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with no other incumbrance than their arms, the camp BOOK being full of their effects of all kinds, public and pri- XXII. vate: then, making them halt out of sight, behind the nearest mountains, he formed the foot in order B.C.216. of battle on the left, and the cavalry on the right, and conducted the baggage, as a centre line, through the interjacent valley; intending, while the enemy should be busy and encumbered in the pillaging of the camp, as if deserted by the owners, to fall upon them by surprise. Numerous fires were left in the camp, to create a belief that his intention was, by such appearances, to detain the consuls in their posts, while he should gain the advantage of time, to retreat to the greater distance, in like manner as he had deceived Fabius the year before.

XLII. When day arrived, the Romans, on observing, first, that the advanced guards had been withdrawn, and afterwards, on a nearer approach, the extraordinary silence, were filled with surprise. Then, when they discovered plainly that the camp was deserted, they ran together in crowds to the pavilions of the consuls, informing them that the enemy had fled in such haste, as to leave the tents standing; and in order to conceal their flight, had left also a number of fires. They then, with loud clamours demanded, that orders should be given for the troops to march in pursuit; and, that they should plunder the camp in their way. Varro acted the same part as the common soldiers. Paullus repeatedly represented, that they ought to proceed with care and circumspection; and, at last, when he could no otherwise restrain their mutinous proceedings, or the leader of them, he dispatched Marius Statilius, a præfect of the allies, with a troop of Lucanian horse, to procure intelligence. He rode up to the gates, and, ordering the rest to halt at the outside of the trenches, he went himself with two horsemen into the camp; and, having carefully examined every

BOOK circumstance, returned and reported, that there was XXII. without doubt an ambush intended; for the fires Y.R. 536. were left in that quarter which faced the enemy, the B.C. 216. tents were open, and every thing of value left in view; and that he had seen silver thrown at random in the passages, as if to invite a pillage. The very circumstances, mentioned with the intent of repressing their ardour for booty, served to inflame it; and the soldiers, shouting aloud, that if the signal were not given, they would proceed without their leaders; they did not long want one, for Varro instantly gave the signal for marching. Paullus was desirous of checking this precipitancy, and being informed that the chickens had not given a favourable auspice, ordered that the ill omen should be reported to his colleague when he was just leading the troops out of the gate; whereupon Varro, though heartily vexed at this, yet from the recollection of the recent disaster of Flaminius, and of the memorable overthrow of the consul Claudius at sea, in the first Punic war, was sensibly struck with religious scruples. The gods themselves on that day postponed, in a manner, rather than averted, the calamity which hung over the Romans: for it luckily happened, that, while the troops refused to obey the consul's orders to return into the camp, two slaves, one belonging to a horseman of Formiæ, the other to one of Sidicinum, who had been taken prisoners by the Numidians, among a party of forages, in the consulate of Servilius and Atilius, made their escape on that very day to their owners; and, being brought before the consuls, informed them, that Hannibal's whole army lay in ambush behind the nearest mountains. The seasonable arrival of these men procured obedience to the authority of the consuls, when one of them, by his immoderate pursuit of popular applause, had, through improper indulgence, forfeited people's respect for their dignity, particularly with regard to himself.

· XLIII. When Hannibal perceived that the Ro- BOOK mans, though they took some inconsiderate steps, XXII. had not carried their rashness to the full extent, the Y.R. 536. stratagem being now discovered, he returned with B.C.216. disappointment to his camp. In this place he could not remain, many days, by reason of the scarcity of corn, and new measures were daily in contemplation, not only among the soldiery, a multitude compounded of the refuse of all nations, but even in the mind of the general himself; for the men began to murmur, and afterwards proceeded with open clamours to demand the arrears of their pay, and to complain at first of the dearness of provisions, at last of famine. A report too prevailed, that the mercenary soldiers, particularly those from Spain, had formed a scheme of going over to the enemy, so that Hannibal himself is said to have sometimes entertained thoughts of flying into Gaul; intending to have left all the infantry behind, and, with the cavalry, to have made a hasty retreat. While these matters were in agitation, and this the disposition in the camp, he formed a resolution of removing into Apulia, where the weather was warmer, and consequently more favourable to the ripening of the harvest; and where, in proportion as he was placed at a greater distance from the enemy, the discontented would find desertion the more difficult. Accordingly he set out by night, after kindling fires as before, and leaving a few tents to keep up the appearance of a camp, in the expectation that fears of an ambush, as on the former occasion, would keep the Romans within their works. But Statilius, the Lucanian, having examined all the ground beyond the camp, and on the other side of the mountains, and bringing back an account that he had seen the enemy marching at a great distance, a consultation was held about pursuing him. Here each consul maintained the same opinion which he had ever held; but almost all the

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BOOK officers siding with Varro, and no one except SerXXII. vilius, the consul of the former year, with Paullus, they, pursuant to the determination of the majorB.C. 216. ity, set forward, under the impulse of unhappy fate, to render Cannæ for ever memorable, as a scene of disaster to the Romans. Near that town Hannibal had pitched his camp, turning the rear towards the wind called Vulturnus, which, in those plains, parched with heat, carries along with it clouds of dust. As this choice of situation was highly commodious to the men, while in camp, so was it particularly advantageous, when they were drawn up for battle; because, while the wind only blew on their backs, it would nearly blind the enemy with whom they were to fight, by carrying great quantities of dust into their faces.

XLIV. The consuls pursued the Carthaginians, taking proper care to examine the roads; when they arrived near Cannæ, and had the foe in sight, they divided their forces, as before, and fortified two camps at nearly the same distance from each other as they had been at Geronium. As the river Aufidus ran by the camps of both, the watering parties of both had access to it, as opportunity served, but not without encountering opposition. The Romans, however, in the smaller camp, which was pitched on the other side of the Aufidus, had greater liberty of supplying themselves with water, because there were none of the enemy posted on the farther bank. Hannibal, now, conceiving hopes that the consuls might be brought to an engagement in this tract, where the nature of the ground was advantageous to cavalry, in which kind of forces he had a manifest superiority, drew out his army in order of battle, and endeavoured to provoke them by skirmishes of the Numidians. On this the Roman camp was again thrown into disturb

ance, by mutinous behaviour in the soldiers, and BOOK dissention between the consuls; Paullus representing_XXII. to Varro the fatal rashness of Sempronius and Fla- Y.R.536. minius; and Varro to him the example of Fabius as B.C.216. a specious precedent for timid and inactive commanders. The one calling gods and men to witness, that none of the blame was to be imputed to him, of Hannibal's now holding Italy as if by prescriptive right of possession; for that he was chained down by his colleague, while the soldiers, full of rage and ardour for the fight were kept unarmed. To which the other replied, that, if any misfortune should happen to the legions, from their being hurried into an inconsiderate and rash engagement, he himself, although entirely free from all reproach, must yet bear a share of the consequences, be they what they might. Let him take care, that those, whose tongues were now so ready and impetuous, shewed the same alertness during the fight.

XLV. While instead of deliberating on proper measures, they thus wasted time in altercation, Hannibal, who had kept his forces drawn up in order of battle during a great part of the day, led back the rest towards the camp, and dispatched the Numidian horse to the other side of the river, to attack a watering party, which had come from the smaller camp of the Romans. They had scarcely reached the opposite bank, when, merely by their shout, and the rapidity of their motions, they dispersed this disorderly crowd; and then pushed forward against an advanced guard, stationed before the rampart, and almost up to the very gates. The Romans, in having their camp threatened by a band of irregular auxiliaries, felt an intolerable affront, so that nothing could have restrained them from drawing out their forces and passing the river, but from the chief command being then in the hands of Paullus. On the next day, therefore, Varro,