A. C. 215.

U. C. 539. Tifata se recepit. Inde, fatigatus Campanorum precibus, sequenti die cum omni apparatu oppugnandæ urbis Cumas redit: perpopulatoque agro Cumano, mille passus ab urbe castra locat; quum Gracchus magis verecundia in tali necessitate deserendi socios, implorantes fidem suam populique Romani, substitisset, quam satis fidens exercitui. Nec alter consul Fabius, qui ad Cales castra habebat, Vulturnum flumen traducere audebat exercitum; occupatus primo auspiciis repetendis, dein prodigiis, quæ alia super alia nuntiabantur, expiantique ea haud facile litari haruspices respondebant.

37.

3

Hæ causæ quum Fabium tenerent, Sempronius in obsidione erat; et jam operibus oppugnabatur. Adversus ligneam ingentem admotam urbi', aliam turrem ex ipso muro excitavit consul Romanus, aliquanto altiorem: quia muro satis per se alto subjectis validis sublicis pro solo usus erat. Inde primum saxis sudibusque et ceteris missilibus propugnatores moenia atque urbem tuebantur: postremo, ubi promovendo adjunctam muro viderunt turrem, facibus ardentibus plurimum simul ignem conjecerunt. Quo incendio trepida armatorum multitudo quum de turre sese præcipitaret, eruptio ex oppido simul duabus portis stationes hostium fudit, fugavitque in castra; ut eo die obsesso, quam obsidenti, similior esset Poenus. Ad mille trecenti Carthaginiensium cæsi, et undesexaginta vivi capti; qui, circa muros et in stationibus solute ac negligenter agentes, quum nihil minus, quam eruptionem, timuissent, ex improviso oppressi fuerant. Gracchus, priusquam se hostes ab repentino pavore colligerent, receptui signum dedit, ac suos intra muros recepit. Postero die Hannibal, lætum secunda re consulem justo prælio ratus certaturum, aciem inter castra atque urbem instruxit. Ceterum postquam neminem mo

9 Haud facile litari.] “That propitiation would not be easy."

Ligneam ingentem admotam urbi.] Among the many ingenious devices by which those engines were subsequently modified, an invention of Herod the Great (son of Antipater) appears to deserve especial notice. During the expedition which he undertook for the extermination of the robber insurgents who had fortified themselves in the caves of Antilibanus which were inaccessible from below, he ascended to the brow of the precipices, and constructed fixed engines or cranes, with pulleys, from which large stages or boxes

were let down. These were filled
with armed men, and, as soon as
they reached the mouths of the
caverns, a hand-to-hand fight began
between the two parties. Of Beli-
sarius also it is recorded, that, when
besieging the Gothic garrison in
Palermo, he brought his ships up to
the walls, and hoisted small boats
filled with archers up to the mast-
heads; so that they commanded the
whole range of the ramparts.
2 Adjunctam muro.]
in contact with the wall."

"Brought

"And

3 Quo incendio trepida.] when, alarmed by this fire," &c.

veri ab solita custodia urbis vidit, nec committi quicquam U. C. 539. temerariæ spei, ad Tifata redit infecta re3.

6

Quibus diebus Cumæ liberatæ sunt obsidione, iisdem diebus et in Lucanis ad Grumentum Ti. Sempronius, cui Longo cognomen erat, cum Hannone Poeno prospere pugnat. Supra duo millia hostium occidit, et ducentos octoginta milites amisit: signa militaria ad quadraginta unum cepit. Pulsus finibus Lucanis Hanno retro in Bruttios sese recepit. Et ex Hirpinis oppida tria, quæ a populo Romano defecerant, vi recepta per M. Valerium prætorem, Vercellium, Vescellium, Sicilinum: et auctores defectionis securi percussi. Supra mille captivorum sub hasta venierunt: præda alia militi concessa, exercitus Luceriam reductus.

Dum hæc in Lucanis atque in Hirpinis geruntur, quinque naves, quæ Macedonum atque Ponorum captos legatos Romam portabant, ab supero mari ad inferum circumvectæ prope omnem Italiæ oram, quum præter Cumas velis ferrentur, neque, hostium an sociorum essent, satis sciretur, Gracchus obviam ex classe sua naves misit. Quum percunctando in vicem cognitum esset, consulem Cumis esse; naves Cumas appulsæ, captivique ad consulem deducti, et literæ datæ. Consul, literis Philippi atque Hannibalis perlectis, consignata omnia ad senatum itinere terrestri misit: navibus devehi legatos jussit. Quum eodem fere die literæ legatique Romam venissent, et, percunctatione facta, dicta cum scriptis congruerent, primo gravis cura Patres incessit, cernentes, quanta vix' tolerantibus Punicum bellum Macedonici belli moles instaret. Cui tamen adeo non succubuerunt, ut extemplo agitaretur, quemadmodum ultro inferendo bello averterent ab Italia hostem.

"And

4 Nec committi quicquam.] that nothing was hazarded," &c.

5 Infecta re.] This might have been expected, for the walls were defended, not by the usual garrison, but a consular army; and a sea-port town, with the sea open, could not be reduced by famine.

6 Grumentum.] (Now Armento,) was the scene of an inconsiderable defeat sustained, in the tenth year of the war, by Hannibal, from Claudius Nero. (1. xxvii. 42.)

7 Signa militaria.] The standard (or "arms") of Carthage was a lion. On the silver shield, left by Hannibal at Passage in Dauphinè, appears the figure of a lion standing under a palm-tree.

8 Circumvectæ prope omnem Ita

liæ, &c.] This is rather an ex-
aggeration. The voyage, on the
most liberal calculation, and suppos-
ing the Macedonians to have got
clearly out to sea, could not have
been longer than from Hydruntum
(Otranto) to Cuma; i. e. round the
coast of Bruttium, through the
Straits, and up along the coast of
Lucania.

9 Percunctando in vicem.] "By
mutual inquiries.'

1 Cernentes, quanta vix, &c.] "Perceiving what a pressure of war from Macedonia was approaching them, scarcely able, as they were, to withstand," &c.

2 Cui tamen adeo non, &c.] "To this however they were so far from yielding."

A. C. 215.

38.

U. C. 539. Captivis in vincula condi jussis, comitibusque eorum sub A. C. 215. hasta venditis, ad naves viginti quinque, quibus P. Valerius Flaccus præfectus præerat, viginti parandas alias decernunt. His comparatis deductisque, et additis quinque navibus, quæ advexerant captivos legatos, triginta naves ab Ostia Tarentum profecta: jussusque P. Valerius, militibus Varronianis, quibus L. Apustius legatus Tarenti præerat, in naves impositis, quinquaginta navium classe3 non tueri modo Italiæ oram, sed explorare de Macedonico bello. Si congruentia literis legatorumque indiciis Philippi consilia essent, ut M. Valerium prætorem literis certiorem faceret: isque, L. Apustio legato exercitui præposito, Tarentum ad classem profectus, primo quoque tempore in Macedoniam transmitteret: daretque operam, ut Philippum in regno contineret. Pecunia ad classem tuendam bellumque Macedonicum ea decreta est, quæ Ap. Claudio in Siciliam missa erat, ut redderetur Hieroni' regi: ea per L. Apustium legatum Tarentum est devecta. Šimul ab Hierone missa ducenta millia modium tritici, et hordei centum.

39.

Dum hæc Romani parant aguntque, ad Philippum captiva navis, una ex iis, quæ Romam missæ erant, ex cursu refugit inde scitum, legatos cum literis captos. Itaque ignarus de iis, quæ cum Hannibale legatis suis convenissent, quæque legati ejus ad se allaturi fuissent, legationem aliam cum iisdem mandatis mittit. Legati ad Hannibalem missi, Heraclitus, cui Scotino cognomen erat, et Crito Berœæus, et Sositheus Magnes. Hi prospere tulerunt ac retulerunt mandata. Sed prius se æstas circumegit, quam movere ac moliri quicquam rex posset: tantum navis una capta cum legatis momenti fecit ad dilationem imminentis Romanis belli.

Et circa Capuam, transgresso Vulturnum Fabio post expiata tandem prodigia, ambo consules rem gerebant. Compulteriam, et Trebulam, et Saticulam, urbes, quæ ad Poenum defecerant, Fabius vi cepit; præsidiaque in iis Hannibalis, Campanique permulti capti. Et Nolæ, sicut priore anno, senatus Romanorum, plebs Hannibalis erat: consiliaque occulta de cæde principum et proditione urbis inibantur. Quibus ne incepta' procederent, inter Capuam

3

Quinquaginta navium classe.] Made up of the twenty-five under the command of Flaccus, the five that brought the ambassadors, and the twenty additional.

4 Ut redderetur Hieroni.] For the supplies recently advanced to the troops in Sicily.

5 Cui Scotino cognomen.] This

designation is probably an addition by some later hand, for the Heraclitus so named lived a long time before the æra of this Philip.

6 Tantum navis una capta, &c.] "Of such importance was the capture of one ship.'

7 Quibus ne incepta, &c.] "But to prevent the success of their designs.”

castraque Hannibalis, quæ in Tifatis erant, traducto exer- U. C. 539. citu, Fabius super Suessulam in castris Claudianis consedit; A. C. 215. inde M. Marcellum proprætorem cum iis copiis, quas habebat, Nolam in præsidium misit.

Et in Sardinia res per T. Manlium prætorem administrari cœptæ, quæ omissæ erant, postquam Q. Mucius prætor gravi morbo est implicitus. Manlius, navibus longis ad Carales' subductis, navalibusque sociis armatis, ut terra rem gereret, et a prætore exercitu accepto, duo et viginti millia peditum, mille et ducentos equites confecit. Cum his equitum peditumque copiis profectus in agrum hostium, haud procul ab Hampsicoræ castris castra posuit. Hampsicora tum forte profectus erat in Pellitos Sardos, ad juventutem armandam, qua copias augeret. Filius ejus, nomine Hiostus, castris præerat: is, adolescentia ferox, temere prœlio inito fusus fugatusque. Ad tria millia Sardorum eo prælio cæsa, octingenti ferme vivi capti. Alius exercitus primo per agros silvasque fuga palatus; dein, quo ducem fugisse fama erat, ad urbem nomine Cornum, caput ejus regionis, confugit: debellatumque eo prælio in Sardinia esset, ni classis Punica cum duce Hasdrubale, quæ tempestate dejecta ad Baliares erat, in tempore ad spem rebellandi advenisset. Manlius post famam appulsæ Punicæ classis, Carales se recepit. Ea occasio Hampsicoræ data Poeno se jungendi. Hasdrubal, copiis in terram expositis, et classe remissa Carthaginem, duce Hampsicora ad sociorum populi Romani agrum populandum profectus, Carales perventurus erat, ni Manlius obvio exercitu ab effusa eum populatione continuisset. Primo castra castris

8 Fabius super Suessulam, &c.] It would appear, that, as Casilinum, commanding the fords of the Vulturnus, was in the occupation of the enemy, Fabius crossed the river at a point farther up, behind the mountains, and nearly opposite Alifæ, (transgresso Vulturnum, above); that he then came down the left bank as far as the confluence of the Calor and Vulturnus, and crossing the Calor at that point, passed between Taburnus and the hills above Caserta and Maddaloni; and having, on his way, retaken the three towns mentioned a few lines above, joined Marcellus in his camp above Suessula. On his arrival there, the intelligence of the state of parties in Nola induced him to send down Marcellus. In the mean time, Gracchus had advanced from Cumæ

toward Capua; so that there were
now three Roman armies, some-
where about 60,000 men, in free
communication with each other, on
the southern bank of the Vulturnus.

9 T. Manlium prætorem.] Man-
lius was not one of the Prætors of
this year; we must therefore either
substitute proprætorem, or under-
stand the term in the general sense
of "a commander."

1 Carales.] (Now Cagliari.) The
principal town, a seaport on the S. E.
corner of the island.

2 Pellitos Sardos.]
This proper
name arose from the practice which
the term literally implies. In al-
lusion to it, Cicero (pro Flacc.) calls
them Mastrucatos latrunculos.
3 Alius exercitus.] "The rest
of the army."

40.

A. C. 215.

41.

U. C. 539. modico intervallo sunt objecta: deinde procursationes leviaque certamina vario eventu inita: postremo descensum in aciem, signisque collatis, justo proelio per quattuor horas pugnatum. Diu pugnam ancipitem Poeni, Sardis facile vinci assuetis, fecerunt: postremo et ipsi, quum omnia circa strage ac fuga Sardorum repleta essent, fusi. Ceterum terga dantes, circumducto cornu, quo pepulerat Sardos, inclusit Romanus. Cædes inde magis, quam pugna, fuit. Duodecim millia hostium cæsa Sardorum simul Pœnorumque, ferme tria millia et septingenti capti, et signa militaria septem et viginti. Ante omnia claram et memorabilem pugnam fecit Hasdrubal imperator captus", et Hanno, et Mago, nobiles Carthaginienses: Mago ex gente Barcina, propinqua cognatione Hannibali junctus; Hanno auctor rebellionis Sardis, bellique ejus haud dubie concitor. Nec Sardorum duces minus nobilem eam pugnam cladibus suis fecerunt. Nam et filius Hampsicoræ Hiostus in acie cecidit: et Hampsicora, cum paucis equitibus fugiens, ut super afflictas res necem quoque filii audivit, nocte, ne cujus interventus cœpta impediret, mortem sibi conscivit. Ceteris urbs Cornus eadem, quæ ante, fugæ receptaculum fuit: quam Manlius, victore exercitu aggressus, intra paucos dies recepit. Deinde aliæ quoque civitates, quæ ad Hampsicoram Pœnosque defecerant, obsidibus datis, dediderunt sese. Quibus stipendio frumentoque imperato, pro cujusque aut viribus aut delicto, Carales exercitum reduxit. Ibi navibus longis deductis, impositoque, quem secum advexerat, milite, Romam navigat, Sardiniamque perdomitam nuntiat Patribus: et stipendium quæstoribus, frumentum ædilibus, captivos Q. Fulvio prætori tradidit.

Per idem tempus T. Otacilius prætor, quinquaginta navium ab Lilybæo classe in Africam transvectus, depopulatusque agrum Carthaginiensem, quum Sardiniam inde peteret, quo fama erat Hasdrubalem a Baliaribus nuper trajecisse, classi Africam repetenti occurrit, levique certamine in alto commisso, septem inde naves cum sociis navalibus cepit: ceteras metus haud secus, quam tempestas, passim disjecit.

Per eosdem forte dies et Bomilcar cum militibus, ad supplementum Carthagine missis, elephantisque, et commeatu, Locros accessit. Quem ut incautum opprimeret Ap. Claudius, per simulationem provinciæ circumeundæ