mously resolved that he, should be recalled and brought back,
and be constrained to perform in person every duty to gods and men
before he went to the army and the province. Quintus Terentius and
Marcus Antistius having set out on this embassy, (for it was decreed
that ambassadors should be sent,) prevailed with him in no degree more
than the letter sent by the senate in his former consulship. A few
days after he entered on his office, and as he was sacrificing a calf,
after being struck, having broken away from the hands of the
ministers, sprinkled several of the bystanders with its blood. Flight
and disorder ensued, to a still greater degree at a distance among
those who were ignorant what was the cause of the alarm. This
circumstance was regarded by most persons as an omen of great terror.
Having then received two legions from Sempronius, the consul of the
former year, and two from Caius Atilius, the praetor, the army began
to be led into Etruria, through the passes of the Apennines.

BOOK XXII.

_Hannibal, after an uninterrupted march of four days and three
nights, arrives in Etruria, through the marshes, in which he lost an
eye. Caius Flaminius, the consul, an inconsiderate man, having gone
forth in opposition to the omens, dug up the standards which could not
otherwise be raised, and been thrown from his horse immediately after
he had mounted, is insnared by Hannibal, and cut off by his army near
the Thrasimene lake. Three thousand who had escaped are placed in
chains by Hannibal, in violation of pledges given. Distress occasioned
in Rome by the intelligence. The Sibylline books consulted, and a
sacred spring decreed. Fabius Maximus sent as dictator against
Hannibal, whom he frustrates by caution and delay. Marcus Minucius,
the master of the horse, a rash and impetuous man, inveighs against
the caution of Fabius, and obtains an equality of command with him.
The army is divided between them, and Minucius engaging Hannibal in an
unfavourable position, is reduced to the extremity of danger, and is
rescued by the dictator, and places himself under his authority.
Hannibal, after ravaging Campania, is shut up by Fabius in a valley
near the town of Casilinum, but escapes by night, putting to flight
the Romans on guard by oxen with lighted faggots attached to their
horns. Hannibal attempts to excite a suspicion of the fidelity of
Fabius by sparing his farm while ravaging with fire the whole country
around it. Ae