But before retiring to their camp they wrested the
greater part of the booty from them, and killed about three hundred
men; and then, being convinced that the Carthaginians were beating a
hasty retreat in a panic, they followed in their rear, keeping along
the line of hills. At first Hannibal continued to march at a rapid
pace, being anxious to meet the force which he expected; but at the
end of the fifth day, being informed that Appius had not left the
siege of Capua, he halted; and waiting for the enemy to come up, made
an attack upon his camp before daylight, killed a large number of
them, and drove the rest out of their camp. But when day broke, and he
saw the Romans in a strong position upon a steep hill, to which they
had retired, he decided not to continue his attack upon them; but
marching through Daunia and Bruttium he appeared at Rhegium so
unexpectedly that he was within an ace of capturing the city, and did
cut off all who were out in the country; and during this excursion
captured a very large number of the Rhegini....

Who could refrain from speaking in terms of admiration of this great
man's strategic skill courage and ability when one looks to the length
of time during which he displayed those qualities; and realizes to
oneself the pitched battles, the skirmishes and sieges, the
revolutions and counter-revolutions of states, the vicissitudes of
fortune, and in fact the course of his design and its execution in its
entirety? For sixteen continuous years Hannibal maintained the war
with Rome in Italy without once releasing his army from service in the
field, but keeping those vast numbers under control, like a good
pilot, without any sign of disaffection toward himself or toward each
other, tho he had troops in his service who, so far from being of the
same tribe, were not even of the same race. He had Libyans, Iberians,
Ligurians, Celts, Phoenicians, Italians, Greeks, who had naturally
nothing in common with each other, neither laws, nor customs, nor
language. Yet the skill of the commander was such that these
differences, so manifold and so wide, did not disturb the obedience to
one word of command and to a single will. And yet circumstances were
not by any means unvarying: for tho the breeze of fortune often set
strongly in his favor, it as often also blew in exactly the opposite
direction. There is therefore good ground for admiring Hannibal's
display of ability in campaign; and there can be no fear in