LIVY'S ROMAN HISTORY. BOOK XXII. 1. SPRING was now coming on, when Hannibal moved out of winter-quarters, [after] having both previously endeavoured in vain to cross the Apennines on account of the intolerable cold, and [after] having also halted with great danger and fear. The Gauls, whom the hope of plunder and of spoil had collected, when, instead of that [circumstance, namely] that they themselves did take and drive off from the land of others, they saw that their own lands were the seat of war, and were oppressed by the winter-quarters of the armies of each side, turned their hatred back from the Romans to Hannibal: and though he had been often aimed at by the snares of their chieftains, he had been preserved by the treachery of those very men among themselves, disclosing their conspiracy with the same fickleness with which they had conspired: and by changing at one time his dress, at another time the coverings of his head, he had protected himself also from conspiracies by misguiding them. But this fear also was the cause of his moving more speedily out of winter-quarters. During the same time Cneius Servilius the consul entered upon his office at Rome on the ides of March. There, when he had put the question concerning the state of the republic, the odium against Caius Flaminius, was renewed: [they said] that they had created two consuls, that they had but one; for what regular authority, what auspices had he [i.e. Flaminius]? That the magistrates carried that [authority] with them from home, from their public and private household gods, after having celebrated the Latin holidays, having completed the sacrifice on the mountain, [and] having duly declared the vows in the Capitol: that a private person could not follow the auspices, and that a person who had set out without auspices, [could] not take them new and for the first time on a foreign soil. prodigies announced at the same time from several places increased their fear that the darts [belonging] to some soldiers in Sicily : Some had caught fire, but that in Sardinia the staff [belonging] to a horseman, which he had held in his hand, [caught fire] as he was going round the watches on the wall; that the shores had shone with frequent fires, and that two shields had sweated [with] blood; that some soldiers were struck by lightning; that the circle of the sun appeared to be diminished; that at Præneste red-hot stones had fallen from heaven; that at Arpi shields were seen in the sky, and the sun fighting with the moon; that at Carpena two moons rose in the daytime; that the waters of Cære had flowed mixed with blood; that the very fountain of Hercules flowed, sprinkled with spots of blood; that in the [territory] of Antium, as they were reaping, blood-stained ears of corn had fallen into a basket: that at Falerii the sky seemed to be cleft asunder, as it were with a great chasm, and that a great light had shone forth where it lay open: that the prophetic tablets had spontaneously contracted, and that one had fallen out thus inscribed: "Mars is brandishing his Javelin "; that about the same time, at Rome the statue of Mars on the Appian way, and the images of the wolves, had sweated; and that at Capua there had been the appearance of the heaven on fire, and of the moon falling amid a shower of rain. Afterwards, credit was given even to prodigies of less note; that the goats belonging to certain persons, had become covered with wool; and that a hen had changed itself into a male, a cock into a female. These things having been set forth just as they had been reported, and the authors [of these reports] having been conducted into the senate-house, the consul consulted the fathers concerning religious affairs. It was decreed that those prodigies should be expiated, partly with full-grown, partly with sucking victims: and that supplication should be made for the space of three days at all the shrines: that the other things should be done, when the decemviri should have examined the [Sibylline] books, in such a manner, as they should announce out of the verses to be pleasing to the gods. By the advice of the decemviri it was decreed, first that a golden thunderbolt fifty pounds in weight should be made as an offering to Jupiter; that gifts of silver should be presented both to Juno and Minerva, and that sacrifices, full-grown victims, should be offered to Juno Regina on the Aventine, and to Juno Sospita at Lanuvium; and that the matrons having collected money, as much as was convenient for each to contribute, should carry it to the Aventine as an offering to Juno Regina, and that a lectisternium should be held; moreover also that the very freed women should contribute according to their means, money, out of which a present should be given to Feronia. When these things were done, the decemviri sacrificed with the larger victims in the forum at Ardea. Lastly, it being now the month of December, a sacrifice was offered at Rome at the temple of Saturn, and a lectisternium was ordered, ([and] the senators laid out that couch) and a public banquet; and proclamation was made through the city, that the Saturnalia [should be kept] for a day and a night, and the people were commanded to regard that as a holiday, and to observe it for ever. 2. Whilst at Rome the consul gives his attention to appeasing the gods, and holding a levy, Hannibal, setting out from his winterquarters, because there was a report that the consul Flaminius had now arrived at Arretium, although another route, longer but more convenient, was pointed out to him, takes the shorter way through a marsh, where the river Arno had during those days overflowed [its banks] more than usual. He ordered the Spaniards and the Africans (this was the entire strength of his veteran army) to march first, their own baggage being mixed up with them, lest at any place things necessary for use should be wanting to them, if compelled to halt: [he ordered] the Gauls to follow, so that that [division] might be the centre of the line of march; that the cavalry should march in the rear : that Mago then with light Numidians should close in the line of march, especially keeping together the Gauls, if through weariness of the exertion and of the long march, as their nation is deficient in vigour requisite for such efforts, they should fall away or halt. The van, almost swallowed up by the mud, and plunging themselves into it, nevertheless followed the standards, wherever only the guides led the way, through the eddies of the river deep and almost fathomless. The Gauls were able neither to support themselves when fallen, nor to rise out of the eddies; nor did they sustain their bodies with their spirits, or their spirits with hope: some with difficulty dragging along their weary limbs; others, when once they had fallen with spirits subdued by fatigue, dying among the beasts of burden, themselves likewise lying in every direction; and most of all things the watchings were wearing them out, having been endured already throughout four days and three nights. When, the waters covering all places, no spot could be found, where they could stretch their weary bodies in a dry place, having piled up their baggage in the water they lay down on the top, or heaps of beasts lying everywhere throughout the whole route afforded a necessary bed for repose during a short time to those seeking only whatever might be higher than the water. Hannibal himself, having a complaint in his eyes, first from the unsettled weather of the spring season bringing on heat and cold, riding on an elephant, which alone had survived, in order that he might stand out higher from the water, at length with want of sleep, and the damp of the nights, and the marshy climate oppressing his head, and because there was neither opportunity nor leisure for applying a remedy is afflicted [with blindness] in one eye. 3. Many men and beasts of burden having been miserably lost, when he had at length emerged from the marshes, he pitches his camp, as soon as he was able, on dry ground; and obtained reliable information, by means of scouts sent out in advance, that the Roman army |