. Very
differently did the Roman general Nero behave eleven years later on the
banks of the Metaurus, when Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal, seeing that
the day was lost, rode straight into the ranks of the enemy. When he
fell, Nero, with savagery worthy of his namesake the emperor, cut off
the head of the Carthaginian and threw it into Hannibal's camp.

[Illustration: Fifteen thousand Romans fell that day.]

There was silence in Rome when bands of wounded and weary soldiers came
flying to the gates, bearing the news of this fresh disaster. Fifteen
thousand men slain, fifteen thousand men taken prisoners! Hardly a
family in Rome that was not stricken, and who could tell when the
banners of the Carthaginians might not be seen on the crests of the
hills? But as the troubles of life show the stuff of which men are made,
Romans were never so great as when their cause seemed hopeless. The city
was at once put in a state of defence, every boy and old man that could
bear arms was sent to the walls, the bridges over the Tiber were
destroyed, and the senate, putting aside the consuls, elected a
dictator, who for six months had absolute power over the whole state.

The man who in this hour of sorest need was chosen to save the city was
Quintus Fabius, whose policy of 'waiting' has become a proverb even to
this day. He was already old, and was never a brilliant general, but,
like most Romans, possessed great common-sense.

Alone among the senate he saw that there was no hope of conquering
Hannibal in a pitched battle. Rome had not then--and, except for Caesar,
never has had--a single general with a genius equal to his; but there
was one way, and one only, by which he might be vanquished, and that was
to leave him where he was, in the midst of a hostile country, till his
troops grew weary of expecting a battle which never was fought, and his
Gallic allies became tired of inaction and deserted him.

Such was the plan of warfare which Fabius proposed, but his own
countrymen put many obstacles in the way of its success. Many times he
was called a coward for declining a battle which would certainly have
been a defeat; but he let such idle cries pass him by, and hung on
Hannibal's rear, keeping his soldiers, many of whom were raw and
untrained, under his own eye. In vain Hannibal drew up his men in order
of battle and tried by every kind of insult to induce Fabius to fight.
The old general was not to be provoked, and the enemy at length