pital from being besieged. This decree of the
senate having been conveyed to Capua, Quintus Fulvius, the proconsul,
who was to go to Rome, as his colleague was ill from his wound,
crossed the Vulturnus with a body of troops, to the number of fifteen
thousand infantry and a thousand horse, selected from the three
armies. Then having ascertained that Hannibal intended to proceed
along the Latin road, he sent persons before him to the towns on and
near the Appian way, Setia, Cora, and Lanuvium, with directions that
they should not only have provisions ready in their towns, but should
bring them down to the road from the fields which lay out of the way,
and that they should draw together into their towns troops for their
defence, in order that each state might be under its own protection.

9. On the day he crossed the Vulturnus, Hannibal pitched his camp at a
small distance from the river. The next day, passing by Cales, he
reached the Sidicinian territory, and having spent a day there in
devastating the country, he led his troops along the Latin way through
the territory of Suessa, Allifae, and Casinum. Under the walls of
Casinum he remained encamped for two days, ravaging the country all
around; thence passing by Interamna and Aquinum, he came into the
Fregellan territory, to the river Liris, where he found the bridge
broken down by the Fregellans in order to impede his progress. Fulvius
also was detained at the Vulturnus, in consequence of Hannibal's
having burnt the ships, and the difficulty he had in procuring rafts
to convey his troops across that river from the great scarcity of
materials. The army having been conveyed across by rafts, the
remainder of the march of Fulvius was uninterrupted, a liberal supply
of provisions having been prepared for him, not only in all the towns,
but also on the sides of the road; while his men, who were all
activity, exhorted each other to quicken their pace, remembering that
they were going to defend their country. A messenger from Fregella,
who had travelled a day and a night without intermission, arriving at
Rome, caused the greatest consternation; and the whole city was thrown
into a state of alarm by the running up and down of persons who made
vague additions to what they heard, and thus increased the confusion
which the original intelligence created. The lamentations of women
were not only heard from private houses, but the matrons from every
quarter, rushing into the public str