Hannibal was too far off (11 days’ march) to take Rome by storm. Its population contained as many soldiers as his army, and the city was strongly fortified by its situation and by art.
[B.] Scipio forbids the Nobles to abandon Italy.
Post Cannensem cladem perculsis ita Romanorum animis, ut pars magna reliquiarum nobilissimis auctoribus deserendae Italiae iniret consilium, P. Scipio adulescens admodum impetu facto, in eo ipso in quo talia agitabantur coetu pronuntiavit manu se 20 sua interfecturum, nisi qui iurasset non esse sibi mentem destituendae rei publicae: cumque ipse se primus religione tali obligasset, stricto gladio mortem uni ex proximis minatus, nisi acciperet sacramentum, illum metu, ceteros etiam exemplo coegit ad iurandum. 25
Frontinus, Strat. iv. 7. 39.
18 P. Scipio adulescens, i.e. P. Corn. Scipio Africanns Maior, fatalis dux huiusce belli, the predestined champion in this war.
Parallel Passage. Livy, xxii. 53, and cf. Livy, v. 50-55, where Camillus dissuades the commons from migrating to Veii.
SECOND PUNIC WAR, 218-202 B.C.
[A.] Rome’s Heroes.
Regulum et Scauros animaeque magnae