Hannibal, on the other hand, formed a strong camp on the ridge of Mount Tifata above Capua. But he was often obliged to move his forces into the south, leaving the Capuans to defend themselves. We have no means of estimating the amount of Hannibal’s army, but it may be inferred that it was small; we never find him able to act in force both in Campania and in the south.
A Roman General
(Based on De Montfaucon)
He soon came in collision with the consul Gracchus. This general was in his camp at Sinuessa, busily employed in training two legions of slaves, who, by the name of volones or volunteers, served under his command. Here he received information from the people of Cumæ that the Capuans were coming to hold a festival near their city, and he was enabled to fall upon the Capuans by night, and slaughter a great number. The news soon reached Hannibal, who descended from his camp, only to find Gracchus safe behind the walls of Cumæ.
While Gracchus was thus engaged at Cumæ, Fabius had occupied his camp at Sinuessa, and Marcellus was making forays in the Samnite country. The sufferers sent earnest appeals for defence to Hannibal, who now appeared a second time before the walls of Nola, being induced by some of the popular party, which in all the cities was hostile to Rome, to hope that the place might be betrayed. But Marcellus made a well-timed sally, in which he cut off a large body of the Carthaginian army; and Hannibal, again retiring in disappointment, went into winter quarters at Arpi in Apulia.
[214-212 B.C.]
Returning spring (214 B.C.) found Hannibal again in his camp on Tifata, and the same Roman commanders opposed to him. Fabius was still consul, with Marcellus for his colleague; while Gracchus had taken the place of the latter as proconsul. The circumstance of the election of these consuls deserves noting, because it shows that the people had completely surrendered their right of free choice into the hands of Fabius. The old consul purposely halted in the Campus Martius, and held the election without having entered the city, by which means he retained his imperium. The prerogative century, which happened to be the juniors of the Aniene tribe, gave their vote for M. Æmilius Regillus and T. Otacilius Crassus. Otacilius was a nephew of Fabius, and had served as prætor in command of the fleet during the current year, but without much credit. Upon this vote being given, the old consul stopped the proceedings. “The republic,” he said, “was struggling for existence; she was maintaining nearly twenty legions; and that with revenues diminished and citizens thinned: what was the use of all her exertions if she committed her armies to untried men? Therefore,” he concluded, “go, lictor, call back the juniors of the Aniene tribe to give their vote anew.” All men felt that the old man had not only power, but reason on his side. The same century, which had voted for other men, now gave their voices for Fabius himself and Marcellus.
At the same time the senate gave an earnest of their stern determination by passing a decree that the soldiers of Cannæ should be sent to serve in Sicily, without hope of honour and glory, till the end of the war. And the censors, in the course of this year, summoned before them Metellus and the others who had wished to desert the republic after the defeat of Cannæ, and deprived them of their civic rights.