Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] Cn. Fuluius Centumalus P. Sulpicius Galba consules cum idibus Martiis magistratum inissent, senatu in Capitolium uocato, de re publica, de administratione belli, de prouinciis exercitibusque patres consuluerunt. Q. Fuluio Ap. Claudio, prioris anni consulibus, prorogatum imperium est atque exercitus quos habebant decreti, adiectumque ne a Capua quam obsidebant abscederent priusquam expugnassent. ea tum cura maxime intentos habebat Romanos, non ab ira tantum, quae in nullam unquam ciuitatem iustior fuit, quam quod urbs tam nobilis ac potens, sicut defectione sua traxerat aliquot populos, ita recepta inclinatura rursus animos uidebatur ad ueteris imperii respectum.

[1] When the consuls Gnaeus Fulvius Centumalus and Publius Sulpicius Galba had entered upon their magistracy on the Ides of March, the senate having been called to the Capitol, the Fathers consulted about the commonwealth, about the administration of the war, about the provinces and the armies. To Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius, the consuls of the previous year, imperium was prorogued, and the armies which they had were decreed to them, and it was added that they should not withdraw from Capua, which they were besieging, before they had taken it by storm. That concern then held the Romans most intent, not only from anger—which in regard to no city was ever more just—but because a city so noble and powerful, just as by its defection it had drawn several peoples, so, once recovered, seemed likely to incline their spirits back again to a regard for the old imperium.

et praetoribus prioris anni M. Iunio in Etruria, P. Sempronio in Gallia cum binis legionibus quas habuerant prorogatum est imperium. prorogatum et M. Marcello, ut pro consule in Sicilia reliqua belli perficeret eo exercitu quem haberet: si supplemento opus esset, suppleret de legionibus quibus P. Cornelius pro praetore in Sicilia praeesset, dum ne quem militem legeret ex eo numero quibus senatus missionem reditumque in patriam negasset ante belli finem. C. Sulpicio cui Sicilia euenerat duae legiones quas P. Cornelius habuisset decretae et supplementum de exercitu Cn. Fului, qui priore anno in Apulia foede caesus fugatusque erat.

and to the praetors of the previous year—M. Junius in Etruria, P. Sempronius in Gaul—imperium was prorogued with the two legions which they had had. Prorogued also for M. Marcellus, that as proconsul in Sicily he should complete the remaining business of the war with the army he had; if there was need of a supplement, he was to make it up from the legions over which P. Cornelius, as propraetor, was in command in Sicily, provided that he should not enroll any soldier from that number to whom the senate had denied discharge and return to their homeland before the end of the war. To C. Sulpicius, to whom Sicily fell, there were decreed the two legions which P. Cornelius had held, and a supplement from the army of Cn. Fulvius, who in the previous year in Apulia had been shamefully cut down and routed.

huic generi militum senatus eundem, quem Cannensibus, finem statuerat militiae. additum etiam utrorumque ignominiae est ne in oppidis hibernarent neue hiberna propius ullam urbem decem milibus passuum aedificarent. L. Cornelio in Sardinia duae legiones datae quibus Q. Mucius praefuerat; supplementum si opus esset consules scribere iussi.

For this class of soldiers the senate had set the same end of military service as for the men of Cannae. Added also to the disgrace of both was that they should not winter in towns nor build winter quarters nearer than ten miles to any city. To L. Cornelius in Sardinia were given two legions which Q. Mucius had commanded; the consuls were ordered to enroll a supplement, if there were need.

T. Otacilio et M. Ualerio Siciliae Graeciaeque orae cum legionibus classibusque quibus praeerant decretae; quinquaginta Graecia cum legione una, centum Sicilia cum duabus legionibus habebat naues. tribus et uiginti legionibus Romanis eo anno bellum terra marique est gestum.

T. Otacilius and M. Valerius were decreed the shores of Sicily and Greece, with the legions and fleets which they commanded; for Greece there were 50 ships with 1 legion, for Sicily 100 ships with 2 legions. With 23 Roman legions that year the war was conducted on land and sea.

[2] Principio eius anni cum de litteris L. Marci referretur, res gestae magnificae senatui uisae: titulus honoris, quod imperio non populi iussu, non ex auctoritate patrum dato 'propraetor senatui' scripserat, magnam partem hominum offendebat: rem mali exempli esse imperatores legi ab exercitibus et sollemne auspicandorum comitiorum in castra et prouincias procul ab legibus magistratibusque ad militarem temeritatem transferri. et cum quidam referendum ad senatum censerent, melius uisum differri eam consultationem donec proficiscerentur equites qui ab Marcio litteras attulerant. rescribi de frumento et uestimentis exercitus placuit eam utramque rem curae fore senatui; adscribi autem 'propraetori L. Marcio' non placuit, ne id ipsum quod consultationi reliquerant pro praeiudicato ferret.

[2] At the beginning of that year, when a report was made about the letters of L. Marcius, the deeds seemed magnificent to the Senate; the title of honor, however—that he, with imperium granted neither by order of the people nor by the authority of the Fathers, had written “propraetor to the Senate”—offended a great part of men: it was a matter of bad precedent that commanders be chosen by their armies, and that the solemn rite of taking the auspices for the elections be transferred into the camps and the provinces, far from the laws and the magistrates, to military temerity. And when some were of the opinion that it should be referred to the Senate, it seemed better that that deliberation be deferred until the horsemen who had brought the letters from Marcius should set out. It was decided to write back concerning the grain and clothing of the army that both matters would be a care of the Senate; but it did not please that “to the propraetor L. Marcius” be added, lest that very point which they had left for deliberation be carried as prejudged.

dimissis equitibus, de nulla re prius consules rettulerunt, omniumque in unum sententiae congruebant agendum cum tribunis plebis esse, primo quoque tempore ad plebem ferrent quem cum imperio mitti placeret in Hispaniam ad eum exercitum cui Cn. Scipio imperator praefuisset. ea res cum tribunis acta promulgataque est; sed aliud certamen occupauerat animos. C. Sempronius Blaesus die dicta Cn. Fuluium ob exercitum in Apulia amissum in contionibus uexabat, multos imperatores temeritate atque inscitia exercitum in locum praecipitem duxisse dictitans, neminem praeter Cn. Fuluium ante corrupisse omnibus uitiis legiones suas quam proderet.

With the horsemen dismissed, the consuls referred nothing before this, and everyone’s opinions converged on one point: that there must be dealing with the tribunes of the plebs, and that at the earliest opportunity they should bring before the plebs whom it would be pleasing to send with imperium to Spain to that army over which Cn. Scipio as imperator had presided. That matter was transacted with the tribunes and promulgated; but another contest had occupied minds. C. Sempronius Blaesus, a day having been appointed, was harassing Cn. Fulvius in public assemblies on account of the army lost in Apulia, asserting that many commanders by temerity and ignorance had led an army into a headlong position, but that no one except Cn. Fulvius had previously corrupted his legions with every vice before betraying them.

itaque uere dici posse prius eos perisse quam uiderent hostem, nec ab Hannibale, sed ab imperatore suo uictos esse. neminem cum suffragium ineat satis cernere cui imperium, cui exercitum permittat. quid interfuisse inter Ti. Sempronium <et Cn. Fuluium?

and so it can truly be said that they perished before they saw the enemy, and that they were defeated not by Hannibal, but by their own commander. No one, when he goes to cast his suffrage, discerns sufficiently to whom he permits command, to whom he entrusts the army. What difference was there between Ti. Sempronius <and Cn. Fulvius?

Ti. Sempronium> cum ei seruorum exercitus datus esset breui effecisse disciplina atque imperio ut nemo eorum generis ac sanguinis sui memor in acie esset <sed> praesidio sociis, hostibus terrori essent; Cumas Beneuentum aliasque urbes eos uelut e faucibus Hannibalis ereptas populo Romano restituisse: Cn. Fuluium Quiritium Romanorum exercitum, honeste genitos, liberaliter educatos, seruilibus uitiis imbuisse. ergo effecisse ut feroces et inquieti inter socios, ignaui et imbelles inter hostes essent, nec impetum modo Poenorum sed ne clamorem quidem sustinere possent. nec hercule mirum esse <cessisse> milites in acie cum primus omnium imperator fugeret: magis mirari se aliquos stantes cecidisse et non omnes comites Cn. Fului fuisse pauoris ac fugae.

Tiberius Sempronius>—when an army of slaves had been given to him—had in a short time, by discipline and command, brought it about that none of them, mindful of his stock and blood, was in the battle-line, <but> that they were a protection to the allies and a terror to the enemies; that they restored Cumae, Beneventum, and other cities, as if snatched from Hannibal’s jaws, to the Roman people: Gnaeus Fulvius had imbued the army of the Roman Quirites—men honorably born and liberally educated—with servile vices. Therefore he had brought it to pass that they were fierce and restless among allies, cowardly and unwarlike among enemies, and could withstand not only not the charge of the Punics, but not even their shout. Nor, by Hercules, is it a wonder that the soldiers <yielded> in the battle-line when the general was the first of all to flee: he marvels rather that some fell standing, and that not all were companions of Cn. Fulvius in panic and flight.

C. Flaminium, L. Paulum, L. Postumium, Cn. ac P. Scipiones cadere in acie maluisse quam deserere circumuentos exercitus: Cn. Fuluium prope unum nuntium deleti exercitus Romam redisse. facinus indignum esse Cannensem exercitum quod ex acie fugerit in Siciliam deportatum ne prius inde dimittatur quam hostis ex Italia decesserit et hoc idem in Cn. Fului legionibus nuper decretum, Cn. Fuluio fugam ex proelio ipsius temeritate commisso impunitam esse et eum in ganea lustrisque ubi iuuentam egerit senectutem acturum, milites qui nihil aliud peccauerint quam quod imperatoris similes fuerint relegatos prope in exsilium ignominiosam pati militiam; adeo imparem libertatem Romae diti ac pauperi, honorato atque inhonorato esse.

C. Flaminius, L. Paulus, L. Postumius, the Scipios Gnaeus and Publius, preferred to fall in the line of battle rather than to desert their surrounded armies; Gnaeus Fulvius returned to Rome almost the sole messenger of a destroyed army. That the deed is unworthy: that the army of Cannae, because it fled from the battle-line, having been transported into Sicily, should not be dismissed thence before the enemy has withdrawn from Italy; and that this same thing was recently decreed concerning the legions of Gnaeus Fulvius, while for Gnaeus Fulvius the flight from battle—brought on by his own temerity—has gone unpunished, and he will pass his old age in the eating-house and brothels where he spent his youth; whereas the soldiers, who did nothing else wrong than that they were like their commander, banished almost into exile, suffer an ignominious military service—so unequal is liberty at Rome for the rich and the poor, for the honored and the unhonored.

[3] Reus ab se culpam in milites transferebat: eos ferociter pugnam poscentes, productos in aciem non eo quo uoluerint, quia serum diei fuerit, sed postero die, et tempore et loco aequo instructos, seu famam seu uim hostium non sustinuisse. cum effuse omnes fugerent, se quoque turba ablatum, ut Uarronem Cannensi pugna, ut multos alios imperatores. qui autem solum se restantem prodesse rei publicae, nisi si mors sua remedio publicis cladibus futura esset, potuisse?

[3] The defendant transferred the blame from himself onto the soldiers: that they, fiercely demanding battle, when brought out into the battle line not at the time they had wanted—because it was late in the day—but on the next day, and arrayed on equal terms in both time and place, did not withstand either the renown or the force of the enemy. While all were fleeing in headlong disorder, he too was swept away by the crowd, as Varro at the battle of Cannae, as many other commanders. But who, by remaining alone, could have benefited the republic, unless his death was going to be a remedy for the public disasters?

non se inopia commeatus [non] in loca iniqua incaute deductum, non agmine inexplorato euntem insidiis circumuentum: ui aperta armis acie uictum. nec suorum animos nec hostium in potestate habuisse: suum cuique ingenium audaciam aut pauorem facere. bis est accusatus pecuniaque anquisitum.

that he had not been, by want of supplies, [not] incautiously led into uneven places, nor, as he went with an unscouted column, been surrounded by ambushes: he had been conquered by open force of arms in pitched battle. He had had in his power neither the spirits of his own men nor those of the enemy: each person’s disposition makes audacity or fear. He was accused twice, and a pecuniary inquest was instituted.

tertio testibus datis cum, praeterquam quod omnibus probris onerabatur, iurati permulti dicerent fugae pauorisque initium a praetore ortum, ab eo desertos milites cum haud uanum timorem ducis crederent terga dedisse, tanta ira accensa est ut capite anquirendum contio succlamaret. de eo quoque nouum certamen ortum; nam cum bis pecunia anquisisset, tertio capitis se anquirere diceret, tribuni plebis appellati collegae negarunt se in mora esse quo minus, quod ei more maiorum permissum esset, seu legibus seu moribus mallet, anquireret quoad uel capitis uel pecuniae iudicasset priuato. tum Sempronius perduellionis se iudicare Cn. Fuluio dixit, diemque comitiis ab C. Calpurnio praetore urbano petit.

for the third time, with witnesses produced, when, besides being loaded with all reproaches, very many sworn men were saying that the beginning of flight and panic arose from the praetor, that the soldiers, deserted by him, when they believed the leader’s fear not empty, turned their backs, such anger was kindled that the assembly shouted that there must be an inquiry on a capital charge. About this too a new contention arose; for whereas he had twice taken proceedings for a pecuniary penalty, he said that for the third time he was proceeding on a capital charge. The tribunes of the plebs, his colleagues, having been appealed to, declared that they were not a hindrance to his proceeding, in whatever way, whether by statutes or by usages, had been permitted to him by the ancestral custom, to prosecute until he should have adjudged, as against a private person, either a capital or a pecuniary penalty. Then Sempronius said that he was judging Gnaeus Fulvius for treason (perduellio), and he asked a day for the comitia from Gaius Calpurnius, the city praetor.

inde alia spes ab reo temptata est, si adesse in iudicio Q. Fuluius frater posset, florens tum et fama rerum gestarum et propinqua spe Capuae potiundae. id cum per litteras miserabiliter pro fratris capite scriptas petisset Fuluius negassentque patres e re publica esse abscedi a Capua, postquam dies comitiorum aderat, Cn. Fuluius exsulatum Tarquinios abiit. id ei iustum exsilium esse sciuit plebs.

Then another hope was tried by the defendant: that his brother Q. Fulvius might be able to be present at the trial, he being then flourishing both in the fame of deeds accomplished and in the near hope of gaining possession of Capua. When Fulvius had requested this by letters written piteously on behalf of his brother’s head, and the senators denied that it was for the republic that he be withdrawn from Capua, when the day of the comitia was drawing near, Cn. Fulvius went away to Tarquinii to go into exile. The plebs declared that that was a lawful exile for him.

[4] Inter haec uis omnis belli uersa in Capuam erat; obsidebatur tamen acrius quam oppugnabatur, nec aut famem tolerare seruitia ac plebs poterant aut mittere nuntios ad Hannibalem per custodias tam artas. inuentus est Numida qui acceptis litteris euasurum se professus praestaret promissum. per media Romana castra nocte egressus spem accendit Campanis dum aliquid uirium superesset ab omni parte eruptionem temptandi.

[4] Meanwhile the whole force of the war was turned upon Capua; it was being besieged more keenly than it was being assaulted, and neither the slaves nor the plebs could endure famine or send messengers to Hannibal through guards so tight. A Numidian was found who, after receiving the letters and professing that he would get out, made good his promise: slipping out by night through the very midst of the Roman camp, he kindled hope among the Campanians of attempting a sortie on every side, while some strength still remained.

ceterum in multis certaminibus equestria proelia ferme prospera faciebant, pedites superabantur; sed nequaquam tam laetum uincere quam triste uinci ulla parte erat ab obsesso et prope expugnato hoste. inita tandem ratio est ut quod uiribus deerat arte aequaretur. ex omnibus legionibus electi sunt iuuenes maxime uigore ac leuitate corporum ueloces; eis parmae breuiores quam equestres et septena iacula quaternos longa pedes data, praefixa ferro quale hastis uelitaribus inest.

however, in many contests the equestrian engagements were for the most part successful, the infantry were being overcome; but by no means was it as gladdening to conquer as it was sad to be conquered in any quarter by an enemy who was besieged and nearly taken by storm. at length a plan was adopted, that what was lacking in strength might be equalized by art. from all the legions young men were selected, swift above all in vigor and lightness of body; to them were given small shields, shorter than cavalry ones, and seven javelins each, four feet long, tipped with iron such as is on the spears of the velites.

eos singulos in equos suos accipientes equites adsuefecerunt et uehi post sese et desilire perniciter ubi datum signum esset. postquam adsuetudine cotidiana satis intrepide fieri uisum est, in campum qui medius inter castra murumque erat aduersus instructos Campanorum equites processerunt, et ubi ad coniectum teli uentum est signo dato uelites desiliunt. pedestris inde acies ex equitatu repente in hostium equites incurrit iaculaque cum impetu alia super alia emittunt; quibus plurimis in equos uirosque passim coniectis permultos uolnerauerunt; pauoris tamen plus ex re noua atque inopinata iniectum est, et in perculsum hostem equites inuecti fugam stragemque eorum usque ad portas fecerunt.

the horsemen accustomed them, each taking them singly onto their own horses, both to be carried behind themselves and to leap down nimbly when the signal was given. after daily habituation it seemed to be done bold enough, they advanced into the field which lay between the camp and the wall, against the drawn-up cavalry of the Campanians, and when they had come within a cast of a missile, at a given signal the velites leap down. then a foot battle-line out of the cavalry suddenly charges into the enemy horsemen and they send javelins with impetus, one upon another; with very many of these hurled here and there into horses and men, they wounded a great number; yet more panic was infused from the new and unexpected thing, and the cavalry, riding against the stricken foe, made their flight and slaughter up to the gates.

inde equitatu quoque superior Romana res fuit; institutum ut uelites in legionibus essent. auctorem peditum equiti immiscendorum centurionem Q. Nauium ferunt honorique id ei apud imperatorem fuisse.

then the Roman cause was superior also in cavalry; a practice was established that velites should be in the legions. they report that the author of mixing foot with the cavalry was the centurion Q. Navius, and that this was an honor to him with the commander.

[5] Cum in hoc statu ad Capuam res essent, Hannibalem diuersum Tarentinae arcis potiundae Capuaeque retinendae trahebant curae. uicit tamen respectus Capuae in quam omnium sociorum hostiumque conuersos uidebat animos, documento futurae qualemcunque euentum defectio ab Romanis habuisset. igitur magna parte impedimentorum relicta in Bruttiis et omni grauiore armatu, cum delectis peditum equitumque quam poterat aptissimus ad maturandum iter in Campaniam contendit; secuti tamen tam raptim euntem tres et triginta elephanti.

[5] While matters stood thus at Capua, diverse cares were drawing Hannibal in different directions: to get possession of the Tarentine citadel and to retain Capua. Yet consideration for Capua prevailed, toward which he saw the minds of all allies and enemies turned, as an object lesson for the future of what outcome a defection from the Romans would have. Therefore, leaving in Bruttium a great part of the baggage and all the heavier equipment, he pressed on into Campania with chosen infantry and cavalry, fitted as far as he could be for hastening the march; nevertheless, although he was moving so rapidly, thirty-three elephants followed.

in ualle occulta post Tifata, montem imminentem Capuae, consedit. adueniens cum castellum Calatiam praesidio ui pulso cepisset, in circumsedentes Capuam se uertit, praemissisque nuntiis Capuam quo tempore castra Romana adgressurus esset ut eodem et illi ad eruptionem parati portis omnibus se effunderent, ingentem praebuit terrorem; nam alia parte ipse adortus est, alia Campani omnes, equites peditesque, et cum iis Punicum praesidium cui Bostar et Hanno praeerant erupit. Romani ut in re trepida, ne ad unam concurrendo partem aliquid indefensi relinquerent, ita inter sese copias partiti sunt: Ap. Claudius Campanis, Fuluius Hannibali est oppositus; C. Nero propraetor cum equitibus sex legionum uia quae Suessulam fert, C. Fuluius Flaccus legatus cum sociali equitatu constitit e regione Uolturni amnis.

he encamped in a hidden valley behind the Tifata, a mountain overhanging Capua. On arriving, when he had taken the fort of Calatia by force, the garrison having been driven out, he turned against those besieging Capua, and, messengers having been sent ahead to Capua to say at what time he was going to assault the Roman camp, so that at the same time they too, prepared for a sally, might pour out through all the gates, he produced enormous terror; for he attacked on one side himself, on another the Campanians all, horse and foot, and with them the Punic garrison, commanded by Bostar and Hanno, broke out. The Romans, as in a troubled crisis, lest by running together to one quarter they leave anything undefended, thus divided the forces among themselves: Ap. Claudius was opposed to the Campanians, Fulvius to Hannibal; C. Nero, propraetor, with the cavalry of six legions, took position on the road which leads to Suessula; C. Fulvius Flaccus, legate, with the allied cavalry, took his stand over against the river Volturnus.

proelium non solito modo clamore ac tumultu est coeptum; sed ad alium uirorum equorum armorumque sonum disposita in muris Campanorum imbellis multitudo tantum cum aeris crepitu qualis in defectu lunae silenti nocte cieri solet edidit clamorem ut auerteret etiam pugnantium animos. Campanos facile a uallo Appius arcebat: maior uis ab altera parte Fuluium Hannibal et Poeni urgebant. legio ibi sexta loco cessit; qua pulsa, cohors Hispanorum cum tribus elephantis usque ad uallum peruasit; ruperatque mediam aciem Romanorum et in ancipiti spe ac periculo erat utrum in castra perrumperet an intercluderetur a suis.

The battle was not begun in the usual manner, with clamor and tumult; but, at a different sound of men, horses, and arms, the unwarlike multitude of the Campanians, arrayed on the walls, raised such a shout, with a clashing of bronze such as is wont to be called forth in a lunar eclipse on a silent night, as to divert even the minds of the combatants. Appius easily kept the Campanians away from the rampart; on the other side, a greater force—Hannibal and the Punic troops—pressed Fulvius. There the Sixth Legion gave ground; and when it was driven back, a cohort of Spaniards with three elephants penetrated up to the rampart; and it had broken the middle line of the Romans and was in a precarious, twofold hope and peril whether it would break into the camp or be cut off from its own.

quem pauorem legionis periculumque castrorum Fuluius ubi uidit, Q. Nauium primoresque alios centurionum hortatur ut cohortem hostium sub uallo pugnantem inuadant: in summo discrimine rem uerti; aut uiam dandam iis esse--et minore conatu quam condensam aciem rupissent in castra inrupturos--aut conficiendos sub uallo esse; nec magni certaminis rem fore; paucos esse et ab suis interclusos; et quae dum paueat Romanus interrupta acies uideatur, eam si se utrimque in hostem uertat ancipiti pugna medios circumuenturam. Nauius ubi haec imperatoris dicta accepit, secundi hastati signum ademptum signifero in hostes infert, iacturum in medios eos minitans ni se propere sequantur milites et partem capessant pugnae. ingens corpus erat et arma honestabant; et sublatum alte signum conuerterat ad spectaculum ciues hostesque.

When Fulvius saw this panic of the legion and the peril of the camp, he exhorts Q. Navius and the other foremost of the centurions to assail the cohort of the enemy fighting under the rampart: the matter is turning at the highest crisis; either a way must be given to them—and with less effort than that with which they broke a condensed line they will burst into the camp—or they must be finished off beneath the rampart; nor will it be a matter of great contest; they are few and cut off from their own; and the line which, while the Roman is afraid, seems broken—if it turn itself on both sides against the enemy—by a two-front fight will surround those in the middle. When Navius received these words of the commander, he carries against the enemy the standard of the second hastati, snatched from the standard-bearer, threatening that he will hurl it into their midst unless the soldiers quickly follow him and take up their share of the battle. He had a huge frame, and his arms dignified him; and the standard lifted high had drawn citizens and enemies alike to the spectacle.

ceterum postquam iam ad signa peruenerat Hispanorum, tum undique in eum tragulae coniectae et prope tota in unum acies uersa; sed neque multitudo hostium neque telorum uis arcere impetum eius uiri potuerunt.

However, after he had now reached the standards of the Spaniards, then from every side javelins were cast at him and the battle line was turned almost wholly upon one man; yet neither the multitude of the enemy nor the force of the missiles could ward off that man’s onrush.

[6] Et M. Atilius legatus primi principis ex eadem legione signum inferre in cohortem Hispanorum coepit; et qui castris praeerant, L. Porcius Licinus et T. Popillius legati, pro uallo acriter propugnant elephantosque transgredientes in ipso uallo conficiunt. quorum corporibus cum oppleta fossa esset, uelut aggere aut ponte iniecto transitum hostibus dedit; ibi per stragem iacentium elephantorum atrox edita caedes. altera in parte castrorum iam impulsi erant Campani Punicumque praesidium et sub ipsa porta Capuae quae Uolturnum fert pugnabatur; neque tam armati inrumpentibus Romanis resistebant quam porta ballistis scorpionibusque instructa missilibus procul hostes arcebat.

[6] And M. Atilius, legate of the first maniple of the principes, from the same legion began to bear the standard into the cohort of Spaniards; and those who were in command of the camp, L. Porcius Licinus and T. Popillius, legates, fought keenly before the rampart and slew the elephants as they were crossing on the rampart itself. When the ditch was filled with their bodies, it gave the enemy a passage, as if an embankment or a bridge had been thrown in; there, over the litter of the fallen elephants, a hideous slaughter was wrought. On another side of the camp the Campanians and the Punic garrison had already been driven back, and there was fighting beneath the very gate of Capua which leads toward the Volturnus; nor were the men-at-arms so much resisting the Romans breaking in as the gate, equipped with ballistae and scorpions, was keeping the enemy off at a distance with missiles.

et suppressit impetum Romanorum uolnus imperatoris Ap. Claudi, cui suos ante prima signa adhortanti sub laeuo umero summum pectus gaeso ictum est. magna uis tamen hostium ante portam est caesa, ceteri trepidi in urbem compulsi. et Hannibal postquam cohortis Hispanorum stragem uidit summaque ui castra hostium defendi, omissa oppugnatione recipere signa et conuertere agmen peditum obiecto ab tergo equitatu ne hostis instaret coepit.

and the wound of the commander Ap. Claudius checked the Roman onrush; as he was exhorting his men before the foremost standards, beneath his left shoulder the upper chest was struck by a gaesum. nevertheless a great multitude of the enemy was cut down before the gate, the rest, in panic, driven into the city. and Hannibal, after he saw the slaughter of the cohort of Spaniards and that the enemy’s camp was being defended with the utmost force, abandoning the assault began to call in the standards and to wheel the column of infantry, throwing the cavalry to the rear so that the enemy might not press on.

legionum ardor ingens ad hostem insequendum fuit: Flaccus receptui cani iussit, satis ad utrumque profectum ratus ut et Campani quam haud multum in Hannibale praesidii esset, et ipse Hannibal sentiret. caesa eo die, qui huius pugnae auctores sunt, octo milia hominum de Hannibalis exercitu, tria ex Campanis tradunt, signaque Carthaginiensibus quindecim adempta, duodeuiginti Campanis. apud alios nequaquam tantam molem pugnae inueni plusque pauoris quam certaminis fuisse, cum inopinato in castra Romana Numidae Hispanique cum elephantis inrupissent, elephanti per media castra uadentes stragem tabernaculorum ingenti sonitu ac fugam abrumpentium uincula iumentorum facerent; fraudem quoque super tumultum adiectam, immissis ab Hannibale qui habitu Italico gnari Latinae linguae iuberent consulum uerbis quoniam amissa castra essent pro se quemque militum in proximos montes fugere; sed eam celeriter cognitam fraudem oppressamque magna caede hostium; elephantos igni e castris exactos.

the ardor of the legions was immense for pursuing the enemy; Flaccus ordered the recall to be sounded, thinking enough had been accomplished for both aims: that the Campanians might feel how little protection there was in Hannibal, and that Hannibal himself might perceive it. those who are the authors of this fight relate that eight thousand men of Hannibal’s army were cut down that day, three thousand of the Campanians; and that fifteen standards were taken from the Carthaginians, eighteen from the Campanians. among other writers I by no means find so great a mass of battle, and that there was more panic than contest, when unexpectedly Numidians and Spaniards with elephants burst into the Roman camp; the elephants, going through the middle of the camp, made a wreck of the tents with a huge din and, by breaking the tethers, caused the flight of the draft-animals; a fraud too, in addition to the tumult, was added, men sent in by Hannibal, who in Italian dress and knowing the Latin language, bade—in the words of the consuls—that, since the camp had been lost, each of the soldiers should flee on his own account to the nearest mountains; but that deception, quickly recognized, was suppressed with great slaughter of the enemy; the elephants were driven out of the camp by fire.

hoc ultimum, utcumque initum finitumque est, ante deditionem Capuae proelium fuit. medix tuticus, qui summus magistratus apud Campanos est, eo anno Seppius Loesius erat, loco obscuro tenuique fortuna ortus. matrem eius quondam pro pupillo eo procurantem familiare ostentum cum respondisset haruspex summum quod esset imperium Capuae peruenturum ad eum puerum, nihil ad eam spem adgnoscentem dixisse ferunt: 'ne tu perditas res Campanorum narras, ubi summus honos ad filium meum perueniet.' ea ludificatio ueri et ipsa in uerum uertit; nam cum fame ferroque urgerentur nec spes ulla superesset sisti <posse iis qui nati> in spem honorum erant honores detractantibus, Loesius querendo desertam ac proditam a primoribus Capuam, summum magistratum ultimus omnium Campanorum cepit.

This last battle, however it was begun and ended, took place before the surrender of Capua. The medix tuticus, which is the highest magistracy among the Campanians, was in that year Seppius Loesius, a man sprung from an obscure station and slender fortune. They report that his mother, once, while managing a case on behalf of that ward, when a familiar prodigy had occurred and the haruspex had replied that the highest imperium of Capua would come to that boy, not recognizing anything toward that hope, said: “You must be telling of the ruin of the affairs of the Campanians, when the highest honor shall come to my son.” That mockery of the true turned itself into the true; for when they were hard pressed by hunger and the sword and no hope remained, with those who had been born into the hope of honors shrinking from honors, Loesius—complaining that Capua had been deserted and betrayed by the leading men—last of all the Campanians took the highest magistracy, when there seemed no possibility of being set firm <posse iis qui nati> into the hope of honors.

[7] Ceterum Hannibal, ut nec hostes elici amplius ad pugnam uidit neque per castra eorum perrumpi ad Capuam posse, ne suos quoque commeatus intercluderent noui consules, abscedere inrito incepto et mouere a Capua statuit castra. multa secum quonam inde ire pergeret uoluenti subiit animum impetus caput ipsum belli Romam petendi, cuius rei semper cupitae praetermissam occasionem post Cannensem pugnam et alii fremebant et ipse non dissimulabat: necopinato pauore ac tumultu non esse desperandum aliquam partem urbis occupari posse, et si Roma in discrimine esset, Capuam extemplo omissuros aut ambo imperatores Romanos aut alterum ex iis; et si diuisissent copias, utrumque infirmiorem factum aut sibi aut Campanis bene gerendae rei fortunam daturos esse. una ea cura angebat ne ubi abscessisset extemplo dederentur Campani.

[7] However Hannibal, when he saw that the enemy could no longer be elicited out to battle, nor that a break-through through their camp to Capua could be effected, in order that the new consuls might not also cut off his supplies, decided, his attempt having been in vain, to withdraw and to move his camp away from Capua. As he revolved many things with himself as to whither he should proceed from there, the impulse came into his mind of aiming at Rome, the very head of the war—an enterprise always desired, whose opportunity, missed after the battle of Cannae, both others were murmuring about and he himself did not dissemble. He judged that, by a sudden panic and tumult, one need not despair that some part of the city could be occupied; and that, if Rome were in crisis, either both Roman commanders or one of them would straightway abandon Capua; and that, if they divided their forces, each being made weaker would give fortune for conducting affairs well either to himself or to the Campanians. One care alone vexed him: that, as soon as he had withdrawn, the Campanians might at once be surrendered.

Numidam promptum ad omnia audenda donis pellicit ut litteris acceptis specie transfugae castra Romana ingressus, altera parte clam Capuam peruadat. litterae autem erant adhortatione plenae: profectionem suam quae salutaris illis foret abstracturam ad defendendam Romam ab oppugnanda Capua duces atque exercitus Romanos; ne desponderent animos; tolerando paucos dies totam soluturos obsidionem. inde naues in flumine Uolturno comprehensas subigi ad id quod iam ante praesidii causa fecerat castellum iussit.

He entices a Numidian, prompt for all things to be dared, with gifts, to the end that, after letters have been received, having entered the Roman camp under the guise of a deserter, he might on the other side stealthily make his way into Capua. The letters, moreover, were full of exhortation: that his departure, which would be salutary for them, would draw away the Roman commanders and armies from besieging Capua to defend Rome; that they should not despond in spirit; by enduring a few days they would see the whole siege broken up. Then he ordered the ships seized in the river Volturnus to be brought up to the fort which he had already previously made for the sake of a garrison.

quarum ubi tantam copiam esse ut una nocte traici posset exercitus allatum est, cibariis decem dierum praeparatis deductas nocte ad fluuium legiones ante lucem traiecit.

when it was reported that there was such a supply of these that the army could be transported across in a single night, with victuals for ten days prepared, he led the legions down to the river by night and before dawn conveyed them across.

[8] Id priusquam fieret ita futurum compertum ex transfugis Fuluius Flaccus senatui Romam cum scripsisset, uarie animi hominum pro cuiusque ingenio adfecti sunt. ut in re tam trepida senatu extemplo uocato, P. Cornelius cui Asinae cognomen erat omnes duces exercitusque ex tota Italia, neque Capuae neque ullius alterius rei memor, ad urbis praesidium reuocabat. Fabius Maximus abscedi a Capua terrerique et circumagi ad nutus comminationesque Hannibalis flagitiosum ducebat: qui ad Cannas uictor ire tamen ad urbem ausus non esset, eum a Capua repulsum spem potiundae urbis Romae cepisse.

[8] Before that came to pass, when Fulvius Flaccus had written to the senate at Rome, having learned from deserters that it would so be, men’s minds were variously affected according to each one’s disposition. And as, in a matter so fraught with alarm, the senate was at once called, Publius Cornelius, whose cognomen was Asina, was calling back all the commanders and armies from all Italy, mindful neither of Capua nor of any other thing, to the defense of the city. Fabius Maximus deemed it disgraceful to withdraw from Capua and to be terrified and wheeled about at the nods and menaces of Hannibal: he who, though victor at Cannae, had nevertheless not dared to go against the city—now, repulsed from Capua, had conceived hope of getting possession of the city of Rome.

non ad Romam obsidendam, sed ad Capuae liberandam obsidionem ire. Romam cum eo exercitu qui ad urbem esset Iouem foederum ruptorum ab Hannibale testem deosque alios defensuros esse. has diuersas sententias media sententia P. Ualeri Flacci uicit, qui utriusque rei memor imperatoribus qui ad Capuam essent scribendum censuit quid ad urbem praesidii esset; quantas autem Hannibal copias duceret aut quanto exercitu ad Capuam obsidendam opus esset, ipsos scire.

not to go to besiege Rome, but to free Capua from siege. That Jupiter, witness of treaties broken by Hannibal, and the other gods would defend Rome with that army which was at the city. These divergent opinions were overcome by the middle opinion of P. Valerius Flaccus, who, mindful of both matters, judged that it should be written to the commanders who were at Capua to report what garrison there was for the city; but how many forces Hannibal was leading, or with how large an army there was need to besiege Capua, that they themselves knew.

si ita Romam e ducibus alter et exercitus pars mitti posset, ut ab reliquo et duce et exercitu Capua recte obsideretur, inter se compararent Claudius Fuluiusque utri obsidenda Capua, utri ad prohibendam obsidione patriam Romam ueniundum esset. hoc senatus consulto Capuam perlato Q. Fuluius proconsul, cui collega ex uolnere aegro redeundum Romam erat, e tribus exercitibus milite electo ad quindecim milia peditum mille equites Uolturnum traducit. inde cum Hannibalem Latina uia iturum satis comperisset, ipse per Appiae municipia quaeque propter eam uiam sunt, Setiam, Coram, Lauinium praemisit ut commeatus paratos et in urbibus haberent et ex agris deuiis in uiam proferrent, praesidiaque in urbes contraherent ut sua cuique res publica in manu esset.

if in such a way one of the commanders and a part of the army could be sent to Rome that by the remainder, both commander and army, Capua might be properly besieged, let Claudius and Fulvius decide between themselves which of them should besiege Capua and which should come to the fatherland, Rome, to prevent the siege. Upon this senatorial decree (senatus consultum) being conveyed to Capua, Q. Fulvius, proconsul—whose colleague, ill from a wound, had to return to Rome—out of three armies, with picked soldiery, led across the Volturnus about fifteen thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry. Thence, when he had sufficiently learned that Hannibal would go by the Via Latina, he himself sent word ahead through the municipia of the Via Appia and those that are near that road—Setia, Cora, Lavinium—that they should have supplies prepared both in the towns and bring them out to the road from by-ways in the fields, and that they should concentrate garrisons into the cities, so that each commonwealth might be in its own control.

[9] Hannibal quo die Uolturnum est transgressus, haud procul a flumine castra posuit: postero die praeter Cales in agrum Sidicinum peruenit. ibi diem unum populando moratus per Suessanum Allifanumque et Casinatem agrum uia Latina ducit. sub Casino biduo statiua habita et passim populationes factae.

[9] On the day on which Hannibal crossed the Volturnus, he pitched camp not far from the river; on the next day he came past Cales into the Sidicinian territory. There, delaying for one day by plundering, he led his march along the Latin Way through the Suessan, Allifan, and Casinate country. Near Casinum a stationary camp was maintained for two days, and depredations were made far and wide.

inde praeter Interamnam Aquinumque in Fregellanum agrum ad Lirim fluuium uentum, ubi intercisum pontem a Fregellanis morandi itineris causa inuenit. et Fuluium Uolturnus tenuerat amnis, nauibus ab Hannibale incensis, rates ad traiciendum exercitum in magna inopia materiae aegre comparantem. traiecto ratibus exercitu, reliquum Fuluio expeditum iter, non per urbes modo sed circa uiam expositis benigne commeatibus, erat; alacresque milites alius alium ut adderet gradum memor ad defendendam iri patriam hortabantur.

thence, past Interamna and Aquinum, they came into the Fregellan territory to the river Liris, where he found the bridge cut by the Fregellans for the purpose of delaying the march. And Fulvius had been held back by the river Volturnus, his ships having been burned by Hannibal, and, in great scarcity of timber, he was with difficulty procuring rafts for ferrying the army across. When the army had been carried over by rafts, the remaining march for Fulvius was expeditious, with provisions (commissariat supplies) kindly set out not only through the towns but also along the road; and the soldiers, eager, were exhorting one another—each the other—to quicken their pace, mindful that their fatherland was about to be defended.

Romam Fregellanus nuntius diem noctemque itinere continuato ingentem attulit terrorem. tumultuosius quam allatam erat <uolgatum periculum dis>cursu hominum adfingentium uana auditis totam urbem concitat. ploratus mulierum non ex priuatis solum domibus exaudiebatur, sed undique matronae in publicum effusae circa deum delubra discurrunt crinibus passis aras uerrentes, nixae genibus, supinas manus ad caelum ac deos tendentes orantesque ut urbem Romanam e manibus hostium eriperent matresque Romanas et liberos paruos inuiolatos seruarent.

To Rome a Fregellan messenger, with the journey continued day and night, brought immense terror. He rouses the whole city more tumultuously than the peril, as publicized and reported, had been conveyed, through the running-about of men appending vain fictions to what they had heard. The wailing of women was heard not from private homes only, but on all sides matrons, poured out into public, run about the shrines of the gods with hair disheveled, sweeping the altars, knees bent, stretching upturned hands to heaven and to the gods, and praying that they would snatch the Roman city from the hands of the enemies and keep Roman mothers and little children inviolate.

senatus magistratibus in foro praesto est si quid consulere uelint. alii accipiunt imperia disceduntque ad suas quisque officiorum partes: alii offerunt se si quo usus operae sit. praesidia in arce, in Capitolio, in muris, circa urbem, in monte etiam Albano atque arce Aefulana ponuntur.

The senate stands ready in the forum for the magistrates, if they wish to consult about anything. Some receive commands and depart, each to his respective parts of duties; others offer themselves, if there is any need of service. Garrisons are placed on the citadel, on the Capitol, on the walls, around the city, and even on the Alban Mount and the Aefulan citadel.

inter hunc tumultum Q. Fuluium proconsulem profectum cum exercitu Capua adfertur; cui ne minueretur imperium si in urbem uenisset, decernit senatus ut Q. Fuluio par cum consulibus imperium esset. Hannibal, infestius perpopulato agro Fregellano propter intercisos pontes, per Frusinatem Ferentinatemque et Anagninum agrum in Labicanum uenit, inde Algido Tusculum petiit, nec receptus moenibus infra Tusculum dextrorsus Gabios descendit. inde in Pupiniam exercitu demisso octo milia passuum ab Roma posuit castra.

amid this tumult it is reported that Q. Fulvius the proconsul set out with his army to Capua; and, lest his imperium be diminished if he should come into the city, the senate decrees that Q. Fulvius should have imperium equal with the consuls. Hannibal, having more hostilely ravaged the Fregellan countryside because the bridges had been cut, came through the Frusinate, Ferentinate, and Anagnine territory into the Labican district; from there, by the Algidus he made for Tusculum, and, not being admitted within the walls, below Tusculum, turning rightward, he descended to Gabii. Thence, having sent his army down into the Pupinia, he pitched camp 8 miles from Rome.

quo propius hostis accedebat, eo maior caedes fiebat fugientium praecedentibus Numidis, pluresque omnium generum atque aetatium capiebantur.

the nearer the enemy approached, the greater grew the slaughter of those fleeing, with the Numidians going before; and more of every kind and age were being captured.

[10] In hoc tumultu Fuluius Flaccus porta Capena cum exercitu Romam ingressus, media urbe per Carinas Esquilias contendit; inde egressus inter Esquilinam Collinamque portam posuit castra. aediles plebis commeatum eo comportarunt; consules senatusque in castra uenerunt; ibi de summa republica consultatum. placuit consules circa portas Collinam Esquilinamque ponere castra; C. Calpurnium praetorem urbanum Capitolio atque arci praeesse, et senatum frequentem in foro contineri si quid in tam subitis rebus consulto opus esset.

[10] In this tumult Fulvius Flaccus, entering Rome with the army by the Capena Gate, through the middle of the city pressed on by the Carinae to the Esquiline; thence, having gone out, he pitched camp between the Esquiline and Colline Gates. The plebeian aediles brought provisions there; the consuls and the Senate came into the camp; there deliberation was held concerning the supreme interests of the commonwealth. It was resolved that the consuls should pitch camps around the Colline and Esquiline Gates; that C. Calpurnius, the urban praetor, be in command of the Capitol and the Citadel; and that a full Senate be kept in the Forum, if in matters so sudden there should be need of deliberation.

inter haec Hannibal ad Anienem fluuium tria milia passuum ab urbe castra admouit. ibi statiuis positis ipse cum duobus milibus equitum ad portam Collinam usque ad Herculis templum est progressus atque unde proxime poterat moenia situmque urbis obequitans contemplabatur. id eum tam licenter atque otiose facere Flacco indignum uisum est; itaque immisit equites summouerique atque in castra redigi hostium equitatum iussit.

Meanwhile, Hannibal moved his camp up to the river Anio, 3 miles from the city. There, with a stationary camp established, he himself with 2,000 cavalry advanced to the Colline Gate as far as the temple of Hercules, and, riding along as near as he could, was surveying the walls and the site of the city. That he was doing this with such license and at his ease seemed unworthy to Flaccus; and so he sent in the cavalry and ordered that the enemy cavalry be driven off and forced back into their camp.

cum commissum proelium esset, consules transfugas Numidarum, qui tum in Auentino ad mille et ducenti erant, media urbe transire Esquilias iusserunt, nullos aptiores inter conualles tectaque hortorum et sepulcra et cauas undique uias ad pugnandum futuros rati. quos cum ex arce Capitolioque cliuo Publicio in equis decurrentes quidam uidissent, captum Auentinum conclamauerunt. ea res tantum tumultum ac fugam praebuit ut nisi castra Punica extra urbem fuissent, effusura se omnis pauida multitudo fuerit: tunc in domos atque in tecta refugiebant, uagosque in uiis suos pro hostibus lapidibus telisque incessebant.

when the battle had been joined, the consuls ordered the Numidian deserters—who then were on the Aventine, about one thousand two hundred—to cross through the middle of the city to the Esquiline, thinking that none would be fitter for fighting among the ravines and the garden-structures, the tombs, and the hollow roads on every side. When certain men saw them, riding down on horseback from the Citadel and the Capitol by the Publician Slope, they shouted that the Aventine had been captured. That produced such tumult and flight that, if the Punic camp had not been outside the city, the whole panic-stricken multitude would have poured out; then they were taking refuge into their homes and onto their roofs, and they were assailing their own, wandering in the streets, as if enemies, with stones and missiles.

nec comprimi tumultus aperirique error poterat refertis itineribus agrestium turba pecorumque quae repentinus pauor in urbem compulerat. equestre proelium secundum fuit summotique hostes sunt. et quia multis locis comprimendi tumultus erant qui temere oriebantur, placuit omnes qui dictatores consules censoresue fuissent cum imperio esse, donec recessisset a muris hostis.

nor could the tumult be suppressed and the mistake made plain, with the roads crammed by a crowd of countryfolk and by herds of cattle which sudden fear had driven into the city. the cavalry engagement was favorable and the enemies were driven back. and because in many places there were tumults to be checked which were arising rashly, it was decided that all who had been dictators, consuls, or censors should be with imperium, until the enemy had withdrawn from the walls.

et diei quod reliquum fuit et nocte insequenti multi temere excitati tumultus sunt compressique.

and in what remained of the day and in the ensuing night, many tumults rashly aroused were suppressed.

[11] Postero die transgressus Anienem Hannibal in aciem omnes copias eduxit; nec Flaccus consulesque certamen detractauere. instructis utrimque exercitibus in eius pugnae casum in qua urbs Roma uictori praemium esset, imber ingens grandine mixtus ita utramque aciem turbauit ut uix armis retentis in castra sese receperint, nullius rei minore quam hostium metu. et postero die eodem loco acies instructas eadem tempestas diremit; ubi recepissent se in castra, mira serenitas cum tranquillitate oriebatur.

[11] On the following day, after crossing the Anio, Hannibal led all his forces out in battle order; nor did Flaccus and the consuls decline the contest. With the armies drawn up on both sides, to the hazard of that battle in which the city of Rome would be the prize for the victor, a huge downpour mixed with hail so disordered both battle-lines that, scarcely retaining their arms, they withdrew into their camps, with less fear of the enemy than of anything else. And on the next day, in the same place, when the lines had been formed, the same tempest broke them apart; and when they had withdrawn into camp, a marvelous serenity with tranquility would arise.

in religionem ea res apud Poenos uersa est, auditaque uox Hannibalis fertur potiundae sibi urbis Romae modo mentem non dari, modo fortunam. minuere etiam spem eius duae aliae, parua magnaque, res, magna illa quod cum ipse ad moenia urbis Romae armatus sederet milites sub uexillis in supplementum Hispaniae profectos audiit, parua autem quod per eos dies eum forte agrum in quo ipse castra haberet uenisse nihil ob id deminuto pretio cognitum ex quodam captiuo est. id uero adeo superbum atque indignum uisum eius soli quod ipse bello captum possideret haberetque inuentum Romae emptorem ut extemplo uocato praecone tabernas argentarias quae circa forum Romanum essent iusserit uenire.

That matter was turned into religion among the Punics, and a voice of Hannibal is reported to have been heard: that, for the getting of the city Rome, now the mind was not given to him, now the fortune. Two other things as well, a small and a great one, diminished his hope—the great, that while he himself sat armed at the walls of the city of Rome he heard that soldiers, under their standards, had set out as a supplement for Spain; the small, that during those days the very field in which he had his camp had been sold, with its price in no way diminished on that account, as was learned from a certain captive. And this seemed so over-proud and outrageous—that that piece of soil which he himself possessed as taken in war should have found a buyer at Rome—that forthwith, a crier having been called, he ordered the banking-shops which were around the Roman Forum to be sold.

his motus ad Tutiam fluuium castra rettulit sex milia passuum ab urbe. inde ad lucum Feroniae pergit ire, templum ea tempestate inclutum diuitiis. Capenates aliique qui accolae eius erant primitias frugum eo donaque alia pro copia portantes multo auro argentoque id exornatum habebant.

Moved by these things, he carried back his camp to the river Tutia, six miles from the city. Thence he proceeds to go to the grove of Feronia, a temple at that time renowned for riches. The Capenates and others who were its neighbors, bringing the first-fruits of crops and other gifts according to their means, had it adorned with much gold and silver.

iis omnibus donis tum spoliatum templum; aeris acerui cum rudera milites religione inducti iacerent post profectionem Hannibalis magni inuenti.--huius populatio templi haud dubia inter scriptores est. Coelius Romam euntem ab Ereto deuertisse eo Hannibalem tradit, iterque eius ab Reate Cutiliisque et ab Amiterno orditur: ex Campania in Samnium, inde in Paelignos peruenisse, praeterque oppidum Sulmonem in Marrucinos transisse; inde Albensi agro in Marsos, hinc Amiternum Forulosque uicum uenisse. neque ibi error est quod tanti <ducis tanti>que exercitus uestigia intra tam breuis aeui memoriam potuerint confundi --isse enim ea constat--: tantum id interest ueneritne eo itinere ad urbem an ab urbe in Campaniam redierit.

then the temple was despoiled of all those gifts; heaps of bronze together with rubble were found in great quantity after Hannibal’s departure, the soldiers, induced by religious scruple, having left them lying.--the sack of this temple is not in doubt among the writers. Coelius relates that Hannibal, when going to Rome, turned aside thither from Eretum, and he begins his route from Reate and the Cutiliae and from Amiternum: that from Campania he reached Samnium, thence the Paeligni, and, past the town of Sulmo, crossed over into the Marrucini; then from the Albensian field into the Marsi, from there he came to Amiternum and the village of Foruli. nor is there any error there, that the tracks of so great a <leader so great> an army could within so brief a memory of time have been confused--for that he went that way is agreed--: only this is the question, whether by that route he came to the city or returned from the city into Campania.

[12] Ceterum non quantum Romanis pertinaciae ad premendam obsidione Capuam fuit, tantum ad defendendam Hannibali. namque <per Samnium Apuliamque> et Lucanos in Bruttium agrum ad fretum ac Regium eo cursu contendit ut prope repentino aduentu incautos oppresserit. Capua etsi nihilo segnius obsessa per eos dies fuerat, tamen aduentum Flacci sensit, et admiratio orta est non simul regressum Hannibalem.

[12] However, as much pertinacity as the Romans had for pressing the siege of Capua, so much Hannibal did not have for defending it. For he hastened and the Lucanians into the Bruttian country to the strait and to Rhegium at such a speed that by a nearly sudden advent he would have overwhelmed the unwary. Capua, although it had been besieged through those days no whit more slackly, nevertheless felt the arrival of Flaccus, and astonishment arose that Hannibal had not returned at the same time.

inde per conloquia intellexerunt relictos se desertosque et spem Capuae retinendae deploratam apud Poenos esse. accessit edictum proconsulum ex senatus consulto propositum uolgatumque apud hostes ut qui ciuis Campanus ante certam diem transisset sine fraude esset. nec ulla facta est transitio, metu magis eos quam fide continente quia maiora in defectione deliquerant quam quibus ignosci posset.

from there through colloquies they understood that they had been left and abandoned, and that the hope of retaining Capua had been despaired of among the Carthaginians. there was added an edict of the proconsuls, set forth by decree of the senate and published among the enemy, that any Campanian citizen who crossed over before a fixed day would be free from penalty. and no crossing was made, fear rather than loyalty keeping them in, because in the defection they had offended more than could be forgiven.

ceterum quemadmodum nemo priuato consilio ad hostem transibat, ita nihil salutare in medium consulebatur. nobilitas rem publicam deseruerat, neque in senatum cogi poterant; in magistratu erat qui non sibi honorem adiecisset, sed indignitate sua uim ac ius magistratui quem gerebat dempsisset. iam ne in foro quidem aut publico loco principum quisquam apparebat; domibus inclusi patriae occasum cum suo exitio in dies expectabant.

However, just as no one was crossing over to the enemy by private counsel, so nothing salutary was being proposed into the common sphere. The nobility had deserted the commonwealth, nor could they be compelled into the Senate; there was in magistracy a man who had not added honor to himself, but by his indignity had taken away the force and right from the magistracy he was bearing. By now not even in the Forum or in any public place did any of the leading men appear; shut up in their houses, they were day by day awaiting the downfall of their fatherland together with their own ruin.

summa curae omnis in Bostarem Hannonemque, praefectos praesidii Punici, uersa erat, suo non sociorum periculo sollicitos. ii conscriptis ad Hannibalem litteris non libere modo, sed etiam aspere, quibus non Capuam solam traditam in manum hostibus, sed se quoque et praesidium in omnes cruciatus proditos incusabant: abisse eum in Bruttios uelut auertentem sese ne Capua in oculis eius caperetur. at hercule Romanos ne oppugnatione quidem urbis Romanae abstrahi a Capua obsidenda potuisse; tanto constantiorem inimicum Romanum quam amicum Poenum esse.

the whole concern was turned toward Bostar and Hanno, prefects of the Punic garrison, anxious for their own danger, not that of the allies. They, having composed letters to Hannibal, not only freely but even harshly, in which they accused that not Capua alone had been handed over into the hand of the enemies, but that they themselves also and the garrison had been betrayed to every torment: that he had gone off into Bruttium, as though averting himself lest Capua be taken before his eyes. But, by Hercules, not even by an assault upon the city of Rome could the Romans be drawn off from besieging Capua; by so much more constant was the Roman enemy than the Punic friend.

si redeat Capuam bellumque omne eo uertat, et se et Campanos paratos eruptioni fore. non cum Reginis neque Tarentinis bellum gesturos transisse Alpes: ubi Romanae legiones sint, ibi et Carthaginiensium exercitus debere esse. sic ad Cannas, sic ad Trasumennum rem bene gestam, coeundo conferundoque cum hoste castra, fortunam temptando.

that if he should return to Capua and direct the whole war thither, both they and the Campanians would be ready for a sally. that he had not crossed the Alps to wage war with the people of Rhegium nor with the Tarentines: where the Roman legions are, there too the armies of the Carthaginians ought to be. thus at Cannae, thus at Trasimene, the affair had been successfully conducted, by coming together and bringing the camps to grips with the enemy, trying fortune.

in hanc sententiam litterae conscriptae Numidis, proposita mercede eam professis operam, dantur. ii specie transfugarum cum ad Flaccum in castra uenissent ut inde tempore capto abirent, famesque quae tam diu Capuae erat nulli non probabilem causam transitionis faceret, mulier repente Campana in castra uenit, scortum transfugarum unius, indicatque imperatori Romano Numidas fraude composita transisse litterasque ad Hannibalem ferre: id unum ex iis qui sibi rem aperuisset arguere sese paratam esse. productus primo satis constanter ignorare se mulierem simulabat: paulatim dein conuictus ueris cum tormenta posci et parari uideret, fassus id ita esse litteraeque prolatae.

Letters to this effect were drafted and given to the Numidians, a reward having been proposed to those who professed that service. They, under the appearance of deserters, had come into the camp to Flaccus, so that from there, seizing the opportunity, they might depart; and the famine which for so long was at Capua made for no one an implausible cause of a transition. Suddenly a Campanian woman came into the camp, the harlot of one of the deserters, and she indicates to the Roman commander that the Numidians had crossed over with a fraud composed and were carrying letters to Hannibal; that one of them who had disclosed the affair to her she was prepared to arraign. When he was produced, at first he fairly steadily feigned that he did not know the woman; then gradually, convicted by the truths, when he saw that torments were being demanded and prepared, he confessed that it was so, and the letters were brought forth.

additum etiam indicio quod celabatur et alios specie transfugarum Numidas uagari in castris Romanis. ii supra septuaginta comprensi et cum transfugis nouis mulcati uirgis manibusque praecisis Capuam rediguntur.

It was further added to the evidence—what had been concealed—that other Numidians, in the guise of deserters, were roaming about in the Roman camp. These men, more than seventy, were apprehended and, together with the new deserters, were chastised with rods; their hands were cut off, and they were sent back to Capua.

[13] Conspectum tam triste supplicium fregit animos Campanorum. concursus ad curiam populi factus coegit Loesium senatum uocare; et primoribus qui iam diu publicis consiliis aberant propalam minabantur nisi uenirent in senatum circa domos eorum ituros se et in publicum omnes ui extracturos esse. is timor frequentem senatum magistratui praebuit.

[13] The sight of so sad a punishment broke the spirits of the Campanians. A concourse of the people to the curia forced Loesius to call the senate; and they openly threatened the leading men, who had for long been absent from public counsels, that unless they came into the senate they would go around their houses and drag them all by force into public. That fear supplied the magistracy with a full senate.

ibi cum ceteri de legatis mittendis ad imperatores Romanos agerent, Uibius Uirrius, qui defectionis auctor ab Romanis fuerat, interrogatus sententiam, negat eos qui de legatis et de pace ac deditione loquantur meminisse nec quid facturi fuerint si Romanos in potestate habuissent nec quid ipsis patiendum sit. 'quid? uos' inquit 'eam deditionem fore censetis qua quondam, ut aduersus Samnites auxilium impetraremus, nos nostraque omnia Romanis dedidimus?

there, when the rest were deliberating about sending legates to the Roman commanders, Vibius Virrius, who had been the author of the defection from the Romans, when asked for his opinion, says that those who talk of legates and of peace and surrender do not remember either what they would have done if they had had the Romans in their power, nor what they themselves must endure. ‘What? Do you suppose it will be that surrender by which once, in order to obtain aid against the Samnites, we surrendered ourselves and all our things to the Romans?’

iam e memoria excessit, quo tempore et in qua fortuna a populo Romano defecerimus? iam, quemadmodum in defectione praesidium, quod poterat emitti, per cruciatum et ad contumeliam necarimus? quotiens in obsidentes, quam inimice eruperimus, castra oppugnarimus, Hannibalem uocauerimus ad opprimendos eos?

has it already slipped from memory, at what time and in what fortune we defected from the Roman people? already—how, in the defection, we put to death, with torture and in contumely, the garrison that could have been sent away? how many times against the besiegers, how inimically we sallied forth, attacked their camp, called Hannibal to overwhelm them?

hoc quod recentissimum est, ad oppugnandam Romam hinc eum miserimus? age contra, quae illi infeste in nos fecerint repetite, ut ex eo quid speretis habeatis. cum hostis alienigena in Italia esset et Hannibal hostis et cuncta bello arderent, omissis omnibus, omisso ipso Hannibale, ambo consules et duo consulares exercitus ad Capuam oppugnandam miserunt.

This, the most recent of all: did we send him from here to attack Rome? Come now, contrariwise, recall what hostile acts they have done against us, that from this you may have what to expect. When a foreign enemy was in Italy and Hannibal was the foe and everything was blazing with war, setting aside all things—setting aside Hannibal himself—both consuls and two consular armies were sent to attack Capua.

alterum annum circumuallatos inclusosque nos fame macerant, et ipsi nobiscum ultima pericula et grauissimos labores perpessi, circa uallum ac fossas saepe trucidati ac prope ad extremum castris exuti. sed omitto haec--uetus atque usitata res est in oppugnanda hostium urbe labores ac pericula pati--: illud irae atque odii <inexpiabilis> exsecrabilisque indicium est. Hannibal ingentibus copiis peditum equitumque castra oppugnauit et ex parte cepit: tanto periculo nihil moti sunt ab obsidione.

for a second year they are wasting us with hunger, having circumvallated and enclosed us, and they themselves, together with us, have endured ultimate dangers and most grievous labors, often slaughtered around the rampart and the fosses and almost to the last stripped of their camp. but I omit these--an old and customary thing it is, in assaulting an enemy’s city, to suffer labors and dangers--: that is an indication of wrath and of <inexpiable> and execrable hatred. Hannibal, with vast forces of foot and horse, attacked the camp and took part of it: by so great a peril they were not moved at all from the siege.

profectus trans Uolturnum perussit Calenum agrum: nihil tanta sociorum clade auocati sunt. ad ipsam urbem Romam infesta signa ferri iussit: eam quoque tempestatem imminentem spreuerunt. transgressus Anienem tria milia passuum ab urbe castra posuit, postremo ad moenia ipsa et ad portas accessit; Romam se adempturum eis, nisi omitterent Capuam, ostendit: non omiserunt.

Setting out across the Volturnus, he scorched the Calenian countryside: by so great a disaster of their allies they were not at all diverted. He ordered hostile standards to be borne to the city of Rome itself: they spurned that tempest imminent as well. Having crossed the Anio, he pitched camp three miles from the city; at last he approached the walls themselves and the gates; he showed that he would take Rome away from them, unless they abandoned Capua: they did not abandon it.

feras bestias caeco impetu ac rabie concitatas, si ad cubilia et catulos earum ire pergas, ad opem suis ferendam auertas: Romanos Roma circumsessa coniuges, liberi, quorum ploratus hinc prope exaudiebantur, arae foci deum delubra sepulcra maiorum temerata ac uiolata a Capua non auerterunt; tanta auiditas supplicii expetendi, tanta sanguinis nostri hauriendi est sitis. nec iniuria forsitan; nos quoque idem fecissemus, si data fortuna esset. itaque quoniam aliter dis immortalibus est uisum, cum mortem ne recusare quidem debeam, cruciatus contumeliasque quas parat hostis dum liber, dum mei potens sum, effugere morte praeterquam honesta, etiam leni possum.

Even wild beasts, stirred by blind onrush and rabies, if you should go to their lairs and their cubs, you would divert to bring aid to their own; the Romans, with Rome besieged—wives, children, whose wailing was heard from here close by, the altars and hearths, the shrines of the gods, the sepulchers of their ancestors profaned and violated—were not turned away from Capua; so great is the avidity for exacting punishment, so great the thirst for draining our blood. And perhaps not unjustly; we too would have done the same, if the fortune had been given. Therefore, since it has seemed otherwise to the immortal gods, since I ought not even to refuse death, I can, while I am free and master of myself, escape by a death not only honorable but even gentle the tortures and contumelies which the enemy prepares.

non uidebo Ap. Claudium et Q. Fuluium uictoria insolenti subnixos, neque uinctus per urbem Romanam triumphi spectaculum trahar, ut deinde ~in carcerem~ aut ad palum deligatus, lacerato uirgis tergo, ceruicem securi Romanae subiciam; nec dirui incendique patriam uidebo, nec rapi ad stuprum matres Campanas uirginesque et ingenuos pueros. Albam unde ipsi oriundi erant a fundamentis proruerunt, ne stirpis, ne memoria originum suarum exstaret: nedum eos Capuae parsuros credam, cui infestiores quam Carthagini sunt. itaque quibus uestrum ante fato cedere quam haec tot tam acerba uideant in animo est, iis apud me hodie epulae instructae parataeque sunt.

I shall not see Ap. Claudius and Q. Fulvius, propped upon an insolent victory; nor, bound, be dragged through the city of Rome as a spectacle of a triumph, so that thereafter ~into prison~ or, fastened to a stake, with my back lacerated by rods, I should submit my neck to the Roman axe; nor shall I see my fatherland demolished and burned, nor mothers of Capua and maidens and freeborn boys snatched away for rape. Alba, whence they themselves were sprung, they overthrew from the foundations, lest either the stock or the memory of their origins should exist: how much less shall I believe they will spare Capua, towards which they are more hostile than to Carthage. Therefore, for those of you whose purpose it is to yield to fate before they behold so many and so bitter things, for them with me today a banquet has been arrayed and prepared.

satiatis uino ciboque poculum idem quod mihi datum fuerit circumferetur; ea potio corpus a cruciatu, animum a contumeliis, oculos aures a uidendis audiendisque omnibus acerbis indignisque quae manent uictos uindicabit. parati erunt qui magno rogo in propatulo aedium accenso corpora exanima iniciant. haec una uia et honesta et libera ad mortem.

once satisfied with wine and food, the same cup that shall have been given to me will be passed around; that potion will vindicate the body from torment, the spirit from contumely, the eyes and ears from seeing and hearing all the bitter and unworthy things that await the conquered. there will be those ready to cast the lifeless bodies upon a great pyre, kindled in the forecourt of the house. this is the one way to death, both honorable and free.

et ipsi uirtutem mirabuntur hostes et Hannibal fortes socios sciet ab se desertos ac proditos esse.'

and the enemies themselves will marvel at the virtue, and Hannibal will know that brave allies have been deserted and betrayed by himself.'

[14] Hanc orationem Uirri plures cum adsensu audierunt quam forti animo id quod probabant exsequi potuerunt. maior pars senatus, multis saepe bellis expertam populi Romani clementiam haud diffidentes sibi quoque placabilem fore, legatos ad dedendam Romanis Capuam decreuerunt miseruntque. Uibium Uirrium septem et uiginti ferme senatores domum secuti sunt, epulatique cum eo et quantum facere potuerant alienatis mentibus uino ab imminentis sensu mali, uenenum omnes sumpserunt; inde misso conuiuio dextris inter se datis ultimoque complexu conlacrimantes suum patriaeque casum, alii ut eodem rogo cremarentur manserunt, alii domos digressi sunt.

[14] More heard this oration of Virrius with assent than were able, with stout spirit, to carry into effect what they approved. The greater part of the senate, not distrusting that the clemency of the Roman people—often tested in many wars—would be placable toward themselves also, decreed and sent legates to surrender Capua to the Romans. About twenty-seven senators followed Vibius Virrius home, and, having feasted with him, and, so far as they could, with their minds alienated by wine from the sense of the impending evil, they all took poison; then, the banquet dismissed, with right hands given among themselves and, in a final embrace, weeping over their own and their country’s lot, some remained to be burned on the same pyre, others departed to their homes.

impletae cibis uinoque uenae minus efficacem in maturanda morte uim ueneni fecerunt; itaque noctem totam plerique eorum et diei insequentis partem cum animam egissent, omnes tamen prius quam aperirentur hostibus portae exspirarunt. postero die porta Iouis, quae aduersus castra Romana erat, iussu proconsulum aperta est. ea intromissa legio una et duae alae cum C. Fuluio legato.

Veins filled with food and wine made the force of the poison less efficacious in hastening death; and so most of them passed the whole night and part of the following day in the act of giving up the ghost, yet all expired before the gates were opened to the enemy. On the next day the Gate of Jove, which was opposite the Roman camp, was opened by order of the proconsuls. Through it there were brought in one legion and two wings, with C. Fulvius the legate.

is cum omnium primum arma telaque quae Capuae erant ad se conferenda curasset, custodiis ad omnes portas dispositis ne quis exire aut emitti posset, praesidium Punicum comprehendit, senatum Campanum ire in castra ad imperatores Romanos iussit. quo cum uenissent, extemplo iis omnibus catenae iniectae, iussique ad quaestores deferre quod auri atque argenti haberent. auri pondo duo milia septuaginta fuit, argenti triginta milia pondo et mille ducenta.

he, when first of all he had taken care that the arms and missiles which were at Capua be brought in to him, with guards stationed at all the gates so that no one could go out or be sent out, seized the Punic garrison, and ordered the Campanian senate to go into the camp to the Roman commanders. When they had come there, chains were immediately thrown upon them all, and they were ordered to deliver to the quaestors whatever gold and silver they had. There were 2,070 pounds of gold, and 31,200 pounds of silver.

senatores quinque et uiginti Cales in custodiam, duodetriginta Teanum missi, quorum de sententia maxime descitum ab Romanis constabat.

25 senators were sent into custody to Cales, 38 to Teanum, of whom it was well established that the defection from the Romans had been chiefly on their counsel.

[15] De supplicio Campani senatus haudquaquam inter Fuluium Claudiumque conueniebat. facilis impetrandae ueniae Claudius, Fului durior sententia erat. itaque Appius Romam ad senatum arbitrium eius rei totum reiciebat: percontandi etiam aequum esse potestatem fieri patribus, num communicassent consilia cum aliquis sociorum Latini nominis [municipiorum] et num ope eorum in bello forent adiuti.

[15] About the punishment of the Campanian senate there was by no means agreement between Fulvius and Claudius. Claudius was easy for the obtaining of pardon; Fulvius’s opinion was harsher. And so Appius referred the whole of that matter to the arbitration of the senate at Rome: that it was also equitable that power to question be granted to the Fathers, whether they had shared counsels with any of the allies of the Latin name [of the municipalities], and whether in war they had been aided by their help.

id uero minime committendum esse Fuluius dicere ut sollicitarentur criminibus dubiis sociorum fidelium animi, et subicerentur indicibus quis neque <quid dicerent neque> quid facerent quicquam unquam pensi fuisset; itaque se eam quaestionem oppressurum exstincturumque. ab hoc sermone cum digressi essent, et Appius quamuis ferociter loquentem collegam non dubitaret tamen litteras super tanta re ab Roma exspectaturum, Fuluius, ne id ipsum impedimentum incepto foret, dimittens praetorium tribunis militum ac praefectis socium imperauit uti duobus milibus equitum delectis denuntiarent ut ad tertiam bucinam praesto essent. cum hoc equitatu nocte Teanum profectus, prima luce portam intrauit atque in forum perrexit; concursuque ad primum equitum ingressum facto magistratum Sidicinum citari iussit imperauitque ut produceret Campanos quos in custodia haberet.

Fulvius said that this indeed must by no means be allowed: that the spirits of faithful allies be agitated by doubtful charges, and that they be subjected to informers who had never had any regard for what they said or what they did; therefore he would suppress and extinguish that inquiry. When they had departed from this conversation, and Appius—although his colleague spoke fiercely—nevertheless did not doubt that he would await letters from Rome concerning so great a matter, Fulvius, lest that very thing be an impediment to his undertaking, sending out from the praetorium, ordered the tribunes of the soldiers and the prefects of the allies to give notice that two thousand chosen horsemen should be present at the third trumpet. With this cavalry he set out by night to Teanum, at first light entered the gate and proceeded to the forum; and when a crowd had gathered at the first entry of the cavalry, he ordered the Sidicine magistrate to be summoned and commanded that he produce the Campanians whom he held in custody.

producti omnes uirgisque caesi ac securi percussi. inde citato equo Cales percurrit; ubi cum in tribunali consedisset productique Campani deligarentur ad palum, eques citus ab Roma uenit litterasque a C. Calpurnio praetore Fuluio et senatus consultum tradit. murmur ab tribunali totam contionem peruasit differri rem integram ad patres de Campanis; et Fuluius, id ita esse ratus acceptas litteras neque resolutas cum in gremio reposuisset, praeconi imperauit ut lictorem lege agere iuberet.

all were brought out and beaten with rods and struck by the axe. Thence, with his horse at full gallop, he hurried to Cales; where, when he had taken his seat on the tribunal and the Campanians, having been produced, were being bound to the stake, a swift horseman came from Rome and hands over letters from Gaius Calpurnius, the praetor, to Fulvius, and a senatorial decree. A murmur from the tribunal pervaded the whole assembly that the matter concerning the Campanians was being deferred intact to the Fathers; and Fulvius, thinking that to be so, when he had received the letters and, unopened, had put them back in his lap, ordered the herald to bid the lictor proceed by law.

ita de iis quoque qui Calibus erant sumptum supplicium. tum litterae lectae senatusque consultum, serum ad impediendam rem actam quae summa ope approperata erat ne impediri posset. consurgentem iam Fuluium Taurea Uibellius Campanus per mediam uadens turbam nomine inclamauit, et cum mirabundus quidnam sese uellet resedisset Flaccus, 'me quoque' inquit 'iube occidi ut gloriari possis multo fortiorem quam ipse es uirum abs te occisum esse.' cum Flaccus negaret profecto satis compotem mentis esse, modo prohiberi etiam se si id uellet senatus consulto diceret, tum Uibellius 'quando quidem' inquit 'capta patria propinquis amicisque amissis, cum ipse manu mea coniugem liberosque interfecerim ne quid indigni paterentur, mihi ne mortis quidem copia eadem est quae his ciuibus meis, petatur a uirtute inuisae huius uitae uindicta.' atque ita gladio quem ueste texerat per aduersum pectus transfixus, ante pedes imperatoris moribundus procubuit.

thus punishment was exacted also of those who were at Cales. then the letters were read and the senatorial decree—too late to hinder a matter that had been hastened with the utmost effort so that it could not be obstructed. as Fulvius was already rising, Taurea Vibellius, a Campanian, going through the midst of the crowd, called him by name; and when Flaccus, wondering what he might want of him, had sat down again, he said: “order me too to be killed, so that you may boast that a man much braver than you yourself are has been slain by you.” when Flaccus said that he was assuredly not sufficiently in possession of his mind, and even added that he himself was being forbidden, if he so wished, by the senatorial decree, then Vibellius said: “since indeed, with my fatherland taken and my kinsmen and friends lost—since with my own hand I have slain my wife and children, lest they suffer anything unworthy—there is not for me even the same opportunity of death that there is for these fellow citizens of mine; let vengeance upon this life hateful to me be sought by valor.” and so, pierced straight through the breast with the sword which he had concealed in his garment, he fell forward dying before the commander’s feet.

[16] Quia et quod ad supplicium attinet Campanorum et pleraque alia de Flacci unius sententia acta erant, mortuum Ap. Claudium sub deditionem Capuae quidam tradunt; hunc quoque ipsum Tauream neque sua sponte uenisse Cales neque sua manu interfectum, sed dum inter ceteros ad palum deligatur, quia parum inter strepitus exaudiri possent quae uociferaretur silentium fieri Flaccum iussisse; tum Tauream illa quae ante memorata sunt dixisse, uirum se fortissimum ab nequaquam pari ad uirtutem occidi; sub haec dicta iussu proconsulis praeconem ita pronuntiasse: 'lictor, uiro forti adde uirgas et in eum primum lege age.' lectum quoque senatus consultum priusquam securi feriret quidam auctores sunt, sed quia adscriptum in senatus consulto fuerit si ei uideretur integram rem ad senatum reiceret, interpretatum esse quid magis e re publica duceret aestimationem sibi permissam. Capuam a Calibus reditum est, Atellaque et Calatia in deditionem acceptae; ibi quoque in eos qui capita rerum erant animaduersum. ita ad septuaginta principes senatus interfecti, trecenti ferme nobiles Campani in carcerem conditi, alii per sociorum Latini nominis urbes in custodias dati, uariis casibus interierunt: multitudo alia ciuium Campanorum uenum data.

[16] Because both what pertained to the punishment of the Campanians and very many other matters were carried out on the judgment of Flaccus alone, some report that Appius Claudius died at the time of the surrender of Capua; that this Taurea too neither came to Cales of his own accord nor was slain by his own hand, but that, while he was being tied to the stake among the others, because amid the din the things he was shouting could scarcely be heard, Flaccus ordered silence to be made; then Taurea spoke those things which were mentioned before, that he, a man most brave, was being killed by one by no means equal to him in virtue; upon these words, by order of the proconsul, the herald proclaimed thus: 'Lictor, to a brave man add the rods and proceed against him first under the law.' Some authorities also say that the senatus consultum was read before he was struck with the axe; but because it had been appended in the senatus consultum that, if it seemed good to him, he should refer the matter unimpaired to the senate, he interpreted that discretion had been permitted to himself to determine what he judged more for the interest of the commonwealth. From Cales they returned to Capua, and Atella and Calatia were received in surrender; there too punishment was inflicted on those who were the heads of the affair. Thus about seventy chiefs of the senate were executed, nearly three hundred Campanian nobles were confined in prison, others were handed over into custody through the cities of allies of Latin status and perished by various fates; another multitude of Campanian citizens was sold at auction.

de urbe agroque reliqua consultatio fuit, quibusdam delendam censentibus urbem praeualidam propinquam inimicam. ceterum praesens utilitas uicit; nam propter agrum, quem omni fertilitate terrae satis constabat primum in Italia esse, urbs seruata est ut esset aliqua aratorum sedes. urbi frequentandae multitudo incolarum libertinorumque et institorum opificumque retenta: ager omnis et tecta publica populi Romani facta.

There was further deliberation about the city and the countryside, some judging that the very strong, nearby, hostile city ought to be destroyed. However, present utility prevailed; for on account of the farmland—which, for the fertility of its soil, it was sufficiently agreed was foremost in Italy—the city was preserved, so that there might be some seat for plowmen. To make the city well-frequented, a multitude of inhabitants, freedmen, retailers, and artificers was retained: all the land and the buildings were made the public property of the Roman people.

ceterum habitari tantum tamquam urbem Capuam frequentarique placuit, corpus nullum ciuitatis nec senatum nec plebis concilium nec magistratus esse: sine consilio publico, sine imperio multitudinem nullius rei inter se sociam ad consensum inhabilem fore; praefectum ad iura reddenda ab Roma quotannis missuros. ita ad Capuam res compositae consilio ab omni parte laudabili. seuere et celeriter in maxime noxios animaduersum; multitudo ciuium dissipata in nullam spem reditus; non saeuitum incendiis ruinisque in tecta innoxia murosque, et cum emolumento quaesita etiam apud socios lenitatis species incolumitate urbis nobilissimae opulentissimaeque, cuius ruinis omnis Campania, omnes qui Campaniam circa accolunt populi ingemuissent; confessio expressa hosti quanta uis in Romanis ad expetendas poenas ab infidelibus sociis et quam nihil in Hannibale auxilii ad receptos in fidem tuendos esset.

but it was decided that Capua should only be inhabited and frequented as a town, that there should be no civic body at all—neither senate nor council of the plebs nor magistrates: without a public council, without command, the multitude, partners in nothing among themselves, would be incapable of consensus; they would send a prefect from Rome every year to render justice. thus the affairs at Capua were settled by a plan laudable in every respect. punishment was inflicted severely and swiftly upon the most noxious; the multitude of citizens was scattered, with no hope of return; there was no savagery with fires and demolitions against harmless roofs and walls, and, with emolument, even a semblance of lenity was sought among the allies by preserving intact a most noble and most opulent city, at whose ruins all Campania and all the peoples who dwell around Campania would have groaned; a confession was forced upon the enemy of how great a force there was in the Romans to exact penalties from unfaithful allies, and how there was nothing of aid in Hannibal to protect those received into his allegiance.

[17] Romani patres perfuncti quod ad Capuam attinebat cura, C. Neroni ex iis duabus legionibus quas ad Capuam habuerat sex milia peditum et trecentos equites quos ipse legisset et socium Latini nominis peditum numerum parem et octingentos equites decernunt. eum exercitum Puteolis in naues impositum Nero in Hispaniam transportauit. cum Tarraconem nauibus uenisset, expositisque ibi copiis et nauibus subductis socios quoque nauales multitudinis augendae causa armasset, profectus ad Hiberum flumen exercitum ab Ti. Fonteio et L. Marcio accepit.

[17] The Roman senators, having discharged the concern that pertained to Capua, decree to Gaius Nero, from those two legions which he had had at Capua, six thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry, which he himself should select, and, of the allies of the Latin name, an equal number of infantry and eight hundred cavalry. Nero transported that army to Spain, having embarked it on ships at Puteoli. When he had come by ship to Tarraco, and after disembarking the forces there and beaching the ships, having also armed naval allies for the sake of augmenting the multitude, he set out for the Hiberus River and received the army from Tiberius Fonteius and Lucius Marcius.

inde pergit ad hostes ire. Hasdrubal Hamilcaris ad Lapides Atros castra habebat; in Ausetanis is locus est inter oppida Iliturgim et Mentissam. huius saltus fauces Nero occupauit.

thence he proceeds to go against the enemy. Hasdrubal, son of Hamilcar, had his camp at the Black Stones; in Ausetan territory that place is between the towns Iliturgim and Mentissam. Nero occupied the defiles of this pass.

Hasdrubal, ne in arto res esset, caduceatorem misit qui promitteret si inde missus foret se omnem exercitum ex Hispania deportaturum. quam rem cum laeto animo Romanus accepisset, diem posterum Hasdrubal conloquio petiuit ut coram leges conscriberentur de tradendis arcibus urbium dieque statuenda ad quam praesidia deducerentur suaque omnia sine fraude Poeni deportarent. quod ubi impetrauit, extemplo primis tenebris atque inde tota nocte quod grauissimum exercitus erat Hasdrubal quacunque posset euadere e saltu iussit.

Hasdrubal, lest the situation be in straits, sent a herald (caduceator) to promise that, if he were let go from there, he would transport his whole army out of Spain. When the Roman received this with a glad spirit, Hasdrubal asked for the next day for a conference, so that face to face the terms might be written down concerning the surrender of the citadels of the cities and the fixing of a day on which the garrisons should be withdrawn, and that the Carthaginians might carry off all their property without fraud. When he had obtained this, at once at the first darkness and then through the whole night Hasdrubal ordered the heaviest part of the army to escape from the pass by whatever way it could.

data sedulo opera est ne multi ea nocte exirent, ut ipsa paucitas cum ad hostem silentio fallendum aptior, tum ad euadendum per artas semitas ac difficiles esset. uentum insequenti die ad conloquium est; sed loquendo plura scribendoque dedita opera quae in rem non essent die consumpto, in posterum dilatum est. addita insequens nox spatium dedit et alios emittendi; nec postero die res finem inuenit.

sedulous care was taken that not many should go out that night, so that the very paucity would be both more apt for deceiving the enemy by silence and for escaping through narrow and difficult paths. on the following day it came to a colloquy; but by speaking more and by writing, with efforts devoted to things that were not to the purpose, the day having been consumed, it was deferred to the next day. the next night, added, gave space for sending out others as well; nor on the following day did the matter find an end.

ita aliquot dies disceptando palam de legibus noctesque emittendis clam e castris Carthaginiensibus absumptae. et postquam pars maior emissa exercitus erat, iam ne iis quidem quae ultro dicta erant stabatur; minusque ac minus, cum timore simul fide decrescente, conueniebat. iam ferme pedestres omnes copiae euaserant e saltu cum prima luce densa nebula saltum omnem camposque circa intexit.

Thus several days were consumed in openly disputing about the terms, and the nights in secretly sending men out from the Carthaginian camp. And after the greater part of the army had been sent out, they no longer even stood by those things that had been offered of their own accord; and, with fear and good faith diminishing together, there was less and less agreement. By now almost all the infantry forces had escaped from the pass, when at first light a dense fog enwrapped the whole pass and the surrounding fields.

quod ubi sensit Hasdrubal, mittit ad Neronem qui in posterum diem conloquium differret: illum diem religiosum Carthaginiensibus ad agendum quicquam rei seriae esse. ne tum quidem suspecta fraus cum esset, data uenia eius diei, extemploque Hasdrubal cum equitatu elephantisque castris egressus sine ullo tumultu in tutum euasit. hora ferme quarta dispulsa sole nebula aperuit diem, uacuaque hostium castra conspexerunt Romani tum demum Claudius Punicam fraudem adgnoscens ut se dolo captum sensit, proficiscentem institit sequi paratus confligere acie.

When Hasdrubal perceived this, he sends to Nero someone to defer the colloquy to the following day: that day was religious (taboo) for Carthaginians for transacting anything of serious business. Not even then, when there was fraud to suspect, was it suspected; leave for that day was granted, and forthwith Hasdrubal, with cavalry and elephants, marched out of the camp and, without any tumult, escaped into safety. About the fourth hour, the fog, dispelled by the sun, opened the day, and the Romans caught sight of the enemy’s camp empty; then at last Claudius, recognizing the Punic fraud, when he felt himself taken by a trick, pressed to follow the one setting out, ready to engage in battle in line of battle.

sed hostis detractabat pugnam; leuia tamen proelia inter extremum Punicum agmen praecursoresque Romanorum fiebant.

but the enemy was declining battle; nevertheless light skirmishes were occurring between the Punic rearguard and the Roman advance scouts.

[18] Inter haec Hispaniae populi nec qui post cladem acceptam defecerant redibant ad Romanos, nec ulli noui deficiebant; et Romae senatui populoque post receptam Capuam non Italiae iam maior quam Hispaniae cura erat. et exercitum augeri et imperatorem mitti placebat; nec tam quem mitterent satis constabat quam illud, ubi duo summi imperatores intra dies triginta cecidissent, qui in locum duorum succederet extraordinaria cura deligendum esse. cum alii alium nominarent, postremum eo decursum est ut proconsuli creando in Hispaniam comitia haberentur; diemque comitiis consules edixerunt.

[18] Meanwhile the peoples of Hispania—neither those who had defected after the disaster received were returning to the Romans, nor were any new ones defecting; and at Rome, for the senate and the people, after Capua had been recovered there was now not a greater concern for Italy than for Hispania. It was agreed both that the army be augmented and that a commander be sent; and it was less settled whom they should send than this point: since two supreme commanders had fallen within thirty days, the man who would succeed in the place of the two must be chosen with extraordinary care. As some named one man and others another, at last it was resorted to this—that comitia be held for creating a proconsul for Hispania; and the consuls proclaimed a day for the comitia.

primo exspectauerant ut qui se tanto imperio dignos crederent nomina profiterentur; quae ut destituta exspectatio est, redintegratus luctus acceptae cladis desideriumque imperatorum amissorum. maesta itaque ciuitas prope inops consilii comitiorum die tamen in campum descendit; atque in magistratus uersi circumspectant ora principum aliorum alios intuentium fremuntque adeo perditas res desperatumque de re publica esse ut nemo audeat in Hispaniam imperium accipere, cum subito P. Cornelius <Publi filius eius> qui in Hispania ceciderat, [filius] quattuor et uiginti ferme annos natus, professus se petere, in superiore unde conspici posset loco constitit. in quem postquam omnium ora conuersa sunt, clamore ac fauore ominati extemplo sunt felix faustumque imperium.

at first they had expected that those who believed themselves worthy of so great a command would declare their names; but when that expectation was disappointed, their grief for the disaster sustained and their longing for the commanders lost was renewed. therefore the city, mournful and almost devoid of counsel, nevertheless on the day of the elections descended into the field; and, turning toward the magistrates, they look around at the faces of the leading men, each gazing at others, and they murmur that affairs are so utterly ruined and that despair for the commonwealth is so great that no one dares to accept the command in Spain, when suddenly P. Cornelius, , [son], nearly 24 years old, having declared that he sought it, took his stand on a higher place whence he could be seen. upon him, after the faces of all were turned, with a shout and favor they straightway augured a happy and auspicious command.

iussi deinde inire suffragium ad unum omnes non centuriae modo, sed etiam homines P. Scipioni imperium esse in Hispania iusserunt. ceterum post rem actam ut iam resederat impetus animorum ardorque, silentium subito ortum et tacita cogitatio quidnam egissent; nonne fauor plus ualuisset quam ratio. aetatis maxime paenitebat; quidam fortunam etiam domus horrebant nomenque ex funestis duabus familiis in eas prouincias ubi inter sepulcra patris patruique res gerendae essent proficiscentis.

Then they were ordered to go to the ballot, and, to a man, not only the centuries but even the individuals ordered that Publius Scipio should have imperium in Spain. But after the matter was transacted and now the impetus of their spirits and their ardor had subsided, a silence suddenly arose and a tacit reflection on what they had done—whether favor had prevailed more than reason. Most of all they repented of his age; some even shuddered at the fortune of the house, and at the very name of one setting out from two death‑stricken families into those provinces where business would have to be conducted among the tombs of his father and his uncle.

[19] Quam ubi ab re tanto impetu acta sollicitudinem curamque hominum animaduertit, aduocata contione ita de aetate sua imperioque mandato et bello quod gerundum esset magno elatoque animo disseruit, ut ardorem eum qui resederat excitaret rursus nouaretque et impleret homines certioris spei quam quantam fides promissi humani aut ratio ex fiducia rerum subicere solet. fuit enim Scipio non ueris tantum uirtutibus mirabilis, sed arte quoque quadam ab iuuenta in ostentationem earum compositus, pleraque apud multitudinem aut per nocturnas uisa species aut uelut diuinitus mente monita agens, siue et ipse capti quadam superstitione animi, siue ut imperia consiliaque uelut sorte oraculi missa sine cunctatione exsequerentur. ad hoc iam inde ab initio praeparans animos, ex quo togam uirilem sumpsit nullo die prius ullam publicam priuatamque rem egit quam in Capitolium iret ingressusque aedem consideret et plerumque solus in secreto ibi tempus tereret.

[19] When he noticed, from a matter driven with such impetuosity, the solicitude and care of the people, having called an assembly he discoursed about his age, the command entrusted, and the war that had to be waged, with a great and exalted spirit, so that he reawakened that ardor which had subsided, renewed it again, and filled men with a more assured hope than such as the faith of human promise or a reasoning grounded in confidence in affairs is wont to supply. For Scipio was admirable not only in genuine virtues, but also by a certain artifice, from youth arranged for the ostentation of them—doing most things before the multitude either on the strength of apparitions seen by night, or as if divinely admonished in mind—whether he himself too was captured by a certain superstition of spirit, or in order that commands and counsels, as though sent by the lot of an oracle, might be executed without hesitation. To this end, already from the beginning predisposing minds, from the time he assumed the manly toga he on no day transacted any public or private business before he went up to the Capitol, and, having entered the temple, would sit and for the most part spend time there alone in seclusion.

hic mos per omnem uitam seruatus seu consulto seu temere uolgatae opinioni fidem apud quosdam fecit stirpis eum diuinae uirum esse, rettulitque famam in Alexandro magno prius uolgatam, et uanitate et fabula parem, anguis immanis concubitu conceptum, et in cubiculo matris eius uisam persaepe prodigii eius speciem interuentuque hominum euolutam repente atque ex oculis elapsam. his miraculis nunquam ab ipso elusa fides est; quin potius aucta arte quadam nec abnuendi tale quicquam nec palam adfirmandi. multa alia eiusdem generis, alia uera, alia adsimulata, admirationis humanae in eo iuuene excesserant modum; quibus freta tunc ciuitas aetati haudquaquam maturae tantam rerum molem tantumque imperium permisit.

This practice, maintained through his whole life, whether by design or by chance, gave credence with some to the widespread opinion that he was a man of divine stock, and it reproduced the rumor previously spread about Alexander the Great—equal in both vanity and fable—that he had been conceived by the intercourse of a huge serpent; and that the likeness of that prodigy was very often seen in his mother’s bedchamber, and at the intervention of human beings it suddenly uncoiled and slipped away from their eyes. The belief in these marvels was never eluded by himself; rather, it was increased by a certain art of neither denying anything of the sort nor openly affirming it. Many other things of the same kind, some true, others simulated, had exceeded the measure of human admiration in that youth; relying on which, the commonwealth then permitted to an age by no means mature such a mass of affairs and so great an imperium.

ad eas copias quas ex uetere exercitu Hispania habebat, quaeque a Puteolis cum C. Nerone traiectae erant, decem milia militum et mille equites adduntur, et M. Iunius Silanus propraetor adiutor ad res gerendas datus est. ita cum triginta nauium classe--omnes autem quinqueremes erant--Ostiis Tiberinis profectus praeter oram Tusci maris, Alpesque et Gallicum sinum et deinde Pyrenaei circumuectus promuntorium, Emporiis urbe Graeca--oriundi et ipsi a Phocaea sunt--copias exposuit. inde sequi nauibus iussis Tarraconem pedibus profectus conuentum omnium sociorum --etenim legationes ad famam eius ex omni se prouincia effuderant--habuit.

To those forces which he had in Spain from the old army, and those which had been transported from Puteoli with Gaius Nero, there were added ten thousand soldiers and one thousand horse, and Marcus Iunius Silanus, a propraetor, was given as an assistant for the conducting of affairs. Thus, with a fleet of thirty ships--and all, moreover, were quinqueremes--setting out from the Tiberine Ostia, he skirted the shore of the Tuscan sea, and, having sailed around the Alps and the Gallic gulf and then the promontory of the Pyrenees, at Emporiae, a Greek city--they themselves too are from Phocaea--he disembarked his forces. Thence, having ordered the ships to follow, setting out on foot to Tarraco, he held a convention of all the allies--for legations, at his renown, had poured forth from the whole province.

naues ibi subduci iussit, remissis quattuor triremibus Massiliensium quae officii causa ab domo prosecutae fuerant. responsa inde legationibus suspensis uarietate tot casuum dare coepit, ita elato ab ingenti uirtutum suarum fiducia animo ut nullum ferox uerbum excideret ingensque omnibus quae diceret cum maiestas inesset tum fides.

there he ordered the ships to be hauled up, sending back the four triremes of the Massiliots which had, for the sake of duty, escorted him from home. Then he began to give responses to the legations, kept in suspense by the variety of so many contingencies, his spirit so exalted by a vast confidence in his own virtues that no ferocious word slipped out, and in all that he said there resided at once immense majesty and credence.

[20] Profectus ab Tarracone et ciuitates sociorum et hiberna exercitus adiit, collaudauitque milites quod duabus tantis deinceps cladibus icti prouinciam obtinuissent, nec fructum secundarum rerum sentire hostes passi omni cis Hiberum agro eos arcuissent, sociosque cum fide tutati essent. Marcium secum habebat cum tanto honore, ut facile appareret nihil minus uereri quam ne quis obstaret gloriae suae. successit inde Neroni Silanus, et in hiberna milites noui deducti.

[20] Setting out from Tarraco he visited both the communities of the allies and the winter quarters of the army, and he highly praised the soldiers because, though smitten by two so great disasters in succession, they had held the province, and had not allowed the enemies to taste the fruit of favorable fortunes, having hemmed them in from all the land on this side of the Hiberus, and had guarded the allies with loyalty. He had Marcius with him with such honor, that it was easy to see he feared nothing less than that anyone might stand in the way of his glory. Then Silanus succeeded Nero, and new soldiers were led into winter quarters.

Scipio omnibus quae adeunda agendaque erant mature aditis peractisque Tarraconem concessit. nihilo minor fama apud hostes Scipionis erat quam apud ciues sociosque, et diuinatio quaedam futuri, quo minus ratio timoris reddi poterat oborti temere, maiorem inferens metum. in hiberna diuersi concesserant, Hasdrubal Gisgonis usque ad Oceanum et Gades, Mago in mediterranea maxime supra Castulonensem saltum; Hasdrubal Hamilcaris filius proximus Hibero circa Saguntum hibernauit.

Scipio, having promptly attended to and completed all that had to be approached and done, withdrew to Tarraco. His fama among the enemies was no less than among citizens and allies, and a certain divination of the future—since the rationale of a fear rashly conceived could the less be rendered—brought in a greater dread. They had withdrawn in different directions into winter quarters: Hasdrubal son of Gisco as far as the Ocean and Gades, Mago chiefly into the interior above the Castulonian pass; Hasdrubal son of Hamilcar wintered nearest the Ebro around Saguntum.

aestatis eius extremo qua capta est Capua et Scipio in Hispaniam uenit, Punica classis ex Sicilia Tarentum accita ad arcendos commeatus praesidii Romani quod in arce Tarentina erat, clauserat quidem omnes ad arcem a mari aditus, sed adsidendo diutius artiorem annonam sociis quam hosti faciebat; non enim tantum subuehi oppidanis per pacata litora apertosque portus praesidio nauium Punicarum poterat quantum frumenti classis ipsa turba nauali mixta ex omni genere hominum absumebat, ut arcis praesidium etiam sine inuecto quia pauci erant ex ante praeparato sustentari posset, Tarentinis classique ne inuectum quidem sufficeret. tandem maiore gratia quam uenerat classis dimissa est; annona haud multum laxauerat quia remoto maritimo praesidio subuehi frumentum non poterat.

at the end of that same summer in which Capua was taken and Scipio came into Spain, the Punic fleet, called in from Sicily to ward off the convoys for the Roman garrison that was in the Tarentine citadel, had indeed closed all approaches to the citadel from the sea; but by sitting there for a longer time it was making the grain-supply tighter for the allies than for the enemy; for not so much could be brought in to the townspeople along pacified shores and open ports under the protection of the Punic ships as the fleet itself, with its naval crowd mixed from every kind of men, was consuming in grain, so that the citadel’s garrison, even without importations, because they were few, could be sustained from what had been prepared beforehand, while for the Tarentines and the fleet even what was brought in did not suffice. at last the fleet was dismissed with greater “thanks” than those with which it had come; the grain-supply had not been much loosened, because, with the maritime guard removed, grain could not be brought in.

[21] Eiusdem aestatis exitu M. Marcellus ex Sicilia prouincia cum ad urbem uenisset, a C. Calpurnio praetore senatus ei ad aedem Bellonae datus est. ibi cum de rebus ab se gestis disseruisset, questus leniter non suam magis quam militum uicem quod prouincia confecta exercitum deportare non licuisset, postulauit ut triumphanti urbem inire liceret. id non impetrauit.

[21] At the end of that same summer, when Marcus Marcellus had come to the city from the province of Sicily, by the praetor Gaius Calpurnius the senate was granted to him at the temple of Bellona. There, when he had discoursed about the affairs transacted by himself, complaining gently not so much on his own account as on that of the soldiers, because, with the province completed, it had not been permitted to transport the army home, he requested that it be allowed to enter the city in triumph. This he did not obtain.

cum multis uerbis actum esset utrum minus conueniret cuius nomine absentis ob res prospere ductu eius gestas supplicatio decreta foret et dis immortalibus habitus honos ei praesenti negare triumphum, an quem tradere exercitum successori iussissent--quod nisi manente in prouincia bello non decerneretur--eum quasi debellato triumphare cum exercitus testis meriti atque immeriti triumphi abesset, medium uisum ut ouans urbem iniret. tribuni plebis ex auctoritate senatus ad populum tulerunt ut M. Marcello quo die urbem ouans iniret imperium esset. pridie quam urbem iniret in monte Albano triumphauit; inde ouans multam prae se praedam in urbem intulit.

when much was argued in many words as to whether it were less fitting to deny a triumph to one who, though absent, had had a supplicatio decreed in his name on account of affairs successfully accomplished under his leadership and an honor paid to the immortal gods, while he was present; or that one whom they had ordered to hand over his army to a successor—which is not decreed unless the war remains in the province—should triumph as if the war were finished, when the army, the witness of a deserved and an undeserved triumph alike, was absent, a middle course seemed good: that he should enter the city in ovation. the tribunes of the plebs, by authority of the senate, brought before the people that on the day M. Marcellus should enter the city in ovation he should possess imperium. on the day before he entered the city he triumphed on the Alban Mount; thence, in ovation, he brought much booty before him into the city.

cum simulacro captarum Syracusarum catapultae ballistaeque et alia omnia instrumenta belli lata et pacis diuturnae regiaeque opulentiae ornamenta, argenti aerisque fabrefacti uis, alia supellex pretiosaque uestis et multa nobilia signa, quibus inter primas Graeciae urbes Syracusae ornatae fuerant. Punicae quoque uictoriae signum octo ducti elephanti, et non minimum fuere spectaculum cum coronis aureis praecedentes Sosis Syracusanus et Moericus Hispanus, quorum altero duce nocturno Syracusas introitum erat, alter Nassum quodque ibi praesidii erat prodiderat. his ambobus ciuitas data et quingena iugera agri, Sosidi in agro Syracusano qui aut regius aut hostium populi Romani fuisset et aedes Syracusis cuius uellet eorum in quos belli iure animaduersum esset, Moerico Hispanisque qui cum eo transierant urbs agerque in Sicilia ex iis qui a populo Romano defecissent, iussa dari.

together with a simulacrum of captured Syracuse, catapults and ballistae and all the other instruments of war borne along, and the ornaments of long peace and royal opulence: a great quantity of wrought silver and bronze, other furnishings and precious raiment, and many noble statues, with which Syracuse had been adorned among the foremost cities of Greece. As a token, too, of victory over the Punic foe, eight elephants were led, and no small spectacle were Sosis the Syracusan and Moericus the Spaniard going before with golden crowns, under the leadership of the one a nocturnal entry into Syracuse had been effected, the other had betrayed Nassus and whatever garrison was there. To both of them citizenship was given and five hundred iugera of land: to Sosis, in the Syracusan territory which had been either royal or of the enemies of the Roman people, and a house at Syracuse, whichever he wished, of those upon whom punishment had been inflicted by right of war; to Moericus and the Spaniards who had crossed over with him a town and land in Sicily, from those who had defected from the Roman people, were ordered to be given.

id M. Cornelio mandatum ut ubi ei uideretur urbem agrumque eis adsignaret. in eodem agro Belligeni, per quem inlectus ad transitionem Moericus erat, quadringenta iugera agri decreta. post profectionem ex Sicilia Marcelli Punica classis octo milia peditum, tria Numidarum equitum exposuit.

That was entrusted to M. Cornelius, that, wherever it should seem good to him, he assign to them a city and land. In the same territory, to the Belligeni—through which Moericus had been lured to a transfer of allegiance—four hundred iugera of land were decreed. After Marcellus’s departure from Sicily, the Carthaginian fleet disembarked eight thousand infantry and three thousand Numidian cavalry.

ad eos Murgentia et Er<getium urbes defece>re. secutae defectionem earum Hybla et Macella et ignobiliores quaedam aliae; et Numidae praefecto Muttine uagi per totam Siciliam sociorum populi Romani agros urebant. super haec exercitus Romanus iratus, partim quod cum imperatore non deuectus ex prouincia esset, partim quod in oppidis hibernare uetiti erant, segni fungebantur militia, magisque eis auctor ad seditionem quam animus deerat. inter has difficultates M. Cornelius praetor et militum animos nunc consolando nunc castigando sedauit, et ciuitates omnes quae defecerant in dicionem redegit; atque ex iis Murgentiam Hispanis quibus urbs agerque debebatur ex senatus consulto attribuit.

to them the cities Murgentia and Ergetium defected. Their defection was followed by Hybla and Macella and certain other rather ignoble towns; and the Numidians, under the prefect Muttines, roaming through all Sicily, were burning the fields of the allies of the Roman people. On top of these things the Roman army, angry—partly because it had not been conveyed home from the province with its commander, partly because they had been forbidden to winter in the towns—were discharging their military service sluggishly, and to them an instigator to sedition was more lacking than spirit. Amid these difficulties the praetor Marcus Cornelius calmed the soldiers’ minds, now by consoling, now by castigating, and brought back into his dominion all the communities which had defected; and among these he assigned Murgentia to the Spaniards, to whom the city and land were owed by decree of the senate.

[22] Consules cum ambo Apuliam prouinciam haberent, minusque iam terroris a Poenis et Hannibale esset, sortiri iussi Apuliam Macedoniamque prouincias. Sulpicio Macedonia euenit isque Laeuino successit. Fuluius Romam comitiorum causa arcessitus cum comitia consulibus rogandis haberet, praerogatiua Uoturia iuniorum T. Manlium Torquatum et T. Otacilium <consules dixit.

[22] When both consuls had Apulia as their province, and there was now less terror from the Carthaginians and Hannibal, they were ordered to draw lots for the provinces of Apulia and Macedonia. Macedonia fell to Sulpicius, and he succeeded Laevinus. Fulvius, summoned to Rome for the sake of the elections, when he was holding the comitia for electing the consuls, the prerogative Voturia of the juniors declared T. Manlius Torquatus and T. Otacilius consuls.

cum ad Manlium>, qui praesens erat, gratulandi causa turba coiret, nec dubius esset consensus populi, magna circumfusus turba ad tribunal consulis uenit, petitque ut pauca sua uerba audiret centuriamque quae tulisset suffragium reuocari iuberet. erectis omnibus exspectatione quidnam postulaturus esset, oculorum ualetudinem excusauit: impudentem et gubernatorem et imperatorem esse qui, cum alienis oculis ei omnia agenda sint, postulet sibi aliorum capita ac fortunas committi; proinde si uideretur ei, redire in suffragium Uoturiam iuniorum iuberet et meminisse in consulibus creandis belli quod in Italia sit temporumque rei publicae; uixdum requiesse aures a strepitu et tumultu hostili, quo paucos ante menses cesserint prope moenia Romana. post haec cum centuria frequens succlamasset nihil se mutare sententiae eosdemque consules dicturos esse, tum Torquatus 'neque ego uestros' inquit 'mores consul ferre potero neque uos imperium meum.

when, as the crowd was gathering to Manlius, who was present, for the sake of congratulating him, and the consensus of the people was not in doubt, he came, surrounded by a great throng, to the consul’s tribunal, and asked that he listen to a few of his words and order the century that had cast its suffrage to be called back. With all raised in expectation as to what he was going to demand, he pleaded the infirmity of his eyes: it is impudent for a helmsman and a commander who, since everything must be done for him with other men’s eyes, asks that other men’s lives and fortunes be entrusted to himself; therefore, if it seemed good to him, he should order the Voturia of the juniors to return to the vote and to remember, in creating consuls, the war that is in Italy and the times of the commonwealth; their ears had scarcely rested from the hostile din and tumult, before which a few months ago they had given way near the walls of Rome. After this, when the full century had shouted in response that they were changing nothing of their opinion and would name the same consuls, then Torquatus said: “Neither shall I as consul be able to bear your manners, nor you my command.”

redite in suffragium et cogitate bellum Punicum in Italia et hostium ducem Hannibalem esse.' tum centuria et auctoritate mota uiri et admirantium circa fremitu, petiit a consule ut Uoturiam seniorum citaret: uelle sese cum maioribus natu conloqui et ex auctoritate eorum consules dicere. citatis Uoturiae senioribus, datum secreto in Ouili cum iis conloquendi tempus. seniores de tribus consulendum dixerunt esse, duobus plenis iam honorum, Q. Fabio et M. Marcello, et si utique nouum aliquem aduersus Poenos consulem creari uellent, M. Ualerio Laeuino; egregie aduersus Philippum regem terra marique rem gessisse.

'return to the vote and consider that the Punic War is in Italy and that the leader of the enemies is Hannibal.' Then the century, moved both by the man’s authority and by the murmur of those admiring around, asked the consul to summon the Voturia of the elders: they wished to confer with the older men and, on their authority, to declare the consuls. When the elders of the Voturia had been summoned, time was granted to speak with them in private in the Ovile. The elders said that deliberation should be held about three men: two already full of honors, Q. Fabius and M. Marcellus; and, if in any case they wished to have some new man created consul against the Carthaginians, M. Valerius Laevinus; he had conducted affairs excellently against King Philip by land and sea.

ita de tribus consultatione data, senioribus dimissis iuniores suffragium ineunt. M. Claudium, fulgentem tum Sicilia domita, et M. Ualerium absentes consules dixerunt. auctoritatem praerogatiuae omnes centuriae secutae sunt.

thus, with consultation having been given about the three, and the elders dismissed, the younger men enter upon the vote. they declared Marcus Claudius—then shining with Sicily subdued—and Marcus Valerius, though absent, as consuls. the authority of the prerogative century was followed by all the centuries.

eludant nunc antiqua mirantes: non equidem, si qua sit sapientium ciuitas quam docti fingunt magis quam norunt, aut principes grauiores temperantioresque a cupidine imperii aut multitudinem melius moratam censeam fieri posse. centuriam uero iuniorum seniores consulere uoluisse quibus imperium suffragio mandaret, uix ut ueri simile sit parentium quoque hoc saeculo uilis leuisque apud liberos auctoritas fecit.

let those who marvel at ancient things mock now: I, for my part, even if there were some city of the wise such as the learned fashion rather than know, would not judge it possible either that rulers be graver and more temperate with respect to the cupidity for command, or that the multitude be better-mannered. but that the elders wished to consult the century of the younger men as to whom they should entrust the imperium by suffrage, the cheap and slight authority of parents among their children in this very age has made scarcely credible.

[23] Praetoria inde comitia habita. P. Manlius Uolso et L. Manlius Acidinus et C. Laetorius et L. Cincius Alimentus creati sunt. forte ita incidit ut comitiis perfectis nuntiaretur T. Otacilium, quem T. Manlio nisi interpellatus ordo comitiorum esset collegam absentem daturus fuisse uidebatur populus, mortuum in Sicilia esse.

[23] Then the praetorian comitia were held. P. Manlius Uolso and L. Manlius Acidinus and C. Laetorius and L. Cincius Alimentus were elected. By chance it so befell that, when the comitia were completed, it was announced that T. Otacilius—whom the people seemed about to bestow upon T. Manlius as a colleague in absentia, had not the order of the comitia been interrupted—had died in Sicily.

ludi Apollinares et priore anno fuerant et eo anno ut fierent referente Calpurnio praetore senatus decreuit ut in perpetuum uouerentur. eodem anno prodigia aliquot uisa nuntiataque sunt. in aede Concordiae Uictoria quae in culmine erat fulmine icta decussaque ad Uictorias quae in antefixis erant haesit neque inde procidit; et Anagniae et Fregellis nuntiatum est murum portasque de caelo tacta, et in foro Subertano sanguinis riuos per diem totum fluxisse, et Ereti lapidibus pluuisse, et Reate mulam peperisse.

The Apollinarian games had been held also in the prior year, and in that year, with the praetor Calpurnius reporting, the senate decreed that they should be vowed in perpetuity. In the same year several prodigies were seen and reported. In the Temple of Concord the Victory which was on the summit, struck by lightning and knocked down, stuck fast to the Victories which were on the antefixes and did not fall thence; and at Anagnia and at Fregellae it was reported that a wall and gates had been struck from the sky; and in the Subertan forum streams of blood flowed for the whole day; and at Eretum it rained stones; and at Reate a mule gave birth.

ea prodigia hostiis maioribus sunt procurata et obsecratio in unum diem populo indicta et nouendiale sacrum. sacerdotes publici aliquot eo anno demortui sunt nouique suffecti: in locum M'. Aemili Numidae decemuiri sacrorum M. Aemilius Lepidus, in locum M. Pomponi Mathonis pontificis C. Liuius, in locum Sp. Caruili Maximi auguris M. Seruilius. T. Otacilius Crassus pontifex quia exacto anno mortuus erat, ideo nominatio in locum eius non est facta.

Those prodigies were expiated with greater victims, and a supplication was proclaimed to the people for one day, and a nine‑day sacred rite. Several public priests died that year and new ones were appointed in their place: in the place of M'. Aemilius Numida, of the decemviri sacrorum, M. Aemilius Lepidus; in the place of M. Pomponius Matho, pontiff, C. Liuius; in the place of Sp. Caruilius Maximus, augur, M. Seruilius. T. Otacilius Crassus, pontiff, because he had died when the year had expired, therefore a nomination into his place was not made.

C. Claudius flamen Dialis quod exta perperam dederat flamonio abiit.

Gaius Claudius, the Flamen Dialis, because he had improperly given the entrails, withdrew from the flaminate.

[24] Per idem tempus M. Ualerius Laeuinus temptatis prius per secreta conloquia principum animis ad indictum ante ad id ipsum concilium Aetolorum classe expedita uenit. ubi cum Syracusas Capuamque captas in fidem in Italia <Sicilia>que rerum secundarum ostentasset, adiecissetque iam inde a maioribus traditum morem Romanis colendi socios, ex quibus alios in ciuitatem atque aequum secum ius accepissent, alios in ea fortuna haberent ut socii esse quam ciues mallent: Aetolos eo in maiore futuros honore quod gentium transmarinarum in amicitiam primi uenissent; Philippum eis et Macedonas graues accolas esse, quorum se uim ac spiritus et iam fregisse et eo redacturum esse ut non iis modo urbibus quas per uim ademisset Aetolis excedant, sed ipsam Macedoniam infestam habeant; et Acarnanas quos aegre ferrent Aetoli a corpore suo diremptos restituturum se in antiquam formulam iurisque ac dicionis eorum;--haec dicta promissaque a Romano imperatore Scopas, qui tum praetor gentis erat, et Dorimachus princeps Aetolorum adfirmauerunt auctoritate sua, minore cum uerecundia et maiore cum fide uim maiestatemque populi Romani extollentes. maxime tamen spes potiundae mouebat Acarnaniae.

[24] About the same time M. Valerius Laevinus, after first trying by secret conversations the sentiments of the chiefs, came, with his fleet ready, to the council of the Aetolians which had previously been appointed for that very purpose. There, when he had displayed that Syracuse and Capua had been taken into allegiance, and the favorable turn of affairs in Italy and in <Sicily>, and had added that from their ancestors down it had been the custom of the Romans to cultivate their allies—of whom some they had received into citizenship and an equal right with themselves, others they kept in such a condition that they preferred to be allies rather than citizens—the Aetolians would be held in so much the greater honor because they were the first of the transmarine nations to come into friendship; that Philip and the Macedonians were burdensome neighbors to them, whose force and spirit he had already broken and would reduce to this point: that they would not only withdraw from the cities which they had taken by force from the Aetolians, but would find Macedonia itself made unsafe for them; and that he would restore the Acarnanians—whose sundering from their body the Aetolians took hard—to their ancient settlement and under their law and dominion;--these things, said and promised by the Roman commander, Scopas, who was then praetor of the nation, and Dorimachus, a leading man of the Aetolians, confirmed on their own authority, extolling the force and majesty of the Roman people with less reserve and greater assurance. Most of all, however, the hope of getting possession of Acarnania moved them.

igitur conscriptae condiciones quibus in amicitiam societatemque populi Romani uenirent; additumque ut, si placeret uellentque, eodem iure amicitiae Elei Lacedaemoniique et Attalus et Pleuratus et Scerdilaedus essent, Asiae Attalus, hi Thracum et Illyriorum reges; bellum ut extemplo Aetoli cum Philippo terra gererent; nauibus ne minus uiginti quinque quinqueremibus adiuuaret Romanus; urbium Corcyrae tenus ab Aetolia incipienti solum tectaque et muri cum agris Aetolorum, alia omnis praeda populi Romani esset, darentque operam Romani ut Acarnaniam Aetoli haberent; si Aetoli pacem cum Philippo facerent, foederi adscriberent ita ratam fore pacem si Philippus arma ab Romanis sociisque quique eorum dicionis essent abstinuisset; item si populus Romanus foedere iungeretur regi, ut caueret ne ius ei belli inferendi Aetolis sociisque eorum esset. haec conuenerunt, conscriptaque biennio post Olympiae ab Aetolis, in Capitolio ab Romanis, ut testata sacratis monumentis essent sunt posita. morae causa fuerant retenti Romae diutius legati Aetolorum; nec tamen impedimento id rebus gerendis fuit.

accordingly the conditions were drafted by which they might come into the friendship and alliance of the Roman people; and it was added that, if it should please and they should wish, the Eleans, the Lacedaemonians, and Attalus and Pleuratus and Scerdilaedus should be in the same right of friendship—Attalus of Asia, these kings of the Thracians and Illyrians; that the Aetolians should wage war with Philip forthwith on land; that the Roman should aid with not fewer than twenty-five quinqueremes; that, of cities, beginning from Aetolia as far as Corcyra, the soil and buildings and walls with the fields should be the Aetolians’, all other booty should be the Roman people’s; and that the Romans should give their effort that the Aetolians should have Acarnania; that, if the Aetolians should make peace with Philip, they should write into the treaty that the peace would be valid on this condition: if Philip should abstain from arms against the Romans and their allies and all who were under their dominion; likewise, if the Roman people should be joined by treaty to the king, that it should be provided that he have no right of bringing war upon the Aetolians and their allies. these points were agreed, and, having been written down, two years later were set up—at Olympia by the Aetolians, on the Capitol by the Romans—so that they might be attested by sacred monuments. the envoys of the Aetolians had been detained at Rome longer as a cause of delay; yet this was not a hindrance to the carrying on of affairs.

et Aetoli extemplo mouerunt aduersus Philippum bellum, et Laeuinus Zacynthum--parua insula est propinqua Aetoliae; urbem unam eodem quo ipsa est nomine habet; eam praeter arcem ui cepit--et Oeniadas Nassumque Acarnanum captas Aetolis contribuit; Philippum quoque satis implicatum bello finitimo ratus ne Italiam Poenosque et pacta cum Hannibale posset respicere, Corcyram ipse se recepit.

and the Aetolians forthwith set in motion war against Philip, and Laevinus took Zacynthus--it is a small island near Aetolia; it has one city with the same name as itself; he took it by force, except the citadel--and he assigned Oeniadae and the Acarnanian Nassus, having been captured, to the Aetolians; judging Philip also to be sufficiently entangled in a neighboring war, so that he could not look back to Italy and the Punics and the pacts with Hannibal, he himself withdrew to Corcyra.

[25] Philippo Aetolorum defectio Pellae hibernanti allata est. itaque quia primo uere moturus exercitum in Graeciam erat, Illyrios finitimasque eis urbes ab tergo metu quietas ut Macedonia haberet, expeditionem subitam in Oricinorum atque Apolloniatium fines fecit, egressosque Apolloniatas cum magno terrore ac pauore compulit intra muros. uastatis proximis Illyrici in Pelagoniam eadem celeritate uertit iter; inde Dardanorum urbem Sintiam, in Macedoniam transitum Dardanis facturam, cepit.

[25] The defection of the Aetolians was brought to Philip while he was wintering at Pella. And so, since at the beginning of spring he was about to move the army into Greece, in order that Macedonia might have the Illyrians and the cities contiguous to them quiet at his rear through fear, he made a sudden expedition into the borders of the Oricini and the Apolloniates, and he compelled the Apolloniates who had gone out to sally, with great terror and panic, back within the walls. The nearest parts of Illyricum having been laid waste, he turned his route with the same celerity into Pelagonia; from there he took Syntia, a city of the Dardanians, which would make a passage into Macedonia for the Dardanians.

his raptim actis, memor Aetolici iunctique cum eo Romani belli per Pelagoniam et Lyncum et Bottiaeam in Thessaliam descendit--ad bellum secum aduersus Aetolos capessendum incitari posse homines credebat--et relicto ad fauces Thessaliae Perseo cum quattuor milibus armatorum ad arcendos aditu Aetolos, ipse priusquam maioribus occuparetur rebus in Macedoniam atque inde in Thraciam exercitum ac Maedos duxit. incurrere ea gens in Macedoniam solita erat, ubi regem occupatum externo bello ac sine praesidio esse regnum sensisset. ad frangendas igitur <uires gentis simul> uastare agros et urbem Iamphorynnam, caput arcemque Maedicae, oppugnare coepit.

With these things hurriedly done, mindful of the Aetolian war and the Roman war joined with it, he descended through Pelagonia and Lynkos and Bottiaea into Thessaly--he believed that men could be incited to take up war with him against the Aetolians--and, leaving Perseus with 4,000 armed men at the passes of Thessaly to keep the Aetolians from entry, he himself, before he should be occupied with greater affairs, led the army into Macedonia and thence into Thrace against the Maedi. That people was accustomed to rush into Macedonia whenever it perceived the king occupied with a foreign war and the kingdom to be without a garrison. To break therefore <the strength of the nation at the same time> he began to devastate the fields and to attack the city Iamphorynna, the head and citadel of Maedica.

Scopas ubi profectum in Thraciam regem occupatumque ibi bello audiuit, armata omni iuuentute Aetolorum bellum inferre Acarnaniae parat. aduersus quos Acarnanum gens, et uiribus impar et iam Oeniadas Nassumque amissa cernens Romanaque insuper arma ingruere, ira magis instruit quam consilio bellum. coniugibus liberisque et senioribus super sexaginta annos in propinquam Epirum missis, ab quindecim ad sexaginta annos coniurant nisi uictores se non redituros; qui uictus acie excessisset, eum ne quis urbe tecto mensa lare reciperet, diram exsecrationem in populares, obtestationem quam sanctissimam potuerunt aduersus hospites composuerunt; precatique simul Epirotas sunt ut qui suorum in acie cecidissent eos uno tumulo contegerent, adicerentque humatis titulum: 'hic siti sunt Acarnanes, qui aduersus uim atque iniuriam Aetolorum pro patria pugnantes mortem occubuerunt.' per haec incitatis animis castra in extremis finibus suis obuia hosti posuerunt.

When Scopas heard that the king had set out into Thrace and was occupied there with war, he prepared, with all the Aetolian youth armed, to bring war upon Acarnania. Against these the nation of the Acarnanians, both unequal in forces and seeing that Oeniadae and Nasus had already been lost and, besides, that Roman arms were pressing on, girds itself for war more by anger than by counsel. Their wives and children and elders over sixty years being sent into neighboring Epirus, those from fifteen to sixty years swore an oath that they would not return unless as victors; whoever, defeated, should have left the battle-line, let no one receive him in city, under roof, at table, or hearth; they framed a dire imprecation upon their fellow citizens, and an adjuration as most sacred as they could against hosts. At the same time they prayed the Epirots that they would cover with one mound such of their men as fell in battle, and add to the buried an inscription: ‘Here are laid the Acarnanians, who, fighting against the force and injustice of the Aetolians for their fatherland, met death.’ By these measures their spirits being stirred, they pitched camp at the farthest borders of their territory to meet the enemy.

nuntiis ad Philippum missis quanto res in discrimine esset, omittere Philippum id quod in manibus erat coegerunt bellum, Iamphorynna per deditionem recepta et prospero alio successu rerum. Aetolorum impetum tardauerat primo coniurationis fama Acarnanicae; deinde auditus Philippi aduentus regredi etiam in intimos coegit fines. nec Philippus, quanquam ne opprimerentur Acarnanes itineribus magnis ierat, ultra Dium est progressus; inde cum audisset reditum Aetolorum ex Acarnania, et ipse Pellam rediit.

With messengers sent to Philip, showing how much the situation was in peril, they compelled Philip to drop the war that was in hand—Iamphorynna having been recovered by surrender and with other prosperous success of affairs. The onset of the Aetolians had at first been slowed by the report of the Acarnanian conjuration; then the news of Philip’s approach even forced them to withdraw into their inmost borders. Nor did Philip, although he had gone by great marches lest the Acarnanians be overwhelmed, advance beyond Dium; from there, when he heard of the return of the Aetolians from Acarnania, he too returned to Pella.

[26] Laeuinus ueris principio a Corcyra profectus nauibus superato Leucata promuntorio cum uenisset Naupactum, Anticyram inde se petiturum edixit ut praesto ibi Scopas Aetolique essent. sita Anticyra est in Locride laeua parte sinum Corinthiacum intranti; breue terra iter eo, breuis nauigatio ab Naupacto est. tertio ferme post die utrimque oppugnari coepta est; grauior a mari oppugnatio erat quia et tormenta machinaeque omnis generis in nauibus erant et Romani inde oppugnabant.

[26] At the beginning of spring Laevinus, setting out from Corcyra with ships and, the promontory of Leucate having been rounded, when he had come to Naupactus, proclaimed that from there he would make for Anticyra, so that Scopas and the Aetolians might be present there. Anticyra is situated in Locris, on the left side for one entering the Corinthian Gulf; the land journey thither is short, and the navigation from Naupactus is short. On about the third day thereafter it began to be assaulted from both sides; the assault from the sea was heavier, because both artillery and machines of every kind were on the ships, and the Romans were attacking from there.

itaque intra paucos dies recepta urbs per deditionem Aetolis traditur: praeda ex pacto Romanis cessit. litterae Laeuino redditae consulem eum absentem declaratum et successorem uenire P. Sulpicium; ceterum diuturno ibi morbo implicitus serius spe omnium Romam uenit. M. Marcellus cum idibus Martiis consulatum inisset, senatum eo die moris modo causa habuit professus nihil se absente collega neque de re publica neque de prouinciis acturum: scire se frequentes Siculos prope urbem in uillis obtrectatorum suorum esse; quibus tantum abesse ut per se non liceat palam Romae crimina edita [ficta] ab inimicis uolgare, ut ni simularent aliquem sibi timorem absente collega dicendi de consule esse, ipse eis extemplo daturus senatum fuerit.

accordingly within a few days the city, recovered by surrender, is handed over to the Aetolians: the booty, by the pact, fell to the Romans. Letters were delivered to Laevinus that he had been declared consul in his absence and that a successor was coming, Publius Sulpicius; however, entangled there in a long illness, he came to Rome later than everyone’s hope. When on the Ides of March Marcus Marcellus had entered upon the consulship, he held a meeting of the senate that day merely for form’s sake, declaring that in the absence of his colleague he would transact nothing either concerning the commonwealth or concerning the provinces: he knew that numerous Sicilians were near the city in the villas of his detractors; and so far was it from being the case that it was not permitted to them, on their own, to spread openly at Rome the charges brought [fabricated] by enemies, that, unless they pretended there was some fear for themselves, with his colleague absent, of speaking about the consul, he would himself forthwith have given them an audience of the senate.

ubi quidem collega uenisset non passurum quicquam prius agi quam ut Siculi in senatum introducantur. dilectum prope a M. Cornelio per totam Siciliam habitum ut quam plurimi questum de se Romam uenirent; eundem litteris falsis urbem implesse bellum in Sicilia esse ut suam laudem minuat. moderati animi gloriam eo die adeptus consul senatum dimisit, ac prope iustitium omnium rerum futurum uidebatur donec alter consul ad urbem uenisset.

where, indeed, when his colleague had arrived, he would allow nothing to be transacted before the Sicilians were introduced into the senate. A levy had been held, well-nigh, by M. Cornelius throughout all Sicily, in order that as many as possible might come to Rome to lodge complaints against him; and that the same man had filled the city with false letters, that there was war in Sicily, so as to diminish his praise. The consul, having that day attained the glory of a moderated spirit, dismissed the senate, and it seemed that there would be almost a suspension of all business until the other consul had come to the city.

otium, ut solet, excitauit plebis rumores. belli diuturnitatem et uastatos agros circa urbem, qua infesto agmine isset Hannibal, exhaustam dilectibus Italiam et prope quotannis caesos exercitus querebantur, et consules bellicosos ambo uiros acresque nimis et feroces creatos qui uel in pace tranquilla bellum excitare possent, nedum in bello respirare ciuitatem forent passuri.

Leisure, as it is wont, stirred up the rumors of the plebs. They complained of the long duration of the war and of the fields devastated around the city where Hannibal had gone with a hostile column; of Italy exhausted by levies and of armies cut down almost year by year; and that consuls—both warlike, men too keen and too ferocious—had been elected, who could even in tranquil peace excite war, much less would they allow the state to breathe in war.

[27] Interrupit hos sermones nocte quae pridie Quinquatrus fuit pluribus simul locis circa forum incendium ortum. eodem tempore septem tabernae quae postea quinque, et argentariae quae nunc nouae appellantur, arsere; comprehensa postea priuata aedificia--neque enim tum basilicae erant--comprehensae lautumiae forumque piscatorium et atrium regium; aedis Uestae uix defensa est tredecim maxime seruorum opera, qui in publicum redempti ac manu missi sunt. nocte ac die continuatum incendium fuit, nec ulli dubium erat humana id fraude factum esse quod pluribus simul locis et iis diuersis ignes coorti essent.

[27] These conversations were interrupted by a fire that broke out, on the night before the Quinquatrus, in several places at once around the Forum. At the same time the Seven Shops, which later were the Five, and the argentariae, which are now called the New, burned; afterward private buildings were caught—for at that time there were not yet basilicas—caught too were the Lautumiae, the fish-market, and the Royal Atrium; the Temple of Vesta was scarcely defended, chiefly by the effort of thirteen slaves, who were bought for the public and manumitted. The fire was continued through night and day, nor was it doubtful to anyone that it had been done by human fraud, because fires had arisen at several places at once, and those different.

itaque consul ex auctoritate senatus pro contione edixit qui, quorum opera id conflatum incendium, profiteretur, praemium fore libero pecuniam, seruo libertatem. eo praemio inductus Campanorum Calauiorum seruus--Manus ei nomen erat--indicauit dominos et quinque praeterea iuuenes nobiles Campanos quorum parentes a Q. Fuluio securi percussi erant id incendium fecisse, uolgoque facturos alia ni comprendantur. comprehensi ipsi familiaeque eorum.

accordingly the consul, by the authority of the senate, proclaimed before the assembly that whoever would declare by whose agency that fire had been kindled, there would be a reward: for a free person, money; for a slave, freedom. Induced by that reward, a slave of the Calavii, Campanians—Manus was his name—denounced his masters and, besides them, five noble Campanian youths, whose parents had been beheaded with the axe by Quintus Fulvius, as having done that fire, and that they would at large commit others unless they were apprehended. They themselves and their households were seized.

et primo eleuabatur index indiciumque: pridie eum uerberibus castigatum ab dominis discessisse; per iram ac leuitatem ex re fortuita crimen commentum. ceterum ut coram coarguebantur et quaestio ex ministris facinoris foro medio haberi coepta est, fassi omnes, atque in dominos seruosque conscios animaduersum est; indici libertas data et uiginti milia aeris. consuli Laeuino Capuam praetereunti circumfusa multitudo Campanorum est obsecrantium cum lacrimis ut sibi Romam ad senatum ire liceret oratum, si qua misericordia tandem flecti possent, ne se ad ultimum perditum irent nomenque Campanorum a Q. Flacco deleri sinerent.

and at first the informant and his information were being belittled: that the day before he had departed, chastised with beatings by his masters; that out of anger and levity he had fabricated a charge from a chance matter. but when they were convicted face to face and an inquest upon the ministers of the deed began to be held in the middle of the forum, all confessed, and punishment was inflicted upon the masters and the enslaved accomplices; to the informant freedom was granted and twenty thousand asses. as Consul Laevinus was passing by Capua, a crowd of Campanians surrounded him, beseeching with tears that it might be permitted to them to go to Rome to the senate to plead, if by any mercy at last they could be bent, that they might not go to utter ruin, and that they would not allow the name of the Campanians to be effaced by Q. Flaccus.

Flaccus sibi priuatam simultatem cum Campanis negare ullam esse: publicas inimicitias ~hostilis~ et esse et futuras, quoad eo animo esse erga populum Romanum sciret; nullam enim in terris gentem esse, nullum infestiorem populum nomini Romano. ideo se moenibus inclusos tenere eos, quia si qui euasissent aliqua, uelut feras bestias per agros uagari et laniare et trucidare quodcunque obuium detur; alios ad Hannibalem transfugisse, alios ad Romam incendendam profectos. inuenturum in semusto foro consulem uestigia sceleris Campanorum; Uestae aedem petitam et aeternos ignes et conditum in penetrali fatale pignus imperii Romani.

Flaccus denied that he had any private feud with the Campanians: that the public enmities, ~hostile~, both were and would be, so long as he knew them to be of that spirit toward the Roman people; for there is no nation on earth, no people more inimical to the Roman name. For that reason he was holding them shut in within the walls, because, if any had by some means escaped, they would roam the fields like wild beasts and rend and butcher whatever should be met; some had deserted to Hannibal, others had set out to burn Rome. The consul would find in the half-burned forum the traces of the Campanians’ crime; the Temple of Vesta had been targeted, and the eternal fires, and the fateful pledge of the Roman imperium laid up in the inner shrine.

se minime censere tutum esse Campanis potestatem intrandi Romana moenia fieri. Laeuinus Campanos, iure iurando a Flacco adactos quinto die quam ab senatu responsum accepissent Capuam redituros, sequi se Romam iussit. hac circumfusus multitudine, simul Siculis obuiam egressis secutisque Romam, praebuit <dolentis speciem duarum> clarissimarum urbium excidio, ac celeberrimis uiris uictos bello accusatores in urbem adducentis.

he declared that he by no means judged it safe that the power be granted to the Campanians of entering the Roman walls. Laevinus ordered the Campanians—bound by oath by Flaccus to return to Capua on the fifth day after they had received an answer from the senate—to follow him to Rome. Surrounded by this multitude, and at the same time with the Sicilians having come out to meet him and having followed to Rome, he presented <the appearance of one grieving for two> most illustrious cities at their destruction, and of most celebrated men bringing into the city, as accusers, those conquered in war.

de re publica tamen primum ac de prouinciis ambo consules ad senatum rettulere.

However, first, both consuls brought before the senate the matter of the republic and of the provinces.

[28] Ibi Laeuinus, quo statu Macedonia et Graecia, Aetoli, Acarnanes Locrique essent, quasque ibi res ipse egisset terra marique, exposuit: Philippum inferentem bellum Aetolis in Macedoniam retro ab se compulsum ad intima penitus regni abisse, legionemque inde deduci posse; classem satis esse ad arcendum Italia regem. haec de se deque prouincia, cui praefuerat, consul: tum de prouinciis communis relatio fuit. decreuere patres ut alteri consulum Italia bellumque cum Hannibale prouincia esset, alter classem cui T. Otacilius praefuisset Siciliamque prouinciam cum L. Cincio praetore obtineret.

[28] There Laevinus set forth in what condition Macedonia and Greece, the Aetolians, the Acarnanians, and the Locrians were, and what affairs he himself had transacted there by land and by sea: that Philip, bringing war upon the Aetolians, had by him been driven back into Macedonia and had gone away to the inmost recesses of his realm, and that a legion could be withdrawn from there; that the fleet was sufficient to ward the king from Italy. These matters about himself and about the province which he had presided over, the consul [reported]; then there was a common deliberation about the provinces. The Fathers decreed that to one of the consuls Italy and the war with Hannibal should be the province; the other should hold the fleet which T. Otacilius had commanded and the Sicilian province along with L. Cincius the praetor.

exercitus eis duo decreti qui in Etruria Galliaque essent; eae quattuor erant legiones; urbanae duae superioris anni in Etruriam, duae quibus Sulpicius consul praefuisset in Galliam mitterentur. Galliae et legionibus praeesset quem consul cuius Italia prouincia esset praefecisset: in Etruriam C. Calpurnius post praeturam prorogato in annum imperio missus. et Q. Fuluio Capua prouincia decreta prorogatumque in annum imperium; exercitus ciuium sociorumque minui iussus ut ex duabus legionibus una legio, quinque milia peditum et trecenti equites essent, dimissis qui plurima stipendia haberent, et sociorum septem milia peditum et trecenti equites relinquerentur, eadem ratione stipendiorum habita in ueteribus militibus dimittendis.

Two armies were decreed for them, to be in Etruria and in Gaul; these were four legions: the two urban legions of the previous year were to be sent to Etruria, and the two which Consul Sulpicius had commanded to Gaul. Gaul and the legions were to be commanded by whomever the consul whose province was Italy had appointed; to Etruria G. Calpurnius, after his praetorship, was sent with his imperium prorogued for a year. And to Q. Fulvius the province of Capua was decreed, and his imperium prorogued for a year; the army of citizens and allies was ordered to be reduced, so that out of two legions there should be one legion—five thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry—those who had the most campaigns (stipends) being discharged; and of the allies there should be left seven thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry, the same rule of stipends being observed in dismissing the veteran soldiers.

Cn. Fuluio consuli superioris anni nec de prouincia Apulia nec de exercitu quem habuerat quicquam mutatum; tantum in annum prorogatum imperium est. P. Sulpicius collega eius omnem exercitum praeter socios nauales iussus dimittere est. item ex Sicilia exercitus cui M. Cornelius praeesset ubi consul in prouinciam uenisset dimitti iussus.

Cn. Fulvius, consul of the previous year, had nothing changed either concerning the province Apulia or concerning the army which he had; only his imperium was prolonged for a year. P. Sulpicius, his colleague, was ordered to dismiss the whole army except the naval allies. Likewise, the army in Sicily over which M. Cornelius presided was ordered to be dismissed when the consul had come into the province.

L. Cincio praetori ad obtinendam Siciliam Cannenses milites dati, duarum instar legionum. totidem legiones in Sardiniam P. Manlio Uolsoni praetori decretae, quibus L. Cornelius in eadem prouincia priore anno praefuerat. urbanas legiones ita scribere consules iussi ne quem militem facerent qui in exercitu M. Claudi M. Ualeri Q. Fului fuisset, neue eo anno plures quam una et uiginti Romanae legiones essent.

L. Cincius, praetor, was given the Cannensian soldiers for holding Sicily, to the amount of two legions. The same number of legions were decreed for Sardinia to P. Manlius Volso, praetor, the legions which L. Cornelius had commanded in the same province the previous year. The consuls were ordered thus to enroll the urban legions: that they should make no soldier of anyone who had been in the army of M. Claudius, M. Valerius, or Q. Fulvius, and that in that year there should not be more than 21 Roman legions.

[29] His senatus consultis perfectis sortiti prouincias consules. Sicilia et classis Marcello, Italia cum bello aduersus Hannibalem Laeuino euenit. quae sors, uelut iterum captis Syracusis, ita exanimauit Siculos, exspectatione sortis in consulum conspectu stantes, ut comploratio eorum flebilesque uoces et extemplo oculos hominum conuerterint et postmodo sermones praebuerint.

[29] With these decrees of the senate completed, the consuls cast lots for the provinces. Sicily and the fleet fell to Marcellus; Italy, with the war against Hannibal, fell to Laevinus. This lot, as if Syracuse had been captured a second time, so stunned the Sicilians—standing in expectation of the lot in the consuls’ presence—that their lamentation and tearful voices straightway drew men’s eyes and afterwards supplied matter for conversation.

circumibant enim senatorum <domos> cum ueste sordida, adfirmantes se non modo suam quosque patriam, sed totam Siciliam relicturos si eo Marcellus iterum cum imperio redisset. nullo suo merito eum ante implacabilem in se fuisse: quid iratum quod Romam de se questum uenisse Siculos sciat facturum? obrui Aetnae ignibus aut mergi freto satius illi insulae esse quam uelut dedi noxae inimico.

for they were going around the senators’ <houses> in sordid clothing, affirming that they would abandon not only each his own fatherland, but all Sicily, if Marcellus should return there again with imperium. Through no fault of theirs he had previously been implacable against them: what would he do in anger, since he knows that the Sicilians came to Rome to lodge a complaint about him? It were better for that island to be overwhelmed by Aetna’s fires or sunk in the strait than, as though delivered up as guilty, to an enemy.

hae Siculorum querellae domos primum nobilium circumlatae celebrataeque sermonibus, quos partim misericordia Siculorum, partim inuidia Marcelli excitabat, in senatum etiam peruenerunt. postulatum a consulibus est ut de permutandis prouinciis senatum consulerent. Marcellus si iam auditi ab senatu Siculi essent aliam forsitan futuram fuisse sententiam suam dicere: nunc ne quis timore frenari eos dicere posset quo minus de eo libere querantur in cuius potestate mox futuri sint, si collegae nihil intersit mutare se prouinciam paratum esse, deprecari senatus praeiudicium; nam cum extra sortem collegae optionem dari prouinciae iniquum fuerit, quanto maiorem iniuriam, immo contumeliam esse, sortem suam ad eum transferri?

These complaints of the Sicilians, first carried around the houses of the nobles and made famous by conversations, which pity for the Sicilians in part, envy of Marcellus in part, was stirring up, reached even the senate. It was demanded of the consuls that they consult the senate about the exchanging of provinces. Marcellus said that, if the Sicilians had already been heard by the senate, perhaps his opinion would have been different; now, in order that no one might be able to say that they were reined in by fear, so as to complain the less freely of him in whose power they would soon be, if it were no concern to his colleague, he was prepared to change his province, but he deprecated a prejudgment by the senate; for since it would be inequitable that a choice of province be given to his colleague outside the lot, how much greater an injury—nay, an affront—would it be that his lot be transferred to that man?

ita senatus cum quid placeret magis ostendisset quam decreuisset, dimittitur. inter ipsos consules permutatio prouinciarum rapiente fato Marcellum ad Hannibalem facta est, ut ex quo primus post <aduersissimas haud> aduersae pugnae gloriam ceperat, in eius laudem postremus Romanorum imperatorum prosperis tum maxime bellicis rebus caderet.

Thus the senate, after showing rather what pleased it than passing a decree, was dismissed. Between the consuls themselves an exchange of provinces was made, fate snatching Marcellus toward Hannibal, so that from him—from whom he had first taken glory after a most adverse battle—he, the last of the Roman commanders, would fall to that man’s laud, when military affairs were then at their most prosperous.

[30] Permutatis prouinciis Siculi in senatum introducti multa de Hieronis regis fide perpetua erga populum Romanum uerba fecerunt, in gratiam publicam auertentes: Hieronymum ac postea Hippocraten atque Epicyden tyrannos cum ob alia, tum propter defectionem ab Romanis ad Hannibalem inuisos fuisse sibi. ob eam causam et Hieronymum a principibus iuuentutis prope publico consilio interfectum, et in Epicydis Hippocratisque caedem septuaginta nobilissimorum iuuenum coniurationem factam; quos Marcelli mora destitutos quia ad praedictum tempus exercitum ad Syracusas non admouisset indicio facto omnes ab tyrannis interfectos. eam quoque Hippocratis et Epicydis tyrannidem Marcellum excitasse Leontinis crudeliter direptis.

[30] With the provinces exchanged, the Sicilians, introduced into the senate, spoke many words about King Hieron’s perpetual fidelity toward the Roman people, turning it to public favor: that Hieronymus and afterwards Hippocrates and Epicydes, tyrants, had been odious to them, both on other accounts and especially because of the defection from the Romans to Hannibal. For that cause both Hieronymus had been slain by the chiefs of the youth, almost by a public counsel, and for the slaughter of Epicydes and Hippocrates a conspiracy of seventy most noble youths had been formed; who, left unsupported by Marcellus’s delay because he had not moved the army to Syracuse at the preappointed time, an information having been laid, were all killed by the tyrants. That Marcellus also had stirred up that tyranny, Leontini having been cruelly plundered.

nunquam deinde principes Syracusanorum desisse ad Marcellum transire pollicerique se urbem cum uellet ei tradituros; sed eum primo ui capere maluisse; dein cum id neque terra neque mari omnia expertus potuisset, auctores traditarum Syracusarum fabrum aerarium Sosim et Moericum Hispanum quam principes Syracusanorum habere, totiens id nequiquam ultro offerentes, praeoptasse, quo scilicet iustiore de causa uetustissimos socios populi Romani trucidaret ac diriperet. si non Hieronymus ad Hannibalem defecisset, sed populus Syracusanus et senatus, si portas Marcello Syracusani publice et non oppressis Syracusanis tyranni eorum Hippocrates et Epicydes clausissent, si Carthaginiensium animis bellum cum populo Romano gessissent, quid ultra quam quod fecerit nisi ut deleret Syracusas facere hostiliter Marcellum potuisse? certe praeter moenia et tecta exhausta urbis ac refracta ac spoliata deum delubra dis ipsis ornamentisque eorum ablatis nihil relictum Syracusis esse.

that thereafter the leading men of the Syracusans never ceased to go over to Marcellus and to promise that they would deliver the city to him whenever he wished; but that he at first preferred to take it by force; then, when, having tried everything, he could not accomplish that either by land or by sea, he preferred to have as authors of the surrender of Syracuse Sosis, a coppersmith, and Moericus the Spaniard, rather than the chiefs of the Syracusans, who so often offered that of their own accord in vain—so that, forsooth, under a more “just” pretext he might butcher and plunder the most ancient allies of the Roman people. If it had not been Hieronymus who defected to Hannibal, but the Syracusan people and senate; if the Syracusans had publicly shut the gates against Marcellus, and not their tyrants, Hippocrates and Epicydes, the Syracusans being overpowered, had shut them; if they had waged war with Carthaginian spirit against the Roman people—what, beyond what he did, could Marcellus have done in a hostile manner, except to obliterate Syracuse? Surely, apart from the walls and the roofs, the city was drained, and, the shrines of the gods having been broken open and despoiled, with the gods themselves and their ornaments carried off, nothing was left to Syracuse.

bona quoque multis adempta ita ut ne nudo quidem solo reliquiis direptae fortunae alere sese ac suos possent. orare se patres conscriptos ut si nequeant omnia, saltem quae compareant cognoscique possint restitui dominis iubeant. talia conquestos cum excedere ex templo ut de postulatis eorum patres consuli possent Laeuinus iussisset, 'maneant immo' inquit Marcellus, 'ut coram iis respondeam, quando ea condicione pro uobis, patres conscripti, bella gerimus ut uictos armis accusatores habeamus duae<que> captae hoc anno urbes Capua Fuluium reum, Marcellum Syracusae habeant.'

Property too had been taken from many, so that, with nothing left but bare soil, by the remnants of a plundered fortune they could not sustain themselves and their own. They begged you, Conscript Fathers, that, if you cannot do everything, at least you order that those things which appear and can be identified be restored to their owners. When Laevinus had bidden them, after such complaints, to withdraw from the temple so that the senators might be consulted about their demands, “Nay, let them remain,” said Marcellus, “that I may answer in their presence, since on this condition, Conscript Fathers, we wage wars for you: that we have as accusers those whom we have conquered by arms; and the two cities captured this year—Capua has Fulvius as the accused, Syracuse has Marcellus.”

[31] Reductis in curiam legatis tum consul 'non adeo maiestatis' inquit 'populi Romani imperiique huius oblitus sum, patres conscripti, ut, si de meo crimine ambigeretur, consul dicturus causam accusantibus Graecis fuerim; sed non quid ego fecerim in disquisitionem uenit, quem quidquid in hostibus feci ius belli defendit, sed quid isti pati debuerint. qui si non fuerunt hostes, nihil interest nunc an uiuo Hierone Syracusas uiolauerim; sin autem desciuerunt a populo Romano, si legatos nostros ferro atque armis petierunt, urbem ac moenia clauserunt exercituque Carthaginiensium aduersus nos tutati sunt, quis passos esse hostilia cum fecerint indignatur? tradentes urbem principes Syracusanorum auersatus sum; Sosim et Moericum Hispanum quibus tantam crederem rem potiores habui.

[31] With the envoys led back into the curia, then the consul said: 'I am not so forgetful of the majesty of the Roman people and of this imperium, conscript fathers, that, if there were doubt about my crime, I, a consul, would be about to plead my cause to Greek accusers; but it is not what I have done that comes into disquisition—whatever I did against enemies the law of war defends—but what these men ought to have suffered. If they were not enemies, it makes no difference now whether I violated Syracuse while Hiero was alive; but if they defected from the Roman people, if they assailed our legates with steel and arms, shut the city and walls, and with the Carthaginians’ army defended them against us, who is indignant that they have suffered hostile acts when they themselves have done them? I turned away from the leading men of the Syracusans when they were handing over the city; I held Sosis and Moericus the Spaniard as preferable, to whom I believed I could entrust so great a matter.'

non estis extremi Syracusanorum, quippe qui aliis humilitatem obiciatis: quis est uestrum qui se mihi portas aperturum, qui armatos milites meos in urbem accepturum promiserit? odistis et exsecramini eos qui fecerunt, et ne hic quidem contumeliis in eos dicendis parcitis; tantum abest ut et ipsi tale quicquam facturi fueritis. ipsa humilitas eorum, patres conscripti, quam isti obiciunt maximo argumento est me neminem qui nauatam operam rei publicae nostrae uellet auersatum esse.

you are not the lowest of the Syracusans, since you cast “humility” in others’ teeth: who among you promised that he would open the gates to me, who would admit my armed soldiers into the city? you hate and execrate those who did it, and not even here do you spare them in speaking contumelies against them; so far is it from the case that you yourselves would have been about to do anything of the sort. their very humility, Conscript Fathers, which these men object, is the greatest argument that I have spurned no one who was willing to render service to our commonwealth.

et antequam obsiderem Syracusas, nunc legatis mittendis, nunc ad conloquium eundo temptaui pacem, et posteaquam neque legatos uiolandi uerecundia erat nec mihi ipsi congresso ad portas cum principibus responsum dabatur, multis terra marique exhaustis laboribus tandem ui atque armis Syracusas cepi. quae captis acciderint apud Hannibalem et Carthaginienses uictos iustius quam apud uictoris populi senatum quererentur. ego, patres conscripti, Syracusas spoliatas si negaturus essem, nunquam spoliis earum urbem Romam exornarem.

and before I besieged Syracuse, now by sending legates, now by going to a colloquy, I attempted peace; and after there was no shame at violating even legates, and no answer was given to me myself, though I met at the gates with the chiefs, after many labors expended by land and sea I took Syracuse at last by force and arms. Let the things that befell the captured be complained of more justly before Hannibal and the Carthaginians—the conquered—than before the senate of the conquering people. I, Conscript Fathers, if I were going to deny that Syracuse was despoiled, would never have adorned the city of Rome with their spoils.

quae autem singulis uictor aut ademi aut dedi, cum belli iure tum ex cuiusque merito satis scio me fecisse. ea uos rata habeatis, patres conscripti, necne, magis rei publicae interest quam mea. quippe mea fides exsoluta est: ad rem publicam pertinet ne acta mea rescindendo alios in posterum segniores duces faciatis.

Moreover, as to what, in each individual case, I the victor either took away or gave, both by the law of war and according to each one’s merit, I know well that I have done. Whether you, Conscript Fathers, hold those measures ratified or not concerns the commonwealth more than me. For my pledged faith is discharged: it pertains to the commonwealth that, by rescinding my acts, you do not make other commanders in time to come more sluggish.

et quoniam coram et Siculorum et mea uerba audistis, patres conscripti, simul templo excedemus, ut me absente liberius consuli senatus possit.' ita dimissi Siculi et ipse in Capitolium ad dilectum discessit.

"And since you have heard both the words of the Sicilians and my own in person, Conscript Fathers, once we leave the temple, let the senate be able to be consulted more freely in my absence." Thus the Sicilians were dismissed, and he himself departed to the Capitol for the levy.

[32] Consul alter de postulatis Siculorum ad patres rettulit. ibi cum diu sententiis certatum esset et magna pars senatus, principe eius sententiae T. Manlio Torquato, cum tyrannis bellum gerendum fuisse censerent hostibus et Syracusanorum et populi Romani, et urbem recipi, non capi, et receptam legibus antiquis et libertate stabiliri, non fessam miseranda seruitute bello adfligi; inter tyrannorum et ducis Romani certamina praemium uictoris in medio positam urbem pulcherrimam ac nobilissimam perisse, horreum atque aerarium quondam populi Romani, cuius munificentia ac donis multis tempestatibus, hoc denique ipso Punico bello adiuta ornataque res publica esset; si ab inferis exsistat rex Hiero fidissimus imperii Romani cultor, quo ore aut Syracusas aut Romam ei ostendi posse, cum, ubi semirutam ac spoliatam patriam respexerit, ingrediens Romam in uestibulo urbis, prope in porta, spolia patriae suae uisurus sit?-- haec taliaque cum ad inuidiam consulis miserationemque Siculorum dicerentur, mitius tamen decreuerunt patres: acta M. Marcelli quae is gerens bellum uictorque egisset rata habenda esse, in reliquum curae senatui fore rem Syracusanam, mandaturosque consuli Laeuino ut quod sine iactura rei publicae fieri posset fortunis eius ciuitatis consuleret. missis duobus senatoribus in Capitolium ad consulem uti rediret in curiam et introductis Siculis, senatus consultum recitatum est; legatique benigne appellati ac dimissi ad genua se Marcelli consulis proiecerunt obsecrantes ut quae deplorandae ac leuandae calamitatis causa dixissent ueniam eis daret, et in fidem clientelamque se urbemque Syracusas acciperet.

[32] The other consul reported to the fathers concerning the petitions of the Sicilians. There, when for a long time there had been contention in opinions, and a great part of the senate, with T. Manlius Torquatus as leader of that view, judged that war ought to have been waged against the tyrants—enemies both of the Syracusans and of the Roman people—and that the city should be recovered, not captured, and, once recovered, be established by its ancient laws and by liberty, not, wearied by pitiable servitude, be afflicted by war; that between the contests of the tyrants and of the Roman leader the most beautiful and most noble city, set in the midst as the victor’s prize, had perished, once the granary and the treasury of the Roman people, by whose munificence and gifts in many seasons—yes, in this very Punic war—the commonwealth had been aided and adorned; that, if King Hiero, the most faithful adherent of the Roman imperium, should arise from the shades below, with what face could either Syracuse or Rome be shown to him, since, when he looked back upon his half-ruined and despoiled fatherland, then, entering Rome, in the vestibule of the city, almost at the gate, he would behold the spoils of his own fatherland?-- while these and such things were being said to stir odium against the consul and compassion for the Sicilians, the fathers nevertheless decreed more mildly: that the acts of M. Marcellus, which he, carrying on the war and as victor, had done, were to be held valid; that for the future the Syracusan affair would be a care to the senate; and that they would instruct the consul Laevinus to look to the fortunes of that state, so far as it could be done without detriment to the commonwealth. Two senators were sent to the Capitol to the consul that he should return to the curia, and the Sicilians having been introduced, the decree of the senate was read aloud; and the envoys, kindly addressed and dismissed, threw themselves at the knees of the consul Marcellus, beseeching that he would grant them pardon for the things they had said for the sake of lamenting and alleviating the calamity, and that he would receive both themselves and the city of Syracuse into his faith and clientship.

potens senatus consulto consul clementer appellatos eos dimisit.

empowered by the senate’s decree, the consul dismissed them after kindly addressing them.

[33] Campanis deinde senatus datus est, quorum oratio miserabilior, causa durior erat. neque enim meritas poenas negare poterant, nec tyranni erant in quos culpam conferrent, sed satis pensum poenarum tot ueneno absumptis, tot securi percussis senatoribus credebant: paucos nobilium superstites esse, quos nec sua conscientia ut quicquam de se grauius consulerent impulerit nec uictoris ira capitis damnauerit; eos libertatem sibi suisque et bonorum aliquam partem orare ciues Romanos, adfinitatibus plerosque et propinquis iam cognationibus ex conubio uetusto iunctos. summotis deinde e templo paulisper dubitatum an arcessendus a Capua Q. Fuluius esset--mortuus enim post captam Claudius consul erat--ut coram imperatore qui res gessisset, sicut inter Marcellum Siculosque disceptatum fuerat, disceptaretur.

[33] Then an audience before the senate was granted to the Campanians, whose oration was more pitiable, their cause tougher. For they could not deny the penalties they had merited, nor were there tyrants upon whom to transfer the blame; but they believed the measure of punishments to be sufficient, so many senators having been consumed by poison, so many struck by the axe: that a few of the nobles survived, whom neither their own conscience had driven to resolve anything more severe against themselves, nor had the victor’s wrath condemned to death; they, Roman citizens, were begging liberty for themselves and theirs and some part of their goods, most of them joined by affinities and by kinships already from old intermarriage. Then, the petitioners having been removed from the temple, it was for a short time in doubt whether Q. Fulvius should be summoned from Capua--for after the capture the consul Claudius had died--so that, in the presence of the commander who had conducted the affairs, it might be disputed, as it had been debated between Marcellus and the Sicilians.

dein cum M. Atilium C. Fuluium fratrem Flacci legatos eius et Q. Minucium et L. Ueturium Philonem item Claudi legatos qui omnibus gerendis rebus adfuerant in senatu uiderent nec Fuluium auocari a Capua nec differri Campanos uellent, interrogatus sententiam M. Atilius Regulus, cuius ex iis qui ad Capuam fuerant maxima auctoritas erat, 'in consilio' inquit 'arbitror me fuisse consulibus Capua capta cum quaereretur ecqui Campanorum bene meritus de re publica nostra esset. duas mulieres compertum est Uestiam Oppiam Atellanam Capuae habitantem et Paculam Cluuiam quae quondam quaestum corpore fecisset, illam cottidie sacrificasse pro salute et uictoria populi Romani, hanc captiuis egentibus alimenta clam suppeditasse: ceterorum omnium Campanorum eundem erga nos animum quem Carthaginiensium fuisse, securique percussos a Q. Fuluio fuisse magis quorum dignitas inter alios quam quorum culpa eminebat. per senatum agi de Campanis, qui ciues Romani sunt, iniussu populi non uideo posse, idque et apud maiores nostros in Satricanis factum esse cum defecissent ut M. Antistius tribunus plebis prius rogationem ferret scisceretque plebs uti senatui de Satricanis sententiae dicendae ius esset.

then, when they saw in the senate M. Atilius, G. Fulvius, the brother of Flaccus—his legates—and Q. Minucius and L. Veturius Philo, likewise the legates of Claudius, who had been present for all matters to be transacted, and they did not wish either that Fulvius be called away from Capua or that the Campanians be deferred, M. Atilius Regulus, whose authority was greatest among those who had been at Capua, when asked his opinion, said: “In the council, I think I was with the consuls when Capua was taken, when it was asked whether any of the Campanians had deserved well of our republic. It was discovered that two women—Vestia Oppia, an Atellan woman living at Capua, and Pacula Cluvia, who once had made gain by her body—the former had sacrificed daily for the safety and victory of the Roman people, the latter had secretly supplied sustenance to needy captives; that all the other Campanians had the same disposition toward us as the Carthaginians, and that those whom Q. Fulvius struck with the axe were rather those whose rank stood out among others than those whose guilt did. That a matter concerning the Campanians, who are Roman citizens, cannot, as I see it, be transacted through the senate without the order of the people; and that this too was done among our ancestors in the case of the Satricani when they had defected: namely, that M. Antistius, tribune of the plebs, should first carry a rogation, and that the plebs should enact that the senate have the right of pronouncing opinions concerning the Satricani.”

itaque censeo cum tribunis plebis agendum esse ut eorum unus pluresue rogationem ferant ad plebem qua nobis statuendi de Campanis ius fiat.' L. Atilius tribunus plebis ex auctoritate senatus plebem in haec uerba rogauit: 'omnes Campani Atellani Calatini Sabatini qui se dediderunt in arbitrium dicionemque populi Romani <Q.> Fuluio proconsuli, quosque una secum dedidere quaeque una secum dedidere agrum urbemque diuina humanaque utensiliaque siue quid aliud dediderunt, de iis rebus quid fieri uelitis uos rogo, Quirites.' Plebes sic iussit: 'quod senatus iuratus, maxima pars, censeat, qui adsient, id uolumus iubemusque.'

therefore I am of the opinion that we must deal with the tribunes of the plebs, that one or more of them bring a rogation to the plebs by which the right of deciding about the Campanians be granted to us.' L. Atilius, tribune of the plebs, by the authority of the senate, put the question to the plebs in these words: 'all the Campanians, Atellans, Calatinians, Sabatinians who surrendered themselves into the arbitrium and dominion of the Roman People to <Q.> Fulvius, proconsul, and those whom they surrendered together with themselves, and whatever they surrendered together with themselves—the land and the city and divine and human utensils, or whatever else they surrendered—concerning these matters what you wish to be done, I ask you, Quirites.' The plebs thus ordered: 'what the senate, under oath, the greater part, who are present, may be of opinion, that we will and we order.'

[34] Ex hoc plebei scito senatus consultus Oppiae Cluuiaeque primum bona ac libertatem restituit: si qua alia praemia petere ab senatu uellent, uenire eas Romam. Campanis in familias singulas decreta facta quae non operae pretium est omnia enumerare: aliorum bona publicanda, ipsos liberosque eorum et coniuges uendendas, extra filias quae enupsissent priusquam in populi Romani potestatem uenirent: alios in uincula condendos ac de iis posterius consulendum: aliorum Campanorum summam etiam census distinxerunt publicanda necne bona essent: pecua captiua praeter equos et mancipia praeter puberes uirilis sexus et omnia quae solo non continerentur restituenda censuerunt dominis. Campanos omnes Atellanos Calatinos Sabatinos, extra quam qui eorum aut ipsi aut parentes eorum apud hostes essent, liberos esse iusserunt, ita ut nemo eorum ciuis Romanus aut Latini nominis esset, neue quis eorum qui Capuae fuisset dum portae clausae essent in urbe agroue Campano intra certam diem maneret; locus ubi habitarent trans Tiberim qui non contingeret Tiberim daretur: qui nec Capuae nec in urbe Campana quae a populo Romano defecisset per bellum fuissent, eos cis Lirim amnem Romam uersus, qui ad Romanos transissent priusquam Capuam Hannibal ueniret, cis Uolturnum emouendos censuerunt, ne quis eorum propius mare quindecim milibus passuum agrum aedificiumue haberet.

[34] From this plebiscite the senatorial decree first restored to Oppia and Cluvia their goods and liberty: if they should wish to seek any other rewards from the senate, let them come to Rome. For the Campanians, decrees were made for individual households, which it is not worth the labor to enumerate all: for some, their goods were to be made public (i.e., confiscated), they themselves, their children, and their spouses to be sold, except daughters who had married out before they came into the power of the Roman people; others were to be put in chains and a later consultation held about them; for other Campanians they even distinguished, according to the sum of their census, whether their goods should be confiscated or not. They decreed that captured livestock, except horses, and slaves, except adult males, and all things not fastened to the soil, should be restored to their owners. They ordered that all Campanians, Atellans, Calatini, Sabatini, except such of them as either they themselves or their parents were among the enemies, be free, on condition that none of them be a Roman citizen or of Latin name, and that none of those who had been in Capua while the gates were closed should remain within the city or the Campanian countryside beyond a fixed day; a place where they might dwell should be given across the Tiber that did not touch the Tiber. Those who had been neither in Capua nor in a Campanian city which had defected from the Roman people in the war, they decreed to be moved on this side of the river Liris toward Rome, and those who had crossed over to the Romans before Hannibal came to Capua, on this side of the Volturnus, so that none of them should have land or a building nearer the sea than fifteen miles.

qui eorum trans Tiberim emoti essent, ne ipsi posteriue eorum uspiam pararent haberentue nisi in Ueiente Sutrino Nepesinoue agro, dum ne cui maior quam quinquaginta iugerum agri modus esset. senatorum omnium quique magistratus Capuae Atellae Calatiae gessissent bona uenire Capuae iusserunt: libera corpora quae uenum dari placuerat Romam mitti ac Romae uenire. signa statuas aeneas quae capta de hostibus dicerentur, quae eorum sacra ac profana essent ad pontificum collegium reiecerunt.

those of them who had been removed across the Tiber, that neither they nor their posterity should procure or have property anywhere except in the Veientine, Sutrian, or Nepesine territory, provided that to no one should there be a measure of land greater than fifty iugera. they ordered the goods of all the senators and of those who had exercised magistracies at Capua, Atella, and Calatia to be sold at Capua: the free persons whom it had been decided should be sold to be sent to Rome and to be sold at Rome. the statues and bronze images which were said to have been taken from enemies—what among them was sacred and what profane—they referred to the college of pontiffs.

ob haec decreta maestiores aliquanto quam Romam uenerant Campanos dimiserunt; nec iam Q. Fului saeuitiam in sese, sed iniquitatem deum atque exsecrabilem fortunam suam incusabant.

on account of these decrees they dismissed the Campanians somewhat more downcast than they had come to Rome; and now they were accusing not the savagery of Q. Fulvius against themselves, but the iniquity of the gods and their execrable fortune.

[35] Dimissis Siculis Campanisque dilectus habitus. scripto deinde exercitu de remigum supplemento agi coeptum; in quam rem cum neque hominum satis nec ex qua pararentur stipendiumque acciperent pecuniae quicquam ea tempestate in publico esset, edixerunt consules ut priuatim ex censu ordinibusque, sicut antea, remiges darent cum stipendio cibariisque dierum triginta. ad id edictum tantus fremitus hominum, tanta indignatio fuit ut magis dux quam materia seditioni deesset: secundum Siculos Campanosque plebem Romanam perdendam lacerandamque sibi consules sumpsisse.

[35] With the Sicilians and Campanians dismissed, a levy was held. Then, the army being enrolled, they began to deal with a supplement of rowers; and in this matter, since there were neither enough men nor any money at that time in the public treasury from which they might be procured and receive pay, the consuls proclaimed that, privately, according to the census and the orders, as before, they should furnish rowers with pay and rations for thirty days. At this edict there was such a murmuring of men, such indignation, that a leader rather than material was lacking for a sedition: they said that, next after the Sicilians and Campanians, the consuls had taken upon themselves that the Roman plebs was to be destroyed and torn to pieces.

per tot annos tributo exhaustos nihil reliqui praeter terram nudam ac uastam habere. tecta hostes incendisse, seruos agri cultores rem publicam abduxisse, nunc ad militiam paruo aere emendo, nunc remiges imperando; si quid cui argenti aerisue fuerit, stipendio remigum et tributis annuis ablatum. se ut dent quod non habeant nulla ui nullo imperio cogi posse.

through so many years, exhausted by tribute, they have nothing left except bare and waste land. the enemies have incinerated the roofs; the slaves, the cultivators of the fields, the commonwealth has carried off—now by buying for military service at a small sum, now by requisitioning rowers. if anyone has any silver or bronze, it has been taken away by the stipend of the rowers and the annual tributes. that they can be compelled by no force and by no command to give what they do not have.

bona sua uenderent; in corpora quae reliqua essent saeuirent; ne unde redimantur quidem quicquam superesse. haec non in occulto, sed propalam in foro atque oculis ipsorum consulum ingens turba circumfusi fremebant; nec eos sedare consules nunc castigando, nunc consolando poterant. spatium deinde iis tridui se dare ad cogitandum dixerunt; quo ipsi ad rem inspiciendam <et> expediendam usi sunt.

let them vend their goods; let them rage upon the bodies that remained; that not even anything was left whence they might be redeemed. These things not in secret, but openly in the forum and before the eyes of the consuls themselves, a vast crowd, having surrounded them, were murmuring; nor could the consuls calm them, now by castigating, now by consoling. Then they said that they were giving them a space of three days for deliberation; which they themselves used to inspect the matter <and> to expedite it.

senatum postero die habuerunt de remigum supplemento; ubi cum multa disseruissent cur aequa plebis recusatio esset, uerterunt orationem eo ut dicerent priuatis id seu aequum seu iniquum onus iniungendum esse; nam unde, cum pecunia in aerario non esset, paraturos nauales socios? quomodo autem sine classibus aut Siciliam obtineri aut Italia Philippum arceri posse aut tuta Italiae litora esse?

they held the senate on the next day about the supplement of the rowers; where, after they had discussed many things as to why the refusal of the plebs was equitable, they turned the speech to this point—that upon private persons this burden, whether fair or unfair, must be imposed; for whence, since there was no money in the treasury, would they procure the naval allies? how, moreover, without fleets, could either Sicily be held, or Philip be warded off from Italy, or the shores of Italy be safe?

[36] Cum in hac difficultate rerum consilium haereret ac prope torpor quidam occupasset hominum mentes, tum Laeuinus consul: magistratus senatui et senatum populo, sicut honore praestet, ita ad omnia quae dura atque aspera essent subeunda ducem debere esse. 'si quid iniungere inferiori uelis, id prius in te ac tuos si ipse iuris statueris, facilius omnes obedientes habeas; nec impensa grauis est, cum <ex> ea plus quam pro uirili parte sibi quemque capere principum uident. itaque <si> classes habere atque ornare uolumus populum Romanum, priuatos sine recusatione remiges dare, nobismet ipsis primum imperemus.

[36] When in this difficulty of affairs the counsel was sticking fast and a kind of torpor had almost seized men’s minds, then Laevinus the consul said: magistrates to the senate and the senate to the people, just as it excels in honor, so ought to be a leader in undergoing all things that are hard and harsh. 'If you wish to impose anything on an inferior, if you shall first have established that as law upon yourself and your own, you will have all more obedient; nor is the expense heavy, since <ex> it they see that each of the leading men takes to himself more than his virile share. Therefore, <si> we wish the Roman people to have fleets and to equip them, that private persons give rowers without demur, let us first lay the command upon ourselves.'

aurum argentum <aes> signatum omne senatores crastino die in publicum conferamus, ita ut anulos sibi quisque et coniugi et liberis, et filio bullam et quibus uxor filiaeue sunt singulas uncias pondo auri relinquant: argenti qui curuli sella sederunt equi ornamenta et libras pondo, ut salinum patellamque deorum causa habere possint: ceteri senatores libram argenti tantum: aeris signati quina milia in singulos patres familiae relinquamus: ceterum omne aurum argentum aes signatum ad triumuiros mensarios extemplo deferamus nullo ante senatus consulto facto, ut uoluntaria conlatio et certamen adiuuandae rei publicae excitet ad aemulandum animos primum equestris ordinis, dein reliquae plebis. hanc unam uiam multa inter nos conlocuti consules inuenimus; ingredimini dis bene iuuantibus. res publica incolumis et priuatas res facile saluas praestat: publica prodendo tua nequiquam serues.' in haec tanto animo consensum est ut gratiae ultro consulibus agerentur.

let us, as senators, bring all gold, silver, and all coined bronze into the public treasury tomorrow, on this condition: that each man leave rings for himself and his wife and children, and for a son his bulla, and for those who have a wife or daughters a single ounce in weight of gold; of silver, those who have sat in the curule chair may keep the trappings of a horse and pounds by weight, so that they may have a saltcellar and a small dish for the sake of the gods; the other senators only a pound of silver; of struck bronze let us leave five thousand for each head of a household; but all the rest of the gold, silver, and coined bronze let us at once deliver to the three mensary triumvirs, with no senatorial decree made beforehand, in order that a voluntary contribution and a contest in aiding the Republic may stir to emulation the spirits first of the equestrian order, then of the remaining plebs. This one path, after much conference among ourselves, we consuls have found; proceed with the gods kindly aiding. An uninjured commonwealth readily guarantees private fortunes safe as well: by betraying the public, you save your own to no purpose.' To these proposals there was such spirited consent that thanks were offered unbidden to the consuls.

senatu inde misso pro se quisque aurum argentum et aes in publicum conferunt, tanto certamine iniecto ut prima aut inter primos nomina sua uellent in publicis tabulis esse ut nec triumuiri accipiundo nec scribae referundo sufficerent. hunc consensum senatus equester ordo est secutus, equestris ordinis plebs. ita sine edicto, sine coercitione magistratus nec remige in supplementum nec stipendio res publica eguit; paratisque omnibus ad bellum consules in prouincias profecti sunt.

Then, the senate having been dismissed, each man on his own part contributed gold, silver, and bronze into the public treasury, such a contest having been aroused that they wished their names to be first, or among the first, in the public tablets, so that neither the triumvirs for receiving nor the scribes for recording were equal to the task. This consensus of the senate the equestrian order followed, and the plebs followed the equestrian order. Thus, without an edict, without coercion by the magistrates, the commonwealth lacked neither rowers for reinforcement nor pay; and with everything prepared for war, the consuls set out to their provinces.

[37] Neque aliud tempus belli fuit quo Carthaginienses Romanique pariter uariis casibus immixti magis in ancipiti spe ac metu fuerint. nam Romanis et in prouinciis hinc in Hispania aduersae res, hinc prosperae in Sicilia luctum et laetitiam miscuerant, et in Italia cum Tarentum amissum damno et dolori, tum arx cum praesidio retenta praeter spem gaudio fuit, et terrorem subitum pauoremque urbis Romae obsessae et oppugnatae Capua post dies paucos capta in laetitiam uertit. transmarinae quoque res quadam uice pensatae: Philippus hostis tempore haud satis opportuno factus, Aetoli noui adsciti socii Attalusque Asiae rex, iam uelut despondente fortuna Romanis imperium orientis.

[37] Nor was there any other time of the war in which Carthaginians and Romans alike, mingled by various chances, were more in uncertain hope and fear. For to the Romans even in the provinces, on the one hand adverse affairs in Spain, on the other prosperous ones in Sicily, had mixed mourning and rejoicing; and in Italy, while Tarentum lost was a damage and a grief, the citadel with its garrison retained was, beyond hope, a joy; and the sudden terror and panic of the city of Rome, besieged and assaulted, Capua, captured after a few days, turned into gladness. The transmarine affairs too were in a certain turn counterpoised: Philip became an enemy at a not very opportune time; the Aetolians were taken on as new allies, and Attalus, king of Asia—now as though Fortune were betrothing to the Romans the dominion of the East.

Carthaginienses quoque Capuae amissae Tarentum captum aequabant, et ut ad moenia urbis Romanae nullo prohibente se peruenisse in gloria ponebant, ita pigebat inriti incepti, pudebatque adeo se spretos ut sedentibus ipsis ad Romana moenia alia porta exercitus Romanus in Hispaniam duceretur. ipsae quoque Hispaniae quo propius spem uenerant tantis duobus ducibus exercitibusque caesis debellatum ibi ac pulsos inde Romanos esse, eo plus ab L. Marcio tumultuario duce ad uanum et inritum uictoriam redactam esse indignationis praebebant. ita aequante fortuna suspensa omnia utrisque erant, integra spe, integro metu, uelut illo tempore primum bellum inciperent.

The Carthaginians too equated the capture of Tarentum with the loss of Capua, and just as they set it down to their glory that they had reached the walls of the city of Rome with no one hindering, so it irked them that the attempt had been fruitless, and they were even ashamed at being so scorned that, while they themselves were sitting by the Roman walls, through another gate a Roman army was being led into Spain. The Spains themselves also, the nearer they had approached the hope that, with two so great commanders and armies cut down, the war had there been brought to an end and the Romans driven out from there, by so much the more supplied indignation that by L. Marcius, a tumultuary leader, the victory had been reduced to vain and null. Thus, with Fortune equalizing, all things were in suspense for both parties, hope intact, fear intact, as if at that time they were beginning the war for the first time.

[38] Hannibalem ante omnia angebat quod Capua pertinacius oppugnata ab Romanis quam defensa ab se multorum Italiae populorum animos auerterat, quos neque omnes tenere praesidiis nisi uellet in multas paruasque partes carpere exercitum quod minime tum expediebat poterat, nec deductis praesidiis spei liberam uel obnoxiam timori sociorum relinquere fidem. praeceps in auaritiam et crudelitatem animus ad spolianda quae tueri nequibat, ut uastata hosti relinquerentur, inclinauit. id foedum consilium cum incepto tum etiam exitu fuit.

[38] Above all Hannibal was tormented because Capua, besieged more pertinaciously by the Romans than defended by himself, had turned away the minds of many peoples of Italy; these he could not all hold by garrisons unless he were willing to carve his army into many and very small parts, which at that time was least expedient, nor, with the garrisons withdrawn, could he leave the loyalty of the allies either free with hope or subject to fear. His spirit, headlong into avarice and cruelty, inclined to despoiling what he could not guard, so that, once laid waste, they might be left to the enemy. That foul counsel was disgraceful both in the inception and also in the outcome.

neque enim indigna patientium modo abalienabantur animi, sed ceterorum etiam; quippe ad plures exemplum ~quam~ pertinebat; nec consul Romanus temptandis urbibus sicunde spes aliqua se ostendisset deerat. Salapiae principes erant Dasius et Blattius, Dasius Hannibali amicus; Blattius quantum ex tuto poterat rem Romanam fouebat et per occultos nuntios spem proditionis fecerat Marcello; sed sine adiutore Dasio res transigi non poterat. multum ac diu cunctatus, et tum quoque magis inopia consilii potioris quam spe effectus, Dasium appellabat; at ille, cum ab re auersus, tum aemulo potentatus inimicus, rem Hannibali aperit.

for not only were the minds of those suffering unworthy things being alienated, but of the others as well; for the example pertained to more people ~than~; nor was the Roman consul lacking in trying cities wherever any hope had shown itself. At Salapia the leading men were Dasius and Blattius; Dasius was a friend to Hannibal; Blattius, so far as he could from a place of safety, was fostering the Roman cause and through secret messengers had given Marcellus a hope of betrayal; but without Dasius as an assistant the matter could not be brought to a conclusion. After much and long hesitation, and then too moved more by a lack of a better plan than by hope of success, he approached Dasius; but he, both averse to the matter and, as a rival in influence, an enemy, disclosed the affair to Hannibal.

arcessito utroque Hannibal cum pro tribunali quaedam ageret mox de Blattio cogniturus, starentque summoto populo accusator et reus, Blattius de proditione Dasium appellat. enimuero ille, uelut in manifesta re, exclamat sub oculis Hannibalis secum de proditione agi. Hannibali atque eis qui aderant quo audacior res erat, minus similis ueri uisa est: aemulationem profecto atque odium esse, et id crimen adferri quod, quia testem habere non posset, liberius fingenti esset.

with both having been summoned, while Hannibal, before the tribunal, was handling certain matters and was soon about to take cognizance concerning Blattius, and the people having been removed the accuser and the defendant stood; Blattius arraigns Dasius on a charge of treason. Indeed he, as if in a manifest matter, cries out that under Hannibal’s very eyes a case of treason is being transacted against him. To Hannibal and to those present, the bolder the matter was, the less like the truth it seemed: assuredly it was emulation and hatred, and that a charge was being brought which, because it could not have a witness, gave freer scope to one feigning it.

ita inde dimissi sunt. nec Blattius ante abstitit tam audaci incepto quam idem obtundendo, docendoque quam ea res ipsis patriaeque salutaris esset, peruicit ut praesidium Punicum--<quingenti> autem Numidae erant--Salapiaque traderetur Marcello. nec sine caede multa tradi potuit.

thus they were dismissed from there. nor did Blattius desist from so bold an undertaking before, by hammering at the same point and showing how salutary that matter would be for themselves and for their fatherland, he prevailed that the Punic garrison--<500> however Numidians there were--and Salapia be handed over to Marcellus. nor could it be handed over without much slaughter.

longe fortissimi equitum toto Punico exercitu erant. itaque, quamquam improuisa res fuit nec usus equorum in urbe erat, tamen armis inter tumultum captis et eruptionem temptauerunt et, cum euadere nequirent, pugnantes ad ultimum occubuerunt, nec plus quinquaginta ex his in potestatem hostium uiui uenerunt. plusque aliquanto damni haec ala equitum amissa Hannibali quam Salapia fuit; nec deinde unquam Poenus, quo longe plurimum ualuerat, equitatu superior fuit.

they were by far the bravest of the cavalry in the whole Punic army. And so, although the matter was unforeseen and there was no use of horses in the city, nevertheless, with arms seized amid the tumult they attempted a sortie; and, when they could not escape, fighting to the last they fell, nor did more than fifty of them come alive into the power of the enemy. And this wing of cavalry lost was considerably more damage to Hannibal than was Salapia; nor thereafter was the Carthaginian ever superior in cavalry, wherein he had by far been strongest.

[39] Per idem tempus cum in arce Tarentina uix inopia tolerabilis esset, spem omnem praesidium quod ibi erat Romanum praefectusque praesidii atque arcis M. Liuius in commeatibus ab Sicilia missis habebant, qui ut tuto praeterueherentur oram Italiae, classis uiginti ferme nauium Regii stabat. praeerat classi commeatibusque D. Quinctius, obscuro genere ortus, ceterum multis fortibus factis militari gloria inlustris. primo quinque naues, quarum maximae duae triremes, a Marcello ei traditae erant [habuit]: postea rem impigre saepe gerenti tres additae quinqueremes: postremo ipse a sociis Reginisque et a Uelia et a Paesto debitas ex foedere exigendo classem uiginti nauium, sicut ante dictum est, efficit.

[39] At the same time, when in the Tarentine citadel the want was scarcely tolerable, all hope the Roman garrison which was there and the prefect of the garrison and of the citadel, M. Livius, placed in the convoys of supplies sent from Sicily; and, in order that they might coast safely along Italy, a fleet of about twenty ships was stationed at Rhegium. The fleet and the convoys were under the command of D. Quinctius, sprung from obscure birth, but illustrious in military glory by many brave deeds. At first five ships, the two largest of which were triremes, had been handed over to him by Marcellus; afterward, since he often managed affairs energetically, three quinqueremes were added; finally, by exacting from the allies and the Rhegians, and from Velia and Paestum, what was owed under treaty, he himself made up a fleet of twenty ships, as was said above.

huic ab Regio profectae classi Democrates cum pari nauium Tarentinarum numero quindecim milia ferme ab urbe ad Sapriportem obuius fuit. uelis tum forte improuidus futuri certaminis Romanus ueniebat; sed circa Crotonem Sybarimque suppleuerat remigio naues, instructamque et armatam egregie pro magnitudine nauium classem habebat; et tum forte sub idem tempus et uenti uis omnis cecidit et hostes in conspectu fuere ut ad componenda armamenta expediendumque remigem ac militem ad imminens certamen satis temporis esset. raro alias tantis animis iustae concurrerunt classes, quippe cum in maioris discrimen rei quam ipsae erant pugnarent, Tarentini ut reciperata urbe ab Romanis post centesimum prope annum, arcem etiam liberarent, spe commeatus quoque hostibus si nauali proelio possessionem maris ademissent interclusuros, Romani ut retenta possessione arcis ostenderent non ui ac uirtute, sed proditione ac furto Tarentum amissum.

To this fleet that had set out from Rhegium, Democrates, with an equal number of Tarentine ships, came to meet it about 15 miles from the city at Sapriportus. The Roman, then by chance, was coming under sail, unprovided for the coming contest; but around Croton and Sybaris he had made up the crews of the ships with oarsmen, and he had a fleet excellently equipped and armed in proportion to the size of the ships; and then, by good chance at the same time, the whole force of the winds fell and the enemy came into sight, so that there was enough time for setting in order the rigging and for readying the oarsmen and the soldiers for the imminent contest. Seldom otherwise did evenly matched fleets meet with such spirits, since they were fighting for a matter of greater hazard than they themselves were: the Tarentines, that, the city having been recovered from the Romans after nearly the 100th year, they might also free the citadel, with the hope too of shutting off supplies to the enemy if by a naval battle they had taken away possession of the sea; the Romans, that, with possession of the citadel retained, they might show that Tarentum had been lost not by force and valor, but by treachery and theft.

itaque ex utraque parte signo dato cum rostris concurrissent neque retro nauem inhiberent nec dirimi ab se hostem paterentur quam quis indeptus nauem erat ferrea iniecta manu, ita conserebant ex propinquo pugnam ut non missilibus tantum, sed gladiis etiam prope conlato pede gereretur res. prorae inter se iunctae haerebant, puppes alieno remigio circumagebantur; ita in arto stipatae erant naues ut uix ullum telum in mari uanum intercideret; frontibus uelut pedestris acies urgebant peruiaeque naues pugnantibus erant. insignis tamen inter ceteras pugna fuit duarum quae primae agminum concurrerant inter se. in Romana naue ipse Quinctius erat, in Tarentina Nico cui Perconi fuit cognomen, non publico modo sed priuato etiam odio inuisus atque infestus Romanis quod eius factionis erat quae Tarentum Hannibali prodiderat.

therefore, on both sides, when the signal was given and they had run together with their beaks, they neither checked their ship astern nor allowed the enemy, once a ship had been grasped by the iron hand (grappling-hook) cast aboard, to be torn away from them; thus they joined battle at close quarters, so that the affair was carried on not only with missile weapons, but even with swords, almost with foot set against foot. The prows, joined to one another, stuck fast; the sterns were being swung about by another’s rowing; so closely, in a narrow space, were the ships packed that scarcely any weapon fell vainly into the sea; with their fronts they pressed like an infantry battle-line, and the ships were thoroughfares for the combatants. Yet conspicuous among the rest was the fight of two ships which, the foremost of the columns, had first clashed with each other. On the Roman ship was Quinctius himself; on the Tarentine, Nico, whose cognomen was Percon, hated and hostile to the Romans not only by public but also by private hatred, because he belonged to the faction which had betrayed Tarentum to Hannibal.

hic Quinctium simul pugnantem hortantemque suos, incautum hasta transfigit. ille ut praeceps cum armis procidit ante proram, uictor Tarentinus in turbatam duce amisso nauem impigre transgressus cum summouisset hostes et prora iam Tarentinorum esset, puppim male conglobati tuerentur Romani, repente et alia a puppe triremis hostium apparuit; ita in medio circumuenta Romana nauis capitur. hinc ceteris terror iniectus uti praetoriam nauem captam uidere, fugientesque passim aliae in alto mersae, aliae in terram remis abreptae mox praedae fuere Thurinis Metapontinisque.

Here he transfixed Quinctius with a spear, as he was at once fighting and exhorting his men, off his guard. He, headlong, fell with his arms before the prow; the victorious Tarentine, briskly boarding the ship, thrown into disorder by the loss of its leader, when he had driven back the foes and the prow was now the Tarentines’, while the Romans, ill-bunched, were holding the stern, suddenly another trireme of the enemy appeared at the stern; thus the Roman ship, surrounded in the middle, is taken. Hence terror was cast into the rest as they saw the praetor’s flagship captured; and as they fled, some were sunk on the deep, others, snatched shoreward by their oars, soon became booty for the Thurians and Metapontines.

ex onerariis quae cum commeatu sequebantur, perpaucae in potestatem hostium uenere; aliae ad incertos uentos hinc atque illinc obliqua transferentes uela, in altum euectae sunt. nequaquam pari fortuna per eos dies Tarenti res gesta. nam ad quattuor milia hominum frumentatum egressa cum in agris passim uagarentur, Liuius qui arci praesidioque Romano praeerat, intentus in omnes occasiones gerendae rei, C. Persium impigrum uirum cum duobus milibus et <quingentis> armatorum ex arce emisit, qui uage effusos per agros palatosque adortus cum diu passim cecidisset, paucos ex multis, trepida fuga incidentes semiapertis portarum foribus, in urbem compulit ne<que multum afuit quin> urbs eodem impetu caperetur.

Of the cargo-ships which were following with the supplies, very few came into the enemy’s power; others, shifting their sails obliquely this way and that to uncertain winds, were carried out into the deep. By no means with equal fortune did things go at Tarentum in those days. For about four thousand men, having gone out to forage for grain, as they were wandering everywhere in the fields, Livius, who was in command of the citadel and the Roman garrison, intent on every opportunity for action, sent out from the citadel Gaius Persius, an energetic man, with two thousand and <five hundred> armed men; and he, having attacked them as they were loosely scattered through the fields and straggling, after for a long time cutting them down in all directions, drove a few out of many, as in panicked flight they fell in through the half-open leaves of the gates, into the city, nor <was much lacking but that> the city was taken in the same impetus.

ita aequatae res ad Tarentum, Romanis uictoribus <terra>, Carthaginiensibus mari. frumenti spes, quae in oculis fuerat, utrosque frustrata pariter.

thus the situation at Tarentum was balanced, the Romans victors <on land>, the Carthaginians at sea. the hope of grain, which had been before their eyes, frustrated both alike.

[40] Per idem tempus Laeuinus consul iam magna parte anni circumacta in Siciliam ueteribus nouisque sociis exspectatus cum uenisset, primum ac potissimum omnium ratus Syracusis noua pace inconditas componere res, Agrigentum inde, quod belli reliquum erat tenebaturque a Carthaginiensium ualido praesidio, duxit legiones. et adfuit fortuna incepto. Hanno erat imperator Carthaginiensium, sed omnem in Muttine Numidisque spem repositam habebant.

[40] At the same time, when Laevinus the consul, with a great part of the year already run through, had come into Sicily, expected by his old and new allies, he judged first and as most important of all to settle at Syracuse the affairs disordered by the new peace; thence he led the legions to Agrigentum, which was the remainder of the war and was held by a strong garrison of the Carthaginians. And Fortune attended the undertaking. Hanno was the commander of the Carthaginians, but they had placed all their hope in Muttines and the Numidians.

per totam Siciliam uagus praedas agebat ex sociis Romanorum neque intercludi ab Agrigento ui aut arte ulla nec quin erumperet ubi uellet prohiberi poterat. haec eius gloria quia iam imperatoris quoque famae officiebat, postremo in inuidiam uertit ut ne bene gestae quidem res iam Hannoni propter auctorem satis laetae essent. postremo praefecturam eius filio suo dedit, ratus cum imperio auctoritatem quoque ei inter Numidas erepturum.

he, roaming through all Sicily, was driving off booty from the allies of the Romans, and he could neither be shut off from Agrigentum by any force or by any art, nor be prevented from bursting out whenever he wished. this glory of his, because it was now also obstructing the fame of the commander, at last turned into envy, so that not even well-conducted affairs were now sufficiently welcome to Hanno on account of their author. finally he transferred his prefecture to his own son, thinking that, along with the imperium, he would also snatch away his authority among the Numidians.

quod longe aliter euenit; nam ueterem fauorem eius sua insuper inuidia auxit; neque ille indignitatem iniuriae tulit confestimque ad Laeuinum occultos nuntios misit de tradendo Agrigento. per quos ut est facta fides compositusque rei gerendae modus, portam ad mare ferentem Numidae cum occupassent pulsis inde custodibus aut caesis Romanos ad id ipsum missos in urbem acceperunt. et cum agmine iam in media urbis ac forum magno tumultu iretur, ratus Hanno non aliud quam tumultum ac secessionem, id quod et ante acciderat, Numidarum esse, ad comprimendam seditionem processit.

which turned out far otherwise; for he increased the old favor of that man by his own envy besides; nor did he bear the indignity of the injustice, and immediately he sent secret messengers to Laevinus about handing over Agrigentum. Through them, when confidence had been established and the manner of carrying out the affair arranged, the Numidians, when they had seized the gate that leads to the sea, the guards having been driven off from there or cut down, admitted the Romans—sent for that very purpose—into the city. And when, with the column now advancing with great tumult into the middle of the city and the forum, Hanno, thinking it was nothing other than an uproar and a secession of the Numidians (which had also happened before), went forth to suppress the sedition.

atque ille cum ei multitudo maior quam Numidarum procul uisa et clamor Romanus haudquaquam ignotus ad aures accidisset, priusquam ad ictum teli ueniret capessit fugam. per auersam portam emissus adsumpto comite Epicyde cum paucis ad mare peruenit; nactique opportune paruum nauigium, relicta hostibus Sicilia de qua per tot annos certatum erat, in Africam traiecerunt. alia multitudo Poenorum Siculorumque ne temptato quidem certamine cum caeci in fugam ruerent clausique exitus essent circa portas caesa.

and he, when a multitude greater than that of the Numidians had been seen by him from afar and the Roman clamor, by no means unknown, had fallen upon his ears, before he came within the stroke of a missile he took to flight. Let out through the rear gate, with Epicyda taken as companion, he reached the sea with a few; and opportunely finding a small vessel, Sicily—about which for so many years there had been contention—being left to the enemies, they crossed over into Africa. Another multitude of Carthaginians and Sicilians, without even attempting a contest, since blindly they rushed into flight and the exits around the gates had been shut, was cut down.

oppido recepto Laeuinus qui capita rerum Agrigenti erant uirgis caesos securi percussit, ceteros praedamque uendidit; omnem pecuniam Romam misit. fama Agrigentinorum cladis Siciliam cum peruasisset, omnia repente ad Romanos inclinauerunt. prodita breui sunt uiginti oppida, sex ui capta: uoluntaria deditione in fidem uenerunt ad quadraginta.

with the town recovered, Laevinus struck with the axe, after they had been beaten with rods, those who were the heads of affairs at Agrigentum; he sold the others and the booty, and sent all the money to Rome. when the report of the disaster of the Agrigentines had pervaded Sicily, everything suddenly inclined toward the Romans. in a short time 20 towns were betrayed and handed over, 6 were taken by force: by voluntary surrender up to 40 came into their good faith.

quarum ciuitatium principibus cum pro cuiusque merito consul pretia poenasque exsoluisset, coegissetque Siculos positis tandem armis ad agrum colendum animos conuertere, ut esset non incolarum modo alimentis frugifera insula, sed urbis Romae atque Italiae, id quod multis saepe tempestatibus fecerat, annonam leuaret, ab Agathyrna inconditam multitudinem secum in Italiam transuexit. quattuor milia hominum erant, mixti ex omni conluuione exsules obaerati capitalia ausi plerique cum in ciuitatibus suis ac sub legibus uixerant, et postquam eos ex uariis causis fortuna similis conglobauerat Agathyrnam per latrocinia ac rapinam tolerantes uitam. hos neque relinquere Laeuinus in insula tum primum noua pace coalescente uelut materiam nouandis rebus satis tutum ratus est, et Reginis usui futuri erant ad populandum Bruttium agrum adsuetam latrociniis quaerentibus manum.

when the consul had paid out rewards and penalties to the leaders of those communities according to each man’s merit, and had compelled the Sicilians, their arms at length laid aside, to turn their minds to cultivating the field, so that the island, fruitful in grain, might provide sustenance not only for its inhabitants, but also relieve the grain-supply of the city of Rome and of Italy—a thing which it had often done on many occasions—he transported with him from Agathyrna into Italy a disorderly multitude. They were four thousand men, a mixture from every offscouring—exiles, debt‑bound—most of whom, when they had lived in their own communities and under the laws, had dared capital crimes; and after a like fortune for various causes had massed them at Agathyrna, they sustained life by brigandage and plunder. Laevinus did not think it at all safe either to leave these men on the island, when a new peace was then for the first time knitting together, as material, as it were, for renewing disturbances; and they would be of use to the Rhegines for devastating the Bruttian countryside—a band accustomed to banditries and seeking plunder.

et quod ad Siciliam attinet eo anno debellatum est.

and, as it concerns Sicily, in that year the war was brought to an end.

[41] In Hispania principio ueris P. Scipio nauibus deductis euocatisque edicto Tarraconem sociorum auxiliis classem onerariasque ostium inde Hiberi fluminis petere iubet. eodem legiones ex hibernis conuenire cum iussisset, ipse cum quinque milibus sociorum ab Tarracone profectus ad exercitum est. quo cum uenisset adloquendos maxime ueteres milites qui tantis superfuerunt cladibus ratus, contione aduocata ita disseruit: 'nemo ante me nouus imperator militibus suis priusquam opera eorum usus esset gratias agere iure ac merito potuit: me uobis priusquam prouinciam aut castra uiderem obligauit fortuna, primum quod ea pietate erga patrem patruumque meum uiuos mortuosque fuistis, deinde quod amissam tanta clade prouinciae possessionem integram et populo Romano et successori mihi uirtute uestra obtinuistis.

[41] In Spain, at the beginning of spring, P. Scipio, the ships having been launched and the allied auxiliaries summoned by edict to Tarraco, orders the fleet and the transports to make for the mouth of the river Hiberus. When he had likewise ordered the legions to assemble from their winter quarters at the same place, he himself set out from Tarraco with five thousand allies and went to the army. When he had arrived there, thinking that he should especially address the veteran soldiers who had survived such great disasters, an assembly having been called, he spoke as follows: “No new commander before me could, with right and with merit, give thanks to his soldiers before he had used their services; Fortune bound me to you before I saw the province or the camp—first, because you showed such pietas toward my father and my uncle, living and dead; then because, though the province’s possession had been lost in so great a disaster, you maintained it intact for the Roman People and for me, your successor, by your valor.”

sed cum iam benignitate deum id paremus atque agamus non ut ipsi maneamus in Hispania sed ne Poeni maneant, nec ut pro ripa Hiberi stantes arceamus transitu hostes sed ut ultro transeamus transferamusque bellum, uereor ne cui uestrum maius id audaciusque consilium quam aut pro memoria cladium nuper acceptarum aut pro aetate mea uideatur. aduersae pugnae in Hispania nullius in animo quam meo minus oblitterari possunt, quippe cui pater et patruus intra triginta dierum spatium ut aliud super aliud cumularetur familiae nostrae funus interfecti sunt; sed ut familiaris paene orbitas ac solitudo frangit animum, ita publica cum fortuna tum uirtus desperare de summa rerum prohibet. ea fato quodam data nobis sors est ut magnis omnibus bellis uicti uicerimus.

but since now by the benignity of the gods we are preparing and doing this not that we ourselves should remain in Spain but that the Punics not remain, nor that, standing on the bank of the Hiberus, we should ward off the enemy from the passage, but that we should of our own accord cross and transfer the war, I fear lest to any of you this seem a plan greater and more audacious than either in proportion to the memory of the disasters lately received or in proportion to my age. the adverse battles in Spain can be less obliterated in no one’s mind than in my own, seeing that my father and my uncle, within the space of thirty days, were slain, so that one funeral was heaped upon another for our family; but as a domestic, almost-orphanhood and solitude break the spirit, so the public, both fortune and virtue, forbid despairing of the sum of affairs. such a lot by a certain fate has been given to us, that in all great wars, having been conquered, we have conquered.

uetera omitto, Porsennam Gallos Samnites: a Punicis bellis incipiam. quot classes, quot duces, quot exercitus priore bello amissi sunt? iam quid hoc bello memorem?

I pass over the old matters, Porsenna, the Gauls, the Samnites: I shall begin with the Punic wars. How many fleets, how many commanders, how many armies were lost in the former war? And now what am I to recount in this war?

omnibus aut ipse adfui cladibus aut quibus afui, maxime unus omnium eas sensi. Trebia Trasumennus Cannae quid aliud sunt quam monumenta occisorum exercituum consulumque Romanorum? adde defectionem Italiae, Siciliae maioris partis, Sardiniae; adde ultimum terrorem ac pauorem, castra Punica inter Anienem ac moenia Romana posita et uisum prope in portis uictorem Hannibalem.

At all the disasters I myself was present; and of those from which I was absent, I, more than anyone, felt them most. Trebia, Trasumennus, Cannae—what are they other than monuments of the slain armies and of the Roman consuls? Add the defection of Italy, of the greater part of Sicily, of Sardinia; add the ultimate terror and panic—the Punic camp pitched between the Anio and the Roman walls, and Hannibal the victor seen almost at the gates.

in hac ruina rerum stetit una integra atque immobilis uirtus populi Romani; haec omnia strata humi erexit ac sustulit. uos omnium primi, milites, post Cannensem cladem uadenti Hasdrubali ad Alpes Italiamque, qui si se cum fratre coniunxisset nullum iam nomen esset populi Romani, ductu auspicioque patris mei obstitistis; et hae secundae res illas aduersas sustinuerunt. nunc benignitate deum omnia secunda prospera in dies laetiora ac meliora in Italia Siciliaque geruntur.

in this ruin of affairs one thing stood whole and immovable: the virtue of the Roman people; this raised and lifted up all these things laid low on the ground. you, soldiers, were the first of all, after the Cannae disaster, to oppose Hasdrubal going toward the Alps and Italy—who, if he had joined himself with his brother, there would already be no name of the Roman people—under the leadership and auspices of my father; and these favorable successes sustained those adverse ones. now, by the benignity of the gods, all favorable prosperities are being conducted, day by day more joyous and better, in Italy and in Sicily.

in Sicilia Syracusae, Agrigentum captum, pulsi tota insula hostes, receptaque prouincia in dicionem populi Romani est: in Italia Arpi recepti, Capua capta. iter omne ab urbe Roma trepida fuga emensus Hannibal, in extremum angulum agri Bruttii compulsus nihil iam maius precatur deos quam ut incolumi cedere atque abire ex hostium terra liceat. quid igitur minus conueniat, milites, quam cum aliae super alias clades cumularentur ac di prope ipsi cum Hannibale starent, uos hic cum parentibus meis--aequentur enim etiam honore nominis--sustinuisse labantem fortunam populi Romani, nunc eosdem quia illic omnia secunda laetaque sunt animis deficere?

in Sicily, Syracuse, Agrigentum captured, the enemies driven from the whole island, and the province received back into the dominion of the Roman people: in Italy Arpi recovered, Capua captured. Hannibal, having traversed the whole route from the city of Rome in a panic-stricken flight, forced into the farthest corner of the land of the Bruttii, now prays nothing greater of the gods than that it may be permitted him to withdraw safe and depart from the enemy’s land. What therefore is less fitting, soldiers, than that when disasters were being heaped one upon another and the gods themselves almost stood with Hannibal, you here with my parents—let them even be equaled in the honor of the name—sustained the tottering fortune of the Roman people, now the same men, because there everything is favorable and joyful, should fail in spirit?

nuper quoque quae acciderunt, utinam tam sine meo luctu quam~~. nunc di immortales imperii Romani praesides qui centuriis omnibus ut mihi imperium iuberent dari fuere auctores, iidem auguriis auspiciisque et per nocturnos etiam uisus omnia laeta ac prospera portendunt. animus quoque meus, maximus mihi ad hoc tempus uates, praesagit nostram Hispaniam esse, breui extorre hinc omne Punicum nomen maria terrasque foeda fuga impleturum. quod mens sua sponte diuinat, idem subicit ratio haud fallax.

recently also the things which have happened—would that they were as without my grief as ~~. now the immortal gods, guardians of the Roman imperium, who were the authors that all the centuries should order that command be given to me, these same by auguries and auspices, and even through nocturnal visions, portend all things joyful and prosperous. my spirit too—my greatest seer up to this time—forebodes that Spain is ours, that shortly the whole Punic name, exiled from here, will fill seas and lands with foul flight. what the mind of its own accord divines, the same a not-fallacious reason supports.

uexati ab iis socii nostram fidem per legatos implorant. tres duces discordantes prope ut defecerint alii ab aliis, trifariam exercitum in diuersissimas regiones distraxere. eadem in illos ingruit fortuna quae nuper nos adflixit; nam et deseruntur ab sociis, ut prius ab Celtiberis nos, et diduxere exercitus quae patri patruoque meo causa exitii fuit; nec discordia intestina coire eos in unum sinet neque singuli nobis resistere poterunt.

Vexed by these, the allies implore our faith through envoys. Three discordant leaders have almost deserted, some from others, and they have distracted the army threefold into most diverse regions. The same fortune rushes upon them which lately afflicted us; for they are deserted by their allies, as earlier we by the Celtiberians, and they have drawn apart their armies, which was the cause of destruction to my father and my paternal uncle; nor will internal discord allow them to unite into one, nor will they, singly, be able to resist us.

uos modo, milites, fauete nomini Scipionum, suboli imperatorum uestrorum uelut accisis recrescenti stirpibus. agite, ueteres milites, nouum exercitum nouumque ducem traducite Hiberum, traducite in terras cum multis fortibus factis saepe a uobis peragratas. breui faciam ut, quemadmodum nunc noscitatis in me patris patruique similitudinem oris uoltusque et lineamenta corporis, ita ingenii fidei uirtutisque effigiem uobis reddam ut reuixisse aut renatum sibi quisque Scipionem imperatorem dicat.'

You, only, soldiers, favor the name of the Scipios—the offspring of your commanders, as stocks, once cut down, grow back. Come, veteran soldiers, lead the new army and the new leader across the Hiberus; lead them into lands often traversed by you with many brave deeds. Shortly I will bring it to pass that, just as you now recognize in me the likeness of my father and uncle in face and countenance and the lineaments of the body, so I will render to you the image of genius, faith, and virtue, such that each man will say that Scipio the general has come alive again or been reborn for him.'

[42] Hac oratione accensis militum animis relicto ad praesidium regionis eius M. Silano cum tribus milibus peditum et trecentis equitibus ceteras omnes copias--erant autem uiginti quinque milia peditum, duo milia quingenti equites --Hiberum traiecit. ibi quibusdam suadentibus ut quoniam in tres tam diuersas regiones discessissent Punici exercitus, proximum adgrederetur, periculum esse ratus ne eo facto in unum omnes contraheret nec par esset unus tot exercitibus, Carthaginem Nouam interim oppugnare statuit urbem cum ipsam opulentam suis opibus tum hostium omni bellico apparatu plenam--ibi arma, ibi pecunia, ibi totius Hispaniae obsides erant--sitam praeterea cum opportune ad traiciendum in Africam tum super portum satis amplum quantaeuis classi et nescio an unum in Hispaniae ora qua nostro adiacet mari. nemo omnium quo iretur sciebat praeter C. Laelium.

[42] By this speech, with the soldiers’ spirits inflamed, leaving M. Silanus with three thousand foot-soldiers and three hundred horsemen for the defense of that region, he ferried the rest of all the forces across the Ebro--now there were twenty-five thousand foot and two thousand five hundred horsemen --the Hiberus. There, while some were advising that, since the Punic armies had withdrawn into three so very diverse regions, he should attack the nearest, judging it dangerous lest by that deed he should draw them all together into one and that one man would not be a match for so many armies, he decided in the meantime to attack New Carthage, a city both opulent in its own resources and filled with all the enemy’s warlike apparatus--there were arms there, there money, there the hostages of all Hispania--situated moreover conveniently both for crossing into Africa and above a harbor quite ample for a fleet of any size, and I know not whether the sole one on the coast of Hispania where it adjoins our sea. No one of all knew whither they were going except C. Laelius.

is classe circummissus ita moderari cursum nauium iussus erat ut eodem tempore Scipio ab terra exercitum ostenderet et classis portum intraret. septimo die ab Hibero Carthaginem uentum est simul terra marique. castra ab regione urbis qua in septentrionem uersa est posita; his ab tergo--nam frons natura tuta erat--uallum obiectum.

he, sent around with the fleet, had been ordered to regulate the course of the ships so that at the same time Scipio would display the army from the land and the fleet would enter the port. On the seventh day from the Ebro, New Carthage was reached, at once by land and by sea. A camp was pitched on the side of the city which is turned toward the north; behind these -- for the front was safe by nature -- a rampart was thrown up.

etenim sita Carthago sic est. sinus est maris media fere Hispaniae ora, maxime Africo uento oppositus, <ad duo milia> et quingentos passus introrsus retractus, paululo plus passuum <mille et ducentos> in latitudinem patens. huius in ostio sinus parua insula obiecta ab alto portum ab omnibus uentis praeterquam Africo tutum facit.

For indeed Carthage is situated thus. There is a bay of the sea in almost the middle of the coast of Spain, chiefly opposed to the Africus wind, recessed inward and 500 paces, spreading in width a little more than <1,200> paces. At the mouth of this bay, a small island set before it from the deep makes the harbor safe from all winds except the Africus.

ab intimo sinu paeneinsula excurrit, tumulus is ipse in quo condita urbs est, ab ortu solis et a meridie cincta mari: ab occasu stagnum claudit paulum etiam ad septentrionem fusum, incertae altitudinis utcumque exaestuat aut deficit mare. continenti urbem iugum ducentos fere et quinquaginta passus patens coniungit. unde cum tam parui operis munitio esset, non obiecit uallum imperator Romanus, seu fiduciam hosti superbe ostentans siue ut subeunti saepe ad moenia urbis recursus pateret.

From the innermost recess of the bay a peninsula runs out—the very mound on which the city is founded—girded by the sea on the east and on the south; on the west a lagoon encloses it, stretched a little also toward the north, of uncertain depth as the sea swells or ebbs. A ridge, lying open for about 250 paces, links the city to the mainland. Accordingly, since the fortification there was so small a work, the Roman commander did not throw up a rampart, either haughtily displaying confidence to the enemy or in order that, for one advancing up to the city walls, a way of return might often lie open.

[43] Cetera quae munienda erant cum perfecisset, naues etiam in portu uelut maritimam quoque ostentans obsidionem instruxit; circumuectusque classem cum monuisset praefectos nauium ut uigilias nocturnas intenti seruarent, omnia ubique primo obsessum hostem conari, regressus in castra ut consilii sui rationem quod ab urbe potissimum oppugnanda bellum orsus esset militibus ostenderet et spem potiundae cohortando faceret, contione aduocata ita disseruit: 'ad urbem unam oppugnandam si quis uos adductos credit, is magis operis uestri quam emolumenti rationem exactam, milites, habet; oppugnabitis enim uere moenia unius urbis, sed in una urbe uniuersam ceperitis Hispaniam. hic sunt obsides omnium nobilium regum populorumque, qui simul in potestate uestra erunt, extemplo omnia quae nunc sub Carthaginiensibus sunt in dicionem tradent; hic pecunia omnis hostium, sine qua neque illi gerere bellum possunt, quippe qui mercennarios exercitus alant, et quae nobis maximo usui ad conciliandos animos barbarorum erit; hic tormenta arma omnis apparatus belli est, qui simul et uos instruet et hostes nudabit. potiemur praeterea cum pulcherrima opulentissimaque urbe tum opportunissima portu egregio unde terra marique quae belli usus poscunt suppeditentur; quae cum magna ipsi habebimus tum dempserimus hostibus multo maiora.

[43] When he had finished the rest of the things that had to be fortified, he also equipped the ships in the harbor, as if displaying a maritime siege as well; and, having sailed around the fleet and warned the ship-prefects to keep the night watches attentively—since at the outset a besieged enemy attempts everything everywhere—, he returned to camp to show the soldiers the rationale of his plan, namely why he had begun the war by attacking the city above all, and by exhortation to create hope of taking it; and, an assembly having been called, he discoursed thus: 'If anyone believes you have been brought to attack one city, he, soldiers, has reckoned the account of your toil more exactly than of your profit; for you will truly assault the walls of a single city, but in one city you will have taken the whole of Spain. Here are the hostages of all the noble kings and peoples, who, as soon as they are in your power, will forthwith hand over into your dominion everything that is now under the Carthaginians. Here is all the enemy’s money—without which they cannot wage war, seeing that they support mercenary armies—and it will be of the greatest use to us for conciliating the minds of the barbarians. Here are the engines, arms, every apparatus of war, which at once will equip you and strip the enemy. We shall moreover gain possession not only of a most beautiful and most opulent city, but also of one most advantageous, with an excellent harbor whence, by land and by sea, the things which the need of war demands are supplied; which, great as they will be for us to have, we shall by the same act have taken away from the enemy as things much greater.'

haec illis arx, hoc horreum aerarium armamentarium, hoc omnium rerum receptaculum est; huc rectus ex Africa cursus est; haec una inter Pyrenaeum et Gades statio; hinc omni Hispaniae imminet Africa.~~

this for them is a citadel; this, a granary, a treasury, an armory; this is the receptacle of all things; to this point there is a direct course from Africa; this is the single station between the Pyrenees and Gades; from here Africa looms over all Hispania.~~

[44] ~~armauerat. cum terra marique instrui oppugnationem uideret et ipse copias ita disponit. oppidanorum duo milia ab ea parte qua castra Romana erant opponit: quingentis militibus arcem insidit, quingentos tumulo urbis in orientem uerso imponit: multitudinem aliam quo clamor, quo subita uocasset res intentam ad omnia occurrere iubet.

[44] ~~he had armed. When he saw the assault being set up by land and sea, he likewise arranges his forces thus. He sets two thousand townsmen to oppose on that side where the Roman camp was: with five hundred soldiers he garrisons the citadel, he posts five hundred on the mound of the city turned toward the east: he orders the rest of the multitude, intent upon everything, to run wherever the clamor, wherever the sudden crisis might call.

patefacta deinde porta eos quos in uia ferente ad castra hostium instruxerat emittit. Romani duce ipso praecipiente parumper cessere, ut propiores subsidiis in certamine ipso summittendis essent. et primo haud impares stetere acies; subsidia deinde identidem summissa e castris non auerterunt solum in fugam hostes, sed adeo effusis institerunt ut nisi receptui cecinisset permixti fugientibus inrupturi fuisse in urbem uiderentur.

then, the gate having been thrown open, he sent out those whom he had arrayed on the road leading to the enemy’s camp. The Romans, at their leader’s own directive, gave ground for a short while, so that they might be nearer for the very sending in of reserves into the contest. And at first the battle lines stood not unequal; then the reserves, repeatedly dispatched from the camp, not only turned the enemies to flight, but pressed upon the routed so profusely that, unless he had sounded the recall, they seemed about to burst into the city, commingled with the fugitives.

trepidatio uero non in proelio maior quam tota urbe fuit; multae stationes pauore atque fuga desertae sunt relictique muri cum qua cuique erat proximum desiluissent. quod ubi egressus Scipio in tumulum quem Mercuri uocant animaduertit multis partibus nudata defensoribus moenia esse, omnes e castris excitos ire ad oppugnandam urbem et ferre scalas iubet. ipse trium prae se iuuenum ualidorum scutis oppositis--ingens enim iam uis omnis generis telorum e muris uolabat--ad urbem succedit; hortatur imperat quae in rem sunt, quodque plurimum ad accendendos militum animos intererat, testis spectatorque uirtutis atque ignauiae cuiusque adest.

The trepidation, in truth, was no greater in the battle than in the whole city; many posts were deserted in panic and flight, and the walls were left behind after each had leapt down by whatever way was nearest to him. When Scipio, having gone out onto the mound which they call Mercury’s, noticed that in many parts the ramparts were stripped of defenders, he orders all, roused from the camp, to go to attack the city and to carry ladders. He himself advances to the city with three strong youths before him, their shields set up as opposition—for already a huge force of missiles of every kind was flying from the walls—and he encourages and orders what things are to the purpose; and, what most mattered for kindling the soldiers’ spirits, he is present as witness and spectator of each man’s valor and cowardice.

itaque in uolnera ac tela ruunt; neque illos muri neque superstantes armati arcere queunt quin certatim adscendant. et ab nauibus eodem tempore ea quae mari adluitur pars urbis oppugnari coepta est. ceterum tumultus inde maior quam uis adhiberi poterat.

accordingly they rush into wounds and missiles; neither the walls nor the armed men standing above are able to ward them off so that they do not, vying with one another, climb up. and from the ships at the same time the part of the city that is laved by the sea began to be assaulted. moreover, the tumult there was greater than the force that could be brought to bear.

dum applicant, dum raptim exponunt scalas militesque dum qua cuique proximum est in terram euadere properant, ipsa festinatione et certamine alii alios impediunt.

while they bring alongside, while they rapidly disembark the ladders and the soldiers, while they hasten to get onto land where it is nearest for each, by the very hastening and competition they hinder one another.

[45] Inter haec repleuerat iam Poenus armatis muros, et uis magna ex ingenti copia congesta telorum suppeditabat; sed neque uiri nec tela nec quicquam aliud aeque quam moenia ipsa sese defendebant. rarae enim scalae altitudini aequari poterant, et quo quaeque altiores, eo infirmiores erant. itaque cum summus quisque euadere non posset, subirent tamen alii, onere ipso frangebantur.

[45] Meanwhile, amid these things, the Carthaginian had now filled the walls with armed men, and a great force of projectiles, heaped up from an enormous supply, was being furnished; but neither the men nor the missiles nor anything else defended them so much as the walls themselves did. For few ladders could be made equal to the height, and the higher each was, the weaker it was. And so, since whoever was uppermost could not get over, yet others kept climbing up, and by the very weight the ladders were breaking.

quidam stantibus scalis cum altitudo caliginem oculis offudisset, ad terram delati sunt. et cum passim homines scalaeque ruerent et ipso successu audacia atque alacritas hostium cresceret, signum receptui datum est; quod spem non praesentis modo ab tanto certamine ac labore quietis obsessis, sed etiam in posterum dedit scalis et corona capi urbem non posse: opera et difficilia esse et tempus datura ad ferendam opem imperatoribus suis. uix prior tumultus conticuerat cum Scipio ab defessis iam uolneratisque recentes integrosque alios accipere scalas iubet et ui maiore adgredi urbem.

some, while the ladders were standing and the height had cast a caliginous dimness upon their eyes, were borne down to the ground. and when everywhere men and ladders were crashing down, and by the very success the audacity and alacrity of the enemy increased, the signal for retreat was given; which gave hope to the besieged not only of present rest from so great a struggle and labor, but also for the future that the city could not be taken by ladders and by an encircling corona: the works were both difficult and would afford time for their commanders to bring aid. scarcely had the previous tumult fallen silent when Scipio orders that, from the already wearied and wounded, other fresh and unharmed men take the ladders and attack the city with greater force.

ipse ut ei nuntiatum est aestum decedere, quod per piscatores Tarraconenses, nunc leuibus cumbis, nunc ubi eae siderent uadis peruagatos stagnum, compertum habebat facilem pedibus ad murum transitum dari, eo secum armatos quingentos duxit. medium ferme diei erat, et ad id, quod sua sponte cedente in mare aestu trahebatur aqua, acer etiam septentrio ortus inclinatum stagnum eodem quo aestus ferebat et adeo nudauerat uada ut alibi umbilico tenus aqua esset, alibi genua uix superaret. hoc cura ac ratione compertum in prodigium ac deos uertens Scipio qui ad transitum Romanis mare uerterent et stagna auferrent uiasque ante nunquam initas humano uestigio aperirent, Neptunum iubebat ducem itineris sequi ac medio stagno euadere ad moenia.

he himself, when it was announced to him that the tide was receding—something he had ascertained through the fishermen of Tarraco, who, now in light skiffs, now, when these grounded in the shoals, ranging throughout the lagoon, had discovered that an easy crossing on foot to the wall was afforded—led thither with him five hundred armed men. It was about the middle of the day, and, in addition to this, as the water, with the tide of its own accord drawing back into the sea, was being carried off, a keen Septentrion having also arisen was driving the slanted lagoon in the same direction as the tide, and had so laid bare the shallows that in some places the water was up to the navel, in others it scarcely overtopped the knees. Scipio, turning this—ascertained by care and reasoning—into a prodigy and to the gods, declared that the gods, for the Romans’ passage, were turning the sea, removing the lagoons, and opening ways never before entered by human vestige; he bade them follow Neptune as leader of the march and, through the middle of the lagoon, make their way out to the walls.

[46] Ab terra ingens labor succedentibus erat; nec altitudine tantum moenium impediebantur, sed quod ~euntes~ ad ancipites utrimque ictus subiectos habebant Romanos, ut latera infestiora subeuntibus quam aduersa corpora essent. at parte ~in alia quingentis et per stagnum facilis transitus et in murum adscensus inde fuit; nam neque opere emunitus erat ut ubi ipsius loci ac stagni praesidio satis creditum foret, nec ulla armatorum statio aut custodia opposita intentis omnibus ad opem eo ferendam unde periculum ostendebatur. ubi urbem sine certamine intrauere, pergunt inde quanto maximo cursu poterant ad eam portam circa quam omne contractum certamen erat; in quod adeo intenti omnium non animi solum fuere sed etiam oculi auresque pugnantium spectantiumque et adhortantium pugnantes ut nemo ante ab tergo senserit captam urbem quam tela in auersos inciderunt et utrimque ancipitem hostem habebant.

[46] From the land there was enormous toil for those advancing; nor were they hindered only by the height of the walls, but because the Romans, ~going~, had themselves exposed below to blows threatening from both sides, so that their flanks, as they went up, were more assailed than their front-facing bodies. But in ~another quarter, for the five hundred, there was an easy passage through the lagoon and from there an ascent onto the wall;~ for it had not been fortified with works, since enough confidence had been placed in the defense of the place itself and the lagoon, nor was any post of armed men or guard set in opposition, as all were intent on bringing help to the spot from which danger was shown. When they entered the city without a contest, they then hurry, at the greatest run they could, to that gate around which all the fighting was concentrated; upon which so intent were not only the spirits of all, but even the eyes and ears of the fighting men, the onlookers, and those urging on the fighters, that no one perceived the city had been taken behind their backs before missiles fell upon them as they faced away, and they had an enemy threatening them on both sides.

tunc turbatis defensoribus metu et moenia capta et porta intus forisque pariter refringi coepta; et mox caedendo confectis ac distractis ne iter impediretur foribus armati impetum fecerunt. magna multitudo et muros transcendebat; sed hi passim ad caedem oppidanorum uersi; illa quae portam ingressa erat iusta acies cum ducibus, cum ordinibus media urbe usque in forum processit. inde cum duobus itineribus fugientes uideret hostes, alios ad tumulum in orientem uersum qui tenebatur quingentorum militum praesidio, alios in arcem in quam et ipse Mago cum omnibus fere armatis qui muris pulsi fuerant refugerat, partem copiarum ad tumulum expugnandum mittit, partem ipse ad arcem ducit.

then, with the defenders thrown into confusion by fear, both the walls were captured and the gate began to be broken open equally inside and outside; and soon, when the doors had been cut down and torn apart, lest they impede the passage, the armed men made an assault. A great multitude also was crossing the walls; but these turned everywhere to the slaughter of the townspeople; that force which had entered by the gate, a regular battle line with its leaders, with its ranks, advanced through the middle of the city all the way to the forum. From there, when he saw the enemy fleeing by two routes—some to a mound turned toward the east, which was held by a garrison of 500 soldiers, others into the citadel, into which Mago himself had taken refuge with almost all the armed men who had been driven from the walls—he sends part of the troops to storm the mound, and he himself leads part to the citadel.

et tumulus primo impetu est captus, et Mago arcem conatus defendere, cum omnia hostium plena uideret neque spem ullam esse, se arcemque et praesidium dedidit. quoad dedita arx est, caedes tota urbe passim factae nec ulli puberum qui obuius fuit parcebatur: tum signo dato caedibus finis factus, ad praedam uictores uersi, quae ingens omnis generis fuit.

and the mound was seized at the first onset, and Mago, having attempted to defend the citadel, when he saw everything filled with enemies and that there was no hope at all, surrendered himself, the citadel, and the garrison. until the citadel was surrendered, slaughters were committed everywhere throughout the city, nor was any of those come to age who met them spared: then, a signal having been given, an end was put to the killings; the victors turned to plunder, which was immense of every kind.

[47] Liberorum capitum uirile secus ad decem milia capta; inde qui ciues Nouae Carthaginis erant dimisit urbemque et sua omnia quae reliqua eis bellum fecerat restituit. opifices ad duo milia hominum erant; eos publicos fore populi Romani edixit, cum spe propinqua libertatis si ad ministeria belli enixe operam nauassent. ceteram multitudinem incolarum iuuenum ac ualidorum seruorum in classem ad supplementum remigum dedit; et auxerat nauibus octo captiuis classem.

[47] Of free persons of the male sex about ten thousand were captured; thereupon he released those who were citizens of New Carthage and restored their city and all their possessions which the war had left remaining to them. The artificers were about two thousand men; he proclaimed by edict that they would be public property of the Roman people, with a near hope of liberty if they should zealously devote their effort to the ministries of war. The remaining multitude—of inhabitants who were youths, and of sturdy slaves—he assigned to the fleet as a supplement of oarsmen; and he increased the fleet by eight captured ships.

extra hanc multitudinem Hispanorum obsides erant, quorum perinde ac si sociorum liberi essent cura habita. captus et apparatus ingens belli; catapultae maximae formae centum uiginti, minores ducentae octoginta una; ballistae maiores uiginti tres, minores quinquaginta duae; scorpionum maiorum minorumque et armorum telorumque ingens numerus; signa militaria septuaginta quattuor. et auri argenti relata ad imperatorem magna uis: paterae aureae fuerunt ducentae septuaginta sex, librales ferme omnes pondo; argenti infecti signatique decem et octo milia et trecenta pondo, uasorum argenteorum magnus numerus; haec omnia C. Flaminio quaestori appensa adnumerataque sunt; tritici quadringenta milia modium, hordei ducenta septuaginta.

outside this multitude there were Spanish hostages, whose care was taken just as if they were the children of allies. a vast capture and apparatus of war was taken; catapults of the largest model 120, smaller 281; ballistae larger 23, smaller 52; of scorpions, both larger and smaller, and of arms and missiles, a huge number; military standards 74. and a great mass of gold and silver was brought back to the commander: golden paterae were 276, almost all a pound in weight apiece; of silver, unwrought and minted, 18,300 pounds by weight; a large number of silver vessels; all these things were weighed and counted out to Gaius Flaminius the quaestor; of wheat 400,000 modii, of barley 270,000.

naues onerariae sexaginta tres in portu expugnatae captaeque, quaedam cum suis oneribus, frumento, armis, aere praeterea ferroque et linteis et sparto et nauali alia materia ad classem aedificandam, ut minimum omnium inter tantas opes belli captas Carthago ipsa fuerit.

Sixty-three cargo ships in the harbor were stormed and captured, some with their own loads—grain, arms, bronze, and moreover iron, and linens and esparto and other naval material for constructing a fleet—so that, among such great resources of war taken, Carthage itself was the least of all.

[48] Eo die Scipio C. Laelio cum sociis naualibus urbem custodire iusso ipse in castra legiones reduxit fessosque milites omnibus uno die belli operibus, quippe qui et acie dimicassent et capienda urbe tantum laboris periculique adissent et capta cum iis qui in arcem confugerant iniquo etiam loco pugnassent, curare corpora iussit. postero die militibus naualibusque sociis conuocatis primum dis immortalibus laudes gratesque egit, qui se non urbis solum opulentissimae omnium in Hispania uno die compotem fecissent, sed ante eo congessissent omnis Africae atque Hispaniae opes, ut neque hostibus quicquam relinqueretur et sibi ac suis omnia superessent. militum deinde uirtutem conlaudauit quod eos non eruptio hostium, non altitudo moenium, non inexplorata stagni uada, non castellum in alto tumulo situm, non munitissima arx deterruisset quo minus transcenderent omnia perrumperentque.

[48] On that day Scipio, after ordering Gaius Laelius with the naval allies to guard the city, himself led the legions back to camp and ordered the soldiers—exhausted by having in a single day done all the operations of war, seeing that they had both fought in the battle-line and, in taking the city, had undergone so much labor and peril, and, when it was taken, had fought with those who had fled into the citadel, even on unfavorable ground—to care for their bodies. On the next day, having convened the soldiers and the naval allies, first he gave praises and thanks to the immortal gods, who had made him in one day not only master of the most opulent city of all in Spain, but earlier had so heaped together the wealth of all Africa and Spain that nothing was left to the enemies and everything remained over for himself and his men. Then he highly commended the valor of the soldiers, because neither a sally of the enemy, nor the height of the walls, nor the unexplored shallows of the lagoon, nor a fortress set on a high mound, nor a most strongly fortified citadel had deterred them from crossing all obstacles and breaking through them.

itaque quamquam omnibus omnia deberet, praecipuum muralis coronae decus eius esse qui primus murum adscendisset; profiteretur qui se dignum eo duceret dono. duo professi sunt, Q. Trebellius, centurio legionis quartae, et Sex. Digitius, socius naualis.

and so, although he owed everything to all, the chief distinction of the mural crown should be his who had first climbed the wall; let him declare himself who deemed himself worthy of that gift. Two declared themselves: Q. Trebellius, a centurion of the Fourth Legion, and Sex. Digitius, a naval ally.

nec ipsi tam inter se acriter contendebant quam studia excitauerant uterque sui corporis hominum. sociis C. Laelius, praefectus classis, legionariis M. Sempronius Tuditanus aderat. ea contentio cum prope seditionem ueniret, Scipio tres recuperatores cum se daturum pronuntiasset qui cognita causa testibusque auditis iudicarent uter prior in oppidum transcendisset, C. Laelio et M. Sempronio, aduocatis partis utriusque, P. Cornelium Caudinum de medio adiecit eosque tres recuperatores considere et causam cognoscere iussit.

nor were they themselves contending so sharply with each other as each had aroused the zeal of the men of his own corps. with the allies was C. Laelius, prefect of the fleet; with the legionaries, M. Sempronius Tuditanus. when that contention was verging almost on sedition, Scipio, after announcing that he would appoint three recuperators who, the case having been examined and the witnesses heard, should judge which had first overleapt into the town, having called C. Laelius and M. Sempronius as advocates of each party, added P. Cornelius Caudinus from the middle, and ordered those three recuperators to take their seats and to take cognizance of the case.

cum res eo maiore ageretur certamine quod amoti tantae dignitatis non tam aduocati quam moderatores studorium fuerant, C. Laelius relicto consilio ad tribunal ad Scipionem accedit, eumque docet rem sine modo ac modestria agi, ac proper esse ut manus inter se conferant. Ceterum, etiam si vis absit, nihilo minus detestabili exemplo rem agi, quippe ubi fraude ac periurio decus petatur virtutis. Satre hinc legionarios milites, hinc classicos, per omnis deos paratos iurare magis quae velint quam quae sciant vera esse, et obstringere periurio non se solum suumque caput, sed signa militaria et aquilas sacramentique religionem.

when the matter was being conducted with the greater rivalry because, removed from so great a dignity, they had been not so much advocates as moderators of the partisanships, C. Laelius, leaving the council, goes up to the tribunal to Scipio and shows him that the affair is being handled without measure and modesty, and that it is near that they will come to hands among themselves. Moreover, even if violence be absent, nonetheless the matter is being carried on with a detestable example, namely where by fraud and perjury the honor of virtue is sought. Already here the legionary soldiers, there the marines, by all the gods are ready to swear rather to what they want than to what they know to be true, and to bind by perjury not themselves alone and their own person, but the military standards and the eagles and the religion of the sacrament.

Haec se ad eum de sententia P. Cornelii et M. Sempronii deferre. Scipio conlaudato Laelio ad contionem advocavit pronuntiavitque se satis compertum habere Q. Trebellium et Sex. Digitium pariter in murum escendisse, seque eos ambos virtutis causa coronis muralibus donare.

He was bringing these matters before him on the advice of P. Cornelius and M. Sempronius. After praising Laelius, Scipio called an assembly and declared that he had sufficiently ascertained that Q. Trebellius and Sex. Digitus had alike mounted the wall, and that he was awarding both of them, for the sake of their virtue, with mural crowns.

Tum reliquos prout cuiusque meritum virtusque erat donavit; ante omnis C. Laelium praefectum classis et omni genere laudis sibimet ipse aequavit et corona aurea ac triginta bubus donavit.

Then he bestowed gifts upon the rest according to each man’s merit and virtue; before all, C. Laelius, prefect of the fleet, he set on a par with himself in every kind of praise, and he presented him with a golden crown and thirty oxen.

[49] Tum obsides ciuitatium Hispaniae uocari iussit; quorum quantus numerus fuerit piget scribere, quippe ubi alibi trecentos ferme, alibi tria milia septingentos uiginti quattuor fuisse inueniam. Aeque et alia inter auctores discrepant. Praesidium Punicum alius decem, alius septem, alius haud plus quam duum milium fuisse scribit.

[49] Then he ordered the hostages of the communities of Spain to be summoned; of whose number I am reluctant to write, since in one place I find nearly 300, elsewhere 3,724. Other matters likewise disagree among the authors. As for the Punic garrison, one writes that it was 10,000, another 7,000, another that it was not more than 2,000.

Capta alibi decem milia capitum, alibi supra quinque et uiginti inuenias. Scorpiones maiores minoresque ad sexaginta captos scripserim, si auctorem Graecum sequar Silenum; si ualerium Antiatem, maior scorpionumsex milia, minorum tredecim milia; adeo nullus mentiendi modus est. Ne de ducibus quidem conuenit.

Elsewhere you will find ten thousand heads captured; elsewhere, above twenty-five thousand. As for scorpions, greater and lesser, I would write that up to sixty were taken, if I should follow the Greek author Silenus; if I follow Valerius Antias, of the larger scorpions six thousand, of the smaller thirteen thousand—so much so there is no measure of lying. Nor is there agreement even about the commanders.

Plerique Laelium praefuisse classi, sunt qui M. Iulium Silanum dicant; Arinen praefuisse Punico praesidio deditumque Romanis Antias ualerius, Magonem alii scriptores tradunt. Non de numero nauium captarum, non de pondere auri atque argenti et redacta pecunia conuenit; si aliquis adsentiri necesse est, media simillima ueri sunt. Ceterum, uocatis obsidibus primum uniuersos bonum animum habere iussit: uenisse enim eos in populi Romani potestatem, qui beneficio quam metu obligare homines malit exterasque gentes fide ac societate iunctas habere quam tristi subiectas seruitio.

Plerique say that Laelius was in command of the fleet; there are those who say Marcus Julius Silanus; that Arines was in charge of the Punic garrison and was delivered to the Romans, Valerius Antias relates; other writers hand down that it was Mago. There is no agreement about the number of ships captured, nor about the weight of gold and silver and the money exacted; if one must assent to anything, the middle figures are most similar to the truth. Moreover, when the hostages had been called in, he first ordered them all to keep good courage: for they had come into the power of the Roman People, who prefer to oblige men by beneficence rather than by fear and to have foreign nations joined by good faith and alliance rather than subjected to grim servitude.

Deinde acceptis nominibus ciuitatium recensuit captiuos quot cuiusque populi essent, et nuntios domum misit ut ad suos quisque recipiendos ueniret. Si quarum forte ciuitatium legati aderant, eis praesentibus suos restituit: ceterorum curam benigne tuendorum C. Flaminio quaestori attribuit. Inter haec e media turba obsidum mulier magno natu, Mandonii uxor, qui frater Indibilis Ilergetum reguli erant, flens ad pedes imperatoris procubuit obtestarique coepit ut curam cultumque feminarum impensius custodibus commendaret.

Then, after receiving the names of the communities, he reviewed the captives—how many there were of each people—and sent messengers home so that each might come to take back his own. If by chance the envoys of any communities were present, he restored theirs to them in their presence; the care of the rest, to be kindly tended, he assigned to Gaius Flaminius, the quaestor. Meanwhile, from the midst of the crowd of hostages, a woman great in years, the wife of Mandonius—who was the brother of Indibilis, chieftain of the Ilergetes—weeping, prostrated herself at the feet of the general and began to beseech that he would more earnestly commend to the guards the care and treatment of the women.

Cum Scipio nihil defuturum iis profecto diceret, tum rursus mulier: "Haud magni ista facimus" inquit; "quid enim huic fortunae non satis est? Alia me cura aetatem harum intuentem Ð nam ipsa iam extra periculum iniuriae muliebris sum Ð stimulat." Et aetate et forma florentes circa eam Indibilis filiae erant aliaeque nobilitate pari, quae omnes eam pro parente colebant. Tum Scipio: "Meae populique Romani disciplinae causae facerem" inquit, "ne quid quod sanctum usquam esset apud nos uiolaretur: nunc ut id curem impensius, uestra quoque uirtus dignitasque facit quae ne in malis quidem oblitae decoris matronalis estis". Spectatae deinde integritatis uiro tradidit eas tuerique haud secus uerecunde ac modeste quam hospitum coniuges ac matres iussit.

When Scipio said assuredly that nothing would be lacking to them, then the woman again: "We do not make much of those things," she said; "for what, for this fortune, is not enough? Another concern, as I look upon the age of these Ð for I myself am now beyond the peril of injury proper to women Ð spurs me." About her were the daughters of Indibilis, flourishing both in age and in form, and others with equal nobility, who all honored her as a parent. Then Scipio said: "For the sake of my own and the Roman people’s disciplina I would take care that nothing which is sacred anywhere among us be violated: now, that I may tend to this more earnestly, your virtue also and dignity bring it about, you who not even in misfortunes have been forgetful of matronal decorum." Then he handed them over to a man of proved integrity and ordered him to protect them with no less modesty and restraint than the wives and mothers of guests.

[50] Captiua deinde a militibus adducitur ad eum adulta uirgo, adeo eximia forma ut quacumque incedebat conuerteret omnium oculos. Scipio percontatus patriam parentesque, inter cetera accepit desponsam eam principi Celtiberorum: adulescenti Allucio nomen erat. Extemplo igitur parentibus sponsoque ab domo accitis, cum interim audiret deperire eum sponsae amore, ubi primum uenit, accuratiore eum sermone quam parentes adloquitur.

[50] Then a maiden of full age, a captive, is brought to him by the soldiers, so exceptional in form that wherever she walked she turned the eyes of all. Scipio, after inquiring her country and her parents, among other things learned that she was betrothed to a prince of the Celtiberians: the youth’s name was Allucius. Forthwith, therefore, her parents and fiancé having been summoned from home, while in the meantime he heard that he was wasting away with love for his betrothed, as soon as he arrived he addresses him with a more careful speech than the parents.

"Iuuenis", inquit, "iuuenem appello, quo minor sit inter nos huius sermonis uerecundia. Ego cum sponsa tua capta a militibus nostris ad me ducta esset audiremque tibi eam cordi esse, et forma faceret fidem, quia ipse, si frui liceret ludo aetatis, praesertim in recto et legitimo amore, et non res publica animum nostrum occupasset, ueniam mihi dari sponsam impensius amanti uellem, tuo cuius possum amori faueo. Fuit sponsa tua apud me eadem qua apud soceros tuos parentesque suos uerecundia; seruata tibi est, ut inuiolatum et dignum me teque dari tibi donum posset.

"Youth," he says, "I address you as a youth, so that the modesty of this conversation may be the less between us. When your betrothed, captured by our soldiers, had been led to me, and I heard that she was dear to you—and her beauty made good that claim—since I myself, if it were permitted to enjoy the sport of youth, especially in upright and legitimate love, and if the res publica had not occupied my mind, would wish indulgence to be granted me as one who loved a betrothed more earnestly; I favor, so far as I can, your love. Your betrothed has been with me in the same modesty with which she would have been with your parents-in-law and her own parents; she has been kept for you, so that a gift inviolate and worthy of me and of you could be given to you."

Hanc mercedem unam pro eo munere paciscor: amicus populo Romano sis et, si me uirum bonum credis esse quales patrem patruumque meum iam ante hae gentes norant, scias multos nostri similes in ciuitate Romana esse, nec ullum in terris hodie populum dici posse quem minus tibi hostem tuisque esse uelis aut amicum malis." Cum adulescens, simul pudore et gaudio perfusus, dextram Scipionis tenens deos omnes inuocaret ad gratiam illi pro se referendam, quoniam sibi nequaquam satis facultatis pro suo animo atque illius erga se merito esset, parentes inde cognatique uirgines appellati; qui, quoniam gratis sibi redderetur, uirgo ad quam redimendam satis magnum attulissent auri pondus, orare Scipionem ut id ab se donum acciperet coeperunt, haud minorem eius rei apud se gratiam futuram esse adfirmantes quam redditae inuiolatae foret uirginis. Scipio quando tanto opere peterent accepturum se pollicitus, poni ante pedes iussit uocatoque ad se Allucio. "Super dotem" inquit "quam accepturus a socero es, haec tibi a me dotalia dona accedent"; aurumque tollere ac sibi habere iussit.

This one recompense alone I stipulate in exchange for that favor: be a friend to the Roman People, and, if you believe me to be a good man such as my father and my paternal uncle these peoples had already known before, know that there are many like us in the Roman commonwealth, and that today there is no people on earth whom you would less wish to be an enemy to you and yours, or more choose as a friend." When the youth, suffused at once with modesty and joy, holding Scipio’s right hand, was invoking all the gods that gratitude might be rendered to him on his behalf, since he by no means had sufficient means to match his disposition and that man’s desert toward him, then the maiden’s parents and kinsmen were addressed; and because the maiden was being returned to them gratis, although they had brought a weight of gold large enough to ransom her, they began to beg Scipio to accept that as a gift from them, affirming that the favor for that act would be no less with them than had been the restoration of the maiden inviolate. Scipio, since they were asking so earnestly, promised that he would accept; he ordered it to be set before his feet and called Allucius to him. "Over and above the dowry," he said, "which you are going to receive from your father‑in‑law, these dotal gifts from me shall be added to you"; and he ordered him to take the gold and keep it for himself.

His laetus donis honoribusque dimissus domum, impleuit populares laudibus meritis Scipionis: uenisse dis simillimum iuuenem, uincentem omnia cum armis, tum benignitate ac beneficiis. Itaque dilectu clientium habito cum delectis mille et quadringentis equitibus intra paucos dies ad Scipionem reuertit.

Dismissed to his home rejoicing in these gifts and honors, he filled his fellow citizens with praises of Scipio’s merits: that a youth most similar to the gods had come, conquering everything both by arms and by benignity and benefactions. And so, after holding a levy of his clients, with 1,400 chosen horsemen he returned to Scipio within a few days.

[51] Scipio retentum secum Laelium, dum captiuos obsidesque et praedam ex consilio eius disponeret, satis omnibus rebus compositis, data quinquereme <et> captiuis + cum Magone et quindecim fere senatoribus qui simul cum eo capti erant in naues sex impositis nuntium uictoriae Romam mittit. Ipse paucos dies quibus morari Carthagine statuerat, exercendis naualibus pedestribusque copiis absumpsit. Primo die legiones in armis quattuor milium spatio decurrerunt; secundo die arma curare et tergere ante tentoria iussi; tertio die rudibus inter se in modum iustae pugnae concurrerunt praepilatisque missilibus iaculati sunt; quarto die quies data; quinto iterum in armis decursum est.

[51] Scipio, having kept Laelius with him, while he arranged the captives and hostages and the booty in accordance with his counsel, when all matters had been sufficiently settled, after a quinquereme had been provided <et> the captives +, with Mago and about fifteen senators who had been captured together with him, had been put aboard six ships, sends a message of victory to Rome. He himself spent the few days which he had determined to stay at Carthage in exercising the naval and infantry forces. On the first day the legions, in arms, ran a course of four miles; on the second day they were ordered to tend to and polish their arms before the tents; on the third day they clashed among themselves with wooden practice-swords in the manner of a regular fight and hurled blunted missiles; on the fourth day rest was granted; on the fifth, again, there was a run in arms.

Hunc ordinem laboris quietisque quoad Carthagine morati sunt seruarunt. Remigium classicique milites tranquillo in altum euecti, agilitatem nauium simulacris naualis pugnae experiebantur. Haec extra urbem terra marique corpora simul animosque ad bellum acuebant; urbs ipsa strepebat apparatu belli fabris omnium generum in publicam officinam inclusis.

They preserved this order of labor and repose so long as they remained at Carthage. The oar-crews and the fleet-soldiers, borne out into the deep in tranquil weather, were testing the agility of the ships with simulations of a naval battle. These activities outside the city, by land and sea alike, were sharpening both bodies and spirits for war; the city itself was loud with the apparatus of war, with craftsmen of every kind enclosed in the public workshop.

Dux cuncta pari cura obibat: nunc in classe ac nauali erat, nunc cum legionibus decurrebat: nunc operibus adspiciendis tempus dabat, quaeque in officinis quaeque in armamentario ac naualibus fabrorum multitudo plurima in singulos dies certamine ingenti faciebat. His ita incohatis refectisque quae quassata erant muri dispositisque praesidiis ad custodiam urbis, Tarraconem est profectus, a multis legationibus protinus in uia aditus, quas partim dato responso ex itinere dimisit, partim distulit Tarraconem, quo omnibus nouis ueteribusque sociis edixerat conuentum. Et cuncti fere qui cis Hiberum incolunt populi, multi etiam ulterioris prouinciae conuenerunt.

DThe leader went about everything with equal care: now he was in the fleet and the naval arm, now he ran with the legions; now he gave time to inspecting the works, and to what in the workshops, what in the armory and in the dockyards the very numerous multitude of craftsmen was making each single day in huge emulation. With these things thus set in motion, and after the shaken portions of the wall had been repaired, and garrisons arranged for the guarding of the city, he set out for Tarraco, being straightway on the road approached by many embassies, some of which, an answer having been given, he dismissed on his journey, some he deferred to Tarraco, where he had proclaimed an assembly for all the new and old allies. And almost all the peoples who dwell on this side of the Hiberus, and many also from the farther province, assembled.

Carthaginiensium duces primo ex industria famam captae Carthaginis compresserunt: deinde, ut clarior res erat quam ut tegi ac dissimulari posset, eleuabant uerbis: necopinato aduentu ac prope furto unius diei urbem unam Hispaniae interceptam, cuius rei tam paruae praemio elatum insolentem iuuenem immodico gaudio speciem magnae uictoriae imposuisse: at ubi adpropinquare tres duces, tres uictores hostium exercitus audisset, occursuram ei extemplo domesticorum funerum memoriam. Haec in uolgus iactabant, haudquaquam ipsi ignari quantum sibi ad omnia uirium Carthagine amissa decessisset.

Carthaginian leaders at first deliberately suppressed the report of Carthage taken; then, when the matter was too clear to be covered and dissembled, they extenuated it in words: by an unlooked-for arrival and, as it were, by the theft of a single day, a single city of Spain had been seized; an insolent youth, elated by the prize of so small a thing, had through immoderate joy put on the semblance of a great victory: but when he should hear that three leaders, three armies of the enemy, victors, were drawing near, the memory of funerals at home would straightway confront him. These things they were tossing out among the crowd, by no means themselves unaware how much of strength for everything had been deducted from them by the loss of Carthage.