The praetors set out for their provinces. The consul were detained by religious affairs; for receiving intelligence of several prodigies, they could not easily obtain a favourable appearance from the victims. It was reported from Campania, that two temples, those of Fortune and Mars, and several sepulchres, had been struck by lightning. From Cumae, so does superstition connect the deities with the most trifling circumstances, that mice had gnawed some gold in the temple of Jupiter. That an immense swarm of bees had settled in the forum at Casinum. That at Ostia a wall and gate had been struck by lightning. At Caere, that a vulture had flown into the temple of Jupiter. That blood had flowed from a lake at Volsinii. On account of these prodigies, a supplication was performed for one day. For several days, victims of the larger kind were sacrificed without any favourable appearance, and for a long time the good will of the gods could not be obtained. The fatal event indicated by these portents pointed to the persons of the consuls, the state being unaffected. The Apollinarian games were first celebrated by Publius Cornelius Sulla, the city praetor, in the consulate of Quintus Fulvius and Appius Claudius; from that time all the city praetors in succession had performed them; but they vowed them for one year only, and fixed no day for their performance. This year a grievous pestilence attacked the city and the country; it showed itself, however, in protracted rather than fatal diseases. On account of this pestilence supplication was performed in every street throughout the city; and Publius Licinius Varus, the city praetor, was ordered to propose to the people a law to the effect, that a vow should be made to perform these games on a stated day for ever. He himself was the first who vowed them in this manner, and he celebrated them on the third day of the nones of July, a day which was henceforth kept sacred.
24
The reports respecting the people of Arretium became daily more serious, and the anxiety of the fathers increased. A letter was therefore written to Caius Hostilius, directing him not to delay taking hostages from that people; and Caius Terentius Varro was sent, with a command, to receive from him the hostages and convey them to Rome. On his arrival, Hostilius immediately ordered one legion, which was encamped before the city, to march into it; and having posted guards in suitable places, he summoned the senate into the forum and demanded hostages of them. On the senate's requesting a delay of two days to consider the matter, he declared that they must themselves give them forthwith, or he would the next day take all the children of the senators. After this the military tribunes, the praefects of the allies, and the centurions, were ordered to keep watch at the gates, that no one might go out by night. This duty was not performed with sufficient care and attention, for seven of the principal senators, with their children, escaped before night, and before the guards were posted at the gates. The next day, as soon as it was light, the senate began to be summoned into the forum, when they were missed and their goods were sold. From the rest of the senators one hundred and twenty hostages, consisting of their own children, were taken and delivered over to Caius Terentius to be conveyed to Rome. Before the senate he made every thing more suspected than before. Considering, therefore, that there was imminent danger of a commotion in Tuscany, they ordered Caius Terentius himself to lead one of the city legions to Arretium, and to employ it for the protection of the city. It was also resolved, that Caius Hostilius, with the other army, should traverse the whole province, and use precautions, that no opportunity might be afforded to those who were desirous of altering the state of things. On his arrival at Arretium with the legion, Terentius asked the magistrates for the keys of the gates, when they declared they could not be found; but he, believing that they had been put out of the way with some bad intention rather than lost through negligence, took upon himself to have fresh locks put upon all the gates, and used diligent care to keep every thing in his own power. He earnestly cautioned Hostilius to rest his hope in this; that the Tuscans would remain quiet, if he should take care that not a step could be taken.
25
The case of the Tarentines was then warmly debated in the senate, Fabius being present, and himself defending those whom he had subdued by force of arms, while others entertained an angry feeling towards them; the greater part comparing them with the Campanians in guilt and punishment. A decree of the senate was passed conformably to the opinion of Manius Acilius, that the town should be guarded by a garrison, and that all the Tarentines should be kept within their walls; and further, that the question touching their conduct should be hereafter laid before the senate afresh when the state of Italy should be more tranquil. The case of Marcus Livius, praefect of the citadel of Tarentum, was also debated with no less warmth; some proposing a vote of censure against the praefect on the ground that Tarentum was betrayed to the enemy through his negligence, others proposing rewards for having defended the citadel for five years, and because Tarentum had been recovered chiefly by his single efforts; while some, adopting an intermediate course, declared that it appertained to the censors, and not to the senate, to take cognizance of his case; and of this latter opinion was Fabius, who added, however, "that he admitted that the recovery of Tarentum was owing to the efforts of Livius, as his friends openly boasted in the senate, but that there would have been no necessity for its recovery, had it not been lost." One of the consuls, Titus Quinctius Crispinus, set out for Lucania, with some troops to make up the numbers, to take the command of the army which had served under Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. Marcellus was detained by a succession of religious scruples, which presented themselves to his mind. One of which was, that when in the Gallic war at Clastidium he had vowed a temple to Honour and Valour, its dedication was impeded by the pontiffs, who said, that one shrine could not with propriety be dedicated to two deities; because if it should be struck with lightning or any kind of portent should happen in it, the expiation would be attended with difficulty as it could not be ascertained to which deity sacrifice ought to be made; nor could one victim be lawfully offered to two deities, unless in particular cases. Accordingly another temple to Virtue was erected with all speed. Nevertheless, these temples were not dedicated by Marcellus himself. Then at length he set out, with the troops raised to fill up the numbers, to the army he had left the preceding year at Venusia. Crispinus, who endeavoured to reduce Locri in Bruttium by a siege, because he considered that the affair of Tarentum had added greatly to the fame of Fabius, had sent for every kind of engine and machine from Sicily; he also sent for ships from the same place to attack that part of the city which lay towards the sea. But this siege was raised by Hannibal's bringing his forces to Lacinium, and in consequence of a report, that his colleague, with whom he wished to effect a junction, had now led his army from Venusia. He therefore returned from Bruttium into Apulia, and the consuls took up a position in two separate camps, distant from each other less than three miles, between Venusia and Bantia. Hannibal, after diverting the war from Locri, returned also into the same quarter. Here the consuls, who were both of sanguine temperament, almost daily went out and drew up their troops for action, confidently hoping, that if the enemy would hazard an engagement with two consular armies united, they might put an end to the war.
26
As Hannibal, who gained one and lost the other of the two battles which he fought the preceding year with Marcellus, would have equal grounds for hope and fear, should he encounter the same general again; so was he far from thinking himself a match for the two consuls together. Directing his attention, therefore, wholly to his own peculiar arts, he looked out for an opportunity for planting an ambuscade. Slight battles, however, were fought between the two camps with varying success. But the consuls, thinking it probable that the summer would be spun out in engagements of this kind, and being of opinion that the siege of Locri might be going on notwithstanding, wrote to Lucius Cincius to pass over to Locri with his fleet from Sicily. And that the walls might be besieged by land also, they ordered one half of the army, which formed the garrison of Tarentum, to be marched thither. Hannibal having found from certain Thurians that these things would be done, sent a body of troops to lie in ambush on the road leading from Tarentum. There, under the hill of Petelia, three thousand cavalry and two thousand foot were placed in concealment. The Romans, who proceeded without exploring their way, having fallen into the ambuscade, as many as two thousand soldiers were slain, and about twelve hundred made prisoners. The others, who were scattered in flight through the fields and forests, returned to Tarentum. There was a rising ground covered with wood situated between the Punic and Roman camps, which was occupied at first by neither party, because the Romans were unacquainted with its nature on that side which faced the enemy's camp, while Hannibal had supposed it better adapted for an ambuscade than a camp. Accordingly, he had sent thither, by night, several troops of Numidians, concealing them in the midst of the wood. Not one of them stirred from his position by day, lest their arms or themselves should be observed from a distance. There was a general murmur in the Roman camp, that this eminence ought to be occupied and secured by a fort, lest if it should be seized by Hannibal they should have the enemy, as it were, immediately over their heads. Marcellus was moved by this consideration, and observed to his colleague, "Why not go ourselves with a few horsemen and reconnoitre? The matter being examined with our own eyes, will make our measures more certain." Crispinus consenting, they set out with two hundred and twenty horsemen, of which forty were Fregellans, the rest Tuscans. Marcus Marcellus, the consul's son, and Aulus Manlius, military tribunes, together with two prefects of the allies, Lucius Arennius and Manius Aulius, accompanied them. Some historians have recorded, that Marcellus had offered sacrifices on that day, and that in the first victim slain, the liver was found without its head; in the second, that all the usual parts were present, and that there was also an excrescence in the head. That the aruspex was not, indeed, pleased that the entrails should first have appeared mutilated and foul, and then too exuberant.