The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36 - Livy

But the consul Marcellus was influenced by so ardent a desire of engaging with Hannibal, that he never thought their camps close enough. At that time also, as he quitted the rampart, he gave orders that the troops should be ready when occasion required, in order that if the hill, which they were going to examine, were thought convenient, they might collect their baggage and follow them. Before the camp there was a small plain; the road thence to the hill was open and exposed to view on all sides. A watchman who was stationed, not under the expectation of so important an event, but in order that they might be able to intercept any stragglers who had gone too far from the camp in search of wood or forage, gave a signal to the Numidians to rise simultaneously one and all from their concealment. Those who were to rise from the very summit of the hill, and meet the enemy, did not show themselves until those whose business it was to intercept their passage in the rear, had gone round. Then they all sprang up from every side, and, raising a shout, commenced an attack. Although the consuls were in such a position in the valley that they could neither make good their way up the hill, which was occupied by the enemy, nor retreat as they were intercepted in the rear, yet the contest might have been continued longer had not a retreat, commenced by the Tuscans, dismayed the rest of the troops. The Fregellans, however, did not give over fighting, though deserted by the Tuscans, while the consuls, uninjured, kept up the battle by encouraging their men and fighting themselves. But when they saw both the consuls wounded, and Marcellus transfixed with a lance and falling lifeless from his horse, then they too, and but a very few survived, betook themselves to flight, together with Crispinus the consul, who had received two javelin wounds, and young Marcellus, who was himself also wounded. Aulus Manlius, a military tribune, was slain, and of the two praefects of allies, Manius Aulius was slain, Lucius Arennius made prisoner. Five of the consul's lictors fell into the enemy's hands alive, the rest were either slain or fled with the consul. Forty-three horsemen fell in the battle or in the flight, and eighteen were taken alive. An alarm had been excited in the camp, and the troops were hastening to go and succour the consuls, when they saw one of the consuls and the son of the other wounded, and the scanty remains of this unfortunate expedition returning to the camp. The death of Marcellus was an event to be deplored, as well from other circumstances which attended it, as because that in a manner unbecoming his years, for he was then more than sixty, and inconsistently with the prudence of a veteran general, he had so improvidently plunged into ruin himself, his colleague, and almost the whole commonwealth. I should launch out into too many digressions for a single event, were I to relate all the various accounts which authors give respecting the death of Marcellus. To pass over others, Lucius Caelius gives three narratives ranged under different heads; one as it is handed down by tradition; a second, written in the panegyric of his son, who was engaged in the affair; a third, which he himself vouched for, being the result of his own investigation. The accounts, however, though varying in other points, agree for the most part in the fact, that he went out of the camp for the purpose of viewing the ground; and all state that he was cut off by an ambuscade.

Hannibal, concluding that the enemy were greatly dismayed by one of their consuls being slain and the other wounded, that he might not be wanting on any opportunity presenting itself, immediately transferred his camp to the eminence on which the battle had been fought. Here he found the body of Marcellus, and interred it. Crispinus, disheartened by the death of his colleague and his own wound, set out during the silence of the following night, and encamped upon the nearest mountains he could reach, in a position elevated and secured on all sides. Here the two generals exerted their sagacity, the one in effecting, the other in guarding against, a deception. Hannibal got possession of the ring of Marcellus, together with his body. Crispinus, fearing lest any artifice should be practised by the Carthaginian's employing this signet as the means of deception, had sent round messengers to the neighbouring states, informing them, that "his colleague had been slain, and that the enemy were in possession of his seal, and that they must not give credit to any letters written in the name of Marcellus." This message of the consul arrived at Salapia a little before a letter was brought from Hannibal, written in the name of Marcellus, to the effect, that "he should come to Salapia on the night which followed that day; that the soldiers in the garrison should hold themselves in readiness, in case he might want to employ them on any service." The Salapians were aware of the fraud, and concluding that an opportunity for punishing them was sought by Hannibal, from resentment, not only on account of their defection, but also because they slew his horsemen, sent his messenger, who was a deserter from the Romans, back again, in order that the soldiers might do what was thought necessary, without his being privy to it, and then placed the townsmen in parties to keep guard along the walls, and in convenient parts of the city. The guards and watches they formed with extraordinary care for that night, and on each side of the gate at which they supposed the enemy would come, they opposed to them the choicest of the troops in the garrison. About the fourth watch, Hannibal approached the city. His vanguard was composed of Roman deserters, with Roman arms. These, all of whom spoke the Latin language, when they reached the gate, called up the guards, and ordered the gate to be opened, for the consul had arrived. The guards, as if awakened at their call, began to be in a hurry and bustle, and exert themselves in opening the gate, which was closed by letting down the portcullis; some raised this with levers, others drew it up with ropes to such a height that the men could come in without stooping. The opening was scarcely wide enough, when the deserters eagerly rushed through the gate, and after about six hundred had got in, the rope being let go by which it was suspended, the portcullis fell with a loud noise. Some of the Salapians fell upon the deserters, who were carrying their arms carelessly suspended upon their shoulders, as is customary after a march, as if among friends; others frightened away the enemy by discharging stones, pikes, and javelins from the tower adjoining the gate and from the walls. Thus Hannibal withdrew, having been caught by his own stratagem, and proceeded to raise the siege of Locri, which Cincius was carrying on with the greatest vigour, with works and engines of every kind, which were brought from Sicily. Mago, who by that time almost despaired of retaining and defending the town, derived his first gleam of hope on the death of Marcellus being reported. This was followed by a message, that Hannibal had despatched his Numidian cavalry in advance, and was himself following them with all possible speed with a body of infantry. As soon, therefore, as he was informed, by a signal displayed from the watch-towers, that the Numidians were drawing near, suddenly throwing open the gate he sallied out boldly upon the enemy, and at first, more because he had done it unexpectedly than from the equality of his strength, the contest was doubtful; but afterwards, when the Numidians came up, the Romans were so dismayed that they fled on all hands to the sea and their ships, leaving their works and the engines with which they battered the walls. Thus the siege of Locri was raised by the approach of Hannibal.

When Crispinus found that Hannibal had gone into Bruttium, he ordered Marcus Marcellus, a military tribune, to march the army, which his colleague had commanded, to Venusia. Having set out himself with his own legions for Capua, though scarcely able to endure the motion of the litter, from the severity of his wounds, he sent a letter to Rome stating the death of his colleague, and in how great danger he himself was. He said, "it was impossible for him to go to Rome to hold the election, both because he did not think he could bear the fatigue of the journey, and because he was anxious about Tarentum, lest Hannibal should direct his course thither from Bruttium. That it was expedient that commissioners should be sent to him, men of sound judgment, with whom he might communicate, when he pleased, respecting the commonwealth." The reading of this letter excited great grief for the death of one of the consuls, and apprehension for the safety of the other. They therefore sent Quintus Fabius the younger to Venusia to the army; and to the consul three commissioners, Sextus Julius Caesar, Lucius Licinius Pollio, and Lucius Cincius Alimentus, though but a few days before he had returned from Sicily. These were directed to convey a message to the consul, to the effect, that if he could not himself go to Rome to hold the election, he should nominate a dictator within the Roman territory for that purpose. If the consul should have gone to Tarentum, that it was the pleasure of the senate that Marcus Claudius, the praetor, should march off his legions to that quarter in which he could protect the greatest number of the cities of the allies. The same summer Marcus Valerius crossed over from Sicily into Africa with a fleet of a hundred ships, and making a descent near the city Clupea, devastated the country to a wide extent, scarcely meeting with a single person in arms. Afterwards the troops employed in making these depredations were hastily led back to their ships, and a report had suddenly reached them that a Carthaginian fleet was drawing near. It consisted of eighty-three ships. With these the Romans fought successfully, not far from the city Clupea, and after taking eighteen and putting the rest to flight, returned to Lilybaeum with a great deal of booty gained both by land and sea. The same summer also Philip gave assistance to the suppliant Achaeans. They were harassed by Machanidas, tyrant of the Lacedaemonians, with a war in their immediate neighbourhood; and the Aetolians, having passed over an army in ships through the strait which runs between Naupactus and Patrae, called by the neighbouring people Rhion, had devastated their country. It was reported also, that Attalus, king of Asia, would pass over into Europe, because the Aetolians, in their last council, had offered to him the office of chief magistrate of their nation.