo send a gift for the gains and merits with your commonwealth well conducted and preserved, and from the booty, the manubial proceeds, and the spoils pay honor; keep lasciviousness away from you." When he had recited these things, translated from the Greek verses, then he said that, having gone out from the oracle, he had immediately performed a sacred rite with incense and wine to all those gods, and that he had been ordered by the temple’s chief-priest, just as, crowned with a laurel crown, he had approached the oracle and had performed the sacred rite, so, crowned, to go aboard the ship and not to put it off before he had reached Rome; that he, whatever things had been commanded, had executed with the utmost religious scruple and diligence, and had deposited the crown at Rome on the altar of Apollo.

Senatus decrevit ut eae res divinae supplicationesque primo quoque tempore cum cura fierent. Dum haec Romae atque [in] Italia geruntur, nuntius victoriae ad Cannas Carthaginem venerat Mago Hamilcaris filius, non ex ipsa acie a fratre missus sed retentus aliquot dies in recipiendis civitatibus Bruttiorum quae deficiebant. Is, cum ei senatus datus esset, res gestas in Italia a fratre exponit: cum sex imperatoribus eum, quorum quattuor consules, duo dictator ac magister equitum fuerint, cum sex consularibus exercitibus acie conflixisse; occidisse supra ducenta milia hostium, supra quinquaginta milia cepisse.

The Senate decreed that those religious rites and supplications should be performed with care at the earliest possible time. While these things are being done at Rome and [in] Italy, a messenger of the victory at Cannae had come to Carthage—Mago, son of Hamilcar—not sent by his brother straight from the battle line, but detained for several days in receiving the cities of the Bruttians which were defecting. He, when a session of the Senate had been granted him, set forth the achievements in Italy by his brother: that he had engaged in pitched battle with six commanders, of whom four had been consuls, the other two the dictator and the master of horse, and with six consular armies; that he had slain over 200,000 of the enemy, and had taken over 50,000.

Ex quattuor consulibus duos occidisse; ex duobus saucium alterum, alterum toto amisso exercitu vix cum quinquaginta hominibus effugisse. Magistrum equitum, quae consularis potestas sit, fusum fugatum; dictatorem, quia se in aciem nunquam commiserit, unicum haberi imperatorem. Bruttios Apulosque, partim Samnitium ac Lucanorum defecisse ad Poenos.

Of the four consuls he had slain two; of the remaining two, the one was wounded, the other, with his entire army lost, had scarcely escaped with fifty men. The Master of the Horse, which is a consular power, had been routed and put to flight; the dictator, because he had never committed himself to the battle line, was regarded as the sole commander. The Bruttians and Apulians, and part of the Samnites and Lucanians, had defected to the Carthaginians.

Capuam, quod caput non Campaniae modo sed post adflictam rem Romanam Cannensi pugna Italiae sit, Hannibali se tradidisse. Pro his tantis totque victoriis verum esse grates deis immortalibus agi haberique.

that Capua, which is the head not of Campania only but, after the Roman state was afflicted by the battle of Cannae, of Italy, had surrendered itself to Hannibal. For these so great and so many victories it is truly right that thanks to the immortal gods be given and rendered.

[12] Ad fidem deinde tam laetarum rerum effundi in vestibulo curiae iussit anulos aureos, qui tantus acervus fuit ut metientibus dimidium supra tres modios explesse sint quidam auctores: fama tenuit quae propior vero est, haud plus fuisse modio. Adiecit deinde verbis, quo maioris cladis indicium esset, neminem nisi equitem, atque eorum ipsorum primores, id gerere insigne. Summa fuit orationis, quo propius spem belli perficiendi sit, eo magis omni ope iuvandum Hannibalem esse; procul enim ab domo militiam esse, in media hostium terra; magnam vim frumenti pecuniae absumi, et tot acies, ut hostium exercitus delesse, ita victoris etiam copias parte aliqua minuisse; mittendum igitur supplementum esse, mittendam in stipendium pecuniam frumentumque tam bene meritis de nomine Punico militibus.

[12] Then, for proof of such joyful affairs, he ordered gold rings to be poured out in the vestibule of the curia; and the heap was so great that, as they measured it, some authors say it filled three and a half modii: rumor held—closer to the truth—that it was not more than one modius. He added in words, that it might be a sign of a greater disaster, that no one but a horseman, and among them the foremost themselves, wears that badge. The sum of the speech was this: the nearer the hope of finishing the war is, the more Hannibal must be aided with every resource; for the service is far from home, in the midst of the enemy’s land; a great quantity of grain and money is being consumed, and so many battle-lines, while they have destroyed the enemy’s armies, have in some part diminished even the victor’s forces; therefore reinforcements must be sent, and money and grain must be sent for pay to the soldiers who have so well deserved of the Punic name.

Secundum haec dicta Magonis laetis omnibus, Himilco, vir factionis Barcinae, locum Hannonis increpandi esse ratus, "quid est, Hanno?" Inquit; "etiam nunc paenitet belli suscepti adversus Romanos? Iube dedi Hannibalem; veta in tam prosperis rebus grates deis immortalibus agi; audiamus Romanum senatorem in Carthaginiensium curia." Tum Hanno: "tacuissem hodie, patres conscripti, ne quid in communi omnium gaudio minus laetum quod esset vobis loquerer; nunc interroganti senatori, paeniteatne adhuc suscepti adversus Romanos belli, si reticeam, aut superbus aut obnoxius videar, quorum alterum est hominis alienae libertatis obliti, alterum suae. Respondeam" inquit "Himilconi non desisse paenitere me belli neque desiturum ante invictum vestrum imperatorem incusare quam finitum aliqua tolerabili condicione bellum videro; nec mihi pacis antiquae desiderium ulla alia res quam pax nova finiet.

After these things said by Mago, with all rejoicing, Himilco, a man of the Barcine faction, thinking there was an opening to rebuke Hanno, said, "What is it, Hanno? Do you even now repent of the war undertaken against the Romans? Order Hannibal to be given up; forbid that, in such prosperous circumstances, thanks be rendered to the immortal gods; let us hear a Roman senator in the Carthaginians’ curia." Then Hanno: "I would have kept silent today, conscript fathers, lest in the common joy of all I should say anything to you that was less cheerful; now, to the senator who asks whether I still repent of the war undertaken against the Romans, if I keep silence, I may seem either arrogant or obsequious—of which the one belongs to a man forgetful of another’s liberty, the other of his own. Let me answer," he says, "to Himilco, that I have not ceased to repent of the war, nor shall I cease to arraign your unconquered general before I have seen the war ended under some tolerable condition; nor will any other thing than a new peace put an end, for me, to the longing for the old peace."

Itaque ista quae modo Mago iactavit Himilconi ceterisque Hannibalis satellitibus iam laeta sunt: mihi possunt laeta esse, quia res bello bene gestae, si volumus fortuna uti, pacem nobis aequiorem dabunt; nam si praetermittimus hoc tempus quo magis dare quam accipere possumus videri pacem, vereor ne haec quoque laetitia luxuriet nobis ac vana euadat. Quae tamen nunc quoque qualis est? Occidi exercitus hostium; mittite milites mihi.

Therefore those things which Mago just now vaunted are already joyous to Himilco and the other satellites of Hannibal: to me they can be joyous, because deeds well conducted in war, if we wish to employ Fortune, will give us a more equitable peace; for if we let this moment pass, in which we can seem to grant rather than to receive peace, I fear lest this joy too luxuriate for us and prove vain. And yet, even now, what sort is it? The enemy’s army has been cut down; send soldiers to me.

Quid aliud rogares, si esses victus? Hostium cepi bina castra, praedae videlicet plena et commeatuum; frumentum et pecuniam date. Quid aliud, si spoliatus, si exutus castris esses, peteres?

What else would you ask, if you were vanquished? I have taken two camps of the enemy, evidently full of plunder and provisions; give grain and money. What else would you seek, if you had been despoiled, if you had been stripped of your camps?

Et ne omnia ipse mirer—mihi quoque enim, quoniam respondi Himilconi, interrogare ius fasque est—uelim seu Himilco seu Mago respondeat, cum ad internecionem Romani imperii pugnatum ad Cannas sit constetque in defectione totam Italiam esse, primum, ecquis Latini nominis populus defecerit ad nos, deinde, ecquis homo ex quinque et triginta tribubus ad Hannibalem transfugerit." Cum utrumque Mago negasset, "hostium quidem ergo" inquit "adhuc nimis multum superest. Sed multitudo ea quid animorum quidue spei habeat scire velim."

And lest I myself marvel at everything—for to me as well, since I have replied to Himilco, it is right and lawful to ask questions—I would like either Himilco or Mago to answer: since at Cannae it was fought to the extermination of the Roman imperium, and it stands agreed that all Italy is in defection, first, has any people of the Latin name defected to us? next, has any man from the thirty-five tribes gone over to Hannibal?" When Mago had denied both, "of enemies then indeed," he said, "far too much still remains. But I would like to know what spirit and what hope that multitude has."

[13] Cum id nescire Mago diceret, "nihil facilius scitu est" inquit. "Ecquos legatos ad Hannibalem Romani miserunt de pace? Ecquam denique mentionem pacis Romae factam esse allatum ad vos est?" Cum id quoque negasset, "bellum igitur" inquit "tam integrum habemus quam habuimus qua die Hannibal in Italiam est transgressus.

[13] When Mago said he did not know that, he said, "nothing is easier to know. Have the Romans sent any legates to Hannibal about peace? Has any, finally, mention of peace made at Rome been reported to you?" When he too had denied that, "war therefore," he said, "we have as entire as we had on the day Hannibal crossed over into Italy."

Quam varia victoria priore [Punico] bello fuerit plerique qui meminerimus supersumus. Nunquam terra marique magis prosperae res nostrae visae sunt quam ante consules C. Lutatium et A. Postumium fuerunt; Lutatio et Postumio consulibus devicti ad Aegates insulas sumus. Quod si, id quod di omen avertant, nunc quoque fortuna aliquid variaverit, tum pacem speratis cum vincemur, quam nunc cum vincimus dat nemo?

How variable victory was in the prior [Punic] war, most of us who remember still survive. Never on land and sea did our affairs seem more prosperous than they were before the consuls C. Lutatius and A. Postumius; with Lutatius and Postumius as consuls we were defeated at the Aegates Islands. But if—may the gods avert that omen—fortune should now also have varied somewhat, then do you hope for peace when we shall be conquered, which now, when we are conquering, no one grants?

Ego, si quis de pace consulet seu deferenda hostibus seu accipienda, habeo quid sententiae dicam; si de iis quae Mago postulat refertis, nec victoribus mitti attinere puto et frustrantibus nos falsa atque inani spe multo minus censeo mittenda esse." Haud multos movit Hannonis oratio; nam et simultas cum familia Barcina leviorem auctorem faciebat et occupati animi praesenti laetitia nihil quo vanius fieret gaudium suum auribus admittebant debellatumque mox fore, si adniti paulum voluissent, rebantur. Itaque ingenti consensu fit senatus consultum ut Hannibali quattuor milia Numidarum in supplementum mitterentur et quadraginta elephanti et argenti talenta, + dictatorque + cum Magone in Hispaniam praemissus est ad conducenda viginti milia peditum, quattuor milia equitum, quibus exercitus qui in Italia quique in Hispania erant, supplerentur.

"I, if anyone shall take counsel about peace, whether to be deferred to the enemies or to be accepted, have something of opinion to say; if you are reporting about the things which Mago demands, I think it does not pertain that they be sent even to victors, and I judge much less that they ought to be sent to men who are frustrating us with false and empty hope." Hanno’s speech moved not many; for both the feud with the Barcid house made him a lighter authority, and minds preoccupied with present joy admitted to their ears nothing by which their own gladness would be made the more vain; and they supposed that the war would soon be finished, if they were willing to strain a little. And so, by huge consensus, a senatorial decree is made that to Hannibal there should be sent, as a reinforcement, 4,000 Numidians and 40 elephants and talents of silver, + and a dictator + was sent on ahead with Mago into Spain to hire 20,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, by which the armies which were in Italy and which were in Spain might be replenished.

[14] Ceterum haec, ut in secundis rebus, segniter otioseque gesta; Romanos praeter insitam industriam animis fortuna etiam cunctari prohibebat. Nam nec consul ulli rei quae per eum agenda esset deerat, et dictator M. Iunius Pera, rebus divinis perfectis latoque, ut solet, ad populum ut equum escendere liceret, praeter duas urbanas legiones quae principio anni a consulibus conscriptae fuerant et servorum dilectum cohortesque ex agro Piceno et Gallico collectas, ad ultimum prope desperatae rei publicae auxilium—cum honesta utilibus cedunt—descendit edixitque qui capitalem fraudem ausi quique pecuniae iudicati in vinculis essent, qui eorum apud se milites fierent, eos noxa pecuniaque sese exsolui iussurum. Ea sex milia hominum Gallicis spoliis, quae triumpho C. Flamini tralata erant, armavit, itaque cum viginti quinque milibus armatorum ab urbe proficiscitur.

[14] However, these things, as in prosperous circumstances, were carried on sluggishly and at leisure; besides their inborn industry of spirit, fortune also forbade the Romans to delay. For the consul was not lacking for any matter that had to be transacted through him, and the dictator Marcus Iunius Pera, the divine rites having been completed and, as is customary, a measure brought before the people that it be permitted to mount a horse, besides the 2 urban legions which at the beginning of the year had been enlisted by the consuls, and a levy of slaves and cohorts collected from the Picene and Gallic countryside, descended to the last aid of a well-nigh desperate res publica—when honorable considerations yield to useful ones—and proclaimed that those who had dared a capital fraud and those who had been condemned in money suits and were in chains, such of them as would become soldiers under him, he would order to be released from guilt and from money-liability. These 6,000 men he armed with Gallic spoils, which had been carried in the triumph of Gaius Flaminius; and so he sets out from the city with 25,000 armed men.

Hannibal Capua recepta, cum iterum Neapolitanorum animos partim spe, partim metu nequiquam temptasset, in agrum Nolanum exercitum traducit, ut non hostiliter statim, quia non desperabat voluntariam deditionem, ita, si morarentur spem, nihil eorum quae pati aut timere possent praetermissurus. Senatus ac maxime primores eius in societate Romana cum fide perstare; plebs novarum, ut solet, rerum atque Hannibalis tota esse metumque agrorum populationis et patienda in obsidione multa grauia indignaque proponere animo; neque auctores defectionis deerant. Itaque ubi senatum metus cepit, si propalam tenderent, resisti multitudini concitatae non posse, secunda simulando dilationem mali inveniunt.

Hannibal, Capua having been received, when he had in vain tried again the spirits of the Neapolitans, partly by hope, partly by fear, leads his army across into the Nolan countryside—so that not in a hostile manner at once, because he did not despair of a voluntary surrender; yet, if they should delay the hope, he would omit none of those things which they could suffer or fear. The senate, and especially its leading men, stood fast with good faith in the Roman alliance; the plebs, as usual, was wholly for novelties and for Hannibal, and set before their minds the fear of the devastation of the fields and of many grave and unworthy things to be endured in a siege; nor were promoters of defection lacking. Therefore, when fear seized the senate that, if they should contend openly, it would not be possible to resist the roused multitude, by feigning compliance they find a postponement of the evil.

Placere enim sibi defectionem ad Hannibalem simulant; quibus autem condicionibus in foedus amicitiamque novam transeant, parum constare. Ita spatio sumpto legatos propere ad praetorem Romanum M[arcellum] Claudium, qui Casilini cum exercitu erat, mittunt docentque quanto in discrimine sit Nolana res: agrum Hannibalis esse et Poenorum, urbem extemplo futuram ni subveniatur; concedendo plebei senatum ubi velint defecturos se, ne deficere praefestinarent effecisse. Marcellus conlaudatis Nolanis eadem simulatione extrahi rem in suum adventum iussit; interim celari quae secum acta essent spemque omnem auxilii Romani.

They feign that a defection to Hannibal pleases them; but under what conditions they should pass into a new treaty and friendship is not sufficiently settled. Thus, having taken a span of time, they send envoys in haste to the Roman praetor M[arcellus] Claudius, who was at Casilinum with the army, and they show how great a crisis the Nolana affair is in: that the countryside is Hannibal’s and the Carthaginians’, the city will at once be theirs unless help is brought; that, by conceding to the plebs, the senate would defect wherever they wished, that they had brought it about that they should not make haste to defect. Marcellus, after praising the Nolans, ordered by the same simulation that the matter be drawn out until his arrival; meanwhile, that both what had been transacted with him and every hope of Roman aid be concealed.

Ipse a Casilino Caiatiam petit atque inde Volturno amni traiecto per agrum Saticulanum Trebianumque super Suessulam per montes Nolam pervenit.

He himself from Casilinum made for Caiatia, and from there, with the Volturnus river crossed, through the Saticulan and Trebian countryside, above Suessula, by the mountains, he reached Nola.

[15] Sub adventum praetoris Romani Poenus agro Nolano excessit et ad mare proxime Neapolim descendit, cupidus maritimi oppidi potiundi, quo cursus navibus tutus ex Africa esset; ceterum postquam Neapolim a praefecto Romano teneri accepit—M. Iunius Silanus erat, ab ipsis Neapolitanis accitus—Neapoli quoque, sicut Nola, omissa petit Nuceriam. Eam cum aliquamdiu circumsedisset, saepe vi, saepe sollicitandis nequiquam nunc plebe, nunc principibus, fame demum in deditionem accepit, pactus ut inermes cum singulis abirent vestimentis. Deinde ut qui a principio mitis omnibus Italicis praeter Romanos videri vellet, praemia atque honores qui remanserint ac militare secum voluissent proposuit.

[15] On the approach of the Roman praetor the Carthaginian withdrew from the Nolan territory and went down to the sea near Naples, eager to get possession of a maritime town, by which a passage for ships from Africa would be safe; but after he learned that Naples was held by a Roman prefect—M. Junius Silanus it was, summoned by the Neapolitans themselves—giving up Naples also, as he had Nola, he made for Nuceria. After he had for some time sat encamped around it, often by force, often by attempts (though in vain) to win over now the commons, now the leading men, at last by famine he received it into surrender, having stipulated that they should depart unarmed with a single garment apiece. Then, as one who from the beginning wished to seem mild to all the Italians except the Romans, he proposed rewards and honors for those who remained and were willing to serve with him.

Nec ea spe quemquam tenuit; dilapsi omnes, quocumque hospitia aut fortuitus animi impetus tulit, per Campaniae urbes, maxime Nolam Neapolimque. Cum ferme triginta senatores, ac forte primus quisque, Capuam petissent, exclusi inde, quod portas Hannibali clausissent, Cumas se contulerunt. Nucerina praeda militi data est, urbs direpta atque incensa.

Nor did he hold anyone by that hope; all dispersed, wherever guest-friendships or a fortuitous impulse of spirit carried them, through the cities of Campania, especially Nola and Naples. When nearly thirty senators, and each leading man as it chanced, had sought Capua, shut out from there because they had closed the gates to Hannibal, they betook themselves to Cumae. The Nucerian booty was given to the soldiery; the city was plundered and burned.

Nolam Marcellus non sui magis fiducia praesidii quam voluntate principum habebat; plebs timebatur et ante omnes L. Bantius, quem conscientia temptatae defectionis ac metus a praetore Romano nunc ad proditionem patriae, nunc, si ad id fortuna defuisset, ad transfugiendum stimulabat. Erat iuvenis acer et sociorum ea tempestate prope nobilissimus eques. Seminecem eum ad Cannas in acervo caesorum corporum inventum curatumque benigne, etiam cum donis Hannibal domum remiserat.

Marcellus held Nola not so much by confidence in his own praesidium as by the good will of the leading men; the plebs was feared, and before all L. Bantius, whom the conscience of an attempted defection and fear of the Roman praetor was goading now to the betrayal of his fatherland, now—if for that fortune should be lacking—to go over as a deserter. He was a keen young man and, among the allies at that time, almost the most noble eques. Hannibal, having found him half-dead at Cannae in a heap of slaughtered bodies and having cared for him kindly, had even sent him home with gifts.

Ob eius gratiam meriti rem Nolanam in ius dicionemque dare voluerat Poeno, anxiumque eum et sollicitum cura novandi res praetor cernebat. Ceterum cum aut poena cohibendus esset aut beneficio conciliandus, sibi adsumpsisse quam hosti ademisse fortem ac strenuum maluit socium, accitumque ad se benigne appellat: multos eum invidos inter populares habere inde existimatu facile esse quod nemo civis Nolanus sibi indicaverit quam multa eius egregia facinora militaria essent; sed qui in Romanis militaverit castris, non posse obscuram eius virtutem esse. Multos sibi qui cum eo stipendia fecerint, referre qui vir esset ille quaeque et quotiens pericula pro salute ac dignitate populi Romani adisset, utique Cannensi proelio non prius pugna abstiterit quam prope exsanguis ruina superincidentium virorum equorum armorumque sit oppressus.

On account of the favor of that merit, he had wished to give the Nolan affair into the right and dominion of the Carthaginian; and the praetor perceived him anxious and unsettled, with a care for altering affairs. However, since he had to be either restrained by punishment or conciliated by a beneficium, he preferred to assume to himself rather than to take from the enemy a brave and strenuous ally, and, having summoned him, he addresses him kindly: that he had many envious men among his fellow townsmen—whence it was easy to suppose, because no Nolan citizen had informed him how many were his outstanding military deeds; but for one who has soldiered in Roman camps, his virtue could not be obscure. Many, who had served their stipends with him, report to him what a man that one was, and what and how often dangers he had approached for the safety and dignity of the Roman people—especially that in the battle of Cannae he did not desist from the fight until, almost bloodless, he was overwhelmed by the collapse of men, horses, and arms falling upon him.

"Itaque macte virtute esto" inquit. "Apud me tibi omnis honos atque omne praemium erit et, quo frequentior mecum fueris, senties eam rem tibi dignitati atque emolumento esse." Laetoque iuveni promissis equum eximium dono dat bigatosque quingentos quaestorem numerare iubet; lictoribus imperat ut eum se adire quotiens velit patiantur.

"So then, be magnified in valor," he says. "With me every honor and every reward will be yours, and the more frequently you are with me, you will feel that this is to your dignity and emolument." And to the young man, glad at the promises, he gives as a gift an excellent horse and orders the quaestor to count out five hundred bigati; he commands the lictors to allow him to approach him whenever he wishes.

[16] Hac comitate Marcelli ferocis iuvenis animus adeo est mollitus ut nemo inde sociorum rem Romanam fortius ac fidelius iuverit. Cum Hannibal ad portas esset—Nolam enim rursus a Nuceria movit castra—plebesque Nolana de integro ad defectionem spectaret, Marcellus sub adventum hostium intra muros se recepit, non castris metuens sed ne prodendae urbis occasionem nimis multis in eam imminentibus daret. Instrui deinde utrimque acies coeptae, Romanorum pro moenibus Nolae, Poenorum ante castra sua.

[16] By this comity of Marcellus the spirit of the ferocious young man was so softened that thereafter no one among the allies aided the Roman commonwealth more bravely and more faithfully. When Hannibal was at the gates—for he moved his camp to Nola again from Nuceria—and the Nolan plebs was anew looking toward defection, Marcellus, upon the advent of the enemy, withdrew within the walls, not fearing for the camp but lest he give an opportunity for the city’s being betrayed, with too many men looming over it. Then on both sides the battle-lines began to be drawn up, the Romans’ before the walls of Nola, the Carthaginians’ before their own camp.

Proelia hinc parua inter urbem castraque et vario euentu fiebant, quia duces nec prohibere paucos temere provocantes nec dare signum universae pugnae volebant. In hac cotidiana duorum exercituum statione principes Nolanorum nuntiant Marcello nocturna conloquia inter plebem ac Poenos fieri statutumque esse ut, cum Romana acies egressa portis foret, impedimenta eorum ac sarcinas diriperent, clauderent deinde portas murosque occuparent, ut potentes rerum suarum atque urbis Poenum inde pro Romano acciperent. Haec ubi nuntiata Marcello sunt, conlaudatis senatoribus Nolanis, priusquam aliqui motus in urbe oreretur, fortunam pugnae experiri statuit.

From here small skirmishes were occurring between the city and the camp, with varied outcome, because the commanders wished neither to restrain a few who were rashly provoking nor to give the signal for a general engagement. In this everyday stand-off of the two armies, the leading men of the Nolans announce to Marcellus that nocturnal colloquies were being held between the plebs and the Punics, and that it had been decreed that, when the Roman battle line had gone forth from the gates, they would plunder their impedimenta and packs, then close the gates and seize the walls, so that, being in control of their own affairs and of the city, they might receive the Carthaginian there in place of the Roman. When these things were reported to Marcellus, after he praised the Nolean senators, before any disturbance could arise in the city, he decided to try the fortune of battle.

Ad tres portas in hostes versas tripertito exercitum instruxit; impedimenta subsequi iussit, calones lixasque et invalidos milites uallum ferre. Media porta robora legionum et Romanos equites, duabus circa portis novos milites leuemque armaturam ac sociorum equites statuit. Nolani muros portasque adire vetiti subsidiaque destinata impedimentis data, ne occupatis proelio legionibus in ea impetus fieret.

He drew up the army in three divisions at the three gates turned toward the enemy; he ordered the baggage-train to follow, and the camp-servants, sutlers, and the unfit soldiers to carry the vallum. At the middle gate he posted the strength of the legions and the Roman cavalry; at the two surrounding gates he stationed the new troops and the light-armed and the cavalry of the allies. The Nolans were forbidden to approach the walls and gates, and reserves designated were assigned to the baggage, lest, with the legions occupied in battle, an attack be made against it.

Ita instructi intra portas stabant. Hannibali sub signis, id quod per aliquot dies fecerat, ad multum diei in acie stanti primo miraculo esse quod nec exercitus Romanus porta egrederetur nec armatus quisquam in muris esset. Ratus deinde prodita conloquia esse metuque resides factos, partem militum in castra remittit iussos propere apparatum omnem oppugnandae urbis in primam aciem adferre, satis fidens, si cunctantibus instaret, tumultum aliquem in urbe plebem moturam.

Thus drawn up they stood within the gates. To Hannibal, under the standards, standing in the battle line well into the day, as he had done for several days, it was at first a marvel that neither the Roman army was coming forth from the gate nor was anyone armed upon the walls. Then, thinking that the colloquies had been betrayed and that fear had made them idle, he sends back part of the soldiers to the camp, ordered swiftly to bring the whole apparatus for assaulting the city to the front line, quite confident that, if he pressed upon the hesitating, the plebs in the city would stir up some tumult.

Dum in sua quisque ministeria discursu trepidat ad prima signa succeditque ad muros acies, patefacta repente porta Marcellus signa canere clamoremque tolli ac pedites primum, deinde equites, quanto maximo possent impetu in hostem erumpere iubet. Satis terroris tumultusque in aciem mediam intulerant, cum duabus circa portis P. Valerius Flaccus et C. Aurelius legati in cornua hostium erupere. Addidere clamorem lixae calonesque et alia turba custodiae impedimentorum adposita, ut paucitatem maxime spernentibus Poenis ingentis repente exercitus speciem fecerit.

While each man, in racing about, is flustered in his own ministries and the battle-line moves up to the foremost standards and to the walls, with the gate suddenly thrown open Marcellus orders the signals to be sounded and a shout to be raised, and that the infantry first, then the cavalry, should burst against the enemy with the greatest onrush they could. They had brought enough terror and tumult into the middle of the line when, from the two neighboring gates, P. Valerius Flaccus and C. Aurelius, the legates, burst upon the enemy’s wings. The lixae and the calones and the other crowd set for the guard of the baggage added to the clamor, so that, to the Poeni who most despised their paucity, it made the appearance of a suddenly immense army.

Vix equidem ausim adfirmare, quod quidam auctores sunt, duo milia et octingentos hostium caesos non plus quingentis Romanorum amissis; sed, sive tanta sive minor victoria fuit, ingens eo die res ac nescio an maxima illo bello gesta sit; non vinci enim ab Hannibale [vincentibus] difficilius fuit quam postea vincere.

Scarcely indeed would I dare to affirm, as certain authors report, that two thousand eight hundred of the enemy were cut down, with not more than five hundred Romans lost; but whether the victory was so great or smaller, a vast achievement was wrought that day, and I do not know but that it was the greatest in that war; for not to be beaten by Hannibal [victorious] was more difficult than to conquer him afterward.

[17] Hannibal spe potiundae Nolae adempta cum Acerras recessisset, Marcellus extemplo clausis portis custodibusque dispositis ne quis egrederetur quaestionem in foro de iis qui clam in conloquiis hostium fuerant habuit. Supra septuaginta damnatos proditionis securi percussit bonaque eorum iussit publica populi Romani esse et summa rerum senatui tradita cum exercitu omni profectus supra Suessulam castris positis consedit. Poenus Acerras primum ad voluntariam deditionem conatus perlicere, inde postquam obstinatos videt, obsidere atque oppugnare parat.

[17] With the hope of getting possession of Nola taken away, when Hannibal had withdrawn to Acerras, Marcellus immediately, the gates having been shut and guards posted so that no one might go out, held an inquest in the forum concerning those who had secretly been in parley with the enemy. He struck with the axe over seventy condemned for treason, and ordered their goods to be the public property of the Roman People; and, the supreme control of affairs having been entrusted to the Senate, setting out with the whole army, he took up position, having pitched camp above Suessula. The Carthaginian first tried to entice Acerras to a voluntary surrender; then, after he sees them obstinate, he prepares to besiege and to assault.

Ceterum Acerranis plus animi quam virium erat; itaque desperata tutela urbis, ut circumvallari moenia viderunt, priusquam continuarentur hostium opera, per intermissa munimenta neglectasque custodias silentio noctis dilapsi, per vias inviaque qua quemque aut consilium aut error tulit, in urbes Campaniae, quas satis certum erat non mutasse fidem, perfugerunt. Hannibal Acerris direptis atque incensis, cum a Casilino dictatorem Romanum legionesque acciri nuntiassent, ne quid novi tam propinquis hostium castris Capuae quoque occurreret, exercitum ad Casilinum ducit. Casilinum eo tempore quingenti Praenestini habebant cum paucis Romanis Latinique nominis, quos eodem audita Cannensis clades contulerat.

Ceterum the Acerrans had more spirit than strength; and so, with the guardianship of the city despaired of, when they saw the walls being circumvallated, before the enemy’s works were joined, through the gaps in the defenses and the neglected watches, slipping away in the silence of the night, by roads and by trackless places, wherever either counsel or error carried each, they fled for refuge into the cities of Campania, which it was quite certain had not changed loyalty. Hannibal, after Acerrae had been plundered and burned, when it was reported that from Casilinum the Roman dictator and the legions were being summoned, lest anything new should occur at Capua too, with the enemy’s camp so near, leads his army to Casilinum. Casilinum at that time was held by five hundred Praenestines with a few Romans and men of the Latin name, whom the disaster of Cannae, once heard, had brought together to that same place.

Hi, non confecto Praeneste ad diem dilectu, serius profecti domo cum Casilinum ante famam adversae pugnae venissent et aliis adgregantibus sese Romanis sociisque, profecti a Casilino cum satis magno agmine irent, avertit eos retro Casilinum nuntius Cannensis pugnae. Ibi cum dies aliquot, suspecti Campanis timentesque, cauendis ac struendis in vicem insidiis traduxissent, ut de Capuae defectione agi accipique Hannibalem satis pro certo habuere, interfectis nocte oppidanis partem urbis, quae cis Volturnum est—eo enim dividitur amni—occupavere idque praesidii Casilini habebant Romani. Additur et Perusina cohors, homines quadringenti sexaginta, eodem nuntio quo Praenestini paucos ante dies, Casilinum compulsi.

These men, the levy at Praeneste not completed by the appointed day, having set out from home later, when they had come to Casilinum before the report of the adverse battle and as other Romans and allies were joining themselves to them, set out from Casilinum and, as they were going with a fairly large column, the message of the battle of Cannae turned them back to Casilinum. There, for several days, being suspected by the Campanians and themselves in fear, they spent the time in avoiding and in laying ambuscades in turn; when they held it as sufficiently certain that the defection of Capua was being transacted and that Hannibal was being received, after the townspeople had been slain by night they seized the part of the city which is on this side of the Volturnus—for by that river it is divided—and the Romans held that as the garrison of Casilinum. There was added also a Perusine cohort, four hundred and sixty men, driven into Casilinum by the same report which, a few days earlier, had driven the Praenestines.

Et satis ferme armatorum ad tam exigua moenia et flumine altera parte cincta tuenda erat: penuria frumenti, nimium etiam ut videretur hominum, efficiebat.

And there were almost enough armed men to defend such small walls, girded on the other side by the river; the penury of grain—caused also, as it seemed, by too many men—was what made the difference.

[18] Hannibal cum iam inde haud procul esset, Gaetulos cum praefecto nomine Isalca praemittit ac primo, si fiat conloquii copia, verbis benignis ad portas aperiundas praesidiumque accipiendum perlicere iubet: si in pertinacia perstent, vi rem gerere ac temptare si qua parte invadere urbem possit. Ubi ad moenia accessere, quia silentium erat, solitudo visa; metuque concessum barbarus ratus moliri portas et claustra refringere parat, cum patefactis repente portis cohortes duae, ad id ipsum instructae intus, ingenti cum tumultu erumpunt stragemque hostium faciunt. Ita primis repulsis Maharbal cum maiore robore virorum missus nec ipse eruptionem cohortium sustinuit.

[18] When Hannibal was now not far from there, he sends ahead Gaetulians with a prefect named Isalca, and at first orders them—if an opportunity of conference be made—to entice them with kindly words to open the gates and to accept a garrison; if they persist in pertinacity, to conduct the matter by force and to try whether by any quarter he can invade the city. When they approached the walls, because there was silence, a solitude seemed; and, thinking it had been conceded through fear, the barbarian prepares to work at the gates and to break the bars, when, the gates suddenly thrown open, two cohorts, drawn up inside for that very purpose, erupt with a huge tumult and make a slaughter of the enemy. Thus, the first assailants being driven back, Maharbal, sent with a greater strength of men, did not himself withstand the eruption of the cohorts.

Postremo Hannibal castris ante ipsa moenia oppositis paruam urbem paruumque praesidium summa vi atque omnibus copiis oppugnare parat, ac dum instat lacessitque corona undique circumdatis moenibus, aliquot milites et promptissimum quemque e muro turribusque ictos amisit. Semel ultro erumpentes agmine elephantorum opposito prope interclusit trepidosque compulit in urbem satis multis ut ex tanta paucitate interfectis; plures cecidissent ni nox proelio interuenisset. Postero die omnium animi ad oppugnandum accenduntur, utique postquam corona aurea muralis proposita est atque ipse dux castelli plano loco positi segnem oppugnationem Sagunti expugnatoribus exprobrabat, Cannarum Trasumennique et Trebiae singulos admonens universosque.

At last Hannibal, with a camp set right before the very walls, prepares to besiege with utmost force and with all his forces a small city and a small garrison; and while he presses on and provokes, with a corona thrown around the walls on every side, he lost several soldiers, the most forward of each, struck from the wall and the towers. Once, when they burst out of their own accord, with a column of elephants opposed he almost shut them in and drove the alarmed back into the city, with quite many—given so great a paucity—slain; more would have fallen had not night intervened in the battle. On the next day the spirits of all are inflamed for the assault, especially after a golden mural crown was set forth, and the commander of the castellum, positioned on level ground, was reproaching a sluggish oppugnation to the stormers of Saguntum, reminding each man and all together of Cannae, Trasimene, and the Trebia.

Inde vineae quoque coeptae agi cuniculique; nec ad varios conatus hostium aut vis ulla aut ars deerat sociis Romanorum. Propugnacula adversus vineas statuere, transversis cuniculis hostium cuniculos excipere, et palam et clam coeptis obviam ire, donec pudor etiam Hannibalem ab incepto avertit, castrisque communitis ac praesidio modico imposito, ne omissa res videretur, in hiberna Capuam concessit. Ibi partem maiorem hiemis exercitum in tectis habuit, adversus omnia humana mala saepe ac diu duratum, bonis inexpertum atque insuetum.

Then vineae too began to be brought up, and tunnels; nor, against the various attempts of the enemy, was any force or art lacking to the allies of the Romans. They set up bulwarks against the vineae, intercepted the enemy’s tunnels with transverse counter-tunnels, and went to meet the undertakings both openly and covertly, until shame even turned Hannibal away from his inception; and, the camp having been fortified and a modest garrison imposed, lest the matter should seem abandoned, he withdrew into winter quarters at Capua. There he kept the greater part of the winter the army under roofs, often and long hardened against all human ills, unexperienced and unaccustomed to good things.

Itaque, quos nulla mali vicerat vis, perdidere nimia bona ac voluptates immodicae, et eo impensius quo auidius ex insolentia in eas se merserant. Somnus enim et vinum et epulae et scorta balineaque et otium consuetudine in dies blandius ita enervaverunt corpora animosque ut magis deinde praeteritae victoriae eos quam praesentes tutarentur vires, maiusque id peccatum ducis apud peritos artium militarium haberetur quam quod non ex Cannensi acie protinus ad urbem Romanam duxisset; illa enim cunctatio distulisse modo victoriam videri potuit, hic error vires ademisse ad vincendum. Itaque hercule, velut si cum alio exercitu a Capua exiret, nihil usquam pristinae disciplinae tenuit.

And so, those whom no force of evil had conquered lost out through excessive goods and immoderate pleasures, and all the more intensely the more greedily, out of insolence, they had plunged themselves into them. For sleep and wine and banquets and harlots and baths and leisure, by custom daily more seductive, so enervated their bodies and spirits that thereafter past victories protected them rather than present forces, and this was held among those skilled in the military arts to be a greater fault of the leader than that he had not led straight from the Cannae battle-line to the city of Rome; for that delay could seem to have merely deferred victory, whereas this error had taken away the strength for conquering. And so, by Hercules, as if he were departing from Capua with another army, he retained nothing anywhere of the former discipline.

Nam et redierunt plerique scortis impliciti et, ubi primum sub pellibus haberi coepti sunt, viaque et alius militaris labor excepit, tironum modo corporibus animisque deficiebant, et deinde per omne aestivorum tempus magna pars sine commeatibus ab signis dilabebantur neque aliae latebrae quam Capua desertoribus erant.

For indeed most returned entangled with prostitutes, and, as soon as they began to be kept under canvas and the march and other military toil took over, they were failing in body and spirit like raw recruits; and then, throughout the whole season of the summer quarters, a great part, without furloughs, kept slipping away from the standards, nor were there any other hiding-places for deserters than Capua.

[19] Ceterum mitescente iam hieme educto ex hibernis milite Casilinum redit, ubi, quamquam ab oppugnatione cessatum erat, obsidio tamen continua oppidanos praesidiumque ad ultimum inopiae adduxerat. Castris Romanis Ti. Sempronius praeerat dictatore auspiciorum repetendorum causa profecto Romam. Marcellum et ipsum cupientem ferre auxilium obsessis et Volturnus amnis inflatus aquis et preces Nolanorum Acerranorumque tenebant, Campanos timentium si praesidium Romanum abscessisset.

[19] However, with winter now softening and the soldiery led out from winter quarters, he returns to Casilinum, where, although there had been a cessation from assault, yet an unbroken blockade had brought the townspeople and the garrison to the utmost extremity of want. Over the Roman camp Tiberius Sempronius was presiding, the dictator having set out to Rome for the sake of repeating the auspices. And Marcus Marcellus himself, though eager to bring aid to the besieged, was being held back both by the river Volturnus swollen with waters and by the prayers of the Nolans and the Acerrans, who feared the Campanians if the Roman garrison were to withdraw.

Gracchus adsidens tantum Casilino, quia praedictum erat dictatoris ne quid absente eo rei gereret, nihil movebat, quamquam quae facile omnem patientiam vincerent nuntiabantur a Casilino; nam et praecipitasse se quosdam non tolerantes famem constabat et stare inermes in muris, nuda corpora ad missilium telorum ictus praebentes. Ea aegre patiens Gracchus, cum neque pugnam conserere dictatoris iniussu auderet—pugnandum autem esse, si palam frumentum importaret, videbat—neque clam importandi spes esset, farre ex agris circa undique convecto cum complura dolia complesset, nuntium ad magistratum Casilinum misit ut exciperent dolia quae amnis deferret. Insequenti nocte intentis omnibus in flumen ac spem ab nuntio Romano factam dolia medio missa amni defluxerunt; aequaliter inter omnes frumentum divisum.

Gracchus, merely sitting before Casilinum, because it had been prescribed by the dictator that he should transact no business in his absence, set nothing in motion, although reports were being brought from Casilinum of things that could easily overcome all patience; for it was established that certain men, unable to endure hunger, had hurled themselves headlong, and that unarmed they were standing on the walls, offering their naked bodies to the blows of hurled missiles. Bearing these things with difficulty, Gracchus—since he dared not join battle without the dictator’s order (yet he saw that there would have to be fighting if he were to import grain openly), nor was there hope of importing it secretly—after far (spelt) had been gathered from the fields round about on every side and he had filled several casks (dolia), sent a messenger to the magistrate at Casilinum to catch the casks which the river would carry down. On the following night, while all were intent upon the river and upon the hope held out by the Roman messenger, the casks, sent into midstream, floated down; the grain was divided equally among all.

Id postero quoque die ac tertio factum est; nocte et mittebantur et perveniebant; eo custodias hostium fallebant. Imbribus deinde continuis citatior solito amnis transverso vertice dolia impulit ad ripam quam hostes servabant. Ibi haerentia inter obnata ripis salicta conspiciuntur, nuntiatumque Hannibali est et deinde intentiore custodia cautum ne quid falleret Volturno ad urbem missum.

This was done on the next day also and on the third; by night they both were being sent and were arriving; thus they were deceiving the enemy sentries. Then, with continuous rains, the river, swifter than usual, with a crosswise whirl, drove the casks toward the bank which the enemies were guarding. There they are seen, sticking fast among the willow-beds grown along the banks; and it was reported to Hannibal, and thereafter, with more intent custody, provision was taken that nothing sent down the Volturnus to the city should elude them.

Nuces tamen fusae ab Romanis castris, cum medio amni ad Casilinum defluerent, cratibus excipiebantur. Postremo ad id ventum inopiae est, ut lora detractasque scutis pelles, ubi fervida mollissent aqua, mandere conarentur nec muribus alioue animali abstinerent et omne herbarum radicumque genus aggeribus infimis muri eruerent. Et cum hostes obarassent quidquid herbidi terreni extra murum erat, raporum semen iniecerunt, ut Hannibal "eone usque dum ea nascuntur ad Casilinum sessurus sum?" exclamaret; et qui nullam antea pactionem auribus admiserat, tum demum agi secum est passus de redemptione liberorum capitum.

However, nuts that were cast from the Roman camp, when they floated down the middle of the river to Casilinum, were caught in wickerwork hurdles. At last the want came to such a point that they tried to chew thongs and the hides stripped from shields, when they had softened them in boiling water, nor did they abstain from mice or any other animal, and they dug out every kind of herbs and roots from the lowest ramparts of the wall. And when the enemies had ploughed up whatever grassy ground was outside the wall, they cast in turnip-seed, so that Hannibal cried out, “Am I going to sit before Casilinum until those come up?”—and he, who had earlier admitted no pact to his ears, then at last allowed negotiations to be conducted with him about the redemption of free persons.

Septunces auri in singulos pretium convenit. Fide accepta tradiderunt sese. Donec omne aurum persolutum est, in vinculis habiti; tum remissi summa cum fide.

Seven ounces of gold was agreed as the price for each person. A pledge of good faith having been received, they surrendered themselves. Until all the gold was paid in full, they were kept in chains; then they were released with the utmost good faith.

Id verius est quam ab equite in abeuntes immisso interfectos. Praenestini maxima pars fuere. Ex quingentis septuaginta qui in praesidio fuerunt, minus dimidium ferrum famesque absumpsit: ceteri incolumes Praeneste cum praetore suo M. Anicio—scriba is antea fuerat—redierunt.

This is truer than that they were slain by cavalry let loose against them as they were departing. The Praenestines were the greatest part. Of the 570 who were in the garrison, a little less than half iron and famine consumed; the rest returned unharmed to Praeneste with their praetor M. Anicius—he had previously been a scribe.

Statua eius indictio fuit, Praeneste in foro statuta, loricata, amicta toga, velato capite, [et tria signa] cum titulo lamnae aeneae inscripto, M. Anicium pro militibus qui Casilini in praesidio fuerint votum soluisse. Idem titulus tribus signis in aede Fortunae positis fuit subiectus.

A decree was made for his statue, set up at Praeneste in the forum, cuirassed, draped with a toga, with head veiled, [and three standards], with an inscription engraved on a bronze plate stating that M. Anicius had fulfilled a vow on behalf of the soldiers who had been in garrison at Casilinum. The same inscription was placed beneath the three standards set up in the Temple of Fortuna.

[20] Casilinum oppidum redditum Campanis est, firmatum septingentorum militum de exercitu Hannibalis praesidio, ne, ubi Poenus inde abscessisset, Romani oppugnarent. Praenestinis militibus senatus Romanus duplex stipendium et quinquennii militiae uacationem decrevit; civitate cum donarentur ob virtutem, non mutauerunt. Perusinorum casus obscurior fama est, quia nec ipsorum monumento ullo est illustratus nec decreto Romanorum.

[20] The town of Casilinum was given back to the Campanians, secured with a garrison of seven hundred soldiers from Hannibal’s army, lest, when the Carthaginian had withdrawn from there, the Romans should besiege it. For the soldiers of Praeneste the Roman senate decreed double pay and an exemption from military service for five years; although citizenship was being conferred on them for their valor, they did not change their civic status. The case of the Perusians is of more obscure report, because it has been illustrated neither by any monument of theirs nor by a decree of the Romans.

Eodem tempore Petelinos, qui uni ex Bruttiis manserant in amicitia Romana, non Carthaginienses modo qui regionem obtinebant sed Bruttii quoque ceteri ob separata ab se consilia oppugnabant. Quibus cum obsistere malis nequirent Petelini, legatos Romam ad praesidium petendum miserunt. Quorum preces lacrimaeque- in questus enim flebiles, cum sibimet ipsi consulere iussi sunt, sese in vestibulo curiae profuderunt—ingentem misericordiam patribus ac populo moverunt, consultique iterum a M. Aemilio praetore patres circumspectis omnibus imperii viribus fateri coacti nihil iam longinquis sociis in se praesidii esse, redire domum fideque ad ultimum expleta consulere sibimet ipsos in reliquum [pro] praesenti fortuna iusserunt.

At the same time the Petelini, who alone of the Bruttii had remained in Roman friendship, were being attacked not only by the Carthaginians who held the region but also by the other Bruttii as well, on account of having taken counsels separate from them. When the Petelini could not withstand these evils, they sent envoys to Rome to seek a praesidium. Their prayers and tears—in fact, into tearful laments, when they were ordered to look to themselves, they poured themselves out in the vestibule of the curia—moved immense compassion in the senators and the people; and the senators, consulted again by Marcus Aemilius the praetor, after all the forces of the imperium had been surveyed, were forced to confess that now there was no longer any protection in themselves for far-distant allies; they ordered them to return home and, their good faith carried through to the uttermost, to consult for themselves for the future [pro] the present fortune.

Haec postquam renuntiata legatio Petelinis est, tantus repente maeror pauorque senatum eorum cepit ut pars profugiendi qua quisque posset ac deserendae urbis auctores essent, pars, quando deserti a veteribus sociis essent, adiungendi se ceteris Bruttiis ac per eos dedendi Hannibali. Vicit tamen ea pars quae nihil raptim nec temere agendum consulendumque de integro censuit. Relata postero die per minorem trepidationem re tenuerunt optimates ut convectis omnibus ex agris urbem ac muros firmarent.

After this embassy was reported back to the Petelini, such a sudden mourning and fear seized their senate that one part were advocates of fleeing however each could and of abandoning the city, another part, since they had been deserted by their longtime allies, of joining themselves to the rest of the Bruttii and through them surrendering to Hannibal. Yet the party prevailed which judged that nothing ought to be done in a rush nor rashly, and that consultation should be undertaken anew. Brought forward again on the next day, with less trepidation, the Optimates carried the measure that, with everything conveyed in from the fields, they should strengthen the city and the walls.

[21] Per idem fere tempus litterae ex Sicilia Sardiniaque Romam allatae. Priores ex Sicilia T. Otacili propraetoris in senatu recitatae sunt: P. Furium praetorem cum classe ex Africa Lilybaeum venisse; ipsum graviter saucium in discrimine ultimo vitae esse; militi ac naualibus sociis neque stipendium neque frumentum ad diem dari neque unde detur esse; magno opere suadere ut quam primum ea mittantur, sibique, si ita videatur, ex novis praetoribus successorem mittant. Eademque ferme de stipendio frumentoque ab A. Cornelio Mammula propraetore ex Sardinia scripta.

[21] At about the same time letters from Sicily and Sardinia were brought to Rome. The earlier, from Sicily, of T. Otacilius the propraetor, were read in the senate: that P. Furius the praetor had come with the fleet from Africa to Lilybaeum; that he himself was grievously wounded and in the last crisis of life; that to the soldiery and the naval allies neither pay nor grain was being given on the due date, nor was there any source from which it might be given; he strongly urged that these be sent as soon as possible, and that for himself, if it should seem good, they send a successor from the newly elected praetors. And nearly the same regarding pay and grain was written from Sardinia by A. Cornelius Mammula, propraetor.

Responsum utrique non esse unde mitteretur, iussique ipsi classibus atque exercitibus suis consulere. T. Otacilius ad unicum subsidium populi Romani, Hieronem, legatos cum misisset, in stipendium quanti argenti opus fuit et sex mensum frumentum accepit; Cornelio in Sardinia civitates sociae benigne contulerunt. Et Romae quoque propter penuriam argenti triumuiri mensarii rogatione M. Minucii tribuni plebis facti, L. Aemilius Papus, qui consul censorque fuerat, et M. Atilius Regulus, qui bis consul fuerat, et L. Scribonius Libo, qui tum tribunus plebis erat.

Answer was returned to both that there was no source from which it could be sent, and they themselves were ordered to look after their own fleets and armies. When T. Otacilius had sent legates to the sole subsidy of the Roman people, Hiero, he received for the stipend as much silver as was needed and grain for six months; for Cornelius in Sardinia the allied communities contributed generously. And at Rome also, because of a scarcity of silver, triumvirs of the money-chest were created by a rogation of M. Minucius, tribune of the plebs: L. Aemilius Papus, who had been consul and censor, and M. Atilius Regulus, who had been consul twice, and L. Scribonius Libo, who at that time was tribune of the plebs.

Et duumuiri creati M. et C. Atilii aedem Concordiae, quam L. Manlius praetor vouerat, dedicauerunt; et tres pontifices creati, Q. Caecilius Metellus et Q. Fabius Maximus et Q. Fulvius Flaccus, in locum P. Scantini demortui et L. Aemili Pauli consulis et Q. Aeli Paeti, qui ceciderant pugna Cannensi.

And the duumvirs M. and C. Atilius dedicated the Temple of Concord, which L. Manlius, the praetor, had vowed; and three pontiffs were appointed—Q. Caecilius Metellus, Q. Fabius Maximus, and Q. Fulvius Flaccus—in place of P. Scantinius, deceased, and of L. Aemilius Paulus, the consul, and Q. Aelius Paetus, who had fallen in the battle of Cannae.

[22] Cum cetera quae continuis cladibus fortuna minuerat, quantum consiliis humanis adsequi poterant, patres explessent, tandem se quoque et solitudinem curiae paucitatemque convenientium ad publicum consilium respexerunt; neque enim post L. Aemilium et C. Flaminium censores senatus lectus fuerat, cum tantum senatorum adversae pugnae, ad hoc sui quemque casus per quinquennium absumpsissent. Cum de ea re M. Aemilius praetor, dictatore post Casilinum amissum profecto iam ad exercitum, exposcentibus cunctis rettulisset, tum Sp. Caruilius cum longa oratione non solum inopiam sed paucitatem etiam civium ex quibus in patres legerentur conquestus esset, explendi senatus causa et iungendi artius Latini nominis cum populo Romano magno opere se suadere dixit ut ex singulis populis Latinorum binis senatoribus, [quibus] patres Romani censuissent, civitas daretur, atque [inde] in demortuorum locum in senatum legerentur. Eam sententiam haud aequioribus animis quam ipsorum quondam postulatum Latinorum patres audierunt; et cum fremitus indignantium tota curia esset et praecipue T. Manlius esse etiam nunc eius stirpis virum diceret ex qua quondam in Capitolio consul minatus esset quem Latinum in curia vidisset eum sua manu se interfecturum, Q. Fabius Maximus nunquam rei ullius alieniore tempore mentionem factam in senatu dicit quam inter tam suspensos sociorum animos incertamque fidem id iactum quod insuper sollicitaret eos; eam univs hominis temerariam vocem silentio omnium exstinguendam esse et, si quid unquam arcani sanctiue ad silendum in curia fuerit, id omnium maxime tegendum, occulendum, obliuiscendum, pro non dicto habendum esse.

[22] When the fathers had made up, so far as human counsels could attain, the other things which fortune had diminished by continuous disasters, at last they looked also to themselves, and to the solitude of the Curia and the scantness of those assembling for public counsel; for not since L. Aemilius and C. Flaminius were censors had the senate been enrolled, inasmuch as the adverse battles—and, besides, each man’s own misfortunes—over a quinquennium had carried off so many senators. When on that matter the praetor M. Aemilius, after the dictator, once Casilinum was lost, had already set out to the army, had, at the demand of all, brought it before the house, then Sp. Carvilius, in a long oration, complained not only of want but even of the paucity of citizens from whom men might be chosen into the fathers, and said that, for the purpose of filling the senate and of joining more closely the Latin name with the Roman people, he strongly urged that from each of the peoples of the Latins citizenship be granted to two senators, [whom] the Roman fathers should have approved, and that [thence] they be enrolled into the senate in the places of the deceased. The fathers heard that opinion with feelings no more equitable than the former demand of the Latins themselves; and when a murmur of the indignant filled the whole Curia, and T. Manlius especially said that there was even now a man of that stock from which once on the Capitol a consul had threatened that whatever Latin he should see in the Curia he would slay with his own hand, Q. Fabius Maximus says that never had mention of any matter been made in the senate at a more alien time than that, when the minds of the allies were so suspended and their good faith uncertain, there was thrown out something which would stir them yet further; that the rash utterance of a single man must be quenched by the silence of all, and that, if ever there had been anything arcane or sacred for keeping silence in the Curia, that above all must be covered, hidden, forgotten—held as not said.

Ita eius rei oppressa mentio est. Dictatorem, qui censor ante fuisset vetustissimusque ex iis qui viverent censoriis esset, creari placuit qui senatum legeret, accirique C. Terentium consulem ad dictatorem dicendum iusserunt. Qui ex Apulia relicto ibi praesidio cum magnis itineribus Romam redisset, nocte proxima, ut mos erat, M. Fabium Buteonem ex senatus consulto sine magistro equitum dictatorem in sex menses dixit.

Ita the mention of that matter was suppressed. It pleased that a dictator be created to enroll the senate, one who had been censor before and was the most long-standing among those who were alive of censorial rank; and they ordered that Gaius Terentius the consul be summoned for the naming of the dictator. He, from Apulia, a garrison having been left there, when he had returned to Rome with great marches, on the next night, as was the custom, named Marcus Fabius Buteo dictator for six months, by decree of the senate, without a master of the horse.

[23] Is ubi cum lictoribus in rostra escendit, neque duos dictatores tempore uno, quod nunquam antea factum esset, probare se dixit, neque dictatorem sine magistro equitum, nec censoriam vim uni permissam et eidem iterum, nec dictatori, nisi rei gerendae causa creato, in sex menses datum imperium. Quae immoderata fors, tempus ac necessitas fecerit, iis se modum impositurum; nam neque senatu quemquam moturum ex iis quos C. Flaminius L. Aemilius censores in senatum legissent; transcribi tantum recitarique eos iussurum, ne penes unum hominem iudicium arbitriumque de fama ac moribus senatoriis fuerit; et ita in demortuorum locum sublecturum ut ordo ordini, non homo homini praelatus videretur. Recitato vetere senatu, inde primos in demortuorum locum legit qui post L. Aemilium C. Flaminium censores curulem magistratum cepissent necdum in senatum lecti essent, ut quisque eorum primus creatus erat; tum legit qui aediles, tribuni plebis, quaestoresue fuerant; tum ex iis qui [non] magistratus cepissent, qui spolia ex hoste fixa domi haberent aut civicam coronam accepissent.

[23] When he mounted the Rostra with the lictors, he said that he approved neither two dictators at one time—which had never before been done—nor a dictator without a magister equitum, nor the censorial power entrusted to one man and to the same man a second time, nor the six‑month imperium granted to a dictator unless he had been created for the sake of conducting a specific matter. The excesses which chance, the time, and necessity had produced he would set a limit to; for he would remove no one from the senate from among those whom C. Flaminius and L. Aemilius, censors, had enrolled in the senate; he would only order them to be transcribed and read out, lest the judgment and discretion concerning senatorial reputation and morals should rest with a single man; and he would so enroll men into the places of the deceased that order should be preferred to order, not man to man. When the old senate had been read out, then into the places of the deceased he first chose those who, after L. Aemilius and C. Flaminius were censors, had taken a curule magistracy and had not yet been chosen into the senate, in the order in which each had first been elected; then he chose those who had been aediles, tribunes of the plebs, or quaestors; then from those who had [not] held magistracies, those who had trophies taken from the enemy affixed at home or had received the civic crown.

Ita centum septuaginta septem cum ingenti adprobatione hominum in senatum lectis, extemplo se magistratu abdicavit privatusque de rostris descendit lictoribus abire iussis, turbaeque se immiscuit privatas agentium res, tempus hoc sedulo terens ne deducendi sui causa populum de foro abduceret. Neque tamen elanguit cura hominum ea mora frequentesque eum domum deduxerunt. Consul nocte insequenti ad exercitum redit non facto certiore senatu ne comitiorum causa in urbe retineretur.

Thus, with 177 enrolled into the senate with the immense approbation of the people, he forthwith abdicated the magistracy and, a private citizen, descended from the rostra, having ordered the lictors to depart; and he mingled with the crowd engaged in private business, sedulously spending this time so that he might not, for the sake of escorting him, draw the people off from the forum. Nor, however, did the people’s concern grow languid by that delay, and in throngs they escorted him home. The consul, on the following night, returned to the army without making the senate aware, lest he be detained in the city on account of the elections (comitia).

[24] Postero die consultus a M. Pomponio praetore senatus decrevit dictatori scribendum uti, si e re publica censeret esse, ad consules subrogandos veniret cum magistro equitum et praetore M. Marcello, ut ex iis praesentibus noscere patres possent quo statu res publica esset consiliaque ex rebus caperent. Qui acciti erant, omnes venerunt relictis legatis qui legionibus praeessent. Dictator de se pauca ac modice locutus in magistrum equitum Ti. Sempronium Gracchum magnam partem gloriae vertit comitiaque edixit, quibus L. Postumius tertium absens, qui tum Galliam provinciam obtinebat, et Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, qui tum magister equitum et aedilis curulis erat, consules creantur.

[24] On the next day, the senate, having been consulted by M. Pomponius the praetor, decreed that a letter should be written to the dictator that, if he judged it to be for the good of the res publica, he should come, for the purpose of subrogating consuls, together with the master of the horse and the praetor M. Marcellus, so that from those present the Fathers might be able to learn in what condition the res publica was and take counsels from the circumstances. Those who had been summoned all came, having left legates to command the legions. The dictator, having spoken little and modestly about himself, turned a great share of the glory to his master of the horse, Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, and he proclaimed the elections, at which L. Postumius—absent, for the third time—who then held Gaul as his province, and Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, who then was master of the horse and curule aedile, were created consuls.

Praetores inde creati M. Valerius Laeuinus iterum, Ap. Claudius Pulcher, Q. Fulvius Flaccus, Q. Mucius Scaeuola. Dictator creatis magistratibus Teanum in hiberna ad exercitum redit relicto magistro equitum Romae, qui, cum post paucos dies magistratum initurus esset, de exercitibus scribendis comparandisque in annum patres consuleret. Cum eae res maxime agerentur, nova clades nuntiata aliam super aliam cumulante in eum annum fortuna, L. Postumium consulem designatum in Gallia ipsum atque exercitum deletos.

Then praetors were created: M. Valerius Laevinus again, Ap. Claudius Pulcher, Q. Fulvius Flaccus, Q. Mucius Scaevola. The dictator, the magistrates having been created, returned to Teanum into winter quarters to the army, leaving the master of horse at Rome, who, since after a few days he was about to enter upon his magistracy, should consult the Fathers about the armies to be enrolled and prepared for the year. While these matters were being most actively transacted, a new calamity was announced—fortune in that year piling one upon another—that L. Postumius, the consul-designate, in Gaul, he himself and his army, had been destroyed.

Silua erat uasta- Litanam Galli vocabant— qua exercitum traducturus erat. Eius siluae dextra laeuaque circa viam Galli arbores ita inciderunt ut immotae starent, momento levi impulsae occiderent. Legiones duas Romanas habebat Postumius, sociumque ab supero mari tantum conscripserat ut viginti quinque milia armatorum in agros hostium induxerit.

There was a vast forest- Litanam the Gauls were calling it— by which he was going to lead the army across. On the right and left of that forest around the road the Gauls cut the trees in such a way that they stood unmoved, but, when pushed with a slight impulse, they would fall. Postumius had two Roman legions, and of the allies from the Upper Sea he had levied so many that he led twenty-five thousand armed men into the enemy’s lands.

Galli oram extremae siluae cum circumsedissent, ubi intravit agmen saltum, tum extremas arborum succisarum impellunt; quae alia in aliam, instabilem per se ac male haerentem, incidentes ancipiti strage arma, viros, equos obruerunt, ut vix decem homines effugerent. Nam cum exanimati plerique essent arborum truncis fragmentisque ramorum, ceteram multitudinem inopinato malo trepidam Galli saltum omnem armati circumsedentes interfecerunt paucis e tanto numero captis, qui pontem fluminis petentes obsesso ante ab hostibus ponte interclusi sunt. Ibi Postumius omni vi ne caperetur dimicans occubuit.

The Gauls, having occupied the verge of the outermost wood, when the column entered the pass, then push the outermost of the felled trees; which, one upon another—unstable in themselves and ill-fastened—falling, with a twofold crash and slaughter overwhelmed arms, men, and horses, so that scarcely ten men escaped. For since the greater part had been exanimate by the trunks of trees and fragments of branches, the rest of the multitude, panic-struck by the unlooked-for calamity, the Gauls, surrounding the whole pass in arms, slew, with a few out of so great a number taken, who, making for the bridge of the river, were cut off, the bridge having previously been blockaded by the enemy. There Postumius, fighting with all his force that he might not be captured, fell.

Spolia corporis caputque praecisum ducis Boii ouantes templo quod sanctissimum est apud eos intulere. Purgato inde capite, ut mos iis est, caluam auro caelavere, idque sacrum uas iis erat quo sollemnibus libarent poculumque idem sacerdoti esset ac templi antistitibus. Praeda quoque haud minor Gallis quam victoria fuit; nam etsi magna pars animalium strage siluae oppressa erat, tamen ceterae res, quia nihil dissipatum fuga est, stratae per omnem iacentis agminis ordinem inventae sunt.

Exulting, the Boii brought the spoils of the body and the leader’s severed head into the temple which is most sacred among them. Then, the head having been cleansed, as is their custom, they chased the skull with gold, and that was for them a sacred vessel with which they would pour libations at solemnities, and the same goblet belonged to the priest and to the prelates of the temple. The booty also was for the Gauls no less than the victory; for although a great part of the animals had been crushed by the collapse of the forest, yet the remaining things, because nothing was scattered in flight, were found strewn along the whole order of the column as it lay.

[25] Hac nuntiata clade cum per dies multos in tanto pauore fuisset civitas ut tabernis clausis velut nocturna solitudine per urbem acta senatus aedilibus negotium daret ut urbem circumirent aperirique tabernas et maestitiae publicae speciem urbi demi iuberent, tum Ti. Sempronius senatum habuit consolatusque patres est, et adhortatus ne qui Cannensi ruinae non succubuissent ad minores calamitates animos summitterent: quod ad Carthaginienses hostes Hannibalemque attineret, prospera modo essent, sicut speraret, futura, Gallicum bellum et omitti tuto et differri posse ultionemque eam fraudis in deorum ac populi Romani potestate fore: de hoste Poeno exercitibusque, per quos id bellum gereretur, consultandum atque agitandum. Ipse primum quid peditum equitumque, quid civium, quid sociorum in exercitu esset dictatoris, disseruit; tum Marcellus suarum copiarum summam exposuit. Quid in Apulia cum C. Terentio consule esset a peritis quaesitum est nec unde duo consulares exercitus satis firmi ad tantum bellum efficerentur inibatur ratio.

[25] When this disaster had been announced, the commonwealth for many days was in such great panic that, with the shops closed and the city, as it were, borne through by a nocturnal solitude, the senate assigned the aediles the task to go around the city and order that the shops be opened and that the appearance of public mourning be removed from the city. Then Tiberius Sempronius held the senate, consoled the fathers, and exhorted that those who had not succumbed to the ruin of Cannae should not lower their spirits before lesser calamities: as for the Carthaginian enemies and Hannibal, matters would, as he hoped, soon be prosperous; the Gallic war could both safely be laid aside and its retribution deferred, and that vengeance for that treachery would be in the power of the gods and of the Roman people; concerning the Punic foe and the armies by which that war would be waged, there must be deliberation and action. He himself first set forth how many infantry and cavalry, how many citizens, how many allies were in the dictator’s army; then Marcellus presented the total of his own forces. It was asked of the experts what forces there were in Apulia with the consul Gaius Terentius, and no plan was being initiated as to whence two consular armies strong enough for so great a war might be constituted.

Itaque Galliam, quamquam stimulabat iusta ira, omitti eo anno placuit. Exercitus dictatoris consuli decretus est. De exercitu M. Marcelli, qui eorum ex fuga Cannensi essent, in Siciliam eos traduci atque ibi militare donec in Italia bellum esset placuit; eodem ex dictatoris legionibus reici militem minimi quemque roboris nullo praestituto militiae tempore nisi quod stipendiorum legitimorum esset.

Thus Gaul, although just wrath was goading, was decided to be omitted that year. The army of the Dictator was assigned to the Consul. As for the army of M. Marcellus, those of them who were from the flight at Cannae, it was resolved that they be transferred to Sicily and do military service there so long as there was war in Italy; to the same place, from the Dictator’s legions, every soldier of the least vigor was to be sent, with no term of service prescribed except that it should be for the legal number of stipends.

Duae legiones urbanae alteri consuli, qui in locum L. Postumi suffectus esset, decretae sunt eumque, cum primum saluis auspiciis posset, creari placuit; legiones praeterea duas primo quoque tempore ex Sicilia acciri, atque inde consulem, cui legiones urbanae euenissent, militum sumere quantum opus esset; C. Terentio consuli prorogari in annum imperium neque de eo exercitu quem ad praesidium Apuliae haberet quicquam minui.

Two urban legions were decreed to the other consul, who had been appointed in the place of Lucius Postumius; and it was resolved that he be elected as soon as he could with favorable auspices. Furthermore, two legions were to be summoned from Sicily at the earliest opportunity, and from there the consul to whom the urban legions had fallen by lot was to take as many soldiers as were needed. For the consul Gaius Terentius, the imperium was to be prorogued for a year, and nothing was to be diminished from that army which he had for the protection of Apulia.

[26] Dum haec in Italia geruntur apparanturque, nihilo segnius in Hispania bellum erat sed ad eam diem magis prosperum Romanis. P. et Cn. Scipionibus inter se partitis copias ut Gnaeus terra, Publius navibus rem gereret, Hasdrubal, Poenorum imperator, neutri parti virium satis fidens, procul ab hoste interuallo ac locis tutus tenebat se, quoad multum ac diu obtestanti quattuor milia peditum et quingenti equites in supplementum missi ex Africa sunt. Tum refecta tandem spe, castra propius hostem movit classemque et ipse instrui pararique iubet ad insulas maritimamque oram tutandam.

[26] While these things were being done and prepared in Italy, by no means less actively was the war in Spain, but down to that day it had been more prosperous for the Romans. Publius and Gnaeus Scipio, having divided the forces between themselves so that Gnaeus might conduct operations on land and Publius with ships, Hasdrubal, the general of the Carthaginians, trusting sufficiently in neither division of his forces, kept himself far from the enemy, safe by distance and positions, until, after much and long entreaty on his part, 4,000 infantry and 500 cavalry were sent as a supplement from Africa. Then, his hope at last restored, he moved his camp nearer to the enemy, and he himself orders the fleet to be equipped and prepared for guarding the islands and the maritime coast.

In ipso impetu movendarum de integro rerum perculit eum praefectorum navium transitio, qui post classem ad Hiberum per pauorem desertam graviter increpiti nunquam deinde satis fidi aut duci aut Carthaginiensium rebus fuerant. Fecerant hi transfugae motum in Tartesiorum gente, desciuerantque his auctoribus urbes aliquot; una etiam ab ipsis vi capta fuerat. In eam gentem versum ab Romanis bellum est, infestoque exercitu Hasdrubal ingressus agrum hostium pro captae ante dies paucos urbis moenibus Chalbum, nobilem Tartesiorum ducem, cum ualido exercitu castris se tenentem, adgredi statuit.

At the very onset of setting affairs in motion anew, the defection of the ship-prefects struck him—men who, after the fleet had been abandoned to the Hiberus in panic and they had been severely rebuked, had never thereafter been sufficiently faithful either to the leader or to the Carthaginian interests. These defectors had stirred up a movement among the nation of the Tartesians, and with them as instigators several cities had seceded; one even had been taken by force by themselves. Against that nation the war was turned by the Romans, and Hasdrubal, with a hostile army, having entered the enemy’s territory, resolved to attack before the walls of a city captured a few days earlier Chalbus, a noble leader of the Tartesians, who, with a strong army, was keeping himself within his camp.

Praemissa igitur levi armatura quae eliceret hostes ad certamen, equitum partem ad populandum per agros passim dimisit [et] ut palantes exciperent. Simul et ad castra tumultus erat et per agros fugaque et caedes; deinde undique diuersis itineribus cum in castra se recepissent, adeo repente decessit animis pauor ut non ad munimenta modo defendenda satis animorum esset sed etiam ad lacessendum proelio hostem. Erumpunt igitur agmine e castris, tripudiantes more suo, repentinaque eorum audacia terrorem hosti paulo ante ultro lacessenti incussit.

Therefore, with the light-armed troops sent ahead to elicit the enemy to a contest, he dispatched a portion of the cavalry to ravage through the fields everywhere and to catch stragglers. At the same time there was a tumult at the camp and, through the fields, both flight and slaughter; then, when they had withdrawn into the camp from all sides by different routes, fear so suddenly departed from their minds that there was spirit enough not only for defending the fortifications but even for provoking the enemy to battle. Accordingly they burst forth in column from the camp, tripping in their own fashion, and their sudden audacity struck terror into the enemy who a little before had been provoking them of his own accord.

Itaque et ipse Hasdrubal in collem satis arduum, flumine etiam obiecto tutum, copias subducit et praemissam leuem armaturam equitesque palatos eodem recipit, nec aut colli aut flumini satis fidens, castra uallo permunit. In hoc alterno pauore certamina aliquot sunt contracta; nec Numida Hispano eques par fuit nec iaculator Maurus caetrato, velocitate pari, robore animi viriumque aliquantum praestanti.

Therefore Hasdrubal himself also withdraws his forces onto a hill quite steep, safe too with a river set in front, and receives back to the same place the light armature and the horsemen who had been dispersed; and, trusting not enough either in the hill or in the river, he thoroughly fortifies the camp with a rampart. In this alternate panic several contests were contracted; nor was the Numidian horseman equal to the Spanish horseman, nor the Moorish javelin-man to the caetra-bearing Spaniard, the speed being equal, but surpassing somewhat in steadfastness of spirit and in bodily strength.

[27] Postquam neque elicere Poenum ad certamen obuersati castris poterant neque castrorum oppugnatio facilis erat, urbem Ascuam, quo fines hostium ingrediens Hasdrubal frumentum commeatusque alios convexerat, vi capiunt omnique circa agro potiuntur; nec iam aut in agmine aut in castris ullo imperio contineri. Quam ubi neglegentiam ex re, ut fit, bene gesta oriri senserat Hasdrubal, cohortatus milites ut palatos sine signis hostes adgrederentur, degressus colle pergit ire acie instructa ad castra. Quem ut adesse tumultuose nuntii refugientes ex speculis stationibusque attulere, ad arma conclamatum est.

[27] After they were able neither to elicit the Punic to a contest by posting themselves opposite the camp nor was an assault of the camp easy, they take by force the city Ascuam, to which, as he entered the enemy’s borders, Hasdrubal had conveyed grain and other supplies, and they gain possession of all the countryside around; and now they could not be kept in check by any command either on the march or in the camp. When Hasdrubal perceived that this negligence, as happens, arose from a well-performed success, having encouraged his soldiers to attack the enemy scattered and away from their standards, he descended from the hill and proceeds to go with his battle line drawn up toward the camp. When messengers, fleeing in tumult from the lookouts and outposts, reported that he was at hand, the cry to arms was raised.

Ut quisque arma ceperat, sine imperio, sine signo, incompositi, inordinati in proelium ruunt. Iam primi conseruerant manus, cum alii cateruatim currerent, alii nondum e castris exissent; tamen primo ipsa audacia terruere hostem; deinde rari in confertos inlati, cum paucitas parum tuta esset, respicere alii alios et undique pulsi coire in orbem, et, dum corpora corporibus applicant armaque armis iungunt, in artum compulsi, cum vix movendis armis satis spatii esset, corona hostium cincti ad multum diei caeduntur; exigua pars eruptione facta siluas ac montes petit. Parique terrore et castra sunt deserta et universa gens postero die in deditionem venit.

As each man had taken up arms, without command, without signal, discomposed, disordered they rush into battle. Already the first had engaged, while some were running in bands, others had not yet gone out of the camp; yet at first their very audacity terrified the enemy; then, the few thrown in upon the packed ranks, since their fewness was little safe, they began looking back at one another and, driven from every side, to gather into a ring; and, while they press bodies to bodies and join arms to arms, driven into narrow space, when there was scarcely room enough for moving their arms, girdled by a “crown” of enemies they are cut down for much of the day; a scanty part, a breakout having been made, makes for the woods and the mountains. And with equal terror both the camp was abandoned and the whole nation on the next day came into surrender.

Nec diu in pacto mansit; nam subinde ab Carthagine allatum est ut Hasdrubal primo quoque tempore in Italiam exercitum duceret, quae volgata res per Hispaniam omnium ferme animos ad Romanos avertit. Itaque Hasdrubal extemplo litteras Carthaginem mittit, indicans quanto fama profectionis suae damno fuisset: si vero inde pergeret, priusquam Hiberum transiret Romanorum Hispaniam fore; nam praeterquam quod nec praesidium nec ducem haberet quem relinqueret pro se, eos imperatores esse Romanos quibus vix aequis viribus resisti possit. Itaque si ulla Hispaniae cura esset, successorem sibi cum ualido exercitu mitterent; cui si omnia prospere euenirent, non tamen otiosam provinciam fore.

Nor did he remain long by the pact; for forthwith it was brought from Carthage that Hasdrubal should lead an army into Italy at the earliest possible time—a report which, once spread abroad through Spain, turned almost all minds away to the Romans. And so Hasdrubal at once sends letters to Carthage, indicating how great a loss the rumor of his departure had been: if indeed he proceeded from there, before he crossed the Ebro, Spain would be the Romans’; for, besides that he had neither a garrison nor a leader whom he could leave in his place, the Roman commanders were such that scarcely could they be resisted even with equal forces. Therefore, if there were any concern for Spain, they should send him a successor with a strong army; for whom, even if all should turn out prosperously, nevertheless the province would not be idle.

[28] Eae litterae quamquam primo admodum moverunt senatum, tamen, quia Italiae cura prior potiorque erat, nihil de Hasdrubale neque de copiis eius mutatum est: Himilco cum exercitu iusto et aucta classe ad retinendam terra marique ac tuendam Hispaniam est missus. Qui ut pedestres naualesque copias traiecit, castris communitis navibusque subductis et uallo circumdatis cum equitibus delectis ipse, quantum maxime accelerare poterat, per dubios infestosque populos iuxta intentus ad Hasdrubalem pervenit. Cum decreta senatus mandataque exposuisset atque edoctus fuisset ipse in vicem quemadmodum tractandum bellum in Hispania foret, retro in sua castra rediit, nulla re quam celeritate tutior, quod undique abierat antequam consentirent.

[28] Although those letters at first greatly moved the senate, nevertheless, because the care of Italy was prior and weightier, nothing was changed concerning Hasdrubal or his forces: Himilco was sent with a regular army and an augmented fleet to hold and guard Spain by land and sea. When he had transported the land and naval forces, with the camp fortified and the ships hauled up and surrounded with a rampart, he himself, with chosen cavalry, as much as he could hasten, through wavering and hostile peoples, steadfastly intent, reached Hasdrubal. When he had set forth the decrees and mandates of the senate and had himself in turn been instructed how the war in Spain was to be conducted, he returned back to his own camp, protected by nothing so much as by speed, because on every side he had departed before they could come to an agreement.

Hasdrubal priusquam moveret castra pecunias imperat populis omnibus suae dicionis, satis gnarus Hannibalem transitus quosdam pretio mercatum nec auxilia Gallica aliter quam conducta habuisse; inopem tantum iter ingressum vix penetraturum ad Alpes fuisse. Pecuniis igitur raptim exactis ad Hiberum descendit. Decreta Carthaginiensium et Hasdrubalis iter ubi ad Romanos sunt perlata, omnibus omissis rebus ambo duces iunctis copiis ire obviam coeptis atque obsistere parant, rati, si Hannibali, vix per se ipsi tolerando Italiae hosti, Hasdrubal dux atque Hispaniensis exercitus esset iunctus, illum finem Romani imperii fore.

Before moving his camp, Hasdrubal levied money upon all the peoples under his dominion, well aware that Hannibal had purchased certain crossings at a price and had had Gallic auxiliaries only on hire; that, had he entered upon the march destitute of resources, he would scarcely have penetrated to the Alps. Therefore, the monies having been rapidly exacted, he descended to the Ebro. When the decrees of the Carthaginians and Hasdrubal’s march were conveyed to the Romans, with all other matters laid aside, both commanders, their forces joined, prepare to go to meet the enterprise and to oppose it, thinking that, if to Hannibal—the enemy of Italy whom they could scarcely endure even by himself—there should be joined Hasdrubal as general and the Spanish army, that would be the end of the Roman imperium.

His anxii curis ad Hiberum contrahunt copias et transito amne, cum diu consultassent utrum castra castris conferrent an satis haberent sociis Carthaginiensium oppugnandis morari ab itinere proposito hostem, urbem a propinquo flumine Hiberam appellatam, opulentissimam ea tempestate regionis eius, oppugnare parant. Quod ubi sensit Hasdrubal, pro ope ferenda sociis pergit ire ipse ad urbem deditam nuper in fidem Romanorum oppugnandam. Ita iam coepta obsidio omissa ab Romanis est et in ipsum Hasdrubalem versum bellum.

Anxious with these cares, they concentrate their forces to the Hiberus; and, the river crossed, when they had long deliberated whether to bring camp to camp, or to think it enough, by assaulting the allies of the Carthaginians, to delay the enemy from his proposed march, they prepare to attack the city called Hibera from the neighboring river, the most opulent at that time of that region. When Hasdrubal perceived this, for the sake of bearing aid to the allies he himself proceeds to go to attack the city lately delivered into the faith of the Romans. Thus the siege already begun was abandoned by the Romans, and the war was turned upon Hasdrubal himself.

[29] Quinque milium interuallo castra distantia habuere paucos dies nec sine levibus proeliis nec ut in aciem exirent: tandem uno eodemque die velut ex composito utrimque signum pugnae propositum est atque omnibus copiis in campum descensum. Triplex stetit Romana acies; velitum pars inter antesignanos locata, pars post signa accepta; equites cornua cinxere. Hasdrubal mediam aciem Hispanis firmat; in cornibus, dextro Poenos locat, laeuo Afros mercenariorumque auxilia; equitum Numidas Poenorum peditibus, ceteros Afris, pro cornibus apponit.

[29] For a few days they kept their camps apart at an interval of five miles, not without light skirmishes, yet not so as to come out into a battle-line: at last, on one and the same day, as if by pre-arrangement, on both sides the signal for combat was displayed, and with all their forces they descended into the plain. The Roman battle-line stood in triple array; a part of the velites was placed among the front-rankers before the standards, a part was received behind the standards; the cavalry encircled the wings. Hasdrubal strengthens the center with Spaniards; on the wings he posts, on the right, the Poeni (Carthaginians), on the left, Africans and the auxiliaries of mercenaries; of the horse he sets the Numidians before the Punic infantry, the rest before the Africans, in front of the wings.

Nec omnes Numidae in dextro locati cornu sed quibus desultorum in modum binos trahentibus equos inter acerrimam saepe pugnam in recentem equum ex fesso armatis transultare mos erat; tanta velocitas ipsis tamque docile equorum genus est. Cum hoc modo instructi starent, imperatorum utriusque partis haud ferme dispares spes erant; nam ne multum quidem aut numero aut genere militum hi aut illi praestabant; militibus longe dispar animus erat. Romanis enim, quamquam procul a patria pugnarent, facile persuaserant duces pro Italia atque urbe Romana eos pugnare; itaque, velut quibus reditus in patriam [in] eo discrimine pugnae verteretur, obstinauerant animis vincere aut mori.

Nor were all the Numidians posted in the right wing, but those for whom it was the custom, in the manner of desultors, with each leading a pair of horses, often amid the fiercest combat to leap armed from a spent horse onto a fresh one; so great is their own velocity and so docile the breed of their horses. While they stood drawn up in this way, the hopes of the commanders of both sides were scarcely different; for neither side excelled the other much either in number or in the kind of soldiers; in their soldiers the spirit was far different. For the leaders had easily persuaded the Romans, although they were fighting far from the fatherland, that they were fighting for Italy and the city of Rome; and so, as men whose return to their fatherland would be decided [in] that crisis of the battle, they had resolved in spirit to conquer or to die.

Minus pertinaces viros habebat altera acies; nam maxima pars Hispani erant, qui vinci in Hispania quam victores in Italiam trahi malebant. Primo igitur concursu, cum vix pila coniecta essent, rettulit pedem media acies inferentibusque se magno impetu Romanis vertit terga. Nihilo segnius [in] cornibus proelium fuit.

The other battle line had men less pertinacious; for the greater part were Spaniards, who preferred to be conquered in Spain rather than to be led as victors into Italy. Therefore at the first clash, when the pila had scarcely been hurled, the center drew back and, as the Romans bore down upon them with great impetus, turned their backs. The fighting on the wings was none the less vigorous.

Hinc Poenus, hinc Afer urget, et velut in circumuentos proelio ancipiti pugnant; sed cum in medium tota iam coisset Romana acies, satis virium ad dimovenda hostium cornua habuit. Ita duo diuersa proelia erant. Utroque Romani, ut qui pulsis iam ante mediis et numero et robore virorum praestarent, haud dubie superant.

From this side the Punic, from that the African presses, and they fight as if against men surrounded, in a two-sided battle; but when the entire Roman battle line had now drawn together into the center, it had strength enough to dislodge the enemy’s horns. Thus there were two distinct battles. In both the Romans—since, with the center already earlier routed, they excelled both in number and in the strength of their men—without doubt prevail.

Magna vis hominum ibi occisa et, nisi Hispani vixdum conserto proelio tam effuse fugissent, perpauci ex tota superfuissent acie. Equestris pugna nulla admodum fuit, quia, simul inclinatam mediam aciem Mauri Numidaeque videre, extemplo fuga effusa nuda cornua elephantis quoque prae se actis deseruere. Et Hasdrubal usque ad ultimum euentum pugnae moratus e media caede cum paucis effugit.

A great number of men were slain there, and, unless the Spaniards, when the battle was scarcely yet joined, had fled so profusely, very few would have survived from the whole battle line. There was hardly any equestrian combat, because, as soon as the Mauri and Numidians saw the center line inclined, they at once, in a headlong rout, abandoned the wings laid bare, with the elephants also driven on before them. And Hasdrubal, lingering until the very last outcome of the battle, escaped from the midst of the slaughter with a few.

Castra Romani cepere atque diripuere. Ea pugna si qua dubia [in] Hispania erant Romanis adiunxit, Hasdrubalique non modo in Italiam traducendi exercitus sed ne manendi quidem satis tuto in Hispania spes reliqua erat. Quae posteaquam litteris Scipionum Romae volgata sunt, non tam victoria quam prohibito Hasdrubalis in Italiam transitu laetabantur.

The Romans seized the camp and plundered it. That battle adjoined to the Romans whatever in Spain [in] had been doubtful, and for Hasdrubal there was no hope left, not only of transferring an army into Italy, but not even of remaining with sufficient safety in Spain. When these things were afterward spread abroad at Rome by the letters of the Scipios, they rejoiced not so much at the victory as at the prohibition of Hasdrubal’s passage into Italy.

[30] Dum haec in Hispania geruntur, Petelia in Bruttiis aliquot post mensibus quam coepta oppugnari erat ab Himilcone praefecto Hannibalis expugnata est. Multo sanguine ac volneribus ea Poenis victoria stetit nec ulla magis vis obsessos quam fames expugnavit. Absumptis enim frugum alimentis carnisque omnis generis quadrupedum suetae [insuetae]que postremo coriis herbisque et radicibus et corticibus teneris strictisque foliis vixere nec ante quam vires ad standum in muris ferendaque arma deerant expugnati sunt.

[30] While these things were being transacted in Spain, Petelia in the Bruttii, some months after it had begun to be besieged, was taken by storm by Himilco, Hannibal’s prefect. That victory cost the Carthaginians much blood and wounds, and no force overcame the besieged more than hunger. For when the supplies of grain had been consumed, they lived on the flesh of quadrupeds of every kind, tame [untamed] too; finally on hides, and on grasses and roots and tender barks, and on plucked leaves; nor were they taken before their strength for standing on the walls and for bearing arms failed.

Recepta Petelia Poenus ad Consentiam copias traducit, quam minus pertinaciter defensam intra paucos dies in deditionem accepit. Iisdem ferme diebus et Bruttiorum exercitus Crotonem, Graecam urbem, circumsedit, opulentam quondam armis virisque, tum iam adeo multis magnisque cladibus adflictam ut omnis aetatis minus duo milia civium superessent. Itaque urbe a defensoribus uasta facile potiti hostes sunt: arx tantum retenta, in quam inter tumultum captae urbis e media caede quidam effugere.

With Petelia recovered, the Carthaginian transferred his forces to Consentia, which, being defended less pertinaciously, he received into surrender within a few days. In nearly the same days the army of the Bruttians also besieged Croton, a Greek city, once opulent in arms and men, but by then so afflicted by many and great disasters that fewer than two thousand citizens of all ages survived. And so, with the city emptied of its defenders, the enemies easily gained possession: only the citadel was retained, into which, amid the tumult of the captured city, from the very midst of the slaughter, certain men escaped.

Et Locrenses desciuere ad Bruttios Poenosque prodita multitudine a principibus. Regini tantummodo regionis eius et in fide erga Romanos et potestatis suae ad ultimum manserunt. In Siciliam quoque eadem inclinatio animorum pervenit et ne domus quidem Hieronis tota ab defectione abstinuit.

And the Locrians defected to the Bruttians and the Carthaginians, the multitude betrayed by their chiefs. Only the people of Rhegium in that region both remained in loyalty toward the Romans and kept their own authority to the very end. Into Sicily too the same inclination of minds came, and not even the whole house of Hiero refrained from defection.

Namque Gelo, maximus stirpis, contempta simul senectute patris simul post Cannensem cladem Romana societate ad Poenos defecit, movissetque in Sicilia res, nisi mors, adeo opportuna ut patrem quoque suspicione aspergeret, armantem eum multitudinem sollicitantemque socios absumpsisset. Haec eo anno in Italia, in Africa, in Sicilia, in Hispania vario euentu acta. Exitu anni Q. Fabius Maximus a senatu postulavit ut aedem Veneris Erycinae, quam dictator vouisset, dedicare liceret.

For Gelo, the eldest of the lineage, despising both his father’s old age and—after the Cannae disaster—the Roman alliance, defected to the Carthaginians; and he would have set affairs in motion in Sicily, had not death—so opportune as to besprinkle even the father with suspicion—carried him off while he was arming the multitude and stirring up the allies. These things that year in Italy, in Africa, in Sicily, and in Spain were transacted with varied outcome. At the close of the year Q. Fabius Maximus requested from the senate that he be permitted to dedicate the temple of Venus Erycina, which, while dictator, he had vowed.

Senatus decrevit ut Ti. Sempronius, consul designatus, cum [primum magistratum] inisset, ad populum ferret ut Q. Fabium duumuirum esse iuberent aedis dedicandae causa. Et M. Aemilio Lepido, qui bis consul augurque fuerat, filii tres, Lucius, Marcus, Quintus, ludos funebres per triduum et gladiatorum paria duo et viginti [per triduum] in foro dederunt. Aediles curules C. Laetorius et Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, consul designatus, qui in aedilitate magister equitum fuerat, ludos Romanos fecerunt, qui per triduum instaurati sunt.

The Senate decreed that Tiberius Sempronius, the consul designate, when he had entered upon [his first magistracy], should propose to the people that they order Quintus Fabius to be duumvir for the purpose of dedicating the temple. And Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who had been consul twice and augur, his three sons—Lucius, Marcus, Quintus—gave funeral games for three days and twenty-two pairs of gladiators [over three days] in the forum. The curule aediles Gaius Laetorius and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the consul designate, who in his aedileship had been master of the horse, celebrated the Roman Games, which were renewed for three days.

Plebeii ludi aedilium M. Aurelii Cottae et M. Claudii Marcelli ter instaurati. Circumacto tertio anno Punici belli, Ti. Sempronius consul idibus Martiis magistratum init. Praetores Q. Fulvius Flaccus, qui antea consul censorque fuerat, urbanam, M. Valerius Laeuinus peregrinam sortem in iurisdictione habuit; Ap. Claudius Pulcher Siciliam, Q. Mucius Scaeuola Sardiniam sortiti sunt.

Plebeian Games of the aediles M. Aurelius Cotta and M. Claudius Marcellus were renewed three times. With the third year of the Punic war completed, Tiberius Sempronius, consul, entered office on the Ides of March. The praetors: Q. Fulvius Flaccus, who had previously been consul and censor, had the urban jurisdiction; M. Valerius Laevinus had the peregrine jurisdiction. Ap. Claudius Pulcher obtained Sicily, Q. Mucius Scaevola Sardinia, by lot.

M. Marcello pro consule imperium esse populus iussit, quod post Cannensem cladem unus Romanorum imperatorum in Italia prospere rem gessisset.

The people ordered that M. Marcellus have imperium as proconsul, because, after the disaster of Cannae, he, alone among the Roman commanders, had conducted affairs prosperously in Italy.

[31] Senatus quo die primum est in Capitolio consultus decrevit ut quod eo anno duplex tributum imperaretur simplex confestim exigeretur, ex quo stipendium praesens omnibus militibus daretur praeterquam qui milites ad Cannas fuissent. De exercitibus ita decreverunt ut duabus legionibus urbanis Ti. Sempronius consul Cales ad conveniendum diem ediceret; inde eae legiones in castra Claudiana supra Suessulam deducerentur. Quae ibi legiones essent—erant autem Cannensis maxime exercitus—eas Ap. Claudius Pulcher praetor in Siciliam traiceret quaeque in Sicilia essent Romam deportarentur.

[31] On the day on which the senate was first consulted on the Capitol, it decreed that, since in that year a double tribute was being imposed, a single be immediately exacted, out of which present stipend be given to all the soldiers, except those who had been soldiers at Cannae. Concerning the armies they decreed thus: that for the two urban legions Tiberius Sempronius, the consul, should announce a day at Cales for assembling; from there those legions should be led into the Claudian camp above Suessula. The legions which were there—now they were chiefly the army of Cannae—those Appius Claudius Pulcher, the praetor, should carry across into Sicily; and those which were in Sicily should be transported to Rome.

Ad exercitum cui ad conveniendum Cales edicta dies erat M. Claudius Marcellus missus, isque iussus in castra Claudiana deducere urbanas legiones. Ad veterem exercitum accipiendum deducendumque inde in Siciliam Ti. Maecilius Croto legatus ab Ap. Claudio est missus. Taciti primo exspectauerant homines uti consul comitia collegae creando haberet; deinde ubi ablegatum velut de industria M. Marcellum viderunt, quem maxime consulem in eum annum ob egregie in praetura res gestas creari volebant, fremitus in curia ortus.

To the army for which a day had been proclaimed at Cales for assembling, Marcus Claudius Marcellus was sent, and he was ordered to lead the urban legions to the Claudian camp. For the receiving of the old army and leading it thence into Sicily, Tiberius Maecilius Croto, legate, was sent by Appius Claudius. At first men had silently expected that the consul would hold the comitia for creating a colleague; then, when they saw Marcus Marcellus dispatched as if deliberately—the man whom they especially wished to be created consul for that year on account of deeds conducted most excellently in his praetorship—a murmur arose in the Curia.

Quod ubi sensit, consul "utrumque" inquit "e re publica fuit, patres conscripti, et M. Claudium ad permutandos exercitus in Campaniam proficisci et comitia non prius edici quam is inde confecto quod mandatum est negotio reuertisset, ut vos consulem, quem tempus rei publicae postularet, quem maxime voltis, haberetis." Ita de comitiis donec rediit Marcellus silentium fuit. Interea duumuiri creati sunt Q. Fabius Maximus et T. Otacilius Crassus aedibus dedicandis, Menti Otacilius, Fabius Veneri Erycinae; utraque in Capitolio est, canali uno discretae. Et de trecentis equitibus Campanis qui in Sicilia cum fide stipendiis emeritis Romam venerant latum ad populum ut cives Romani essent; item uti municipes Cumani essent pridie quam populus Campanus a populo Romano defecisset.

When he perceived this, the consul said, “Both things were for the advantage of the commonwealth, Conscript Fathers: both that M. Claudius set out into Campania to exchange the armies, and that the comitia not be proclaimed before he had returned from there with the business entrusted completed, so that you might have as consul the one whom the exigency of the republic required, the one whom you most wish.” Thus, about the elections there was silence until Marcellus returned. Meanwhile duumvirs were created, Q. Fabius Maximus and T. Otacilius Crassus, for dedicating temples—Otacilius to Mens (Mind), Fabius to Venus Erycina; both are on the Capitol, separated by a single channel. And concerning the 300 Campanian horsemen who, in Sicily, after faithfully earning out their terms of service, had come to Rome, a measure was carried to the people that they be Roman citizens; likewise that they be Cumanian municipes as they had been the day before the Campanian people defected from the Roman people.

Maxime ut hoc ferretur moverat quod quorum hominum essent scire se ipsi negabant vetere patria relicta, in eam in quam redierant nondum adsciti. Postquam Marcellus ab exercitu rediit, comitia consuli uni rogando in locum L. Postumi edicuntur. Creatur ingenti consensu Marcellus qui extemplo magistratum occiperet.

Chiefly what had moved that this be carried was that the men themselves denied they knew of what people they were: their old fatherland abandoned, and into that to which they had returned not yet admitted. After Marcellus returned from the army, comitia for appointing a single consul in place of L. Postumius are proclaimed. Marcellus is elected with vast consensus, to assume the magistracy forthwith.

Cui ineunti consulatum cum tonuisset, vocati augures vitio creatum videri pronuntiauerunt; volgoque patres ita fama ferebant, quod tum primum duo plebeii consules facti essent, id deis cordi non esse. In locum Marcelli, ubi is se magistratu abdicavit, suffectus Q. Fabius Maximus tertium. Mare arsit eo anno; ad Sinuessam bos eculeum peperit; signa Lanuui ad Iunonis Sospitae cruore manavere lapidibusque circa id templum pluit, ob quem imbrem nouendiale, ut adsolet, sacrum fuit; ceteraque prodigia cum cura expiata.

When, as he was entering upon the consulship, it thundered, and the augurs, having been summoned, declared that he seemed to have been created with a flaw; and commonly the senators were thus reporting by rumor, that because for the first time two plebeian consuls had then been made, this was not to the gods’ liking. In Marcellus’s place, when he resigned the magistracy, Q. Fabius Maximus was appointed suffect consul for the third time. The sea burned in that year; at Sinuessa a cow gave birth to a foal; the statues at Lanuvium, at the shrine of Juno Sospita, ran with gore, and it rained stones around that temple, on account of which shower a nine-days’ rite, as is customary, was held; and the other prodigies were expiated with care.

[32] Consules exercitus inter sese diviserunt. Fabio exercitus Teani, cui M. Iunius dictator praefuerat, euenit; Sempronio volones qui ibi erant et sociorum viginti quinque milia, M. Valerio praetori legiones quae ex Sicilia redissent decretae; M. Claudius pro consule ad eum exercitum qui supra Suessulam Nolae praesideret missus; praetores in Siciliam ac Sardiniam profecti. Consules edixerunt, quotiens in senatum vocassent, uti senatores quibusque in senatu dicere sententiam liceret ad portam Capenam convenirent.

[32] The consuls divided the armies between themselves. To Fabius fell the army at Teanum, which M. Junius, the dictator, had commanded; to Sempronius, the volones who were there and twenty-five thousand of the allies; to M. Valerius, the praetor, the legions which had returned from Sicily were decreed; M. Claudius, as proconsul, was sent to that army which was holding garrison at Nola above Suessula; the praetors set out to Sicily and Sardinia. The consuls proclaimed that, whenever they should summon the senate, the senators and all to whom in the senate it was permitted to state an opinion should assemble at the Capena Gate.

Praetores quorum iuris dictio erat tribunalia ad Piscinam publicam posuerunt; eo uadimonia fieri iusserunt ibique eo anno ius dictum est. Interim Carthaginem, unde Mago, frater Hannibalis, duodecim milia peditum et mille quingentos equites, viginti elephantos, mille argenti talenta in Italiam transmissurus erat cum praesidio sexaginta navium longarum, nuntius adfertur in Hispania rem male gestam omnesque ferme eius provinciae populos ad Romanos defecisse. Erant qui Magonem cum classe ea copiisque omissa Italia in Hispaniam averterent, cum Sardiniae recipiendae repentina spes adfulsit: paruum ibi exercitum Romanum esse; veterem praetorem inde A. Cornelium provinciae peritum decedere, nouum exspectari; ad hoc fessos iam animos Sardorum esse diuturnitate imperii Romani, et proximo iis anno acerbe atque auare imperatum; graui tributo et conlatione iniqua frumenti pressos; nihil deesse aliud quam auctorem ad quem deficerent.

The praetors whose jurisdiction it was set up their tribunals at the Public Pool; they ordered recognizances to be made there, and there in that year the law was administered. Meanwhile, to Carthage—whence Mago, the brother of Hannibal, was about to send 12,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry, 20 elephants, 1,000 talents of silver into Italy with an escort of 60 long ships—a message is brought that in Spain the affair had gone ill and nearly all the peoples of that province had defected to the Romans. There were those who would have diverted Mago, abandoning Italy with that fleet and those forces, into Spain, when a sudden hope of recovering Sardinia shone forth: that the Roman army there was small; that the former praetor A. Cornelius, experienced in the province, was departing thence, and a new one was awaited; moreover, that the spirits of the Sardinians were already wearied by the long duration of Roman imperium, and in the year next to them harsh and greedy exactions had been imposed; that they were pressed by a heavy tribute and an inequitable contribution of grain; that nothing else was lacking but a leader to whom they might defect.

Haec clandestina legatio per principes missa erat, maxime eam rem moliente Hampsicora, qui tum auctoritate atque opibus longe primus erat. His nuntiis prope uno tempore turbati erectique Magonem cum classe sua copiisque in Hispaniam mittunt, in Sardiniam Hasdrubalem deligunt ducem et tantum ferme copiarum quantum Magoni decernunt. Et Romae consules transactis rebus quae in urbe agendae erant movebant iam sese ad bellum.

This clandestine embassy had been sent through the chiefs, Hampsicora especially engineering that affair, who at that time was by far foremost in authority and wealth. Thrown into turmoil and at the same time encouraged by these messages, they send Mago with his fleet and forces into Spain; for Sardinia they choose Hasdrubal as leader, and they assign to him nearly as many troops as to Mago. And at Rome the consuls, the matters which had to be done in the city having been transacted, were already setting themselves in motion for war.

Ti. Sempronius militibus Sinuessam diem ad conveniendum edixit, et Q. Fabius consulto prius senatu ut frumenta omnes ex agris ante kalendas Iunias primas in urbes munitas conveherent; qui non invexisset eius se agrum populaturum, servos sub hasta venditurum, villas incensurum. Ne praetoribus quidem qui ad ius dicendum creati erant uacatio a belli administratione data est. Valerium praetorem in Apuliam ire placuit ad exercitum a Terentio accipiendum; cum ex Sicilia legiones venissent, iis potissimum uti ad regionis eius praesidium, Terentianum [exercitum Tarentum] mitti cum aliquo legatorum; et viginti quinque naves datae quibus oram maritimam inter Brundisium ac Tarentum tutari posset.

Tiberius Sempronius proclaimed to the soldiers a day for assembling at Sinuessa, and Quintus Fabius, after first consulting the Senate, ordered that all should convey the grain from the fields into fortified cities before the Kalends of June; whoever should not have brought it in, he would devastate his field, sell his slaves under the spear, and burn his villas. Not even to the praetors who had been elected for pronouncing the law was exemption from the administration of war granted. It was decided that the praetor Valerius should go into Apulia to receive the army from Terentius; when the legions had come from Sicily, to employ those especially for the protection of that region, that the Terentian army [the army to Tarentum] be sent with one of the legates; and 25 ships were assigned, with which he could guard the sea-coast between Brundisium and Tarentum.

Par navium numerus Q. Fuluio praetori urbano decretus ad suburbana litora tutanda. C. Terentio proconsuli negotium datum ut in Piceno agro conquisitionem militum haberet locisque iis praesidio esset. Et T. Otacilius Crassus, postquam aedem Mentis in Capitolio dedicavit, in Siciliam cum imperio qui classi praeesset missus.

An equal number of ships was decreed to Q. Fulvius, the urban praetor, for guarding the suburban shores. To C. Terentius, the proconsul, the business was given to hold a levy of soldiers in the Picene country and to be a protection for those places. And T. Otacilius Crassus, after he dedicated the temple of Mens on the Capitoline, was sent to Sicily with imperium to command the fleet.

[33] In hanc dimicationem duorum opulentissimorum in terris populorum omnes reges gentesque animos intenderant, inter quos Philippus Macedonum rex eo magis quod propior Italiae ac mari tantum Ionio discretus erat. Is ubi primum fama accepit Hannibalem Alpes transgressum, ut bello inter Romanum Poenumque orto laetatus erat, ita utrius populi mallet victoriam esse incertis adhuc viribus fluctuatus animo fuerat. Postquam tertia iam pugna, tertia victoria cum Poenis erat, ad fortunam inclinavit legatosque ad Hannibalem misit; qui vitantes portus Brundisinum Tarentinumque, quia custodiis navium Romanarum tenebantur, ad Laciniae Iunonis templum in terram egressi sunt.

[33] Upon this contest of the two most opulent peoples on earth all kings and nations had fixed their minds, among whom Philip, king of the Macedonians, all the more because he was nearer to Italy and separated only by the Ionian Sea. When first he received by report that Hannibal had crossed the Alps, just as he had rejoiced that war had arisen between the Roman and the Punic, so, with the forces still uncertain, he had wavered in mind as to which people’s victory he would prefer. After now a third battle and a third victory were with the Carthaginians, he inclined to their fortune and sent envoys to Hannibal; these, avoiding the ports of Brundisium and Tarentum, because they were held by patrols of Roman ships, went ashore at the temple of Juno Lacinia.

Inde per Apuliam petentes Capuam media in praesidia Romana inlati sunt deductique ad Valerium Laeuinum praetorem, circa Luceriam castra habentem. Ibi intrepide Xenophanes, legationis princeps, a Philippo rege se missum ait ad amicitiam societatemque iungendam cum populo Romano; mandata habere ad consules ac senatum populumque Romanum. Praetor inter defectiones veterum sociorum nova societate tam clari regis laetus admodum hostes pro hospitibus comiter accepit.

Thence, making for Capua through Apulia, they were borne into the midst of the Roman garrisons and led to Valerius Laevinus, praetor, who was holding camp around Luceria. There Xenophanes, chief of the legation, fearlessly said that he had been sent by King Philip to join friendship and alliance with the Roman People; that he had mandates for the consuls and the Senate and People of Rome. The praetor, amid the defections of the ancient allies, was exceedingly glad at the new alliance of so famous a king, and courteously received enemies as guests.

Dat qui prosequantur; itinera cum cura demonstrat [et] quae loca quosque saltus aut Romanus aut hostes teneant. Xenophanes per praesidia Romana in Campaniam, inde qua proximum fuit in castra Hannibalis pervenit foedusque cum eo atque amicitiam iungit legibus his: ut Philippus rex quam maxima classe—ducentas autem naves videbatur effecturus— in Italiam traiceret et uastaret maritimam oram, bellum pro parte sua terra marique gereret; ubi debellatum esset, Italia omnis cum ipsa urbe Roma Carthaginiensium atque Hannibalis esset praedaque omnis Hannibali cederet; perdomita Italia navigarent in Graeciam bellumque cum quibus regi placeret gererent; quae civitates continentis quaeque insulae ad Macedoniam vergunt, eae Philippi regnique eius essent.

He provides men to accompany them; he points out the routes with care, [and] which places and which passes either the Roman or the enemies hold. Xenophanes, through the Roman garrisons into Campania, thence by the nearest way, came into Hannibal’s camp and he joins a treaty and friendship with him on these terms: that King Philip with the greatest possible fleet—he seemed likely to make up two hundred ships—should transport into Italy and devastate the maritime shore, and should wage war for his own part by land and sea; when the war was finished, all Italy together with the city Rome itself should be the prize of the Carthaginians and of Hannibal, and all the booty should fall to Hannibal; Italy subdued, they should sail into Greece and wage war with whom it pleased the king; the states of the continent and the islands that incline toward Macedonia should be Philip’s and his kingdom’s.

[34] In has ferme leges inter Poenum ducem legatosque Macedonum ictum foedus; missique cum iis ad regis ipsius firmandam fidem legati, Gisgo et Bostar et Mago, eodem ad Iunonis Laciniae, ubi navis occulta in statione erat, perveniunt. Inde profecti cum altum tenerent, conspecti a classe Romana sunt quae praesidio erat Calabriae litoribus; Valeriusque Flaccus cercuros ad persequendam retrahendamque navem cum misisset, primo fugere regii conati, deinde, ubi celeritate vinci senserunt, tradunt se Romanis et ad praefectum classis adducti, cum quaereret qui et unde et quo tenderent cursum, Xenophanes primo satis iam semel felix mendacium struere, a Philippo se ad Romanos missum ad M. Valerium, ad quem unum iter tutum fuerit, pervenisse, Campaniam superare nequisse, saeptam hostium praesidiis. Deinde ut Punicus cultus habitusque suspectos legatos fecit Hannibalis interrogatosque sermo prodidit, tum comitibus eorum seductis ac metu territis, litterae quoque ab Hannibale ad Philippum inventae et pacta inter regem Macedonum Poenumque ducem.

[34] On terms roughly of this sort a treaty was struck between the Carthaginian commander and the envoys of the Macedonians; and envoys were sent with them, to make firm the pledge of the king himself—Gisgo and Bostar and Mago—and they reach that same place, at the shrine of Juno Lacinia, where a ship was concealed in a berth. Setting out thence, when they held the open sea, they were sighted by a Roman fleet which was on guard for the Calabrian shores; and when Valerius Flaccus had sent cercuri (light skiffs) to pursue and tow back the ship, at first the king’s men tried to flee, then, when they realized they were being outmatched in speed, they surrendered themselves to the Romans, and, brought to the prefect of the fleet, when he asked who they were and whence and whither they were directing their course, Xenophanes at first proceeded to construct a lie that had already once proved quite successful—that he had been sent by Philip to the Romans and had reached M. Valerius, to whom alone the route had been safe; that he had not been able to get past Campania, fenced in by enemy garrisons. Then, when their Punic dress and attire made the envoys suspect, and their talk, when questioned about Hannibal, betrayed them, their companions were taken aside and frightened with threats; letters too from Hannibal to Philip were found, and the agreements between the king of the Macedonians and the Carthaginian commander.

Quibus satis cognitis optimum visum est captiuos comitesque eorum Romam ad senatum aut [ad] consules ubicunque essent, quam primum deportare. Ad id celerrimae quinque naves delectae ac L. Valerius Antias, qui praeesset, missus, eique mandatum ut in omnes naves legatos separatim custodiendos divideret daretque operam ne quod iis conloquium inter se neue quae communicatio consilii esset. Per idem tempus Romae cum A. Cornelius Mammula, ex Sardinia provincia decedens, rettulisset qui status rerum in insula esset: bellum ac defectionem omnes spectare; Q. Mucium qui successisset sibi, gravitate caeli aquarumque advenientem exceptum, non tam in periculosum quam longum morbum implicitum, diu ad belli munia sustinenda inutilem fore, exercitumque ibi ut satis firmum pacatae provinciae praesidem esse, ita parum bello quod motum iri videretur, decreverunt patres ut Q. Fulvius Flaccus quinque milia peditum, quadringentos equites scriberet eamque legionem primo quoque tempore in Sardiniam traiciendam curaret, mitteretque cum imperio quem ipsi videretur, qui rem gereret quoad Mucius conualuisset.

With these matters sufficiently ascertained, it seemed best to transport the captives and their companions to Rome to the senate or [to] the consuls, wherever they might be, as soon as possible. For this, five very swift ships were selected and L. Valerius Antias was sent to command; and he was instructed to divide the envoys separately among all the ships to be kept under guard, and to take pains that there be no conversation between them nor any communication of counsel. At the same time at Rome, when A. Cornelius Mammula, departing from the Sardinian province, had reported what the status of affairs on the island was—that all were looking toward war and defection; that Q. Mucius, who had succeeded him, having on his arrival been seized by the oppressiveness of the climate and of the waters, entangled in an illness not so much dangerous as prolonged, would for a long time be unfit for sustaining the duties of war; and that the army there, while strong enough as a guard of a pacified province, was too little for the war which seemed likely to be set in motion—the fathers decreed that Q. Fulvius Flaccus should enroll five thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry, and should take care that that legion be transported into Sardinia at the first possible moment, and that he should send with imperium whomever seemed good to themselves, to conduct the affair until Mucius should have recovered.

Ad eam rem missus est T. Manlius Torquatus, qui bis consul et censor fuerat subegeratque in consulatu Sardos. Sub idem fere tempus et a Carthagine in Sardiniam classis missa duce Hasdrubale, cui Caluo cognomen erat, foeda tempestate vexata ad Baliares insulas deicitur, ibique—adeo non armamenta modo sed etiam aluei navium quassati erant—subductae naves dum reficiuntur aliquantum temporis triuerunt.

For that purpose T. Manlius Torquatus was sent, who had been twice consul and censor and had subdued the Sardinians in his consulship. At about the same time a fleet too was sent from Carthage to Sardinia under the commander Hasdrubal, whose surname was Calvus; vexed by a foul tempest, it was driven down to the Balearic Islands, and there—so much so that not only the rigging but even the hulls of the ships had been shattered—the ships, having been hauled ashore, while they were being repaired, used up a considerable amount of time.

[35] In Italia cum post Cannensem pugnam fractis partis alterius viribus, alterius mollitis animis, segnius bellum esset, Campani per se adorti sunt rem Cumanam suae dicionis facere, primo sollicitantes ut ab Romanis deficerent; ubi id parum processit, dolum ad capiendos eos comparant. [erat] Campanis omnibus statum sacrificium ad Hamas. Eo senatum Campanum venturum certiores Cumanos fecerunt petieruntque ut et Cumanus eo senatus veniret ad consultandum communiter ut eosdem uterque populus socios hostesque haberet; praesidium ibi armatum se habituros ne quid ab Romano Poenoue periculi esset.

[35] In Italy, when after the battle of Cannae, with the forces of one party broken and the spirits of the other softened, the war was more sluggish, the Campanians on their own initiative undertook to bring the Cumaean affair under their dominion, first soliciting them to defect from the Romans; when that made too little progress, they prepare a stratagem to seize them. [was] for all the Campanians an appointed sacrifice at Hamae. They informed the Cumaeans that the Campanian senate would come there, and they requested that the Cumaean senate also come there to consult in common, so that each people should have the same allies and enemies; that they would have an armed garrison there, so that there might be no danger from the Roman or the Punic side.

Cumani, quamquam suspecta fraus erat, nihil abnuere, ita tegi fallax consilium posse rati. Interim Ti. Sempronius consul Romanus Sinuessae, quo ad conveniendum diem edixerat, exercitu lustrato transgressus Volturnum flumen circa Liternum posuit castra. Ibi quia otiosa statiua erant, crebro decurrere milites cogebat ut tirones—ea maxima pars volonum erant—adsuescerent signa sequi et in acie agnoscere ordines suos.

Cumanaeans, although the fraud was suspected, refused nothing, thinking that the deceitful plan could thus be veiled. Meanwhile Tiberius Sempronius, the Roman consul, at Sinuessa—where he had proclaimed a day for assembling—after the army had been reviewed, crossed the river Volturnus and pitched camp around Liternum. There, because the standing camp was idle, he frequently compelled the soldiers to make practice charges, so that the raw recruits—these were the greater part of the volunteers—might become accustomed to follow the standards and to recognize their own ranks in the battle line.

Inter quae maxima erat cura duci—itaque legatis tribunisque praeceperat—ne qua exprobratio cuiquam veteris fortunae discordiam inter ordines sereret; vetus miles tironi, liber voloni sese exaequare sineret; omnes satis honestos generososque ducerent quibus arma sua signaque populus Romanus commisisset; quae fortuna coegisset ita fieri, eandem cogere tueri factum. Ea non maiore cura praecepta ab ducibus sunt quam a militibus observata brevique tanta concordia coaluerant omnium animi ut prope in obliuionem veniret qua ex condicione quisque esset miles factus. Haec agenti Graccho legati Cumani nuntiarunt quae a Campanis legatio paucos ante dies venisset et quid iis ipsi respondissent: triduo post eum diem festum esse; non senatum solum omnem ibi futurum sed castra etiam et exercitum Campanum.

Meanwhile the leader’s greatest care—and so he had instructed the legates and the tribunes—was that no reproach of anyone’s former fortune should sow discord between the orders; that the veteran should allow himself to be made equal to the tyro, the freeborn to the volon; that all should consider as sufficiently honorable and well‑born those to whom the Roman people had entrusted its arms and standards; what Fortune had compelled to be thus, the same compelled them to maintain the deed. These precepts were not given by the commanders with greater care than they were observed by the soldiers, and in a short time the minds of all had so coalesced in concord that it came almost into oblivion from what condition each had been made a soldier. While Gracchus was engaged in these things, the envoys of the Cumaeans reported what embassy from the Campanians had come a few days before and what they themselves had answered to them: that three days after that day there would be a festival; not the whole senate only would be there, but the Campanian camp and army as well.

Gracchus iussis Cumanis omnia ex agris in urbem convehere et manere intra muros, ipse pridie quam statum sacrificium Campanis esset Cumas movet castra. Hamae inde tria milia passuum absunt. Iam Campani eo frequentes ex composito convenerant, nec procul inde in occulto Marius Alfius medix tuticus—[is] summus magistratus erat Campanis—cum quattuordecim milibus armatorum habebat castra, sacrificio adparando et inter id instruendae fraudi aliquanto intentior quam muniendis castris aut ulli militari operi.

Gracchus, having ordered the Cumaeans to convey everything from the fields into the city and to remain within the walls, himself, the day before the appointed sacrifice for the Campanians, moves his camp to Cumae. Hamae is from there three miles distant. Already the Campanians in great numbers had assembled there by prearrangement, and not far from there, in hiding, Marius Alfius, medix tuticus—[he] was the highest magistrate among the Campanians—held a camp with 14,000 armed men, being somewhat more intent on preparing the sacrifice and, in the meantime, on arranging the fraud, than on fortifying the camp or on any military work.

[triduum sacrificatum ad Hamas.] nocturnum erat sacrum, ita ut ante mediam noctem compleretur. Huic Gracchus insidiandum tempori ratus, custodibus ad portas positis, ne quis enuntiare posset coepta, et ab decima diei hora coactis militibus corpora curare somnoque operam dare, ut primis tenebris convenire ad signum possent, vigilia ferme prima tolli iussit signa, silentique profectus agmine cum ad Hamas media nocte pervenisset, castra Campana ut in peruigilio neglecta simul omnibus portis invadit; alios somno stratos, alios perpetrato sacro inermes redeuntes obtruncat. Hominum eo tumultu nocturno caesa plus duo milia cum ipso duce Mario Alfio; capta sunt signa militaria quattuor et triginta.

[for three days a sacrifice at Hamae.] The rite was nocturnal, such that it would be completed before midnight. Thinking that this time should be ambushed, Gracchus, after posting guards at the gates so that no one could disclose the undertakings, and, from the tenth hour of the day, assembling the soldiers to attend to their bodies and give themselves to sleep so that at nightfall they could assemble at the signal, ordered the standards to be raised about the first watch; and setting out with a silent column, when he had reached Hamae at midnight, he assaults the Campanian camp—neglected, as in a vigil—at once by all the gates; he cuts down some, stretched out by sleep, others, returning unarmed with the sacred rite completed. In that nocturnal tumult more than two thousand men were slain, together with the leader himself, Marius Alfius; 34 military standards were captured.

[36] Gracchus minus centum militum iactura castris hostium potitus Cumas se propere recepit, ab Hannibale metuens, qui super Capuam in Tifatis habebat castra. Nec eum provida futuri fefellit opinio. Nam simul Capuam ea clades est nuntiata, ratus Hannibal ab re bene gesta insolenter laetum exercitum tironum, magna ex parte servorum, spoliantem victos praedasque agentem ad Hamas se inventurum, citatum agmen praeter Capuam rapit obviosque ex fuga Campanorum dato praesidio Capuam duci, saucios vehiculis portari iubet.

[36] Gracchus, with a loss of fewer than 100 soldiers, having gotten possession of the enemies’ camp, swiftly withdrew to Cumae, fearing Hannibal, who had his camp above Capua in the Tifata. Nor did his provident anticipation of the future deceive him. For as soon as that disaster was announced at Capua, Hannibal—supposing that, from a well-conducted affair, he would find at Hamas an army of recruits, largely of slaves, insolently elated, stripping the vanquished and driving the spoils—hurried his rapid column past Capua, and those he met from the flight of the Campanians, a garrison having been assigned, he orders to be led to Capua; he orders the wounded to be carried in vehicles.

Ipse Hamis uacua ab hostibus castra nec quicquam praeter recentis vestigia caedis strataque passim corpora sociorum invenit. Auctores erant quidam ut protinus inde Cumas duceret urbemque oppugnaret. Id quamquam haud modice Hannibal cupiebat, ut, quia Neapolim non potuerat, Cumas saltem maritimam urbem haberet, tamen, quia praeter arma nihil secum miles raptim acto agmine extulerat, retro in castra super Tifata se recepit.

He himself at Hamis found the camp empty of enemies and nothing except the fresh vestiges of slaughter and the bodies of allies strewn everywhere. Certain advisers urged that he should lead straight from there to Cumae and assault the city. This, although Hannibal desired not moderately, so that, since he had not been able to take Neapolis, he might at least have Cumae, a maritime city, nevertheless, because the soldier, in a column driven forward in haste, had carried out with him nothing besides arms, he withdrew back to the camp above Tifata.

Inde fatigatus Campanorum precibus sequenti die cum omni apparatu oppugnandae urbis Cumas redit perpopulatoque agro Cumano mille passus ab urbe castra locat, cum Gracchus magis verecundia in tali necessitate deserendi socios implorantes fidem suam populique Romani substitisset quam satis fidens exercitui. Nec alter consul Fabius, qui ad Cales castra habebat, Volturnum flumen traducere audebat exercitum, occupatus primo auspiciis repetendis, dein prodigiis quae alia super alia nuntiabantur; expiantique ea haud facile litari haruspices respondebant.

Then, wearied by the prayers of the Campanians, on the following day he returns to Cumae with every apparatus for assaulting the city; and, after thoroughly ravaging the Cuman territory, he pitches camp a thousand paces from the city—while Gracchus had taken his stand more from a sense of shame, in such a necessity, at abandoning allies who were imploring his faith and that of the Roman people, than from sufficient confidence in his army. Nor did the other consul, Fabius, who had his camp at Cales, dare to lead the army across the river Volturnus, being occupied first with renewing the auspices, then with the prodigies which were being reported one upon another; and to one expiating these things the haruspices replied that propitiation by sacrifice was not easily to be obtained.

[37] Eae causae cum Fabium tenerent, Sempronius in obsidione erat et iam operibus oppugnabatur. Aduersus ligneam ingentem admotam urbi aliam turrem ex ipso muro excitavit consul Romanus, aliquanto altiorem, quia muro satis per se alto subiectis ualidis sublicis pro solo usus erat. Inde primum saxis sudibusque et ceteris missilibus propugnatores moenia atque urbem tuebantur; postremo, ubi promovendo adiunctam muro viderunt turrem, facibus ardentibus plurimum simul ignem coniecerunt.

[37] While those causes were holding Fabius, Sempronius was under siege and was already being assaulted by siege-works. Against an enormous wooden tower brought up to the city, the Roman consul erected from the wall itself another tower, somewhat higher, since, the wall being high enough in itself, he had employed strong piles set beneath as a flooring. From there at first with stones, stakes, and the other missiles the defenders were protecting the walls and the city; finally, when they saw the tower, by being pushed forward, joined to the wall, they cast at once a very great amount of fire with blazing torches.

Quo incendio trepida armatorum multitudo cum de turre sese praecipitaret, eruptio ex oppido simul duabus portis stationes hostium fudit fugavitque in castra ut eo die obsesso quam obsidenti similior esset Poenus. Ad mille trecenti Carthaginiensium caesi et undesexaginta viui capti, qui circa muros et in stationibus solute ac neglegenter agentes, cum nihil minus quam eruptionem timuissent, ex improuiso oppressi fuerant. Gracchus, priusquam se hostes ab repentino pauore colligerent, receptui signum dedit ac suos intra muros recepit.

By which conflagration, while the alarmed multitude of armed men was hurling itself headlong from the tower, an eruption from the town at the same time through two gates routed the enemy stations and put them to flight into their camp, so that on that day the Punic was more like the besieged than the besieger. About 1,300 Carthaginians were cut down and 59 were taken alive—men who, acting loosely and negligently around the walls and at the stations, since they had feared an eruption least of all, had been overwhelmed unexpectedly. Gracchus, before the enemy could recover themselves from the sudden panic, gave the signal for recall and brought his men back within the walls.

Postero die Hannibal, laetum secunda re consulem iusto proelio ratus certaturum, aciem inter castra atque urbem instruxit; ceterum postquam neminem moveri ab solita custodia urbis vidit nec committi quicquam temerariae spei, ad Tifata redit infecta re. Quibus diebus Cumae liberatae sunt obsidione, iisdem diebus et in Lucanis ad Grumentum Ti. Sempronius, cui Longo cognomen erat, cum Hannone Poeno prospere pugnat. Supra duo milia hominum occidit et ducentos octoginta milites [amisit], signa militaria ad quadraginta unum cepit. Pulsus finibus Lucanis Hanno retro in Bruttios sese recepit.

On the next day Hannibal, supposing that the consul, glad at a favorable outcome, would give battle in a pitched engagement, drew up his battle-line between the camps and the city; but after he saw that no one moved from the customary guard of the city and that nothing was committed to rash hope, he returned to Tifata with the matter undone. In the same days in which Cumae was freed from siege, in those same days also in Lucania near Grumentum Ti. Sempronius, whose cognomen was Longus, fought successfully with Hanno the Carthaginian. He slew over 2,000 men and lost 280 soldiers; he captured up to 41 military standards. Driven from the borders of the Lucanians, Hanno withdrew back into Bruttium.

Et ex Hirpinis oppida tria, quae a populo Romano defecerant vi recepta per M. Valerium praetorem, Vercellium, Vescellium, Sicilinum, et auctores defectionis securi percussi. Supra quinque milia captiuorum sub hasta venierunt; praeda alia militi concessa, exercitusque Luceriam reductus.

And among the Hirpini, three towns which had defected from the Roman people were retaken by force by M. Valerius, the praetor—Vercellium, Vescellium, Sicilinum—and the authors of the defection were struck with the axe. Over five thousand captives were sold at auction; the other booty was granted to the soldiery, and the army was led back to Luceria.

[38] Dum haec in Lucanis atque in Hirpinis geruntur, quinque naves, quae Macedonum atque Poenorum captos legatos Romam portabant, ab supero mari ad inferum circumvectae prope omnem Italiae oram, cum praeter Cumas velis ferrentur neque hostium an sociorum essent satis sciretur, Gracchus obviam ex classe sua naves misit. Cum percontando in vicem cognitum esset consulem Cumis esse, naves Cumas adpulsae captiuique ad consulem deducti et litterae datae. Consul litteris Philippi atque Hannibalis perlectis consignata omnia ad senatum itinere terrestri misit, navibus deuehi legatos iussit.

[38] While these things were being done in the Lucanian and Hirpian country, five ships, which were carrying to Rome the captured envoys of the Macedonians and the Carthaginians, having been carried around from the Upper Sea to the Lower almost along the whole coast of Italy, as they were being borne under sail past Cumae, and it was not sufficiently known whether they were enemies or allies, Gracchus sent ships from his fleet to meet them. When by mutual questioning it was learned in turn that the consul was at Cumae, the ships were brought in to Cumae, and the captives were led to the consul and the letters delivered. The consul, after reading through the letters of Philip and Hannibal, sent all the sealed items to the senate by a terrestrial route, and ordered the envoys to be conveyed by ship.

Cum eodem fere die litterae legatique Romam venissent et percontatione facta dicta cum scriptis congruerent, primo grauis cura patres incessit, cernentes quanta vix tolerantibus Punicum bellum Macedonici belli moles instaret; cui tamen adeo non succubuerunt ut extemplo agitaretur quemadmodum ultro inferendo bello averterent ab Italia hostem. Captiuis in vincula condi iussis comitibusque eorum sub hasta venditis, ad naves viginti quinque, quibus P. Valerius Flaccus praefectus praeerat, viginti [quinque] [paratis] alias decernunt. His comparatis deductisque et additis quinque navibus, quae advexerant captiuos legatos, triginta naves ab Ostia Tarentum profectae, iussusque P. Valerius militibus Varronianis, quibus L. Apustius legatus Tarenti praeerat, in naves impositis quinquaginta quinque navium classe non tueri modo Italiae oram sed explorare de Macedonico bello; si congruentia litteris legatorumque indiciis Philippi consilia essent, ut M. Valerium praetorem litteris certiorem faceret, isque L. Apustio legato exercitui praeposito Tarentum ad classem profectus primo quoque tempore in Macedoniam transmitteret daretque operam ut Philippum in regno contineret.

Since on nearly the same day the letters and the envoys had come to Rome, and, an inquiry having been made, the spoken statements agreed with the writings, at first a grave care seized the fathers, seeing what a mass of a Macedonian war was threatening those who scarcely endured the Punic war; yet to this they so little succumbed that immediately it was debated how, by carrying the war to the foe of their own accord, they might turn the enemy away from Italy. The captives being ordered to be confined in chains and their companions sold under the spear, in addition to the twenty-five ships over which P. Valerius Flaccus, prefect, presided, they decree twenty [five] [made ready] others. These having been prepared and launched, and with the five ships added which had conveyed the captive envoys, thirty ships set out from Ostia for Tarentum; and P. Valerius was ordered, with the Varronian soldiers, over whom L. Apustius the legate at Tarentum presided, put on board the ships, with a fleet of 55 ships not only to protect the coast of Italy but to make reconnaissance concerning the Macedonian war; if Philip’s plans should be congruent with the letters and the indications of the envoys, that he should inform M. Valerius the praetor by letters, and that he, having set L. Apustius the legate over the army and gone to the fleet at Tarentum, should at the earliest time cross over into Macedonia and take pains to confine Philip within his kingdom.

Pecunia ad classem tuendam bellumque Macedonicum ea decreta est, quae Ap. Claudio in Siciliam missa erat ut redderetur Hieroni regi; ea per L. Antistium legatum Tarentum est devecta. Simul ab Hierone missa ducenta milia modium tritici et hordei centum.

Pecuniary funds for sustaining the fleet and the Macedonian war were decreed, namely those which had been sent to Sicily with Appius Claudius to be restored to King Hiero; these were conveyed to Tarentum by the legate Lucius Antistius. At the same time there were sent by Hiero two hundred thousand modii of wheat and one hundred thousand of barley.

[39] Dum haec Romani parant aguntque, ad Philippum captiua navis una ex iis quae Romam missae erant, ex cursu refugit; inde scitum legatos cum litteris captos. Itaque ignarus rex quae cum Hannibale legatis suis convenissent quaeque legati eius ad se allaturi fuissent, legationem aliam cum eisdem mandatis mittit. Legati ad Hannibalem missi Heraclitus [cui Scotino cognomen erat] et Crito Boeotus et Sositheus Magnes.

[39] While the Romans were preparing and doing these things, to Philip a captive ship, one of those which had been sent to Rome, fled back from her course; from this it became known that the legates with their letters had been captured. Therefore the king, ignorant of what had been agreed with Hannibal by his legates and what his legates would have been about to bring to him, sends another legation with the same mandates. The legates sent to Hannibal were Heraclitus [whose cognomen was Scotinus] and Crito the Boeotian and Sositheus the Magnesian.

Hi prospere tulerunt ac rettulerunt mandata; sed prius se aestas circumegit quam movere ac moliri quicquam rex posset.- tantum navis una capta cum legatis momenti fecit ad dilationem imminentis Romanis belli. Et circa Capuam transgresso Volturnum Fabio post expiata tandem prodigia ambo consules rem gerebant. Combulteriam et Trebulam et Austiculam urbes, quae ad Poenum defecerant Fabius vi cepit, praesidiaque in his Hannibalis Campanique permulti capti.

These men bore and brought back the mandates prosperously; but summer had circled round before the king could move or set anything in motion — only a single ship captured with the envoys had so much moment as to bring about a delay of the war imminent to the Romans. And with Fabius, having crossed the Volturnus near Capua, after the prodigies had at last been expiated, both consuls were conducting the matter. Combulteria and Trebula and Austicula, cities which had defected to the Punic side, Fabius took by force, and in these many of Hannibal’s garrisons and very many Campanians were captured.

[Et] Nolae, sicut priore anno, senatus Romanorum, plebs Hannibalis erat, consiliaque occulta de caede principum et proditione urbis inibantur. Quibus ne incepta procederent, inter Capuam castraque Hannibalis, quae in Tifatis erant, traducto exercitu Fabius super Suessulam in castris Claudianis consedit; inde M. Marcellum propraetorem cum iis copiis quas habebat Nolam in praesidium misit.

[And] at Nola, just as in the prior year, the senate was for the Romans, the plebs for Hannibal, and secret counsels were being entered upon concerning the slaughter of the leading men and the betrayal of the city. In order that these undertakings not proceed, with the army led across between Capua and Hannibal’s camp, which was in the Tifata, Fabius took up position above Suessula in the Claudian camp; from there he sent M. Marcellus, propraetor, with those forces which he had, to Nola as a garrison.

[40] Et in Sardinia res per T. Manlium praetorem administrari coeptae, quae omissae erant postquam Q. Mucius praetor graui morbo est implicitus. Manlius navibus longis ad Carales subductis naualibusque sociis armatis ut terra rem gereret et a praetore exercitu accepto, duo et viginti milia peditum, mille ducentos equites confecit. Cum his equitum peditumque copiis profectus in agrum hostium haud procul ab Hampsicorae castris castra posuit.

[40] And in Sardinia the operations began to be administered by T. Manlius the praetor, which had been neglected after Q. Mucius the praetor was entangled in a grave illness. Manlius, the long ships having been hauled up at Carales and the naval allies armed so that he might conduct the affair on land, and the army having been received from the praetor, made up 22,000 infantry and 1,200 cavalry. With these forces of horse and foot he set out into the enemy’s territory and pitched camp not far from Hampsicora’s camp.

Hampsicora tum forte profectus erat in Pellitos Sardos ad iuventutem armandam qua copias augeret; filius nomine Hostus castris praeerat. Is adulescentia ferox temere proelio inito fusus fugatusque. Ad tria milia Sardorum eo proelio caesa, octingenti ferme viui capti; alius exercitus primo per agros siluasque fuga palatus, dein, quo ducem fugisse fama erat, ad urbem nomine Cornum, caput eius regionis, confugit; debellatumque eo proelio in Sardinia esset, ni classis Punica cum duce Hasdrubale, quae tempestate deiecta ad Baliares erat, in tempore ad spem rebellandi advenisset.

Hampsicora just then by chance had set out to the Pellitus Sardinians, to arm the youth so that he might augment his forces; his son by name Hostus was in command of the camp. He, fierce in adolescence, having rashly joined battle, was routed and put to flight. About three thousand Sardinians were cut down in that battle, and nearly eight hundred were taken alive; the rest of the army at first scattered in flight through fields and woods, then, to where the report was that their leader had fled, to a city named Cornus, the chief city of that region, took refuge; and the war would have been fought out to the end in Sardinia by that battle, had not the Punic fleet with the commander Hasdrubal, which had been driven by a tempest to the Balearics, arrived in time for the hope of rebelling.

Manlius post famam adpulsae Punicae classis Carales se recepit; ea occasio Hampsicorae data est Poeno se iungendi. Hasdrubal copiis in terram expositis et classe remissa Carthaginem duce Hampsicora ad sociorum populi Romani agrum populandum profectus, Carales perventurus erat, ni Manlius obvio exercitu ab effusa eum populatione continuisset. Primo castra castris modico interuallo sunt obiecta; deinde per procursationes levia certamina vario euentu inita; postremo descensum in aciem.

Manlius, after the report that the Punic fleet had made landfall, withdrew to Carales; that gave Hampsicora the opportunity of joining himself to the Carthaginian. Hasdrubal, his forces put ashore and the fleet sent back to Carthage, set out with Hampsicora as leader to lay waste the fields of the allies of the Roman people; he would have reached Carales, had not Manlius, with an army meeting him, restrained him from unrestrained depredation. First the camps were pitched opposite with a slight interval between; then, by sorties, light skirmishes were undertaken with varying outcome; finally, they came down into battle line.

Signis conlatis iusto proelio per quattuor horas pugnatum. Diu pugnam ancipitem Poeni, Sardis facile vinci adsuetis, fecerunt; postremo et ipsi, cum omnia circa strage ac fuga Sardorum repleta essent, fusi; ceterum terga dantes circumducto cornu quo pepulerat Sardos inclusit Romanus. Caedes inde magis quam pugna fuit.

With the standards joined, in a regular battle they fought for four hours. For a long time the Carthaginians made the fight doubtful, the Sardinians being accustomed to be easily conquered; at last they too, when everything around had been filled with the slaughter and flight of the Sardinians, were routed. However, as they turned their backs, the Roman, with a wing wheeled around—by which he had driven the Sardinians—enclosed them. Thence it was a slaughter rather than a fight.

Duodecim milia hostium caesa, Sardorum simul Poenorumque, ferme tria milia et septingenti capti et signa militaria septem et viginti.

Twelve thousand of the enemy were slain, Sardinians and Carthaginians alike; about three thousand seven hundred were captured, and twenty-seven military standards.

[41] Ante omnia claram et memorabilem pugnam fecit Hasdrubal imperator captus et Hanno et Mago, nobiles Carthaginienses, Mago ex gente Barcina, propinqua cognatione Hannibali iunctus, Hanno auctor rebellionis Sardis bellique eius haud dubie concitor. Nec Sardorum duces minus nobilem eam pugnam cladibus suis fecerunt; nam et filius Hampsicorae Hostus in acie cecidit, et Hampsicora cum paucis equitibus fugiens, ut super adflictas res necem quoque filii audivit, nocte, ne cvius interuentus coepta impediret, mortem sibi consciuit. Ceteris urbs Cornus eadem quae ante fugae receptaculum fuit; quam Manlius victore exercitu adgressus intra dies paucos recepit.

[41] Before all else, the battle was made illustrious and memorable by the capture of the commander Hasdrubal, and of Hanno and Mago, noble Carthaginians—Mago of the Barcine clan, joined to Hannibal by close consanguinity, Hanno the author of the Sardinians’ rebellion and without doubt the instigator of that war. Nor did the leaders of the Sardinians make that battle less noble by their disasters; for both Hampsicora’s son Hostus fell in the battle-line, and Hampsicora, fleeing with a few horsemen, when, on top of his shattered fortunes, he heard also of his son’s death, at night, lest anyone’s intervention impede his purpose, took his own life. For the rest, the city of Cornus was the same refuge for flight as before; which Manlius, attacking with the victorious army, recovered within a few days.

Deinde aliae quoque civitates quae ad Hampsicoram Poenosque defecerant obsidibus datis dediderunt sese; quibus stipendio frumentoque imperato pro cuiusque aut viribus aut delicto Carales exercitum reduxit. Ibi navibus longis deductis impositoque quem secum advexerat milite Romam navigat Sardiniamque perdomitam nuntiat patribus; et stipendium quaestoribus, frumentum aedilibus, captiuos Q. Fuluio praetori tradit. Per idem tempus T. Otacilius praetor ab Lilybaeo classi in Africam transvectus depopulatusque agrum Carthaginiensem, cum Sardiniam inde peteret, quo fama erat Hasdrubalem a Baliaribus nuper traiecisse, classi Africam repetenti occurrit, levique certamine in alto commisso septem inde naves cum sociis naualibus cepit.

Then other cities also which had defected to Hampsicora and the Carthaginians, having given hostages, surrendered themselves; upon whom, tribute and grain having been imposed according to each one’s resources or offense, he led the army back to Carales. There, the long ships having been launched and the soldiery whom he had brought with him having been put aboard, he sails to Rome and announces to the Fathers that Sardinia has been thoroughly subdued; and he hands over the tribute to the quaestors, the grain to the aediles, the captives to the praetor Q. Fulvius. At the same time, the praetor T. Otacilius, transported with the fleet from Lilybaeum to Africa and having devastated the Carthaginian countryside, when he then made for Sardinia, whither the report was that Hasdrubal had recently crossed from the Balearics, met a fleet as it was making back to Africa, and, a light engagement having been joined on the open sea, he captured seven ships from there together with their naval crews.

Ceteras metus haud secus quam tempestas passim disiecit. Per eosdem forte dies et Bomilcar cum militibus ad supplementum Carthagine missis elephantisque et commeatu Locros accessit. Quem ut incautum opprimeret Ap. Claudius, per simulationem provinciae circumeundae Messanam raptim exercitu ducto [uento] aestuque suo Locros traiecit.

The rest fear scattered everywhere no less than a tempest. About the same days, by chance, Bomilcar, with soldiers sent from Carthage as a supplement and with elephants and with supplies, approached Locri. Whom, in order to overwhelm unawares, Ap. Claudius, under the pretense of making a circuit of his province, having rapidly led the army to Messana, crossed over to Locri with the [wind] and the tide on his side.

Iam inde Bomilcar ad Hannonem in Bruttios profectus erat et Locrenses portas Romanis clauserunt; Appius magno conatu nulla re gesta Messanam repetit. Eadem aestate Marcellus ab Nola quam praesidio obtinebat crebras excursiones in agrum Hirpinum et Samnites Caudinos fecit adeoque omnia ferro atque igni uastavit ut antiquarum cladium Samnio memoriam renouaret.

By then Bomilcar had set out to Hanno in Bruttium, and the Locrians shut their gates to the Romans; Appius, with great effort and nothing accomplished, returned to Messana. In the same summer Marcellus, from Nola which he was holding with a garrison, made frequent excursions into the Hirpinian countryside and against the Caudine Samnites, and so laid all things waste with sword and fire that he renewed in Samnium the memory of ancient calamities.

[42] Itaque extemplo legati ad Hannibalem missi simul ex utraque gente ita Poenum adlocuti sunt. "Hostes populi Romani, Hannibal, fuimus primum per nos ipsi quoad nostra arma, nostrae vires nos tutari poterant. Postquam his parum fidebamus, Pyrrho regi nos adiunximus; a quo relicti pacem necessariam accepimus fuimusque in ea per annos prope quinquaginta ad id tempus quo tu in Italiam venisti.

[42] And so at once envoys were sent to Hannibal, and together from both peoples they addressed the Carthaginian thus: "Enemies of the Roman people, Hannibal, we were at first on our own by ourselves, so long as our arms, our strength could protect us. After we trusted these too little, we joined ourselves to King Pyrrhus; by whom, being abandoned, we accepted a necessary peace and remained in it for nearly fifty years, up to the time when you came into Italy.

Tua nos non magis virtus fortunaque quam unica comitas ac benignitas erga cives nostros quos captos nobis remisisti ita conciliavit tibi ut te saluo atque incolumi amico non modo populum Romanum sed ne deos quidem iratos, si fas est dici, timeremus. At hercule non solum incolumi et victore sed praesente te, cum ploratum prope coniugum ac liberorum nostrorum exaudire et flagrantia tecta posses conspicere, ita sumus aliquotiens hac aestate deuastati ut M. Marcellus, non Hannibal, vicisse ad Cannas videatur glorienturque Romani te, ad unum modo ictum vigentem, velut aculeo emisso torpere. Per annos [centum] cum populo Romano bellum gessimus, nullo externo adiuti nec duce nec exercitu nisi quod per biennium Pyrrhus nostro magis milite suas auxit vires quam suis viribus nos defendit.

Tua not so much valor and fortune as your singular comity and benignity toward our citizens, whom, when taken captive, you sent back to us, so reconciled us to you that, with you safe and intact as a friend, we would fear not only the Roman people but not even the gods in their wrath, if it is lawful to say so. But, by Hercules, not only with you safe and victorious but with you present, when you could almost hear the lamentation of our wives and children and behold roofs in flames, we have been so often this summer laid waste that M. Marcellus, not Hannibal, seems to have won at Cannae, and the Romans boast that you, vigorous for a single blow only, are benumbed as if, your sting having been shot forth, you were torpid. For [100] years we waged war with the Roman people, aided by no foreigner, neither leader nor army, except that for two years Pyrrhus increased his own strength more by our soldiery than defended us by his own forces.

Non ego secundis rebus nostris gloriabor duos consules ac duos consulares exercitus ab nobis sub iugum missos et si qua alia aut laeta aut gloriosa nobis euenerunt. Quae aspera adversaque tunc acciderunt, minore indignatione referre possumus quam quae hodie eueniunt. Magni dictatores cum magistris equitum, bini consules cum binis consularibus exercitibus ingrediebantur fines nostros; ante explorato et subsidiis positis et sub signis ad populandum ducebant; nunc propraetoris univs et parui ad tuendam Nolam praesidii praeda sumus; iam ne manipulatim quidem sed latronum modo percursant totis finibus nostris neglegentius quam si in Romano uagarentur agro.

I will not, in our favorable circumstances, make my boast that two consuls and two consular armies were by us sent under the yoke, and whatever else either joyful or glorious has befallen us. The rough and adverse things that happened then we can recount with less indignation than those that happen today. Great dictators with their masters of the horse, pairs of consuls with pairs of consular armies used to enter our borders; with reconnaissance first made and reserves posted, and under the standards, they led in to ravage; now we are the prey of one propraetor and a small garrison to guard Nola; already they scour through all our borders not even by maniples, but in the manner of bandits, more carelessly than if they were roaming in Roman territory.

Causa autem haec est quod neque tu defendis et nostra iuventus, quae si domi esset tutaretur, omnis sub signis militat tuis. Nec te nec exercitum tuum norim nisi, a quo tot acies Romanas fusas stratasque esse sciam, ei facile esse dicam opprimere populatores nostros uagos sine signis palatos quo quemque trahit quamuis vana praedae spes. Numidarum paucorum illi quidem praeda erunt, praesidiumque mis[eris sim]ul nobis et Nolae ademeris, si modo, quos ut socios haberes dignos duxisti, haud indignos iudicas quos in fidem receptos tuearis."

The reason, moreover, is this: neither do you defend us, and our youth—who, if it were at home, would be protecting us—is all serving under your standards. Nor would I know you or your army, except that, since I know that so many Roman battle-lines have been routed and laid low by you, I would say it is easy for you to crush our ravagers, wandering without standards, scattered wherever each man is drawn by however vain a hope of booty. Indeed, they will be the prey of a few Numidians, and you will have taken away the garrison at the same time from us and from Nola, provided only that those whom you judged worthy to have as allies you do not judge unworthy to protect once received into your good faith."

[43] Ad ea Hannibal respondit omnia simul facere Hirpinos Samnitesque et indicare clades suas et petere praesidium et queri indefensos se neglectosque; indicandum autem primum fuisse, dein petendum praesidium, postremo ni impetraretur, tum denique querendum frustra opem imploratam. Exercitum sese non in agrum Hirpinum Samnitemue, ne et ipse oneri esset, sed in proxima loca sociorum populi Romani adducturum. Iis populandis et militem suum repleturum se et metu procul ab his summoturum hostes.

[43] To this Hannibal replied that the Hirpini and the Samnites were doing everything at once—both indicating their disasters and seeking a presidium and complaining that they were undefended and neglected; whereas first there should have been an indication, then a request for a presidium, and finally, if it were not obtained, then at last a complaint that aid had been implored in vain. He said he would lead his army not into the Hirpinian or Samnite territory, lest he himself be a burden, but into the nearest places of the allies of the Roman people. By plundering these he would both replenish his soldiery and, through fear, remove the enemies far away from them.

Quod ad bellum Romanum attineret, si Trasumenni quam Trebiae, si Cannarum quam Trasumenni pugna nobilior esset, Cannarum se quoque memoriam obscuram maiore et clariore victoria facturum. Cum hoc responso muneribusque amplis legatos dimisit; ipse praesidio modico relicto in Tifatis profectus cetero exercitu ire Nolam pergit. Eodem Hanno ex Bruttiis cum supplemento Carthagine advecto atque elephantis venit.

As regards the Roman war, if the battle of Trasimene were more renowned than that of the Trebia, if that of Cannae more than Trasimene, he too would make the memory of Cannae obscure by a greater and clearer victory. With this response and with ample gifts he dismissed the envoys; he himself, leaving a small garrison behind, set out into the Tifata hills and with the rest of the army proceeds to go to Nola. To the same place Hanno came from the Bruttii, with reinforcements conveyed from Carthage and with elephants.

Castris haud procul positis longe alia omnia inquirenti comperta sunt quam quae a legatis sociorum audierat. Nihil enim Marcellus ita egerat ut aut fortunae aut temere hosti commissum dici posset. Explorato cum firmisque praesidiis tuto receptu praedatum ierat omniaque velut adversus praesentem Hannibalem cauta provisaque fuerunt.

With the camp pitched not far off, all the things discovered by inquiry were far other than what he had heard from the envoys of the allies. For Marcellus had done nothing in such a manner that it could be said to have been committed either to fortune or rashly to the enemy. After reconnoitering, and with strong garrisons and a safe line of retreat, he had gone out to raid, and everything had been cautiously foreseen and provided, as if against Hannibal in person.

Tum, ubi sensit hostem adventare, copias intra moenia tenuit; per muros inambulare senatores Nolanos iussit et omnia circa explorare quae apud hostes fierent. Ex his Hanno, cum ad murum successisset, Herennium Bassum et Herium Pettium ad conloquium euocatos permissuque Marcelli egressos per interpretem adloquitur. Hannibalis virtutem fortunamque extollit: populi Romani obterit senescentem cum viribus maiestatem; quae si paria essent ut quondam fuissent, tamen expertis quam graue Romanum imperium sociis, quanta indulgentia Hannibalis etiam in captiuos omnes Italici nominis fuisset, Punicam Romanae societatem atque amicitiam praeoptandam esse.

Then, when he perceived that the enemy was approaching, he kept the forces within the walls; he ordered the Nolean senators to walk the rounds along the walls and to explore everything in the vicinity that was being done among the enemy. Of these, Hanno, when he had come up to the wall, summoned Herennius Bassus and Herius Pettius to a conference, and, having gone out with Marcellus’s permission, he addresses them through an interpreter. He extols Hannibal’s virtue and fortune: he crushes the majesty of the Roman people, now senescent along with its powers; and even if these were equal as once they had been, nevertheless, since the allies had experienced how grave the Roman imperium was, and how great Hannibal’s indulgence had been even toward all captives of the Italian name, the Punic alliance and friendship were to be preferred to the Roman.

Si ambo consules cum suis exercitibus ad Nolam essent, tamen non magis pares Hannibali futuros quam ad Cannas fuissent, nedum praetor unus cum paucis et novis militibus Nolam tutari possit. Ipsorum quam Hannibalis [magis] interesse capta an tradita Nola poteretur; potiturum enim ut Capua Nuceriaque potitus esset; sed quid inter Capuae ac Nuceriae fortunam interesset ipsos prope in medio sitos Nolanos scire. Nolle ominari quae captae urbi cessura forent et potius spondere, si Marcellum cum praesidio ac Nolam tradidissent, neminem alium quam ipsos legem qua in societatem amicitiamque Hannibalis venirent dicturum.

Even if both consuls with their armies were at Nola, nevertheless they would be no more a match for Hannibal than they had been at Cannae; much less could a single praetor with a few and new soldiers protect Nola. It concerned themselves rather than Hannibal [more] whether Nola would be held as captured or as surrendered; for he would gain possession of it as he had gained Capua and Nuceria; but what difference there was between the fortune of Capua and of Nuceria, the Nolans themselves, set almost in the midst, knew. He did not wish to prognosticate what would befall a captured city and rather pledged that, if they handed over Marcellus with the garrison and Nola, no one other than they themselves would dictate the terms by which they would come into Hannibal’s alliance and friendship.

[44] Ad ea Herennius Bassus respondit multos annos iam inter Romanum Nolanumque populum amicitiam esse, cvius neutros ad eam diem paenitere et sibi, si cum fortuna mutanda fides fuerit, sero iam esse mutare. An dedituris se Hannibali fuisse accersendum Romanorum praesidium? Cum iis qui ad sese tuendos venissent omnia sibi et esse consociata et ad ultimum fore.

[44] To this Herennius Bassus replied that for many years now friendship had existed between the Roman and the Nolan people, of which neither side regretted up to that day; and that for himself, if faith was to be changed together with fortune, it was now late to change. Was the Roman garrison to be summoned if they had been about to surrender themselves to Hannibal? With those who had come to defend them, all things, he said, were and would be consociated with them to the end.

Hoc conloquium abstulit spem Hannibali per proditionem recipiendae Nolae. Itaque corona oppidum circumdedit ut simul ab omni parte moenia adgrederetur. Quem ut successisse muris Marcellus vidit, instructa intra portam acie cum magno tumultu erupit.

This colloquy removed from Hannibal the hope of re-taking Nola by treachery. Therefore he encircled the town with a “crown,” so that he might assail the walls at the same time from every side. When Marcellus saw that he had come up to the walls, having drawn up a battle-line inside the gate, he burst out with great tumult.

Aliquot primo impetu perculsi caesique sunt; dein concursu ad pugnantes facto aequatisque viribus atrox esse coepit pugna, memorabilisque inter paucas fuisset ni ingentibus procellis effusus imber diremisset pugnantes. Eo die commisso modico certamine atque inritatis animis in urbem Romani, Poeni in castra receperunt sese; tamen Poenorum prima eruptione perculsi ceciderunt haud plus quam triginta, Romani quinquaginta. Imber continens per noctem totam usque ad horam tertiam diei insequentis tenuit.

Several at the first impetus were struck and cut down; then, when a concourse had been made to those fighting and the forces equalized, the battle began to be atrocious, and it would have been memorable among the few, had a downpour, poured forth with huge storms, not separated the combatants. On that day, with a modest skirmish engaged and spirits provoked, the Romans withdrew into the city, the Punics into the camp; however, at the first sally of the Carthaginians, not more than thirty fell, fifty Romans. A continuous rain held through the whole night up to the third hour of the following day.

Itaque, quamquam utraque pars auidi certaminis erant, eo die tenuerunt sese tamen munimentis. Tertio die Hannibal partem copiarum praedatum in agrum Nolanum misit. Quod ubi animaduertit Marcellus, extemplo in aciem copias eduxit; neque Hannibal detrectavit.

Therefore, although both sides were avid for combat, on that day nevertheless they kept themselves to the fortifications. On the third day Hannibal sent part of his forces to plunder in the Nolanan countryside. When Marcellus observed this, he immediately led his forces out into the battle line; nor did Hannibal decline.

Mille fere passuum inter urbem erant castraque; eo spatio—et sunt omnia campi circa Nolam—concurrerunt. Clamor ex parte utraque sublatus proximos ex cohortibus iis quae in agros praedatum exierant ad proelium iam commissum reuocavit. Et Nolani aciem Romanam auxerunt, quos conlaudatos Marcellus in subsidiis stare et saucios ex acie efferre iussit, pugna abstinere ni ab se signum accepissent.

About a thousand paces lay between the city and the camp; within that space—and all around Nola are plains—they clashed. A shout raised from both sides recalled the nearest men from the cohorts that had gone out into the fields for plunder, to a battle now already engaged. And the Nolans augmented the Roman battle line, whom, after praising them, Marcellus ordered to stand in the reserves and to carry the wounded out of the line, to abstain from fighting unless they should receive a signal from himself.

[45] Proelium erat anceps; summa vi et duces hortabantur et milites pugnabant. Marcellus victis ante diem tertium, fugatis ante paucos dies a Cumis, pulsis priore anno ab Nola ab eodem se duce, milite alio, instare iubet: non omnes esse in acie; praedantes uagari in agro; sed qui pugnent marcere Campana luxuria, vino et scortis omnibusque lustris per totam hiemem confectos. Abisse illam vim vigoremque, delapsa esse robora corporum animorumque quibus Pyrenaei Alpiumque superata sint iuga.

[45] The battle was doubtful; with utmost force both the commanders were exhorting and the soldiers were fighting. Marcellus bids them press on men defeated three days before, routed a few days earlier at Cumae, driven the previous year from Nola by this same leader himself, though with different soldiery: that not all are in the battle line; raiders are wandering in the fields; but those who are fighting are languishing from Campanian luxury, worn out by wine and harlots and all the brothels through the whole winter. That vigor and energy have gone, the strengths of bodies and minds have lapsed, by which the ridges of the Pyrenees and of the Alps were surmounted.

Reliquias illorum virorum vix arma membraque sustinentes pugnare. Capuam Hannibali Cannas fuisse: ibi virtutem bellicam, ibi militarem disciplinam, ibi praeteriti temporis famam, ibi spem futuri exstinctam. Cum haec exprobrando hosti Marcellus suorum militum animos erigeret, Hannibal multo grauioribus probris increpabat: arma signaque eadem se noscere quae ad Trebiam Trasumennumque, postremo ad Cannas viderit habueritque; militem alium profecto se in hiberna Capuam duxisse, alium inde eduxisse.

The remnants of those men, scarcely sustaining their arms and limbs, were fighting. To Hannibal, Capua had been Cannae: there warlike valor, there military discipline, there the fame of time past, there the hope of the future was extinguished. While by upbraiding the enemy with these things Marcellus was raising the spirits of his soldiers, Hannibal was inveighing with much weightier reproaches: that he recognizes the same arms and standards which he had seen and held at the Trebia and Trasimene, and finally at Cannae; that he had assuredly led one soldiery into winter quarters to Capua, and a different one out from there.

"Legatumne Romanum et legionis univs atque alae magno certamine vix toleratis pugnam, quos binae acies consulares nunquam sustinuerunt? Marcellus tirone milite ac Nolanis subsidiis inultus nos iam iterum lacessit. Ubi ille miles meus est, qui derepto ex equo C. Flaminio consuli caput abstulit?

“Do you scarcely sustain the fight, with great struggle, against a Roman legate and the force of a single legion and an ala—you, whom two consular battle lines never withstood? Marcellus, with raw soldiery and Nolan auxiliaries, now provokes us again with impunity. Where is that soldier of mine who, having dragged the consul Gaius Flaminius from his horse, bore off his head?”

Ubi, qui L. Paulum ad Cannas occidit? Ferrum nunc hebet? An dextrae torpent?

Where is he who slew L. Paulus at Cannae? Is the steel now blunt? Or are the right hands torpid?

An quid prodigii est aliud? Qui pauci plures vincere soliti estis, nunc paucis plures vix restatis. Romam vos expugnaturos, si quis duceret, fortes lingua iactabatis.

Or what other prodigy is there? You who, few, were accustomed to conquer many, now, being many, scarcely hold out against a few. You boasted—valiant in tongue—that you would storm Rome, if only someone would lead you.

En, minor res est: hic experiri vim virtutemque volo. Expugnate Nolam, campestrem urbem, non flumine, non mari saeptam. Hinc vos ex tam opulenta urbe praeda spoliisque onustos vel ducam quo voletis vel sequar."

Lo, it is a lesser matter: here I wish to test might and virtue. Storm Nola, a city of the plain, enclosed by neither river nor sea. From here, from so opulent a city, I will either lead you, laden with booty and spoils, wherever you wish, or I will follow."

[46] Nec bene nec male dicta profuerunt ad confirmandos animos. Cum omni parte pellerentur, Romanisque crescerent animi, non duce solum adhortante sed Nolanis etiam per clamorem favoris indicem accendentibus ardorem pugnae, terga Poeni dederunt atque in castra compulsi sunt. Quae oppugnare cupientes milites Romanos Marcellus Nolam reduxit cum magno gaudio et gratulatione etiam plebis quae ante inclinatior ad Poenos fuerat.

[46] Neither words well-spoken nor ill-spoken proved helpful for confirming their spirits. When they were being driven back on every side, and the spirits of the Romans were rising—not only with the leader exhorting, but with the Nolans also, by a shout, the indication of their favor, kindling the ardor of the fight—the Carthaginians turned their backs and were driven into their camp. As the soldiers desired to assault the camp, Marcellus led the Roman soldiers back to Nola, with great joy and congratulation even from the plebs, which earlier had been more inclined toward the Carthaginians.

Hostium plus quinque milia caesa eo die, viui capti sescenti et signa militaria undeuiginti et duo elephanti; quattuor in acie occisi; Romanorum minus mille interfecti. Posterum diem indutiis tacitis sepeliendo utrimque caesos in acie consumpserunt. Spolia hostium Marcellus Volcano votum cremavit.

More than 5,000 of the enemy were cut down that day; 600 were captured alive, and 19 military standards and 2 elephants; 4 were killed in the battle line; of the Romans fewer than 1,000 were slain. The following day, under a tacit truce, they spent in burying those cut down on both sides in the battle line. Marcellus burned the spoils of the enemy as a votive offering to Vulcan.

Tertio post die ob iram, credo, aliquam aut spem liberalioris militiae ducenti septuaginta duo equites, mixti Numidae [et] Hispani, ad Marcellum transfugerunt. Eorum forti fidelique opera in eo bello usi sunt saepe Romani. Ager Hispanis in Hispania et Numidis in Africa post bellum virtutis causa datus est.

On the third day thereafter, on account of some anger, I suppose, or a hope of more liberal terms of service, two hundred and seventy-two cavalrymen, a mixed body of Numidians [and] Spaniards, deserted to Marcellus. The Romans often made use of their brave and faithful service in that war. After the war, land was given to the Spaniards in Spain and to the Numidians in Africa for the sake of their valor.

Hannibal ab Nola remisso in Bruttios Hannone cum quibus venerat copiis ipse Apuliae hiberna petit circaque Arpos consedit. Q. Fabius ut profectum in Apuliam Hannibalem audivit, frumento ab Nola Neapolique in ea castra convecto quae super Suessulam erant, munimentisque firmatis et praesidio quod per hiberna ad tenendum locum satis esset relicto ipse Capuam propius movit castra agrumque Campanum ferro ignique est depopulatus, donec coacti sunt Campani, nihil admodum viribus suis fidentes, egredi portis et castra ante urbem in aperto communire. Sex milia armatorum habebant, peditem imbellem, equitatu plus poterant; itaque equestribus proeliis lacessebant hostem.

Hannibal, with Hanno sent back into Bruttium with the forces with which he had come, himself sought winter quarters in Apulia and settled around Arpi. Q. Fabius, when he heard that Hannibal had set out into Apulia, after conveying grain from Nola and Neapolis into those camps which were above Suessula, and after strengthening the fortifications and leaving a garrison which would be sufficient through the winter for holding the place, moved his camp himself nearer to Capua and devastated the Campanian land with sword and fire, until the Campanians, trusting hardly at all in their own forces, were compelled to go out by the gates and fortify a camp in the open before the city. They had six thousand men under arms, an unwarlike infantry; they were stronger in cavalry; and so they harassed the enemy with cavalry engagements.

Inter multos nobiles equites Campanos Cerrinus Vibellius erat, cognomine Taurea. Ciuis indidem erat, longe omnium Campanorum fortissimus eques adeo ut, cum apud Romanos militaret, unus eum Romanus Claudius Asellus gloria equestri aequaret. Tunc Taurea cum diu perlustrans oculis obequitasset hostium turmis, tandem silentio facto ubi esset Claudius Asellus quaesiuit et, quoniam verbis secum de virtute ambigere solitus esset, cur non ferro decerneret daretque opima spolia victus aut victor caperet.

Among the many noble Campanian horsemen there was Cerrinus Vibellius, by surname Taurea. A citizen from that same place, he was by far the bravest rider of all the Campanians, to such a degree that, when he served among the Romans, a single Roman—Claudius Asellus—matched him in equestrian glory. Then Taurea, after for a long time surveying with his eyes as he rode before the enemy squadrons, at last, silence having been made, asked where Claudius Asellus was, and, since he was accustomed to argue with him in words about virtue (valor), why he should not decide it by steel and either, if defeated, give the richest spoils, or, if victor, take them.

[47] Haec ubi Asello sunt nuntiata in castra, id modo moratus ut consulem percontaretur liceretne extra ordinem in provocantem hostem pugnare, permissu eius arma extemplo cepit, provectusque ante stationes equo Tauream nomine compellavit congredique ubi vellet iussit. Hinc Romani ad spectaculum pugnae eius frequentes exierant, et Campani non uallum modo castrorum sed moenia etiam urbis prospectantes repleuerunt. Cum iam ante ferocibus dictis rem nobilitassent, infestis hastis concitarunt equos; dein libero spatio inter se ludificantes sine volnere pugnam extrahere.

[47] When these things were announced to Asellus in the camp, delaying only so much as to inquire of the consul whether it would be permitted to fight, outside the regular order, with the challenging enemy, with his permission he immediately took arms, and, having ridden forward before the outposts on his horse, he addressed Taurea by name and ordered him to meet and engage wherever he wished. Thereupon the Romans had gone out in numbers to the spectacle of their combat, and the Campanians, looking on, filled not only the rampart of the camp but even the walls of the city. Since already beforehand they had made the affair notable with ferocious words, with spears at the ready they spurred their horses; then, with open space between them, making sport of one another, they prolonged the fight without a wound.

Tum Campanus Romano "equorum" inquit "hoc non equitum erit certamen, nisi e campo in cauam hanc viam demittimus equos. Ibi nullo ad euagandum spatio comminus conserentur manus". Dicto prope citius equum in viam Claudius egit. Taurea, verbis ferocior quam re, "minime, sis," inquit "cantherium in fossam"; quae vox in rusticum inde prouerbium prodita est.

Then the Campanian to the Roman said, "this will be a contest of horses, not of horsemen, unless we send the horses down from the field into this hollow road. There, with no space for evagating, hands will be joined at close quarters." Almost quicker than the word, Claudius drove his horse into the road. Taurea, more ferocious in words than in deed, said, "by no means, please, the nag into the ditch"; a phrase which from then on was handed down into a rustic proverb.

Claudius cum ea via longe perequitasset [quia] nullo obvio hoste in campum rursus evectus, increpans ignauiam hostis, cum magno gaudio et gratulatione victor in castra redit. Huic pugnae equestri rem—quam vera sit communis existimatio est—mirabilem certe adiciunt quidam annales: cum refugientem ad urbem Tauream Claudius sequeretur, patenti hostium portae invectum per alteram, stupentibus miraculo hostibus, intactum euasisse.

Claudius, when he had ridden far along that road, [because] with no enemy meeting him, having been borne back to the plain, chiding the enemy’s cowardice, returned to camp as victor with great joy and congratulation. To this equestrian combat certain annals add a marvelous item—the common estimation is how true it is—: that, when Claudius was pursuing Taurea as he fled to the city, with a gate of the enemy standing open, he was carried in through it and, the enemies stupefied at the miracle, escaped unharmed through another.

[48] Quieta inde statiua fuere ac retro etiam consul movit castra ut sementem Campani facerent, nec ante violavit agrum Campanum quam iam altae in segetibus herbae pabulum praebere poterant. Id convexit in Claudiana castra super Suessulam ibique hiberna aedificavit. M. Claudio proconsuli imperavit, ut retento Nolae necessario ad tuendam urbem praesidio ceteros milites dimitteret Romam ne oneri sociis et sumptui rei publicae essent.

[48] From there the stationary quarters were quiet, and the consul even moved the camp back so that the Campani might do the sowing, nor did he violate the Campanian land before the grasses, now tall in the cornfields, could supply fodder. He conveyed that into the Claudian camp above Suessula, and there he built winter-quarters. He ordered Marcus Claudius, the proconsul, that, retaining at Nola the garrison necessary to protect the city, he should dismiss the other soldiers to Rome, lest they be a burden to the allies and an expense to the republic.

Et Ti. Gracchus a Cumis Luceriam in Apuliam legiones cum duxisset, M. Valerium inde praetorem Brundisium cum eo quem Luceriae habuerat exercitu misit tuerique oram agri Sallentini et providere quod ad Philippum bellumque Macedonicum attineret iussit. Exitu aestatis eius qua haec gesta perscripsimus litterae a P. et Cn. Scipionibus venerunt quantas quamque prosperas in Hispania res gessissent; sed pecuniam in stipendium vestimentaque et frumentum exercitui et sociis naualibus omnia deesse. Quod ad stipendium attineat, si aerarium inops sit, se aliquam rationem inituros quomodo ab Hispanis sumatur; cetera utique ab Roma mittenda esse, nec aliter aut exercitum aut provinciam teneri posse.

And Tiberius Gracchus, after he had led the legions from Cumae to Luceria in Apulia, sent from there Marcus Valerius, the praetor, to Brundisium with the army which he had had at Luceria, and ordered him to guard the shoreline of the Salentine territory and to provide for whatever pertained to Philip and the Macedonian war. At the close of that summer in which we have written up these deeds, letters came from Publius and Gnaeus Scipio telling how great and how prosperous affairs they had conducted in Spain; but that money for pay and clothing, and grain for the army and for the naval allies, were all lacking. As to the pay, if the treasury were indigent, they would devise some arrangement by which it might be levied from the Spaniards; the rest must by all means be sent from Rome, and otherwise neither the army nor the province could be held.

Litteris recitatis nemo omnium erat quin et vera scribi et postulari aequa fateretur; sed occurrebat animis quantos exercitus terrestres naualesque tuerentur quantaque nova classis mox paranda esset si bellum Macedonicum moveretur: Siciliam ac Sardiniam, quae ante bellum vectigales fuissent, vix praesides provinciarum exercitus alere; tributo sumptus suppeditari; [eum] ipsum tributum conferentium numerum tantis exercituum stragibus et ad Trasumennum lacum et ad Cannas imminutum; qui superessent pauci, si multiplici grauarentur stipendio, alia perituros peste. Itaque nisi fide staretur, rem publicam opibus non staturam. Prodeundum in contionem Fuluio praetori esse, indicandas populo publicas necessitates cohortandosque qui redempturis auxissent patrimonia, ut rei publicae, ex qua creuissent, tempus commodarent, conducerentque ea lege praebenda quae ad exercitum Hispaniensem opus essent, ut, cum pecunia in aerario esset, iis primis solueretur.

When the letters had been read aloud, there was no one at all who did not admit that both truths were being written and equitable demands made; but it occurred to their minds how great land and naval armies they were maintaining, and how great a new fleet would soon have to be prepared if the Macedonian war were set in motion: that Sicily and Sardinia, which before the war had been revenue‑paying, the governors of the provinces could scarcely sustain their armies; that expenses were supplied by the tribute; [that] the very number of those contributing [that] tribute had been diminished by such slaughters of the armies both at Lake Trasimene and at Cannae; that the few who survived, if they were burdened with multiple levies, would perish by another plague. Therefore, unless credit were stood upon, the commonwealth would not stand by its resources. It was necessary for Fulvius the praetor to go forth into the assembly, to indicate to the people the public necessities and to exhort those who had increased their patrimonies by public contracts, that they should lend time to the commonwealth, from which they had grown, and contract to furnish, on this condition, the things which were needed for the Spanish army: namely, that, when money was in the treasury, payment should be made to them first.

Haec praetor in contione; [diemque] edixit quo vestimenta frumentum Hispaniensi exercitui praebenda quaeque alia opus essent naualibus sociis esset locaturus.

The praetor said these things in the assembly; and he proclaimed [the day] on which he would let out on contract the clothing and grain to be provided for the army in Spain, and whatever other things were needed for the naval allies.

[49] Ubi ea dies venit, ad conducendum tres societates aderant hominum undeuiginti, quorum duo postulata fuere, unum ut militia uacarent dum in eo publico essent, alterum ut quae in naves imposuissent ab hostium tempestatisque vi publico periculo essent. Utroque impetrato conduxerunt privataque pecunia res publica administrata est. Ii mores eaque caritas patriae per omnes ordines velut tenore uno pertinebat.

[49] When that day came, for the contracting there were present three companies, nineteen men in all, who made two demands: one, that they be exempt from military service while they were engaged in that public business; the other, that whatever they had put aboard ships should be at public risk against the force of enemies and of tempest. Both concessions having been obtained, they took the contract, and with private money the commonwealth was administered. Such customs and such love of country extended through all orders, as if with one and the same tenor.

Quemadmodum conducta omnia magno animo sunt, sic summa fide praebita, nec quicquam [parcius milites quam] si ex opulento aerario, ut quondam, alerentur. Cum hi commeatus venerunt, Iliturgi oppidum ab Hasdrubale ac Magone et Hannibale Bomilcaris filio ob defectionem ad Romanos oppugnabatur. Inter haec trina castra hostium Scipiones cum in urbem sociorum magno certamine ac strage obsistentium pervenissent, frumentum, cvius inopia erat, advexerunt, cohortatique oppidanos, ut eodem animo moenia tutarentur quo pro se pugnantem Romanum exercitum vidissent, ad castra maxima oppugnanda, quibus Hasdrubal praeerat, ducunt.

Just as all the contracts were undertaken with great spirit, so they were furnished with the utmost good faith, and nothing [more sparingly to the soldiers than] if they were being maintained from an opulent treasury, as once. When these supplies arrived, the town of Iliturgi was being besieged by Hasdrubal and Mago and Hannibal, son of Bomilcar, because of its defection to the Romans. Amid these three enemy camps, when the Scipios had reached the allies’ city with great struggle and with slaughter of those blocking them, they brought in grain, of which there was a shortage, and, after exhorting the townsmen to guard the walls with the same spirit with which they had seen the Roman army fighting on their behalf, they lead them to attack the largest camp, which Hasdrubal commanded.

Eodem et duo duces et duo exercitus Carthaginiensium, ibi rem summam agi cernentes, convenerunt. Itaque eruptione e castris pugnatum est. Sexaginta hostium milia eo die in pugna fuerunt, sedecim circa [ab] Romanis; tamen adeo haud dubia victoria fuit, ut plures numero quam ipsi erant Romani hostium occiderint, ceperint amplius tria milia hominum, paulo minus mille equorum, undesexaginta militaria signa, septem elephantos, quinque in proelio occisis, trinisque eo die castris potiti sint.

In the same place both the two commanders and the two armies of the Carthaginians, discerning that the matter of highest moment was being transacted there, convened. And so the fighting was by a sally from the camp. Sixty thousand of the enemy were in the battle that day, about sixteen thousand on the Roman side; yet the victory was so little in doubt that the Romans killed enemies in a number greater than they themselves were, took more than 3,000 men prisoner, a little under 1,000 horses, fifty-nine military standards, seven elephants (five having been slain in the battle), and on that day became masters of three camps.

Iliturgi obsidione liberato ad Intibili oppugnandum Punici exercitus traducti suppletis copiis ex provincia, ut quae maxime omnium belli auida, modo praeda aut merces esset, et tum iuventute abundante. Iterum signis conlatis eadem fortuna utriusque partis pugnatum. Supra tredecim milia hostium caesa, supra duo milia capta cum signis duobus et quadraginta et nouem elephantis.

With Iliturgi freed from siege, the Punic armies were led across to assault Intibili, their forces replenished from the province—which, being of all most avid for war, provided there were booty or pay, was then abounding in youth. Again, with standards joined, it was fought with the same fortune as before for both sides. More than 13,000 of the enemy were cut down, more than 2,000 captured, together with 42 standards and 9 elephants.

Tum vero omnes prope Hispaniae populi ad Romanos defecerunt, multoque maiores ea aestate in Hispania quam in Italia res gestae.

Then indeed nearly all the peoples of Spain defected to the Romans, and far greater operations were carried out that summer in Spain than in Italy.